Simple Reation Timer

Yesterday I ran the first of a series of workshops, making fun stuff with Sniff on Arduino. We started with an Arduino and an LED, then added a button and a potentiometer (dial). That neatly covers inputs and outputs, both digital and analog, so we can declare all that hardware with something like:

make led1 digital output D13

make led2 analog output D9

make button digital input D4

make dial analog input A0

Then we can use the button to control the "digital led"

when start

.forever

..set led1 to not button

use the potentiometer  to control the brightness of the analog led:

when start

.forever

..set led2 to dial

or we can use the dial to set the speed of a flash:

when start

.forever

..set led1 to on

..wait dial secs

..set led1 to off

..wait dial secs

we can even make the button control a flashing LED

when start

.forever

..if not button

...set led1 to on

...wait dial secs

...set led1 to off

...wait dial secs

The idea was then that we could build something fun or useful using the components. The code for a simple ration timer is:

when start

.forever

..set led to off

..wait pick random 1 to 5 secs

..set led1 to on

..reset timer

..wait until not button

..say [timer]

You can extend this a little to prevent cheating by checking that the button isn't pressed before the LED comes on:

when start

.forever

..set led to off

..wait pick random 1 to 5 secs

..if not button

...say "Cheater!"

..else

...set led1 to on

...reset timer

...wait until not button

...say [timer]

Hopefully everyone had a fun time with this, and I've got some ideas for a Xmas/Winter project next month...