Nanpy

Use your Arduino board with Python.

Description

The main purpose of Nanpy is making programmers' life easier, giving them something to create prototypes faster and use Arduino in a simpler way, thanks to a simple and powerful language like Python. Also Nanpy can run on RaspberryPi (tested with Raspbian http://www.raspbian.org/) so you can use it for communicating with Arduino :)

Let's start with a classic example, turn on a led placed in the 13th pin..

Arduino.pinMode(13, Arduino.OUTPUT)
Arduino.digitalWrite(13, Arduino.HIGH)

There are a lot of projects able to do that. Nanpy can do more! Nanpy is easily extensible and can theoretically use every library, allowing you to create how many objects you want. We started supporting OneWire, Lcd, Stepper and Servo library and they're still incomplete. Let's try to connect our 16x2 lcd screen on pins 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and print something!

lcd = Lcd([7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12], [16, 2])
lcd.printString("Hello World!")

really straightforward now, isn't it? :)

Multithreading

What happens if you call methods in an async context? Nothing bad, all works! every call is mutually exclusive.. For example, suppose that two threads need to write on the same Lcd and in different positions at the same time... well, just call printString on the Lcd object specifying the position (row and column)

#Thread_1
...
lcd.printString("Hello First Row!", 0, 0)
...

#Thread_2
....
lcd.printString("Hello Second Row!", 0, 1)
...

Dependencies

Python (2.2 or later)

python-distribute (http://pypi.python.org/pypi/distribute)
python-serial
edam's Arduino makefile (http://ed.am/dev/make/arduino-mk, included)

How to build and install

You need to build the firmware for your Arduino first, you can find it in the firmware directory:

cd firmware
export BOARD=uno (in case you use UNO board. Type 'make boards' for a complete list)
make

and then upload it on your board:

make upload

To install Nanpy just type (as root):

python setup.py install

How to use

Serial communication

Nanpy autodetects the serial port for you, anyway you can specify another serial port manually:

from nanpy import serial_manager
serial_manager.connect('/dev/ttyACM1')

Import modules

Import all the modules you need :)

from nanpy import Arduino
from nanpy import (OneWire, Lcd)
...

How to contribute

Nanpy needs a lot of work to be a great instrument. You can contribute with patches (bugfixing, writing improvements, creating support for a new library not included in Nanpy yet, writing examples and so on), writing documentation, reporting bugs, creating packages or simply spreading Nanpy through the web if you like it :) If you have any doubt or problem, please contact me at stagi.andrea@gmail.com

Donate

Do you want to support us with a coffee? We need it to code all night long! if you like this project and you want to support it with some cents, please donate :) https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=TDTPP5JHVJK8J

russb78 / nanpy