Chibitronics Love to Code: Chibi Scope & Alligator Clips
The Chibi Scope is the perfect companion to your Chibi Chip. It's a tiny
screen designed to help you understand what's going on inside your Chibi
Chip. It's an essential tool for educators, and for intermediate and
above coders. It packs three functions -- text, volts and wave -- into
one compact package. The Chibi Scope connects to your Chibi Chip using
the three included alligator clips; wire up +5V, GND, and TXT, and
you're ready to go.
Use the default "text" mode to help debug programs, display sensor
values, and create text-based interactions. With the press of a button,
the Chibi Scope goes into "volts" mode, showing the current input
voltage on the screen. Press the button again, and the Chibi Scope goes
into "wave" mode, displaying the shape of the voltage on its input pin
over time, similar to an oscilloscope.
The volts and wave mode were created expressly for educators who need
measurement tools to help explain what's going on: use the volts mode to
measure how full a battery is, or the voltage across different color
LEDs. And the wave mode was designed to help illustrate the mechanism
behind PWM (pulse width modulation), the trick used to implement fading
LEDs and other analogWrite() effects.
As the Chibi Scope will display any serial text at 9600 baud (9600-N-8-1
for the technically inclined), the Chibi Scope works with a wide range
of other systems, including Arduinos and Raspberry Pis. So even if you
already Love to Code, a Chibi Scope might still be a handy gadget to
have around in your lab or office!
Check out our code examples at https://ltc.chibitronics.com, under
Examples/3.Chibiscope, for ideas and documentation on how to print text
to the Chibi Scope.
