Node Boats!

This was a hack day at JSConf 2014. Our team was comprised of:

Matthew Drooker
Brian O'Neil
James Young
Matt Crutchfield

The goals of our team were to create a node powered boat, race it across a pool, and win. We successfully accomplished all three goals.

Requirements and Setup

A current version of nodejs. We were using 0.10.28.
A Spark Core.
Materials to build a boat.

$ npm install
$ npm start

The Frontend

You can view the AngularJS frontend app at http://localhost:3000. The angular app makes calls to the backend API, which in turn calls a spark.io API that in turn controls the Spark Core. (I glossed over some of the fine details there).

The Backend and the API

The backend is an ExpressJS server.

/api/v1/motorspeed/[value] - Takes a value between -255 and 255. Postive values go forward, negative values go backward. 0 is a full stop.
/api/v1/angle/[value] - Turns the rudder a specific angle. Currently accepts values between 0 and 175. It should be adjusted to be more like 67 and 113. 90 is going in a straight line.

API Examples

http://localhost:3000/api/v1/motorspeed/100 - Moving forward at a little under half power.
http://localhost:3000/api/v1/angle/67 - Turning left.

How to flash your Spark Core

This assumes you already have your Spark Core setup and connected on a wireless network.

$ npm install --global spark-cli
$ spark flash [deviceId] node-boats.ino