Installation

Setting up CodeBug

In order to use CodeBug with codebug_i2c_tether you need to program CodeBug with codebug_i2c_tether.cbg (download).

To do this, hold down button A and plug in CodeBug via USB — it should appear as a USB drive — then copy the codebug_i2c_tether.cbg file onto it. CodeBug is now ready to be used via serial USB. Press button B to exit programming mode.

Note

When CodeBug is connected to a computer via USB is should now appear as a serial device. To reprogram CodeBug: hold down button A and (re)plug it into a USB port.

Unplug CodeBug, remove the battery (if one is inserted) and then plug CodeBug’s extension header into the I2C GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi. These are the left-most inner row GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi with CodeBug facing in.

Here is a diagram of this configuration:

+-------------------------------------------------------+
| oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo <- GPIO pins |
| XXXXXXoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo              |
|    ^                                                  |
|    |                                                  |
| CodeBug                                               |
|                                                       |
|                                                       |
|                             RPi                       |
|                                                       |
|                                                       |
|                                                       |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

And here is a picture of the same thing:

Install codebug_i2c_tether on a Raspberry Pi

First, make sure you have enabled I2C by running:

sudo raspi-config

and then navigating to:

Advanced Options > Would you like the I2C interface to be enabled? > Yes
Would you like the I2C kernel module to be loaded by default? > Yes

Then reboot.

Install Python

Python should already be installed but for good measure:

sudo apt-get install python3

To install pip, securely download get-pip.py.

Then run the following:

sudo python3 get-pip.py

Install codebug_i2c_tether

To install codebug_i2c_tether, open up a terminal and type:

pip3 install codebug_i2c_tether

To test it has worked, plug in CodeBug and open a Python shell by typing:

python3

Your command prompt should have changed to:

>>> _

Now type:

>>> import codebug_i2c_tether
>>> with codebug_i2c_tether.CodeBug() as codebug:
...     codebug.set_pixel(2, 2, 1)
...

The middle pixel on your CodeBug should light up.

See Examples for more ways to use codebug_i2c_tether.