Before we could begin to code, we needed an editor. The students was advised to download the Thonny editor, unless they already had an editor they preferred to use.

Besides the computer, they were given:

• A Raspberry Pi Pico 2022 (Wifi)
• Charger cable
• Potentiometer
• Button
• Small Led
• Neopixel strip

All of the code was posted on https://github.com/SaraBoline/Femtech24/ – from where the students could read the code and write their own, and in truble shooting situations copy from here.

First we gave the students an introductory code to explain following functions:

• print()
• input()
• if/ else
• for loops
• string/integer/float

We explained the following introductory code and made the students interact with it, writing it line by line on their own computer.

#Print statements
print ("Hello world")

#Use input and a variable 
print ("What is your name?")
myName = input()
print ("It is good to meet you," + myName)

#use a variable and a number OBS strings (always input) and integers
print ("The length of your name is: " + str(len(myName)))
print ("What is your age?")
myAge = input()
print ("On your next birthday you will be " + str(int(myAge) + 1) + ".")



#IF and ELSE 
print ("Do you want me to sing you a birthday song? please write Yes or No")
answer1 = input()

if answer1 == "Yes":
    print ("Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear " + myName + " happy birthday to you")
else:
    print ("Okay")


#FOR LOOP 
print ("Do you want me to say Hurra the number of years?")
answer2 = input()

if answer2 == "Yes":
    for i in range(int(myAge)):
        print ("hurra")
else:
    print ("Okay")

print("HUUUUUURAAAAAAAA")

Then the students needed to code their own questions, replacing and editing the code, to make an interview that they could use to get to know the other students.

It would end up making code like the following:

#Print statements
print ("Mit navn er xx velkommen til dette interview")

#Use input and a variable 
print ("Hvad er dit kælenavn?")
myName = input()
print ("Godt at møde dig," + myName)

#use a variable and a number OBS strings (always input) and integers
print ("Dit kælenavn indeholder: " + str(len(myName)) + " bogstaver")

#IF and ELSE 
print ("Har du et kæledyr?(svar Ja eller Nej)" )
kaledyr = input()

if kaledyr == "Ja":
    print ("Nice, Hvilket kæledyr har du?")
    dyr = input()
    print ("Hvad hedder din " + str(dyr) + "?")
    dyrnavn = input()
    print ("Så du har en " + str(dyr) + " der hedder " + str(dyrnavn), ". Hvor gammel er den? (skriv antal år)")
    dyralder = input()
    print("Hvor længe har i haft jeres " + str(dyr) + "? (skriv antal år)")
    haftdyr = input()
    print("Så jeres hund var " + str(int(dyralder)-int(haftdyr)) + " år, da i fik den")
    
else:
    print ("Okay")

print ("Hvor mange kopper kaffe har du drukket idag?")
kaffe = input()
if int(kaffe) > 0:
    print ("Oh yes")
    print ("så må du være")
    for i in range(int(kaffe)):
        print("rigtig")
    print("frisk")
           
   
else:
    print ("Oh kan du ikke lide kaffe? svar Jo eller Nej")
    kanlide = input()
    if kanlide == "Jo":
        print("Hyggeligt, så kan vi drikke en kop sammen")
    else:
        print ("Helt okay, hvad kan du så lide?")
        drikker = input()
        print ("Så kan du drikke", str(drikker), "og så drikker jeg kaffe")

The exercise served as an introduction to programming, as well as an introduction to each other. We used this exercise in the beginning of day one, to let them get to know each other, and also in the beginning of day to, so they asked each other what they learned on the first day.

As an ice breaker and getting to know the function “while True”, we made an ice breaker game where the students in their table groups, talked about the code, modifying as they saw fit, and then competed against each other.

num = random.randint(1, 10)
guess = None
guesses = 1 #If it started at 0 it would not count the first guess

while guess != num:
    guess = input("Guess a number between 1 and 10:")
    guess = int(guess)
    
    if guess == num:
        print ("Congratulations! you won using "+ str(guesses) + " guesses" )
        break
    
    else:
        print ("Nope, sorry, try again!" )
        guesses = guesses +1

The purpose of the game. was to guess a random number with the lowest number of guesses.

Get something to light – learning about circuits.

