Difference between revisions of "Setting Up Scratch for Vorpal"

Latest revision as of 13:10, 18 October 2018

Vorpal Hexapod Quick Links: User Documentation: Robot Guide Gamepad Guide Assembly Guide Trouble Shooting Technical Guides Getting & Giving Vorpal Buy a Kit Donate Vorpal Request a Donation Supporters List Activities: Games & Activities Scratch Guide Customer Hacks Contact/Press: Contact Us Vorpal Forum Newsletter Press & News Press Kit

The Vorpal system provides a Scratch Extension in order to control the robot. Because this is an extension beyond the basic Scratch language, you must have an Internet connection and the ScratchX.org website cannot be blocked by your school or home firewall. The downloadable version of Scratch will not work, only the Internet version hosted on ScratchX.org. Note: We have done the most testing using the Chrome browser. Things may very well work in other browsers, but right now we're recommending Chrome on both Mac and Windows platforms.

One Time Setup: Loading Browser Helpers

For each computer you wish to run the Vorpal ScratchX extension, you need to perform the following steps one time:

Make sure you have a reasonably recent version ofthe Chrome browser installed.
- Approximately version 56 or newer should work fine. To check your version use SETTINGS in the main menu (three vertical dots, upper right corner) and select HELP then ABOUT.
- If you don't have Chrome or have an ancient version, go here and follow the instructions: Chrome Browser Download
Make sure Adobe Flash Player is enabled in Chrome
- Type chrome://settings/content into the address bar.
- Scroll down and you'll see a section for FLASH. Click on that and make sure it's ENABLED.
Load the ScratchX Device plugin for your platform. You'll find them here: Scratch Extensions Browser Plugin
- Note that Windows and Mac also have a "plugin helper" which is another download on the same page.
- After downloading, install both the Device plugin and the helper.
- These are small, fast loading plugins and you can be done in just a couple of minutes!

Connecting ScratchX to Vorpal

Follow these steps to get up and running in just a minute or two:

Make sure both the hexapod and gamepad have fresh batteries.
Set the hexapod dial to RC (radio control, some earl prototypes called this BT for Bluetooth) and turn the hexapod on.
Plug a USB A to mini connector into the gamepad, a USB mini port is exposed on the left side. Plug the other end into a USB port on your computer.
Go to the ScratchX website with the Vorpal Extension url enabled: ScratchX With Vorpal Extension
- You may want to bookmark that page to make it easier to get there in the future!

After a few seconds, you should see ScratchX load on your computer and you should see the Vorpal extension blocks (Walk, Dance, Set Leg, etc.)

Windows Users: A Note on COM Ports

When you plug in the gamepad it will get assigned what is known as a "COM Port" number by the Windows Operating System, such as COM1, COM7, etc.

The current Scratch implementation of the Vorpal Hexapod blocks assumes that the lowest numbered active COM port on your computer is the gamepad COM port. This is usually not an issue because most people don't use COM ports anymore on Windows, so it's highly likely that the gamepad is the only COM port being used. However, if you do have multiple COM port devices connected to your computer, the current Scratch implementation may not be able to detect the gamepad. The simplest solution is to disconnect the other devices while you use Scratch. If this is not practical, the Windows Device Manager allows you to reassign COM port numbers, so you could simply reassign the gamepad to a lower COM number than any of your other devices.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-The Vorpal system provides a Scratch Extension in order to control the robot. Because this is an extension beyond the basic Scratch language, you need to go to the Scratch Extensions website: www.scratchx.org. Scratch extensions can only be used from a browser over the Internet, so you must have an Internet connection.
+{{float_box|{{VCH Quick Links}} }}
+The Vorpal system provides a Scratch Extension in order to control the robot. Because this is an extension beyond the basic Scratch language, you must have an Internet connection and the ScratchX.org website cannot be blocked by your school or home firewall. The downloadable version of Scratch will not work, only the Internet version hosted on ScratchX.org.
+Note: We have done the most testing using the Chrome browser. Things may very well work in other browsers, but right now we're recommending Chrome on both Mac and Windows platforms.
+==One Time Setup: Loading Browser Helpers==
+For each computer you wish to run the Vorpal ScratchX extension, you need to perform the following steps one time:
+* Make sure you have a reasonably recent version ofthe Chrome browser installed.
+**Approximately version 56 or newer should work fine. To check your version use SETTINGS in the main menu (three vertical dots, upper right corner) and select HELP then ABOUT.
+**If you don't have Chrome or have an ancient version, go here and follow the instructions: [https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html Chrome Browser Download]
+* Make sure Adobe Flash Player is enabled in Chrome
+** Type chrome://settings/content into the address bar.
+** Scroll down and you'll see a section for FLASH.  Click on that and make sure it's ENABLED.
+* Load the ScratchX Device plugin for your platform. You'll find them here: [https://scratch.mit.edu/info/ext_download/ Scratch Extensions Browser Plugin]
+** Note that Windows and Mac also have a "plugin helper" which is another download on the same page.
+** After downloading, install both the Device plugin and the helper.
+** These are small, fast loading plugins and you can be done in just a couple of minutes!
+==Connecting ScratchX to Vorpal==
+Follow these steps to get up and running in just a minute or two:
+* Make sure both the hexapod and gamepad have fresh batteries.
+* Set the hexapod dial to RC (radio control, some earl prototypes called this BT for Bluetooth) and turn the hexapod on.
+* Plug a USB A to mini connector into the gamepad, a USB mini port is exposed on the left side.  Plug the other end into a USB port on your computer.
+* Go to the ScratchX website with the Vorpal Extension url enabled: [http://tinyurl.com/ScratchVorpal ScratchX With Vorpal Extension]
+**You may want to bookmark that page to make it easier to get there in the future!
+After a few seconds, you should see ScratchX load on your computer and you should see the Vorpal extension blocks (Walk, Dance, Set Leg, etc.)
+===Windows Users: A Note on COM Ports===
+When you plug in the gamepad it will get assigned what is known as a "COM Port" number by the Windows Operating System, such as COM1, COM7, etc.
+The current Scratch implementation of the Vorpal Hexapod blocks assumes that the lowest numbered active COM port on your computer is the gamepad COM port. This is usually not an issue because most people don't use COM ports anymore on Windows, so it's highly likely that the gamepad is the ''only'' COM port being used. However, if you do have multiple COM port devices connected to your computer, the current Scratch implementation may not be able to detect the gamepad. The simplest solution is to disconnect the other devices while you use Scratch. If this is not practical, the Windows Device Manager allows you to reassign COM port numbers, so you could simply reassign the gamepad to a lower COM number than any of your other devices.
+<!---
+===Mac Users Who Bought Kits prior to December 2017 or Self-sourced parts===
+This only applies to people who bought kits from us in 2017, or people who self-sourced parts.
+If you fall into those categories, and you can't get Scratch working on a Mac computer, you may have a gamepad nano with a CHG34x USB-serial port chip. These chips do not work well on Mac computers and make Scratch on Mac very unreliable. You would need to upgrade the gamepad to a FT232 USB-Serial port version of the Nano to get it to work.
+--->