blocktinu Archives - The Tinusaur Project

The Blocktinu App for Windows version 1.2.1 is out

Posted on 2018-12-022022-01-01 by neven

We have just deployed a new version of the Blocktinu Windows application.

It is available for download from BLOCKTINU.com/downloads website.

WHAT’S NEW?

Besides some visual changes, there is a new button to upload some testing code to your Tinusaur Board with an EDUx4IO Shield. That is very convenient for testing if the board was assembled correctly even before you start writing some code.

A more detailed guide on how to setup Blocktinu on Windows is available as a PDF file for download at Blocktinu Tools – Windows Setup (slides).pdf.

We’d like to hear your opinion, so please drop a comment.

Blocktinu Tools – Windows Setup (slides)

Posted on 2018-11-292022-11-06 by neven

This is the first draft of the guide on how to setup the Blocktinu Tools under Windows.

The file in PDF format is available at this location: Blocktinu_Tools_for_Windows_Setup_Guide.pdf

Please, download it and take a look. If you feel that there’s missing something or wrong, please, let us know.

When we update the files we will commit changes in this repository: https://bitbucket.org/tinusaur/blocktinu-docs/.

UPDATE (2021): Bitbucket no longer hosts our project. 🙁

Our source code is available at
— https://gitlab.com/tinusaur
— https://github.com/tinusaur (mirror)

Check also the Guides section of our website.

We have just made Blocktinu Windows app better

Posted on 2018-08-262022-01-01 by neven

Here are the changes:

Fixed bug that caused an error message when there is a space in the name of the HEX file or in the path to your user folder.

Now, the juicy part …

This is the first version of the Blocktinu Windows Desktop Application.

How, as part of the app, there are 2 pre-compiled programs that you could conveniently use to test your newly assembled board.
1. Just an empty app that will allow you to see if the binary code goes from the your computer (if drivers have been installed correctly) through the USBasp ISP programmer and, into the microcontroller. That could also be used to check if the board has been assembled correctly.
2. The other one is a simple app that will make any LED connected (through a resistor, of course) to any of the 5 available I/O pins – PB0, PB1, PB2, PB3, PB4 – blink. That could be used to test if the boards and the shields have been assembled correctly.

Using these 2 pre-compiled programs does not require anything that just pressing the “Upload” buttons on the screen – no writing code, no compiling, building or downloading.

There is also a button on the app to launch the website with the Blocktinu development environment. That’s not a big deal, but it is convenient.

The latest version is available for download at: https://bitbucket.org/tinusaur/blocktinu-tools-win/downloads/blocktinu-tools-1.1.1-install.zip

More and up to date information is also available at blocktinu.com.

Please, let us know what do you think.

BLOCKTINU – The Development Environment for the Tinusaur – ATtiny85 Microcontroller Board

Posted on 2018-02-182022-01-01 by neven

The Blocktinu is the development environment for your Tinusaur microcontroller boards where you could use blocks to produce real C programming language source code.

As you move your blocks (on the left) to implement your algorithms, the source code (on the right) will be automatically updated. Pretty neat, huh?

Now you can start learning the C programming language by playing with the blocks and looking at the changes in the source code that has been generated.

Once your program is ready it will be compiled in the cloud so no installation of any SDK will be necessary. The resulting binary code for the ATtiny85 microcontroller will be returned back to you.

The Blocktinu is part of the Tinusaur project.

The Blocktinu and the Tinusaur are open source projects. Both the software and the hardware!

The Blocktinu is almost ready for public use.

The Blocktinu is part of the Tinusaur crowdfunding campaign that we have launched on January 22nd, 2018.

Support our crowdfunding campaign. Get yourself a Tinusaur microcontroller board. You will receive early access to the Blocktinu development environment.

Introducing the BLOCKTINU – programming with blocks for the Tinusaur and ATtiny85

Posted on 2017-05-242022-01-01 by neven

Dragging and dropping blocks on a web page that generates real C code which gets compiled on the cloud and then uploaded locally to your microcontroller.

Does that sound interesting to you?

Well, we’ve done it. Kind of. We called it Blocktinu.

A couple of weeks ago me (Neven Boyanov) and my friend Geroge (Georgi Marinov) participated in the #BG10xEU hackathon in Sofia and the idea that we developed and presented was just that. Within the given 24 hrs we managed to develop the initial version of most of the modules, including a browser extension for Google Chrome for handling the communication between the cloud and the local machine. At the moment the only missing part is the piece that invokes the avrdude from within the browser extension.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is just the beginning and there is still work to be done.

We will have the source code (free and open) at this location: https://bitbucket.org/tinusaur/blocktinu.

UPDATE (2021): Bitbucket no longer hosts our projects.
Our source code is available at
— https://gitlab.com/tinusaur
— https://github.com/tinusaur (mirror)