First we showed the students the pinmap of the Raspberry Pi:

The students made a circuit with a button connected to pin 5 and GND and a led connected to pin 1 and GND.

import machine
from machine import Pin
from time import sleep


button = machine.Pin(5, machine.Pin.IN, machine.Pin.PULL_UP)
led = Pin(1, Pin.OUT)

while True:
    if not button.value():
        led.value(1)
        print('Button pressed!')
        sleep(.2)
        led.value(0)

When the button and the led correctly worked we wanted to make a reaction game, using the following code. Initially as a one player game, and then a 2 player game that develop into being a tournament.

Reaction game 1 player:

import machine
import utime
import urandom

led = machine.Pin(1, machine.Pin.OUT)
button1 = machine.Pin(5, machine.Pin.IN, machine.Pin.PULL_UP)


def button_handler(pin):
    button1.irq(handler=None)
    timer_reaction = utime.ticks_diff(utime.ticks_ms(), timer_start)
    
    
    print("Your reaction time was " + str(timer_reaction)+ " milliseconds!" )

led.value(1)
utime.sleep(urandom.uniform(5,10))
led.value(0)
timer_start = utime.ticks_ms()
button1.irq(trigger=machine.Pin.IRQ_RISING, handler=button_handler)

Reaction game 2 player:

import machine
import utime
import urandom

led = machine.Pin(1, machine.Pin.OUT)
button1 = machine.Pin(5, machine.Pin.IN, machine.Pin.PULL_UP)
button2 = machine.Pin(6, machine.Pin.IN, machine.Pin.PULL_UP)


fastest_button = None

def button_handler(pin):
    button1.irq(handler=None)
    button2.irq(handler=None)
    global fastest_button
    fastest_button = pin
    

led.value(1)
utime.sleep(urandom.uniform(5,10))
led.value(0)
button1.irq(trigger=machine.Pin.IRQ_RISING, handler=button_handler)
button2.irq(trigger=machine.Pin.IRQ_RISING, handler=button_handler)

while fastest_button is None:
    utime.sleep(1)

if fastest_button is button1:
    print("Button 1 wins")
    led.value(1)
    utime.sleep(0.2)
    led.value(0)
    
elif fastest_button is button2:
    print("Button 2 wins")
    led.value(1)
    utime.sleep(0.2)
    led.value(0)
    utime.sleep(0.2)
    led.value(1)
    utime.sleep(0.2)
    led.value(0)

From the tournament

In the following code the students got to know the neopixel led and learned to control it by a potentiometer. Additionally we talked about analoge and digital signals, to understand the potentiometer values.

We talked about light as visualization, and how they can make their own functions, using other colors and making the visualizations as they see fit, for their purpose. They experimented with this exercise, making their own value variables and connecting it to a color.

#neopixel virker med potentiometer
from neopixel import Neopixel
from machine import Pin, ADC, PWM
import time

pixels = Neopixel(5, 0, 0, "GRB") # no, state, pin, mode
adc = ADC(Pin(26, mode=Pin.IN))
#pwm_led = PWM(Pin(15,mode=Pin.OUT))
#pwm_led.freq(1_000)


def map_to_rainbow_color(value):
    num_colors = 7  # Number of colors in the rainbow
    # Map the potentiometer value to the range of rainbow colors
    if value > 0 and value < 300:
        return (255, 0, 0)  # Red
    elif value > 301 and value < 600:
        return (255, 127, 0)  # Orange
    elif value > 601 and value < 900:
        return (255, 255, 0)  # Yellow
    elif value > 901 and value < 1200:
        return (0, 255, 0)  # Green
    elif value > 1201 and value < 1500:
        return (0, 0, 255)  # Blue
    elif value > 1501 and value < 1800:
        return (75, 0, 130)  # Indigo
    elif value >1801 and value < 2100:
        return (148, 0, 211)  # Violet


while True:
    duty = adc.read_u16() #  between ~350-65535
    low_res = duty >> 5
    color = map_to_rainbow_color(int(low_res))
    pixels.set_pixel(0, (color))
    pixels.show()
    time.sleep_ms(100)
    print(low_res)
    print('#%02x%02x%02x' % color)

