sphero

Build Status

DESCRIPTION:

A ruby gem for controlling your Sphero ball. Sends commands over the TTY provided by the bluetooth connection.

FEATURES/PROBLEMS:

  • You need a Sphero

SYNOPSIS:

You can easily start your Sphero and send it commands like this:

Sphero.start '/dev/tty.Sphero-YBW-RN-SPP' do
    roll 60, FORWARD
    keep_going 3

    roll 60, RIGHT
    keep_going 3

    roll 60, BACKWARD
    keep_going 3

    roll 60, LEFT
    keep_going 3

    stop
end

Here is another example:

Sphero.start "/dev/tty.Sphero-PRG-RN-SPP" do
    ping

    # Roll 0 degrees, speed 125
    roll(125, 0)

    # Turn 360 degrees, 30 degrees at a time
    0.step(360, 30) { |h|
    h = 0 if h == 360

        # Set the heading to h degrees
        heading = h
        keep_going 1
    }

    keep_going 1
    stop
end

Here is a another way to do the same thing as the previos example, via just normal method calls instead of the DSL:

s = Sphero.new "/dev/tty.Sphero-PRG-RN-SPP"
s.ping

# Roll 0 degrees, speed 125
s.roll(125, 0)

# Turn 360 degrees, 30 degrees at a time
0.step(360, 30) { |h|
  h = 0 if h == 360

  # Set the heading to h degrees
  s.heading = h
  sleep 1
}
sleep 1
s.stop

Pairing sphero with ubuntu

Add your user to the dialout group

$ sudo usermod -a -G dialout <user>

Then logout or restart your computer. Once your user is logged back in, pair the sphero with the ubuntu bluetooth manager.

Once paired, you may now bind your sphero to a rfcomm port

$ sudo hcitool scan 
Scanning ...
<address>       Sphero
$ sudo rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 <address> 1

You may now access the sphero from /dev/rfcomm0

REQUIREMENTS:

  • A Sphero ball connected to your computer
  • Supports MRI 1.9.2/1.9.3 and Rubinius 2.0rc1 for sure...

INSTALL:

  • gem install sphero

LICENSE:

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2012 Aaron Patterson Copyright (c) 2012-2013 The Hybrid Group

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.