Messages

76

Thumby / Re: Unable to connect my Thumby to the computer

« on: April 08, 2022, 02:02:59 PM »

I assume the screen is on too and you can scroll through the main game menu on the Thumby, correct?

When you have the device manager open and turn the Thumby on/off does the device manager refresh?

77

Thumby / Re: "Portrait" rotation games?

« on: March 11, 2022, 10:10:25 AM »

It would be accepted. In fact, the arcade supports rotated videos/images.

78

Thumby / Re: Importing a sprite in the web IDE

« on: March 07, 2022, 02:13:38 PM »

Thanks for the report!

Should be fixed as of code editor version 03.07.2022_1

79

Wirelings / Re: Audio Amplifier Wireling

« on: February 11, 2022, 12:03:22 PM »

Sooo, should I buy TinyZero to make this shield work?

If you are using TinyDuino, for sure follow the tutorial and choose

• Board: Arduino Pro or Pro Mini
• Processor: ATMega328P (3.3V, 8MHz)

The other error about the interrupt library is because the example was made for the TinyZero's SAMD processor, not the TinyDuino AVR. That's not the only problem, the TinyDuino does not have a DAC output, this means each sample would have to be played at the same volume.

In any case, the TinyDuino only has 32KB of flash which won't store much useful audio (average .mp3 size is 1MB per minute of audio).  You could use the audio shield + SD card shield. This is probably the best route since I don't think we have any examples of using the TinyZero + Wireling amplifier + SD card shield anyway.

• https://tinycircuits.com/products/audio-tinyshield
• https://tinycircuits.com/blogs/learn/124335431-using-the-audio-tinyshield-tutorial

Although the TinyZero has slightly better specs than the TinyDuino, the example linked earlier only allows for playing a couple seconds of audio since there's no SD card/external storage.

I'm pretty sure you could at least generate sounds with the hardware you have, but you'd have to do some trickery with PWM.

80

Thumby / Re: "Opening port failed, is another application accessing this device/port?" error

« on: February 07, 2022, 11:03:08 AM »

As the error implies, it is likely that something else is accessing the device and taking over the port before the IDE can.

Make sure only one IDE page is open in one browser. Also try restarting your computer.

81

Thumby / Re: Stock Firmware Please

« on: January 14, 2022, 05:16:45 PM »

We could make the full UF2 public at some point.

For now, in the IDE go to UTILITES->DOWNLOAD FIRMWARE and hover over the button for instructions on getting MicroPython back on the device. After you install the MicroPython UF2 to Thumby, connect to the IDE using the connect button and then click the format button in the filesystem panel.

This will put Thumby into the default state it shipped to you with - although some files may have been updated or added since then.

82

Thumby / Re: Loading games

« on: January 06, 2022, 05:33:39 PM »

We actually just removed those games today because they were built on an older version of the Thumby library.

We are trying to get in contact with the authors to see if they will provide updates.

In the meantime, you can join our Discord https://discord.gg/XDjQ5Wxc and see what other people are making.

83

Thumby / Re: Thumby Serial Connection

« on: January 05, 2022, 10:55:44 AM »

I don't know if this is the right thread to post this on now that my initial issue was resolved, but after messing around a little I wanted to clear some test files I had on it and hit the format button on the web IDE. Now it doesn't seem to work. It still connects fine to the website when turned on, but it doesn't function otherwise, it just displays a blank screen. I think there may be some differences with the new formatted files compared to what was originally there. I can't remember exactly what was missing, but it seems to be a few files short of what I saw it came in the box with. But again if I'm missing something or if I messed something up, then please let me know.

We are in an in-between state of Thumby APIs. The new files are accessible through https://tinycircuits.github.io/testing/. Try using the format button there.

84

Thumby / Re: A couple questions about the emulator

« on: January 03, 2022, 02:45:48 PM »

Hey Jason, quick question... Will the version of the emulator on /testing move out of testing or will you be trying to finish that 1-to-1 emulation first?

Once we feel the API is stable enough everything will move from https://tinycircuits.github.io/testing/ to https://tinycircuits.github.io/ - which could be soon.

As for 1-to-1 emulation, that does not dictate if /testing gets moved. If features like audio are implemented, then those additions will be published to wherever the latest version of the IDE lives. /testing is just a temporary page because some of the API changes were breaking.

