Blog

Jun

20

2014

Announcing Full Tessel Support!

by Adrian Zankich

We are happy to announce full support for the Tessel JavaScript microcontroller! The Tessel is a new JavaScript powered microcontroller which runs your JavaScript programs directly on the board, so there's no need for an external PC to control the board. It features 4 build in LEDs, 1 button, and 5 banks of GPIO ports, i2c, spi and uart.

This picture of a Tessel & Cylon.js was taken from a Tessel using the Tessel Camera module, as controlled by Cylon.js itself. How meta!

Using Cylon.js on your Tessel gives you access to all of our existing GPIO and I2C driver support as well as the official Tessel Modules.

We currently support the following Modules:

• Accelerometer
• Ambient Light + Sound
• Audio
• Bluetooth Low Energy
• Camera
• Climate
• GPS
• Infrared
• Relay
• Servo

With more on the way!

Getting started with Cylon.js is as easy as:

• Follow the Tessel install instructions
• $ npm install -g cylon-cli
• $ cylon generate tessel my-tessel-project
• $ cd my-tessel-project
• $ npm install
• $ tessel run blink.js

The supplied blink.js example uses the one of the Tessel's built-in LEDs.

var Cylon = require('cylon');

Cylon.robot({
  connections: {
    tessel: { adaptor: 'tessel' }
  },

  devices: {
    led: { driver: 'led', pin: 1 }
  },

  work: function(my) {
    every((1).seconds(), function() {
      my.led.toggle()
    });
  }
}).start();

Now for an example with user interaction! Here's a button example using the built-in config button and a built-in LED. Copy this example into your my-tessel-project directory as button.js

var Cylon = require('cylon');

Cylon.robot({
  connections: {
    tessel: { name: 'tessel', adaptor: 'tessel' }
  },

  devices: [
    { name: 'led', driver: 'led', pin: 1 },
    { name: 'button', driver: 'button' }
  ],

  work: function(my) {
    my.button.on('push', function() {
      my.led.toggle();
    });
  }
}).start();

And run with $ tessel run button.js. When you press the config button, the light will toggle on and off, neat!

Now for something interesting. Here's an example using the built-in config button, a built-in LED and the camera-vc0706 Camera module! Copy this example into your my-tessel-project directory as camera.js

var Cylon = require('cylon');

Cylon.robot({
  connections: [
    { name: 'tessel', adaptor: 'tessel' },
    { name: 'tessel_A', adaptor: 'tessel', port: 'A' },
  ],
  devices: [
    { name: 'led', driver: 'led', pin: 1, connection: 'tessel' },
    { name: 'button', driver: 'button', connection: 'tessel' },
    { name: 'camera', driver: 'camera-vc0706', connection: 'tessel_A' },
  ],

  work: function(my) {
    my.camera.on('error', function (err) {
      console.log("Camera error: ", err);
    });

    my.camera.setCompression(0.4, function(err) {
      if (err) console.log("error setting compression: ", err);
    });

    my.button.on('push', function() {
      my.led.turnOn();
      my.camera.takePicture(function(err, image) {
        if (err) {
          console.log('error taking image', err);
        } else {
          // Name the image
          var name = 'picture-' + Math.floor(Date.now()*1000) + '.jpg';
          // Save the image
          console.log('Picture saving as', name, '...');
          process.sendfile(name, image);
        }
        my.led.turnOff();
      });
    });
  }
}).start();

This example will take a picture every time you press the config button while the indicator LED will tell you when it's finished!

You can run this example with $ tessel run camera.js --upload-dir .
The --upload-dir . tells the Tessel to save the pictures to your current directory.

Cylon.js makes developing your Tessel applications easy and fun! Be sure to checkout our examples for each Tessel module here. As well as the 18 other different hardware platforms currently supported in Cylon.js.