Junkbot Raspberry Pi: 1 ScratchGPIO

A development I have being wanting to develop for a while is the combine the Raspberry Pi with a Junkbot to add some control. 

This the first of postings about these experiments. All the development will be around ScratchGPIO (http://cymplecy.wordpress.com/scratchgpio/) so this posting will look into its use.

Why ScratchGPIO?
Short answer - simplicity. It is designed to look and work like Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) but allowing access to board that can drive motors.

Installing ScratchGPIO?
As a suggest use as lastest as possible version of the operating system as you can on your SD card. Initially we had trouble with missing Python files that was resolved when using an updated version of the operating system.

In the LXTerminal
Type in:
sudo wget http://goo.gl/Pthh62 -O isgh5.sh

then type in
sudo bash isgh5.sh

You should get to new icons for ScratchGPIO5 and ScratchGPIO5Plus

Now use these instead of the Scratch that came with the operating system.


See for more details: http://cymplecy.wordpress.com/scratchgpio/scratch-raspberrypi-gpio/


A good first test to make sure it is all working, is to get an LED to be turn off and on, details can be found at: http://cymplecy.wordpress.com/scratchgpio/scratchgpio-1st-project/


Next posting will be on connecting ScratchGPIO and the motor control board.


If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk