A quick bit of soldering and wiring got the day off to a good start. I have the Adafruit Prototyping Pi Plate built and hosting my first item, an i2c rgb led called the blinkM. To be frank the blinkM is way overpowered/capable for what I need on this project, but I suspect i2c will play a role and figured that understanding the protocol with an LED first would be easiest. I also have dual motivations as I am also trying to work out the best way to integrate i2c into the Maxuino project. Here you can see it up and running on the Pi.
This is not to say I have the Pi talking to the blinkM yet, only that it is being powered. The great thing about the blinkM is that you can design complex scripts of color patterns and speeds and then upload them to the small processor on the blinkM and then just giving the blinkM battery power will make it run that script forever. Basically it is a programable self contained rgb light. Unfortunately it turns out that no one has made a little helper class in python for the blinkM and so I am looking at doing that as part of my self instruction process. I have also continued the python lessons, Codecademy has been serving me well for all the basic concepts. Lastly I have been working on the drawings for one of the devices – one looking at the exoplanet search. I have very exciting ideas for it involving a laser pointer, some servos and a compass. More soon.
