Overview

This is my first project using JavaScript to make a built-in LED blink every half-second on my Arduino MEGA. I followed along Chapter 1 in Kassandra Perchs’ book titled, Learning JavaScript Robotics (linked under Resources). The goals of this chapter were to:

  1. Explore JavaScript Robotics, NodeBots, and Johnny-Five
  2. Set up a development environment
  3. Blink an onboard LED

Setting Up Development Environment

Step One: Installed Node.JS (linked under Downloads)

Step Two: Created a project folder named “my-robotics-project”

Step Three: Installed Johnny-Five

Step Four: Connected Arduino MEGA and installed Firmata on the Arduino

Making the LED Blink

Step One: Downloading Atom and making a new file

I looked into a few different IDEs that I could try for writing the program. Ultimately I settled on using Atom (linked under downloads) since it seemed to be an easy to use environment and it was also free.

Step Two: Writing the Johnny-Five Script (taken from Perch’s book)

Step Three: Running the script

Step Four: Success!

Vocabulary Learned*

node-serialport: an NPM module that allows Node.JS to communicate with devices over a serial connection

NodeBot: any piece of hardware controlled using JavaScript and/or Node.JS

Microcontroller: a small computer that contains a processor, memory, and input/output. Acts as the “brains” of the project. Programs communicate with or load onto a microcontroller. (i.e. Arduino board)

Johnny-Five: an opensource robotics library for Node.JS. It’s built on top of node-serialport and allows the user to write JavaScript applications that communicate with microcontrollers

Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Spftware that acts as a text editor, debugger, and compiler

*definitions are paraphrased from Learning JavaScript Robotics and are not my own

Materials:

Arduino MEGA