State of PewPew for 2022-05-10
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Another long break in the newsletter, sorry about that, the winter
was rough. But as the summer comes, everything comes to life.
News
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* There will be a PewPew workshop on Europython 2022 in July, in Dublin.
Because of the chip shortage, we will be using badges from 2019.
* I experimented a bit with different new PewPew designs:
- https://hackaday.io/project/178061-pewpew-s2
- https://hackaday.io/project/180309-pewpew-oled
- https://hackaday.io/project/177306-pewpew-slim
* Using what I learned from that, I am now working on a new PewPew to be
available on sale as soon as the chip shortage ends:
- https://hackaday.io/project/185291-pewpew-lcd
* I also submitted that project to the Hackaday Prize, and registered
it with OSHWA.
* There are some improvements coming for the menu program for the PewPew
Standalone.
--
Radomir Dopieralski
Hello again!
I think PewPew Standalone has a big potential to be a low-cost Micro:bit alternative for teaching children how to program microcontrollers and make simple games with it. However, it still lacks easy-to-use online tools, such as MakeCode for Micro:bit. There is Pewmulator, but it requires downloading Python and Pygame, which is less comfortable than using an online platform. So while I am waiting for my ordered PewPews, meanwhile I am developing an online emulator for PewPew Standalone using Pygame4skulpt. Your CircuitPython code is running fully client-side inside the browser, handling LED display and key presses. Here is the demo of the first proof-of-concept: https://gfycat.com/ifr/kindheartedsilveritalianbrownbear. The Pew Pew Standalone Emulator will be open sourced when it is more mature.
I was thinking about incorporating it into the latest EduBlocks beta, but it would be much easier if there was already some support for the Pew library in EduBlocks. Or if MakeCode supported PewPew Standalone. Maybe one day it could be a part of a bigger platform for educating children in less developed countries. Do you think it is a good idea?
Best wishes!
