How to Connect Multiple Quarky Robots using PictoBlox | Quarky Connect Tutorial

Duration: 16:56 2617 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

The video introduces Quarky Connect, a new feature within PictoBlox that allows users to link multiple Quarky robots together, ranging from two up to twenty units, to create advanced collaborative projects. The core logic of this system relies on designating one robot as the "Master" and the others as "Peers," where the Master sends commands and the Peers execute them simultaneously. To begin using this feature, users must ensure they have the latest version of PictoBlox installed and update their Quarky firmware via a serial connection before establishing a Bluetooth link between the Master and the Peers. Setting up the connection involves specific coding steps within the Quarky Connect extension, starting with initializing the system and adding each Peer by its unique ID number. A critical distinction is made between the operating modes: the Master can function in both Stage mode for testing and Upload mode for deployment, whereas Peers must always be coded and uploaded in Upload mode to receive commands correctly. The code for the Peers requires placing a "Receive Commands" block inside a "Forever" loop to ensure continuous listening, while the Master's code is uploaded sequentially to each Peer via USB cable before the system can run successfully. Once the hardware is connected and the initial code is uploaded, the tutorial demonstrates creating a synchronized LED animation where eight Peers display a green leaf pattern followed by red, controlled by a button press on the Master. The video highlights an important optimization technique for managing complex projects with many robots: instead of writing repetitive code blocks for each Peer individually, users can create a custom function to add all pairs at once, keeping the main script clean and efficient. Furthermore, the default behavior sends messages only to specific numbers, but the code can be easily modified to target "All" Peers simultaneously for synchronized actions across the entire network. Beyond simple animations, the video showcases the versatility of Quarky Connect by demonstrating its use in controlling a DIY joystick car, playing Robo Soccer on a custom console, and racing go-karts. The presenter emphasizes that the Master robot can send and receive data up to 40 times per second, enabling fast-paced multiplayer games like "Fastest Finger First" or "Pac-Man." The tutorial concludes by encouraging viewers to explore endless possibilities, such as synchronizing tasks across robots or assigning different functions to each unit, and suggests a fun challenge project involving sensors to create an automatic street light that turns on when it gets dark.

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[music] >> Wow, what was all that? Multiple quirkies working together? You mean like multi-connect? Something like this. Or like this. Interesting, isn't it? Now one quirky can talk to the other. >> [music] >> Hey baby quirky, how are you? Hi master quirky, I'm good. Let's start the video without waiting any more. Oh yes. Hey hey everyone, this is Avni and I would like to introduce you a brand new feature of quirky called quirky connect. With this feature, now you can connect multiple quirkies together like two, four, 10 or even 20 [music] and build some really advanced project. I'm sure you're very excited. So without waiting any more, let me show you how to use this feature by making this beautiful LED animation. The fundamental [music] logic behind quirky connect is that you choose one quirky as a master and others as a peers up to 20. Master gives the command and peers follows the action. So now we will discuss how to get started with quirky connect. But more technical details I will give you a little later. Make sure you have the latest version of pictoblocks installed 9.1.0 or you can click on link given below in description to install the same. Note, for all of you who have old firmware, do upload the latest firmware like this. Connect it serially [music] first. And then click on this upload firmware button. Once the firmware upload is done, connect your master quirky to pictoblocks via Bluetooth. Click on extension [music] and choose quirky connect extension. So first, let's understand what >> [music] >> each block are doing in this quirky connect extension. So first we will always choose [music] a initialize quirky connect block for pair or for master when we are coding. It is very important. After that, I can [music] add a pair like this. And let's choose one pair quirky. So the number of this quirky is D91A. Same I'm going to type over here. D91A. [music] If I want to add one more, same way I will add add pair, [music] add pair. The second one is 24FA. 24FA. [music] And make it as quirky two. Same way, let's do the third one which is 55BE and make it as third. Now if I try to run this block, nothing is [music] happening on the pair quirkies and you can see the red light coming over here. Now the reason is we have not [music] coded yet for the pair quirkies and we have to always upload the code [music] on pair quirky, remember that. So let's code for pair quirkies. >> [music] >> Again for pair quirky also, initialize quirky connect block and we have to put this receive commands from block. [music] But as you can see, it is inactive. The