DIDO HAT contol with SW in SPF-6000-KIT

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act1776
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DIDO HAT contol with SW in SPF-6000-KIT

Post by act1776 »

I have purchased a SUB SPF-6000-KIT AS OF DELIVERY 7-27-2016

I want to take inputs (monitor events usually switch closures) and with the SW supplied (easy to use and love it) cause a HAT DIDO board to control and monitor the outside world.

QUESTION:
Do I need special SW to activate the DIDO board or does the existing SW in the kit (SCRATCH) do that for me?
I don't want to plug the HAT into the Raspberry until I am sure.

The HAT (circuit board that plugs into 40 pin connector on Raspberry)is made by "Greekworm" and appears on much of the literature associated with your site.

It has 8 ins and 8 outs plus 2 output relays.
bfinio
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Re: DIDO HAT contol with SW in SPF-6000-KIT

Post by bfinio »

Hi act1776,

I could not find much documentation online for the DIDO HAT, and it is not used in our kit, so I am not sure if it will be compatible with Scratch. Is this what you're referring to?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6TJ3TE5914

Our kit comes with an older version of ScratchGPIO, a third-party add-on for controlling GPIO pins with Scratch. Here is the developer's website:

http://simplesi.net/

Note that ScratchGPIO has been updated to version 8, but our kit contains version 5 which is no longer supported. You may be able to contact Simon via his website to ask if the DIDO HAT is supported, or how to go about upgrading to version 8 if that will make a difference.

Some additional notes:

Our kit comes with an older version of the Raspbian operating system. Newer versions come with built-in support for controlling GPIO with Scratch. You can find documentation about that here:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /README.md

Note that to use that, you would need to update the operating system on your SD card, which would erase the Science Buddies content on the card. We cannot provide support for users who modify the SD card in this manner. However, if you choose to do so, download and installation instructions are here:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/

For more advanced applications, you may want to look into programming with Python instead of Scratch:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/python/

Finally, since your question goes beyond the scope of what is included in our kit, you may be better off going to the official Raspberry Pi forums for help:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/

Hope that helps!

-Ben
act1776
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2016 8:16 am
Occupation: Other Adult

Re: DIDO HAT contol with SW in SPF-6000-KIT

Post by act1776 »

Much thanks for all that information.

However, I am greatly disappointed by given an out-of-date not-supported operating system.
If I'd been told (mentioned in the purchase information) that before I purchased it i may have made a different choice.
I want to go beyond and thought that this purchase would be the foundation for further efforts.
Again very disappointed.
Please let others know of this disconnect so they can makes a knowledgeable decision.
bfinio
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Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:41 pm
Occupation: Science Buddies Staff
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Re: DIDO HAT contol with SW in SPF-6000-KIT

Post by bfinio »

Hi act1776,

I'm sorry to hear that you were disappointed. However, I want to emphasize that it is free and easy to update the Raspberry Pi's OS yourself by following the directions here:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

and that doing so should not hinder any further efforts on your part. All of the hardware included in our kit will remain perfectly usable, and you can still apply everything you've learned so far.

Due to the frequent nature of new software releases (several times per year), it's not possible for us or many other kit manufacturers to always provide an SD card with the latest version of Raspbian. Since our primary audience is non-technical K-12 students, parents, and teachers, we simply do not recommend updating the OS while using our kit because that makes it easier for us to provide tech support for a fixed version of the software. However, if you have moved beyond the Science Buddies projects using Scratch and want to do your own more advanced projects, there is nothing wrong with updating the OS yourself.

I should also add that if you want to keep the Science Buddies content on the SD card provided in our kit, you can always purchase a separate SD card and install the newest operating system on that.

Hope that helps,

Ben
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