85

Thumby / Re: A couple questions about the emulator

« on: November 22, 2021, 11:07:05 AM »

I've been starting to work on a larger project, and have a couple questions about development with the emulator:
First, how does the performance compare to real hardware?
Second, is it possible to use multiple files in one project with it?
Part of it will eventually require reading from a binary file too large to embed in a script, so I'm especially interested in filesystem emulation (even if just read-only). Being able to split the code into two files would be nice too.
Thanks in advance, seems pretty nice to work with so far.

Performance: I made a simple example and measured the hardware to be 1.8x faster than the emulator, but it might not matter depending on the game. For example, our SaurRun game runs too fast on the emulator and hardware without a software frame limiter.

Multiple files: multiple files can't be used in the emulator, yet. A new version is being worked on where multiple files can be uploaded, but more UI needs completed. The new version would allow for read only access so far, but files in the emulator are still placed in root '/'; however, I am looking into a way to allow the emulator to read/write files and directories so we can have 1-to-1 filesystem emulation.

86

Thumby / Re: Accurate usage of the Thumby.Audio.Play function

« on: November 09, 2021, 10:57:50 AM »

Hi,

It makes sense that you wouldn't hear anything at 100% duty cycle, that's a constant voltage at that point.

Take a look at the plot on this website for an example: https://resources.pcb.cadence.com/blog/2020-pulse-width-modulation-characteristics-and-the-effects-of-frequency-and-duty-cycle

If the duty cycle is 100%, then the voltage in the linked plot would be 5V always, therefore no sound. Also, looking at that plot, the duty cycle does not correlate to volume. During any period, when the signal is HI it is at its max.

If you look at some of our games, like TinyBlocks, you should be able to find examples of using the API that work well: https://github.com/TinyCircuits/tinycircuits.github.io/blob/master/ThumbyGames/Games/TinyBlocks/TinyBlocks.py#L292

Keep in mind that the speaker on the Thumby is also pretty quiet, there really isn't a way to make the sound louder.

87

Thumby / Re: Sprite not being completely mirrored?

« on: November 08, 2021, 10:41:52 AM »

There is an issue with sprite mirroring in the

Code: [Select]

drawSprite(...) function. We are looking into a fix.

For now, you could draw the sprite in an image editor (GIMP, etc), draw one version, mirror it, export from the program, and import both versions into the bitmap Builder. We know this is ugly, but it is a quick fix for now.

88

Thumby / Re: IDE on Raspberry Pi in Chrome

« on: November 04, 2021, 10:39:24 AM »

Perhaps not the best practice for syncing the emulator on whichever page users will be using (as in the webpage using fixed-pixel settings versus adjusting on the basis of screen width), but perhaps for the IDE the emulator could be set to be at a fixed-pixel multiplier, depending on the developer's preference in regards to their own screen resolution? So, for instance, there could be options for 5x for 200x360, 10x for 400x720, etc. That way the pixel height and widths would maintain their same ratios to each other across the entire screen, and then if one needs to see how the graphics look at scale, they can either test it on their own device after they are shipped, or, assuming that hopefully the communities grows to the point of having volunteer testers, have others give them feedback on how it functions on an actual device.

The new version sort of does that. Each time you press the zoom in button it scales the emulator by 2x, so if the button is pressed three times you get a zoom of 2 x 2 x 2 = 8x

89

Thumby / Re: IDE on Raspberry Pi in Chrome

« on: November 04, 2021, 10:37:46 AM »

Got it, thanks! I was just trying to say that is was really small on the Pi and that it didn't look like it does on my Windows PC in Chrome - where it is much larger.

Thanks

Would you be able to send a screenshot? I need to see how the rest of the page looks scale wise.

90

Thumby / Re: IDE on Raspberry Pi in Chrome

« on: November 03, 2021, 10:38:12 AM »

Hi,

We are aware. The version you have access to was just to get the emulator ready for testing by the community.

A newer version is being worked on where the emulator is in its own panel. However, because of the high pixel density of the Thumby screen, it is not possible for a typical desktop monitor or TV to render the Thumby screen pixel-perfect at scale. The best anyone can probably hope for is a scale just under 2x larger than the Thumby when emulating.

See the attached screenshot to see what the new version will look like.