Blocky

Inspiration

I have a young 7 years old cousin which wants me to teach here to code. But she doesn't know how to use a computer. So I needed something more physical like LEGOs and such.

What it does

You literally construct a program with physical blocks. You see your program live on an interface. And you can execute it and see what it does on the interface.

How we built it

We build the blocks using 3D printers and added logic inside with microchips which communicates by wifi with the interface.

The interface is developed in Javascript and uses Firebase Realtime Database and Hosting to communicate with the blocks. We also used the scratch-blocks library for a graphical representation of the blocks on the interface.

Challenges we ran into

24h is shooort. Also the communication between the blocks was tricky to implement.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have developed a project going through the large spectrum of computer craftmanship. From hardware to software.

What we learned

Sleeping is important! Don't hesitate to take a quick 4h sleep to be ready for the last sprint!

What's next for Blocky

One of our team member will continue this project through his association which teach people how to code.

References

Github: https://github.com/Errorname/hackbdx-2019/

Live interface: https://hackbordeaux-2019.firebaseapp.com/

Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xvQAQuLYk5JhYZZ9u39AFoA5hPpV367OFwIiq2wvykc/edit?usp=sharing

Built With

• 3d-printing
• c++
• esp8266
• firebase
• javascript