Hello, and welcome!
###Aim:
- Build your own Thing for the Internet using littleBits in small teams
- Demonstrate the Thing you've made to everyone
- Write up how others (children) could copy your thing
I've spent the past two years teaching kids to code - littleBits are amazing but they're incredibly poorly documented. Especially when you get into actually writing real code for it! It would be great if we at BGL could populate a couple of activities kids could follow to help them get started!
littleBits are like lego for technology! They are simply colour coded; blue is for power; green is an output, pink is an input; and orange is logic. I have 8 cloudbits (orange) that you can connect to the internet (they need USB power first) - so if we have more people than bits, we'll need to form small groups!
Feel free to take whichever inputs and outputs your interested in - but please only take whatever you're going to use so that everyone may have an opportunity to play!
The first step to programming the bits is to sign on to the web portal at http://control.littlebitscloud.cc
The username is [email protected] and I'll write the password somewhere visible for everyone to see. Note that the buttons for sign up and log in are weird - so be careful!
Once you've signed in you should see on the left hand side a list of pokemon names - click on the pokemon that matches the cloudBit you have! If you're stuck check out this page - http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Starter_Pok%C3%A9mon
Now you should see a massive button in the middle of the page - connect an output to your cloudBit (any green bit) and press the button. You should see something happen! If not, somethings gone wrong and ask me for some help!
Along the bottom you should see a tab for settings - this is where you can find out the device id and access token which will need for the next step!
So now we've established that our bit is connected to the internet. We can look at customising it to make it useful for us!
- Synchronised Christmas decorations
- Internet enabled door bells
- Pet feeder
- Baby monitor
- Internet enabled umbrella stand
- Interactive Charity counter - for Dilip going to Zambia!
- Your own ideas - everyone should have their own favourite API!