Introduction

Last week, we introduced Seeed Studio’s Wio Terminal and wrote a small program in C using the Arduino IDE. This week, we’ll replicate the same program in Python using ArduPy, Seeed’s version of MicroPython for the Wio Terminal and Seeeduino XIAO. In this article we’ll look at what’s involved in working with ArduPy along with some of its features and limitations.

The Koch Snowflake in ArduPy on the Wio Terminal

What is ArduPy?

ArduPy is an open source adaptation of MicroPython that uses the Arduino API to talk to the underlying device. The goal is to make adding MicroPython support easier for hardware manufacturers, so that if you develop Arduino support for your device, then you get MicroPython support for free. There are a large number of great microcontrollers out there and for board and system manufacturers, and the most time consuming part of getting a new board to market is developing the SDK. Further, great boards run the risk of failing in the market if the software support isn’t there. Similarly, a programmer buying a new board, really likes to be able to use familiar software and not to have to learn a whole new SDK and development system from scratch.

When you develop an Arduino program, you include the libraries used and the program then runs on the device. In the case of ArduPy, the Python runtime is the running Arduino program, but what libraries does it contain? Seeed developed a utility, aip, to rebuild the ArduPy runtime and include additional libraries. This lets you save memory by not including a bunch of libraries you aren’t using, but still have the ability to find and include the libraries you need.

The downside of ArduPy is that currently there isn’t Python IDE integration. As a partial workaround there is REPL support (Read Evaluate Print Loop), which lets you see the output of print statements and execute statements in isolation.

You need to flash the ArduPy runtime to the device, after that the device will boot with a shared drive that you can save a file boot.py that is run everytime the device boots, or main.py which is run every time it is saved.

Our Koch Snowflake Program Again

We described the Koch Snowflake last time and implemented it in C. The following is a Python program, where I took the C program and edited the syntax into shape for Python. I left in a print statement so we can see the output in REPL. The screenshot above shows the program running.

from machine import LCD
import math

lcd = LCD()                            # Initialize LCD and turn the backlight
lcd.fillScreen(lcd.color.BLACK)        # Fill the LCD screen with color black
lcd.setTextSize(2)                     # Setting font size to 2
lcd.setTextColor(lcd.color.GREEN)      # Setting test color to Green

turtleX = 0.0
turtleY = 0.0
turtleHeading = 0.0

DEG2RAD = 0.0174532925

level = 3
size = 200
turtleX = 320/8
turtleY = 240/4

def KochSnowflakeSide(level, size):
  print(“KochSnowFlakeSide ” + str(level) + ” ” + str(size))
  if level == 0:
      forward( size )
  else:
      KochSnowflakeSide( level-1, size / 3 )
      turn( 60 )
      KochSnowflakeSide( level-1, size / 3)
      turn( -120 )
      KochSnowflakeSide( level-1, size / 3)
      turn(60)
      KochSnowflakeSide( level-1, size / 3)

def forward(amount):
  global turtleX, turtleY

  newX = turtleX + math.cos(turtleHeading * DEG2RAD) * amount
  newY = turtleY + math.sin(turtleHeading * DEG2RAD) * amount
  lcd.drawLine(int(turtleX), int(turtleY), int(newX), int(newY), lcd.color.WHITE)
  turtleX = newX
  turtleY = newY

def turn(degrees):
  global turtleHeading
  turtleHeading += degrees

turn( 60 )
KochSnowflakeSide( level , size)
turn( -120 )
KochSnowflakeSide( level, size)
turn( -120 )
KochSnowflakeSide( level, size)
turn( 180 )

Developing and Debugging

Seeed’s instructions are good on how to set up a Wio Terminal for ArduPy, but die out a bit on how to actually develop programs for it. Fortunately, they have a good set of video tutorials that are necessary to watch. I didn’t see the tutorials until after I got my program working, and they would have saved me a fair bit of time.

I started by developing my program in a text editor and then saving it as main.py on the Wio. The program did nothing. I copied the program to Thonny, a Python IDE, which reported the most blatant syntax errors that I fixed. I started debugging by outputting strings to the Wio screen, which showed me how far the program ran before hitting an error. Repeating this, I got the program working. Then I found the video tutorials.

The key is to use REPL, which is accessed via a serial port simulated on the USB connection to your host computer. The tutorial recommended using putty, which I did from my Raspberry Pi. With this you can see the output from print statements and you can execute Python commands. Below is a screenshot of running the program with the included print statement.

I tried copy and pasting the entire Python program into putty/REPL, but copy/paste doesn’t work well in putty and it messes up all the indentation, which is crucial for any Python program. When I write my next ArduPy program, I’m going to find a better terminal program than putty, crucially, one where cut/paste works properly.

Using putty/REPL isn’t as good as debugging in a proper Python IDE, but I found I was able to get my work done, and after all we are programming a microcontroller here, not a full featured laptop.

Summary

ArduPy is an interesting take on MicroPython. The library support for the Wio Terminal is good and it does seem to work. Being able to use an IDE would be nice, but you can get by with REPL. Most people find learning Python easier than learning C, and I think this is a good fit for anyone approaching microcontrollers without any prior programming experience.