Siren
Get familiar with Programming in the block editor! Turn your Bluebird into a siren with a blinking LED and sound. Then learn to customize your siren with color changing and sound.
Coding Concepts:
Output (LED, Music), Forever Loops, Pauses
Part 1: Make the LED blink
1) Get familiar with block editor: Open the Program page under the tools menu.
Take note of the following features: The Bluebird simulator on the left The block menu on the dark grey sidebar The light grey block editor area The block/javascript view, help button, and setting options on the white top bar
2) Go to the LED block menu. Nest the ||rgb:Set Neopixel Color|| block into the forever loop. Use the color palette to select a color. For this example, we will use purple.
rgb.setColor(purple, () => {
});3) Test the code in the Bluebird simulator
4) Go to the Loops block menu. Nest the ||loops:Pause|| block next in the forever loop sequence. Anything in the ||basic:Forever|| loops run repeatedly at a rate that may make changes too fast to observe (as much as 100 loops per second)! You must add a pause to make sure the lights change at a rate that you can observe.
Fun fact: Our eyes can perceive the flicker of a LED up to 90Hz (90 on-off cycles per second)
5) Repeat this sequence again with another Neopixel color from the palette.
Tip: If you make a mistake, you can drag the block back into the sidebar to dispose of it.
Part 2: Add Sound
1) Add a sound to the loop. Select ||music:play tone|| from the Music blocks and select siren from the drop-down sound options.
2) Adjust the timing of the pause to allow the siren sound to play through.
3) Final block code:
forever(function () {
rgb.setColor(0x7f00ff)
music.siren.play()
pause(2000)
rgb.setColor(0x00ffff)
music.siren.play()
pause(2000)
});Part 3: Upload your code to Bluebird
Click the orange Download button under the simulator. A pop-up menu will appear on your screen. Download the file and follow the instructions on the pop-up.