reason is pair blocks only work in the upload mode. So let's go to upload mode. And now if I go to quirky connect, I can [music] add this receive command from. So here this block is saying that we can receive the command [music] from the master. So what is the master number? E5 [music] A2. So now remember, you have to always put this block inside the forever. Now the reason is pretty simple because we want [music] all the pair quirkies to keep receiving the commands from the master quirky. If you don't put forever, it may just work once. All right. [music] Now once this is done, I will again click on this block [music] of master. But still see it doesn't work because I have not uploaded the code. You can connect the USB cable and upload the code in each pair quirky. >> [music] >> So for that, I need to get this block also when quirky [music] starts up. Then I will connect my each quirky one by one serially and upload the code in that. Now once the code is uploaded, now let's check if it works, [music] right? So for that, you need to again connect the master quirky via Bluetooth. Now I [music] will click on this master block and let's check. So as you can see, it works [music] because you can see a green tick in the LED of all the pair quirkies. And on the [music] master, what is the indication? You can see yellow LED for the number of pairs connected. [music] There are three pairs connected, so you can see three pair yellow LEDs. Good to know. Remember this that master quirky works in stage [music] mode and also in upload mode. It can work via Bluetooth and also via serial connection. But remember [music] this, pair quirkies will only and only work in upload mode and you have to upload code on all the pair quirkies. Now I hope you're familiar with all the blocks of quirky connect. So without waiting any more, let's start [music] the activity of this beautiful LED animation. So let's connect the master quirky via Bluetooth. >> [music] >> Now the first block which I will put is initialize quirky connect [music] and after that, I need to add pairs. So for this flower pattern activity, I'm going to use eight pair quirkies. So let me put eight of [music] them. Now the first one is D91A. Let's put that. D91A. Second one is 55BE. Now I will change the quirky numbers accordingly. I'm going to make this one as number two. This one as number three. This one [music] as number four. Right? Now first we will code and see only for the first quirky how it's working and rest of them will do a little later. So I'm just keeping it separate for now. [music] All right. Now what do I want to do is I want each pair to display a green leaf pattern on this matrix and then go off and then come on again with the red [music] color. Same pattern needs to be repeated 10 times. So what I'm going to do is >> [music] >> I'm going to put a forever block and then I'm going to put if block in this. I want to give it a trigger that when I press the L button on my master quirky, then it starts flashing the leaf pattern. So I'm going to put is L button pressed. Let me put this little [music] on the side. Okay. If the L button is pressed, what do I want to do? I want to display a matrix. So I will not use this display because this is for master. I will go in quirky connect and I will choose the block of this matrix, okay? So I'm going to choose, let's say this one. And I'm going to make this as a leaf pattern. Let me just [music] clear all of them and choose a green color and then maybe make a leaf. [music] So the leaf would look something like this, right? Let me make it okay. After wait few seconds, let's say wait 0.3 seconds or 5 seconds, up to you. I want this light to go off. So and then display the red light. So to go off, I'm going to put a clear screen block. >> [music] >> Now in this, I can actually choose that I want to send this message to all of them or to number one, number two, number three. So right now I'm going to code only for the number one which is D91A. So I'm going to choose >> [music] >> number one, clear screen for the number one quirky and display matrix for the number one quirky. And now again, I'll put this block and I'm going to make it red. Okay, so now it is red. I'm going to put wait again and display red. And again, I'm going to clear it before the green one >> [music] >> comes. Wait 0.3 seconds in between. All right. But now I also want [music] that master quirky should also display something like a circle in between. So now for the master quirky, I will use this display block and I will say display matrix as I'm going to clear it and >> [music] >> as a circle. And then it will clear the screen when my pair quirky is clearing the screens. At the same time master quirky, I also want to clear the screen. >> [music] >> And at the same time, again I want to display a similar pattern. I'm going to duplicate [music] this. Not the entire thing. I'll put this here and will change the color to let's say blue. Okay, and then again clear the screen. [music] Looks good, right? Now we can run and test this. >> [music] >> But very important, we haven't coded for the pair quirky yet. So let's do code for the pair quirky. >> [music] >> So again, I'll go in quirky connect extension. The first block always needs to be initialize quirky connect and I need to put a block for receiving the command. As you know, this will not work in the stage mode, so I need to go to upload mode. So now, while I'm in the upload mode, now I can use this receive commands block. So I want to receive the command for pair [music] from master Quirky with the name as E F A 2. You remember that? That we need to always put this block in a forever. So let's put a forever block. Works. Now I need to upload the code, so I need to go in Quirky and get this block when this Quirky starts up. