BrickPi Tank - how to get started programming

BrickPi
1

We just bought a BrickPi set and we built the tank with lego mindstorms parts and motors. Are there any tutorials or guides available to help us with programming?
Do we have to install Raspbian? Any help or pointers to resources would be appreciated as we are completely lost.

2

Here’s a good start.

1 Like
3

Hello
As @rolly mentioned, your best approach is to start with Raspbian for Robots. On this card, not only is the BrickPi fully configured already but you will find examples of code for each sensor.
Are you trying to code with Python or Scratch ?

Cleo

4

Thanks for responding. We are trying to code with Python.
I may have missed the response from @rolly

So just to be clear, Raspbian is installed on BrickPi ?

5

On the BrickPi itself, no OS is installed. The OS is on the Raspberry Pi on a little microSD card. If you bought the card from Dexter Industries, it would be Raspbian For Robots. Otherwise, it’s most likely to be Raspbian.
Raspbian, and Raspbian for Robots are two different products. Raspbian is the official OS from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Raspbian for Robots is the same OS but preconfigured for all of Dexter’s robots.

This page talks about the SD card. It mentions the GoPiGo but the card is the same for all robots

6

Thanks again for responding! We bought the micro SD card from Dexter so it should have Raspbian for Robots.
Now we built the Tank using Lego mindstorms but the link from your website to the code does not work. Is there a link you could point me to to get more help on getting started with the code so we could make the tank do something.

We also bought GoPiGo and the bundle of sensors but it has been frustrating to get started as there has been a lack of information. We were used to Lego mindstorms detailed step by step instructions. Thanks to your help, we’ll get there eventually.

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Sorry about that broken link. I’m not familiar with that particular build, but I do think you can use this code:
https://github.com/DexterInd/BrickPi_Python/tree/master/Project_Examples/browserBot

8

HI,
The link you sent me is not active.
Can you point me to a working link please.
Thanks in advance!
Clyde

9

Sorry about that, we just reorganized the folders, just days ago
Try this one?

10

Thanks for the quick response!
Do you have 5 minutes for a quick call?

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D you know if there is example code for this project:
https://www.dexterindustries.com/BrickPi/projects/tank/

The 4th bullet has a broken link.

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We were trying to do this project:
https://www.dexterindustries.com/BrickPi/projects/browserbot/

and got stuck at this stage - we were not able to install : python RPi_Server_Code.py

we get a message - file does not exist.
Thoughts or suggestions?

13

Hi @clydesouza,

Thanks for pointing out the broken link, its fixed. You can refer to this simplebot code for Rigraptor tank, it will work with tank too. Also BrickPi_Python repository has been moved and hence you can find the Rpi_Server_Code.py here.

Please let us know if this helps,
-Shoban