Need help with BrickPi+

1

HI,
i have downloaded various images to get this BrickPi+ going. i always get stuck in various ways:

  1. when i open scratch for robots, the dexter window comes up, asking for whihc robot i want to program, since BrickPi+ is not listed, i open JUST SCRATCH, no robot. This WILL run a console in the background (SCRATCH CONTROLLER), but telling me that all commands are being ingored:
    eg:
    Rx: MA100
    Ignoring: ma100

i have downloaded the BrickPi repository from github, when i run the BrickPiScratch.py file, it says:
TraceBack (most recent call last)
File “BrickPiScratch.py” , line 49
import ir_receiver_check
ImportError: No Module named ir_receiver_check

any help ???

i am simply trying to run an old LEGO RCX Motor…

thx

1 Like
2

Which operating system, on which Pi, are you using?

3

Hi Jim,

im on BrickPi+ on rasperry Pi2B; installed raspian for robots from the dexter website.

i cloned the brickpi_scratch repo from github, and via python i can run the motor test just fine. starting scratch and running BRackPiScratch.py says its connected.

But broadcast(MA, E) and or broadcast(MA[,]100) doesnt do anything.

any ideas?

also, do i need to start GPIO Server from within the scratch menu?

thx

1 Like
4

Gulp!

At this point, you’ve exhausted my knowledge of the Brick Pi - I use the GoPiGo - but I don’t mind taking a stab at it as the solutions to GoPiGo problems are often the solutions to other problems too.

One thing I might suggest - your desire to use Scratch makes me think you want to do simple block-based programming - is that you tell Scratch to “Go Scratch!” (:wink:) and download the 2.5 version of DexterOS.

DexterOS, (which works on all PI’s except the Pi-4), provides a programming environment called “Bloxter” which is a re-spin of Blockly/EduBlocks specifically for the Dexter Industries / Modular Robotics products.  No need to “broadcast”.  No fussiness.  Once it detects the “robot” you have installed, it will allow you to use the correct commands to talk to whatever sensors and motors you have.

I’ve used both Scratch and Bloxter with my GoPiGo and, (in my humble opinion), Scratch can do just that.  Bloxter is so much better.

5

i guess i will check that out as well - does it work with the new (red) board only? or also on the ‘older’ brickpi board?

meanwhile, i got the scratchcontroller running in the background, and its conntected to scratch, but no luck yet in the GUI…

argh

1 Like
6

It should work with everything, but let’s ask @cleoqc to confirm as I am not an expert here.

7

help me out here … to what would i connect the servos to? what board would i need to attach to the raspberry?

thx
tom

1 Like
8

I don’t have a BrickPi, so I am assuming that there are three-pin connectors for the servos, four-pin Grove connectors for sensors and such, and perhaps a motor output or two.

My 'bot is a GoPiGo, not a Brick Pi, so I don’t know what else to tell you. Surely there’s some Dexter Industries documentation for the Brick Pi somewhere. . .

As far as how to attach it to the Raspberry Pi, I strongly suspect that there is a double-row female header on the board that fits on the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi. Many boards were designed to be used on earlier PI revisions and, as a consequence, only have a 26-pin header that fits on the GPIO pins furthest away from the Ethernet/USB connectors on the later boards.

My GoPiGo-3 does this so the Dexter Industries board only takes up about half of a 40-pin GPIO connector.

My Own PCB
My Own PCB2448×3264 1.16 MB

 

This is what a GoPiGo board looks like from the bottom.  At the very top you can see the two large white connectors that the GoPiGo motors connect to, and to the immediate left is the female 26-pin header that fits over the first 26 pins on the GoPiGo when assembled.

IMG_20210402_171413690
IMG_20210402_1714136903264×2448 949 KB

 

This is a side view of my 'bot showing how the Dexter Industries GoPiGo controller board fits onto the Raspberry Pi below it. Notice how it fits onto the first 26 pins of the Raspberry Pi GPIO connector. The little red dip-switch is something I added that will let me select what operating system to use on-the-fly, and is not part of the stock robot.

The red-white-black three-wire cable is one of two servo cables that plug into three-pin headers for controlling the servos.

Like I said, I don’t have a Brick Pi, (I don’t even have decent pictures of a brick pi! :wink:), so I’m not the definitive expert.

Hopefully what I have said will help you figure out what you have and how to make it work.

Please don’t forget to reply and let everyone know what happens and how you got things to work - if at all.

Thanks!

9

Please note that the BrickPi family isn’t supported in DexterOS or GoPiGo OS. Those are only for the GoPiGo.

Your best bet for BrickPi+ at this point is to start from the official Raspberry Pi OS and install the BrickPi+ library using this command

sudo curl -kL dexterindustries.com/update_brickpi_plus | bash

In the same vein, Bloxter is only available for the GoPiGo. BrickPi users have to use Scratch if they want a block-based programming language.

1 Like
10

 

Ahhh! Thanks! I didn’t know that and I apologize for any confusion I may have created.

How does the Pivot-Pi figure into this, since there is a control-panel for the Pivot-Pi in these operating systems - at least DexterOS and R4R as I remember.

Also, when I do a “Dexter Update”, (at least within DexterOS), it downloads a lot of “PivotPI”, “BrickPi”, and maybe other “xxxPI” stuff too.

So, (at least for me), this is a bit confusing as I would assume that if the Dexter Update downloads BrickPi, PivotPi and/or GrovePi stuff, I can’t be faulted for believing that the BrickPi, PivotPi and/or GrovePi should work in that operating system.