pihat-widget 1.4.1

Widgets for Python programming beginners

PIHAT Widgets

About

The purpose of this module is to provide a set of programmable visual gadgets designed to make learning programming more fun.

Rather than just creating data and displaying text on the screen you can create traffic light sequences or display number countdown sequences or even create your own color pixelated grid.

The module contains three gadgets

• LedMatrix
• TrafficLight
• LEDCharacter
• LEDMultiCharacter

Details

All control have to be called from within the scope of a main clause:

 def main():
       # Do something with a pihat control

if __name__ == "__main__":

    main()

Safely creating widgets

When you create a widget you should always call the close() method when you are complete otherwise the widget may continue to display on the screen.

light = TrafficLight()
light.set_state("100")
light.close()

Another way to do the same thing that will automatically close the widget would be to do this instead:

with TrafficLight() as light:
    light.set_state("100")

LedMatrix

Displays an LED grid of lights. The colour of each light can be controlled using an RGB tuple

if __name__ == "__main__":
    import pihat_widget as ph
    import time
    # Create the Matrix with 8 rows and columns at screen pos 5, 5 (x, y)
    matrix = ph.LEDMatrix(rows = 8, cols = 8, origin_x = 5, origin_y = 5)
    matrix.clear() # Clear all pixels
    red_color = 255, 0, 0 # RGB red
    black_color = 0, 0, 0 # RGB Black
    # Set the pixel at (x, y) pos 0, 0 the RGB color red
    matrix.set_pixel(x = 0, y = 0, color =  red_color)
    time.sleep(5) # Sleep for 5 seconds
    matrix.set_pixel(x = 0, y = 0, color =  black_color)
    matrix.set_pixel(x=0, y=1, color=red_color)
    time.sleep(3)
    matrix.close()```

set_pixel(x, y , color)

Sets the color of a pixel. color is an rgb tuple

set_pixels(matrix)

Pass a two dimensional array or rgb color tuples

For a 2 x 2 board the top left pixel would be yellow and the bottom right red. The other pixels would be black

matrix = [ [ (255,255,0), (0, 0, 0) ], [(0, 0, 0), (255,0,0)  ]]
board.set_pixels(matrix)

To simplify the tuple you could also code:

matrix = [ [ (255,255,0), 0 ], [0, 255]]
board.set_pixels(matrix)

set_pixels_color(matrix, color)

Pass a two dimensional array of bit flags and a color parameter.

For a 2 x 2 board the top left pixel would be yellow and the bottom right red. The other pixels would be black

matrix = [ [ 1, 0 ], [0, 1]]
board.set_pixels_color(matrix, (255,0, 0))

TrafficLight

if __name__ == "__main__":
    import pihat_widget as ph
    import time

    light = ph.TrafficLight()
    count =0
    while count<1:
        light.set_state("100")

        time.sleep(5)
        light.set_state("110")
        time.sleep(2.7)
        light.set_state("001")
        time.sleep(5)
        light.set_state("010")
        time.sleep(2.7)
        count+=1
    light.close()

LEDCharacter

Creates a single character segmented numeric display.

Set the number property to display the number

if __name__ == "__main__":
   import pihat_widget as ph
   import time

   c = ph.LEDCharacter(x = 150, y = 150)
   for i in range(10):
       c.Number = i
       time.sleep(0.5)
   time.sleep(3)
   c.close()

LEDMultiCharacter

Creates a multi character segmented numeric display.

Set the number property to display the number

if __name__ == "__main__":
   import pihat_widget as ph
   import time

   c = ph.LEDMultiCharacter(digits = 3, y=120)
   for i in range(105):
       c.Number =i
   c.close()