Then they added the button so they only got the values when pushing the button. The button was added on pin 15 connected in the same way as when they made the reaction game:

#neopixel virker med potentiometer
from neopixel import Neopixel
from machine import Pin, ADC, PWM
import time

button = machine.Pin(15, machine.Pin.IN, machine.Pin.PULL_UP)

pixels = Neopixel(5, 0, 0, "GRB") # no, state, pin, mode
adc = ADC(Pin(26, mode=Pin.IN))
#pwm_led = PWM(Pin(15,mode=Pin.OUT))
#pwm_led.freq(1_000)


def map_to_rainbow_color(value):
    num_colors = 7  # Number of colors in the rainbow
    # Map the potentiometer value to the range of rainbow colors
    if value > 0 and value < 300:
        return (255, 0, 0)  # Red
    elif value > 301 and value < 600:
        return (255, 127, 0)  # Orange
    elif value > 601 and value < 900:
        return (255, 255, 0)  # Yellow
    elif value > 901 and value < 1200:
        return (0, 255, 0)  # Green
    elif value > 1201 and value < 1500:
        return (0, 0, 255)  # Blue
    elif value > 1501 and value < 1800:
        return (75, 0, 130)  # Indigo
    elif value >1801 and value < 2100:
        return (148, 0, 211)  # Violet


while True:
    duty = adc.read_u16() #between ~350-65535
    low_res = duty >> 5
    color = map_to_rainbow_color(int(low_res))
    pixels.set_pixel(0, (color))
    pixels.show()
    time.sleep_ms(100)
    #print(low_res)
    #print('#%02x%02x%02x' % color)
    if not button.value():
        print("button pressed")
        print(low_res)
        print('#%02x%02x%02x' % color)
        time.sleep_ms(200)

In the following code, the potentiometer is used as an input variable, that translates to a color value in the map_to_rainbow_color function. The button is used as an input to detect when to save the values (color, potentiometer, ID, timestamp, and eye color) as a CSV on the raspberry pi. The students could then use this CSV file to either plot in Excel, plot in python or upload to https://femtech.dataekspeditioner.dk/html. Some experimented with using google and ChatGPT to visualize the data, this worked very well for them connecting and helping each other.

#neopixel virker med potentiometer
from neopixel import Neopixel
from machine import Pin, ADC, PWM
import time

button = machine.Pin(15, machine.Pin.IN, machine.Pin.PULL_UP)

pixels = Neopixel(5, 0, 0, "GRB") # no, state, pin, mode
adc = ADC(Pin(26, mode=Pin.IN))
#pwm_led = PWM(Pin(15,mode=Pin.OUT))
#pwm_led.freq(1_000)


def map_to_rainbow_color(value):
    num_colors = 7  # Number of colors in the rainbow
    # Map the potentiometer value to the range of rainbow colors
    if value > 0 and value < 300:
        return (255, 0, 0)  # Red
    elif value > 301 and value < 600:
        return (255, 127, 0)  # Orange
    elif value > 601 and value < 900:
        return (255, 255, 0)  # Yellow
    elif value > 901 and value < 1200:
        return (0, 255, 0)  # Green
    elif value > 1201 and value < 1500:
        return (0, 0, 255)  # Blue
    elif value > 1501 and value < 1800:
        return (75, 0, 130)  # Indigo
    elif value >1801 and value < 2100:
        return (148, 0, 211)  # Violet


while True:
    duty = adc.read_u16() #between ~350-65535
    low_res = duty >> 5
    color = map_to_rainbow_color(int(low_res))
    pixels.set_pixel(0, (color))
    pixels.show()
    time.sleep_ms(100)
    #print(low_res)
    #print('#%02x%02x%02x' % color)
    if not button.value():
        print("button pressed")
        value = low_res
        neo_color = '#%02x%02x%02x' % color
        ID = 1
        eye = "green"
       
        # Get current date and time in "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" format
        timestamp = "{:04}-{:02}-{:02} {:02}:{:02}:{:02}".format(*time.localtime()[:6])
 
        # Append data to CSV file
        with open("mydata.csv", "a") as f:
            f.write(f"{value},{neo_color},{timestamp},{ID},{eye}\n")
       
        print(value, color, timestamp, ID, eye)
        time.sleep_ms(200)