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to connect this pair Quirky, the number one pair Quirky by USB, because when you want to upload the code, you know that that we need to connect serially. [music] And now, we can click on upload code. You can see Python script has been uploaded to the board. So we can test if it works for the first Quirky. So now, let's connect the master Quirky again by Bluetooth. Okay, I'm going to turn this Quirky on. And now, let's see. I'm going to switch on the code of master Quirky, so I'm going to click over here. It is connected. Yes, if [music] the L button is pressed, then the pattern will start. So I'm going to press the L button. Now, as you can see, it is only doing it once. I want it to repeat it at least 10 times. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put this entire in a repeat block. This entire [music] if condition. Let's say not the end if condition, the display part. I'm going to put it in the repeat 10 times. I'm going to put another if condition in this. Is R button pressed? If the R button is pressed, what do I need to do? I want to I will clear screen. And let me also put one more wait block [music] in the end. Wait 0.3 seconds. So that the time is equally distributed. [music] Let's check again. I'm going to run this block. >> [music] >> Okay, connected. Beautiful. >> [music] >> One by one, you can start uploading code on all the eight pairs. [music] Connected serially. >> [music] >> Upload the code. Repeat the same thing. Now, once all the code is uploaded, >> [music] >> do you see we need to do some changes in our code of master Quirky? Right? What is the change? I need to add all these pairs now over here. So if I put this down and add all these pairs, so can you see the code has become too long. It's a little difficult for me to manage, right? So what I can also do is I will put this entire initialize [music] Quirky or the add pair block in a maybe function. So what I will do is I will go to stage [music] mode. Okay, so now what I will do is connect this master Quirky again. [music] And I will create a block as a function to add all these pairs, so that my code is not such long code, right? I'm going to go to my blocks, create a block, and maybe name it as add pairs actually. >> [music] >> And I will remove this >> [music] >> forever. And maybe put this one little here. >> [music] >> And this one here. So what did I do? I just created a function to add all the pairs. >> [music] >> And now I'll just put this add pairs block over here. So immediately, whenever this function is getting called, all these blocks are getting executed. Right? So I'm going to put this a little over here, so it's little clean. So let me create a flower pattern with all the eight Quirkys. Okay, now moment of truth. Let's see if it is working. I'm going to click on this master blocks. Yes, as you can see, all are connected. You can see the green tick on all of them. And you can see the eight LED coming on over here. Now, if I press the L button, then it will start the pattern. >> [music] >> But, now can you see it is only coming on the first Quirky. Why? >> [music] >> Because we did not change this over here. So what we'll do is let's stop the code. And [music] we will change this to all, which means I can send the message to individual Quirky, or I could also send the message at the same time to all the Quirkys. So all over here. Again, [music] all also over over here. Clear screen also for the all >> [music] >> pairs. Same way over here as well. Same thing we'll do over here, too. Let's initialize it again. Let's check. >> [music] >> Can you see such a beautiful flower pattern is coming on? >> [music] >> Wow, this was pretty interesting, right? >> [music] >> Fun fact, you know the master Quirky sends and receives data up to 40 times per second. So you know, it's really fast. Now, let me show you the most fun part. I made this one master Quirky as this DIY joystick using a cardboard and a joystick module. Using which I can control this Quirky car like this. Or use this Quirky console which we built to play Robo Soccer. And also to race in go-karting like this. Wow, thrilling, isn't it? One of my favorite game with Quirky Connect was this fastest finger first. I literally enjoyed with kids a lot. Or this Pac-Man one. And this fruit chase, too. Multiplayer games are really fun and exciting. The possibilities are endless. Like you can make them perform a similar task in a sync like this. Or give them different functions like this. Now it's your turn to go really crazy with your innovations using Quirky Connect. To help you with that, I have a fun activity for you. Try using ultrasonic or LDR sensor to create some exciting project. But do let me know in the comments below what you built. I have a hint for you. You can make something like sensor-based street [music] light, which will come on when it's dark and go off in the morning. I hope you enjoyed today's video, [music] but do follow us and subscribe for the next update. Till then, happy learning.