Book Image

Scratch Cookbook

By : Brandon Milonovich
Book Image

Scratch Cookbook

By: Brandon Milonovich

Overview of this book

Scratch 2.0 is an easy to use programming language that allows you to animate stories and create interactive games. Scratch also gives you the capability of using programming to calculate complicated calculations for you. Scratch Cookbook will lead you through easy-to-follow recipes that give you everything you need to become a more advanced programmer. Scratch Cookbook will take you through the essential features of Scratch. You'll then work through simple recipes to gain an understanding of the more advanced features of Scratch. You will learn how to create animations using Scratch. Sensory board integration (getting input from the outside environment) will also be covered, along with using Scratch to solve complicated and tedious calculations for you. You'll also learn how to work through the exciting process of project remixing where you build on the work of others. Scratch Cookbook will give you everything you need to get started with building your own programs in Scratch that involve sounds, animations, and user interaction.

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Scratch Cookbook
Brandon Milonovich
Jul, 2013 | 262 pages
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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Scratch Cookbook
Scratch Cookbook
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Getting Started with Scratch
Getting Started with Scratch
Introduction
Starting up Scratch
Deleting the default sprite
Adding a custom sprite
Adding a pre-made sprite
Changing the stage background
The Hello World project
2
Storytelling
Storytelling
Introduction
Adding words to a sprite
Adjusting the timing
Sprites interacting with other sprites
Basic broadcasting and receiving
Resetting parts of a program
Other fun graphic effects
3
Adding Animation
Adding Animation
Introduction
Changing sprite costumes
Switching backgrounds in a story
Adding graphic effects to backgrounds
Keyboard input to a program
Getting the mouse position
4
Basic Gaming
Basic Gaming
Introduction
Creating a moving object
Adding another ball
Object interaction with a background
User interaction with a game
Using mouse control
Keeping score
Objects disappearing
Building a maze
Using the timer
5
Spicing up Games
Spicing up Games
Introduction
Tracking the best score or time
Keeping a high score list
Adding more levels
6
Bringing in Sound
Bringing in Sound
Introduction
Playing sounds
Importing a new sound
Recording a sound
Playing drums and notes
Adjusting volume
Fading volume out
Changing the tempo
Interactive note playing
7
Integrating PicoBoards
Integrating PicoBoards
Introduction
Setting up the sensor board
Getting values from the sensor board
Working with the slider
Integrating the light sensor
Integrating the sound sensor
Measuring resistance
The sensor board button
Checking other connections
8
Programming to Calculate
Programming to Calculate
Introduction
Generating Fibonacci numbers
Sieve of Eratosthenes
Creating a password generator
Other Scratch calculations
9
Project Remixing
Project Remixing
Introduction
Importing parts of other projects
Drawing with the pen
Remixing the pen project
Collaboration
Collaboration
Introduction
The online Scratch community
Creating an account
Sharing projects
Sharing Scratch 1.4 projects
Downloading projects
Index
Index

Setting up the sensor board

Let's work through this recipe to get our sensor board set up.

Getting ready

The first step is physically setting up the PicoBoard, getting your computer set up to recognize it, and then setting up Scratch to know it is there. These are all things we are going to take care of in this recipe so that you are ready for the rest of the chapter to dive into using the sensor board.

How to do it...

Follow along these steps to get your PicoBoard ready to go. Do not connect the PicoBoard to the computer until you are instructed to do so in the following steps:

  1. Download the most up-to-date drivers for your board from http://picocricket.com/whichpicoboard.html.

  2. You'll be asked to determine if the board has a serial connection or USB. If you purchased your board from the link mentioned in the preceding step, it is most likely a USB connection. You can identify a USB connection as a slim, rectangular shaped plug on the computer end. A similar, but smaller, version of that plug will...

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