Nanpy

Use your Arduino board with Python.

Overview

Nanpy is a library that use your Arduino as a slave, controlled by a master device where you run your scripts, such as a PC, a Raspberry Pi etc. The main purpose of Nanpy is making programmers' life easier, providing them a powerful library to create prototypes faster and make Arduino programming a game for kids.

a = ArduinoApi()
a.pinMode(13, a.OUTPUT)
a.digitalWrite(13, a.HIGH)

I know, there are a lot of projects able to do that, but hey, Nanpy can do more! Nanpy is easily extensible and can theoretically use every library, allowing you to create how many objects you want. We support OneWire, Lcd, Stepper, Servo, DallasTemperature and many more... Let's try to connect our 16x2 lcd screen on pins 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and show your first "Hello world"!

from nanpy import Lcd

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

really straightforward now, isn't it? :)

Serial communication

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

from nanpy import SerialManager
connection = SerialManager(device='/dev/ttyACM1')

and use it with your objects

a = ArduinoApi(connection=connection)
a.pinMode(13, a.OUTPUT)
a.digitalWrite(13, a.HIGH)

You can specify how many SerialManager objects you want and control more than one Arduino board within the same script.

How to build and install

First of all, you need to build the firmware and upload it on your Arduino, to do that clone the nanpy-firmware repository on Github or download it from PyPi.

git clone git@github.com:nanpy/nanpy-firmware.git
cd nanpy-firmware
./configure.sh

You can now edit Nanpy/cfg.h generated file to configure your Nanpy firmware, selecting the features you want to include and the baud rate. To build and install Nanpy firmware, copy Nanpy directory under your "sketchbook" directory, start your Arduino IDE, open Sketchbook -> Nanpy and click on "Upload".

To install Nanpy Python library on your master device just type:

pip install nanpy

How to contribute

Nanpy still needs a lot of work. You can contribute with patches (bugfixing, improvements, adding 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

Do you want to support us with a coffee? We need a lot of caffeine to code all night long! if you like this project and you want to support us, please donate using Paypal

How to extend Nanpy

First of all create some boilerplate code starting with Python. Suppose you want initially support two methods of the Centpiede library

void portWrite(int port, int value);
int portRead(int port);

You can create your centipede.py module and put it in nanpy/

from nanpy.arduinoboard import ArduinoObject
from nanpy.arduinoboard import (arduinoobjectmethod, returns)

class Centipede(ArduinoObject):

    def __init__(self, your_parameters connection=None):
        ArduinoObject.__init__(self, connection=connection)
        self.id = self.call('new', your_parameters)

    @arduinoobjectmethod
    def portWrite(self, port, value):
        pass

    @returns(int)
    @arduinoobjectmethod
    def portRead(self, port):
        pass

After that you can include this module in the init.py to make it available in Nanpy (nanpy/init.py https://github.com/nanpy/nanpy/blob/master/nanpy/init.py)

from nanpy.centipede import Centipede

You're done with Python :) Let's see how to add the firmware part (https://github.com/nanpy/nanpy-firmware)

First of all modify sample.cfg adding

#define USE_Centipede                                   1

or do it directly on your cfg.h file :)

You need to create CentipedeClass.h and CentipedeClass.cpp

In CentipedeClass.h you need

#ifndef CENTIPEDE_CLASS
#define CENTIPEDE_CLASS

#include "BaseClass.h"
#include "MethodDescriptor.h"

class Centipede;

namespace nanpy {
    class CentipedeClass: public ObjectsManager<Centipede> {
        public:
            void elaborate( nanpy::MethodDescriptor* m );
            const char* get_firmware_id();
    };
}

#endif

And in Centipede.cpp

#include "cfg.h"

#if USE_Centipede

#include <Arduino.h>
#include <Centipede.h> //!!!Your real Centipede Library!!!!
#include "CentipedeClass.h"
#include <stdlib.h>

const char* nanpy::CentipedeClass::get_firmware_id()
{
    return "Centipede";
}

void nanpy::CentipedeClass::elaborate( MethodDescriptor* m ) {
    ObjectsManager<Centipede>::elaborate(m);

    if (strcmp(m->getName(),"new") == 0) {
        Centipede* cent;
        cent = new Centipede (m->getInt(0), m->getInt(1), m->getInt(2));
        cent->begin();
        v.insert(cent);
        m->returns(v.getLastIndex());
    }

    if (strcmp(m->getName(), "portWrite") == 0) {
        m->returns(v[m->getObjectId()]->portWrite(m->getInt(0), m->getInt(1)));
    }

    if (strcmp(m->getName(), "portRead") == 0) {
        m->returns(v[m->getObjectId()]->portRead(m->getInt(0)));
    }
};

#endif

Finally you need to register your class in the main loop! Open Nanpy.ino file and add