Node.js Sphero Driver
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This is a node.js driver for the
communication protocol used by Sphero's robots.
This project is an independent effort from the official
sphero.js project, and is less
supported. At the same time, we are free to develop functionality that is
unlikely to be added to the official project, such as driving a
BB-8.
This project is written in CoffeeScript and tested
using mocha.
Usage
This package's API relies heavily on
ES6 Promises.
Each robot that your computer can connect to receives an identifier. The
following command looks for reachable robots and shows their identifiers.
npm start
Once you have an identifier, you can use the discovery service to connect to
the robot, as shown below. The discovery service has
other useful methods as well.
var sphero = require('sphero-pwn');
var robot = null;
sphero.Discovery.findChannel('serial:///dev/cu.Sphero-YRG-AMP-SPP').
then(foundChannel);
The discovery service produces a communication channel, which can be used to
create a Robot
. Robot's methods are convenient wrappers
for the
Sphero API commands.
function foundChannel(channel) {
console.log("Found robot");
robot = new sphero.Robot(channel);
play();
}
For example, the following snippet sets the Sphero's permanent RGB LED color.
function play() {
robot.setUserRgbLed({red: 255, green: 128, blue: 0}).
then(function() {
console.log("Set LED color");
robot.close();
}).
then(function() {
console.log("Done");
});
}
The following example uses
orbBasic to flash the
robot's RGB LED.
function play() {
robot.on('basic', function(event) {
console.log("basic print: " + event.message);
});
robot.on('basicError', function(event) {
console.log("basic error: " + event.message);
});
var script = "10 RGB 0, 255, 0\n" +
"20 delay 2000\n" +
"30 RGB 0, 0, 255\n" +
"40 delay 2000\n";
robot.loadBasic("ram", script).
then(function() {
console.log("Loaded script");
robot.runBasic("ram", 10);
}).
then(function() {
console.log("Started script");
robot.close();
}).
then(function() {
console.log("Done");
}).
catch(function() {
console.error(error)
});
}
Last, the following example uses our
macro compiler to compile
and execute a macro that
flashes the robot's RGB LED.
var macros = require('sphero-pwn-macros');
function play() {
var macroSource = "rgb 0 255 0\n" +
"delay 2000\n" +
"rgb 0 0 255\n" +
"delay 2000\n";
var macro = macros.compile(macroSource);
robot.on('macro', function(event) {
console.log("macro marker: " + event.markerId);
});
robot.loadMacro(0xFF, new Buffer(macro.bytes)).
then(function() {
console.log("Loaded macro in RAM");
robot.runMacro(0xFF);
}).
then(function() {
console.log("Started macro");
robot.close();
}).
then(function() {
console.log("Done");
}).
catch(function() {
console.error(error)
});
}
Development Setup
Install all the dependencies.
npm install
List the Bluetooth devices connected to your computer.
npm start
Set the SPHERO_DEV
environment variable to point to your Sphero.
export SPHERO_DEV=serial:///dev/cu.Sphero-XXX-AMP-SPP
export SPHERO_DEV=ble://ef:80:a8:4a:12:34
Run the tests.
npm test
License
This project is Copyright (c) 2015 Victor Costan, and distributed under the MIT
License.