Creating an Instructable for AT Studio

This Instructable provides guidance on how to create an Instructable for documenting your AT Studio project.

Cardboard Carpentry

1. Pictures of each step and final product
2. Drawings

Arduino/Electronics

1. Diagram of circuit
2. Pictures of circuit
3. Video of circuit in action
4. List of electronic components
5. Arduino source code

MIT AppInventor

1. Picture of app (from device or emulator)
2. Video of app (from device or emulator)
3. Picture of code blocks (if it's not too complex)

Tinkercad

1. Picture of design
2. Video of 3D view
3. Project file exported from Tinkercad (.stl file)

For the Arduino component of your project, you want to document the circuit, the code and the overall component. In this step we talk about sharing the circuit design.

I'm assuming (hoping?) you can use Tinkercad to design and test your circuit before building it for real. The Tinkercad Circuits simulator has some limitations, however, so that may not be possible.

For the circuit, you'll need:

• A drawing of the circuit
• A list of the components

Other things that are nice to have:

• A link to a Tinkercad project for the circuit
• A video of a Tinkercad simulation of the circuit

Here is an example of a shared Arduino circuit. I've provided a picture of the circuit, the list of components and a simulation of the circuit in action.

Here's a link to the Tinkercad Circuits project.

In the text, you would want to include any instructions needed to complete the circuit.

In addition to the electronics part of your Arduino project, you will need to share the source code that runs on the Arduino. You will need to upload the .ino (source code) to your Instructable.

If your code is not too long, you should also incorporate your code directly into the Instructable. Here is an Instructable all about including code in an Instructable.

You may want to break up your code with some explanatory text.

void getMusicFiles(File dir) {<br>   // As long as we haven't filled up our list of songs...
   while(songCount < SONG_LIMIT) {
     // Get the next file
     File entry =  dir.openNextFile();
     // If there are no more files, then we're done
     if (! entry) break;
     // Is this a playable file?
     if (isPlayable(entry.name())) {
       // Add filename to list of songs
       strcpy(songFiles[songCount],entry.name());
       songCount++;
     }
     // Close the file
     entry.close();
   }
}

Like this.

boolean isPlayable(char track[]) {<br>  // Check to see if a filename has a "playable" extension.
  // This is to keep the VS1053 from locking up if it is sent
  // unplayable data.

  char *extension;

  // Ignore directory names
  if (track[0] == '.' || track[0] == '_') return false;

  // Find the first dot
  extension = strrchr(track,'.');
  extension++;

  // Is this a file that we can play?
  if (
    (strcasecmp(extension,"MP3") == 0) ||
    (strcasecmp(extension,"WAV") == 0) ||
    (strcasecmp(extension,"MID") == 0) ||
    (strcasecmp(extension,"MP4") == 0) ||
    (strcasecmp(extension,"WMA") == 0) ||
    (strcasecmp(extension,"FLA") == 0) ||
    (strcasecmp(extension,"OGG") == 0) ||
    (strcasecmp(extension,"AAC") == 0)
  )
    return true;
  else
    return false;
}

Here is some Arduino code.

// These are the pins used for the music maker shield
#define SHIELD_RESET  -1      // VS1053 reset pin (unused!)
#define SHIELD_CS     7      // VS1053 chip select pin (output)
#define SHIELD_DCS    6      // VS1053 Data/command select pin (output)

// These are common pins between breakout and shield
#define CARDCS 4     

// Card chip select pin
// DREQ should be an Int pin, see  http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/attachInterrupt
#define DREQ 3       // VS1053 Data request, ideally an Interrupt pin

Adafruit_VS1053_FilePlayer musicPlayer = 
  // create shield-example object!
  Adafruit_VS1053_FilePlayer(SHIELD_RESET, SHIELD_CS, SHIELD_DCS, DREQ, CARDCS);

For a Tinkercad design, you want to share:

• A link to the Tinkercad project
• A copy of the .stl file

If you are feeling ambitious, you can also include a video of a 3D rotation of the design.

In the text, you should include a description of the design. If you modified the design from someone else, you should include a link to that design, too.

In this example, I've uploaded a picture of the design along with a YouTube video showing a 3D rotation. I've also added in the .stl file.

Here's a link to the Tinkercad project.

At a minimum, you will need a picture of your app running. The picture may be:

• a screen capture from a device running your app
• a screen capture from the emulator running on your computer
• a picture of the screen of a device running your app

If you are more ambitious, you can include a video of your app.

You should also include a description of what your app does.

If the code for your app doesn't consist of too many AppInventor blocks, you can include a picture of the blocks. If you have a lot of blocks, you can split the program into multiple pictures.

Instructables will not allow you to upload your code, either as an AppInventor project (.aia) or as a zip file. The only way I've found to share your source code is to put your .aia file on a web drive (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox) and create a link to the file within your text.

I've included a short video of my app in action and a picture of some of the code blocks.

Here is a link to the AppInventor project on Google Drive.