Connecting MIT Scratch and Asuro
================================

MIT Scratch is able to connect to various sensor boards and can also
control some Lego WeeDo devices. There are lots of commercial and
'libre' sensor boards available including the Arduino. However. I was
dreaming of connecting the wonderful world of Scratch to Asuro. Here are
some pointers how this can be achieved.

Remote Sensor Connections 
-------------------------

Since Scratch v1.3 you can send internal broadcasts (using the send x to
y block) to port 42001 on localhost. A server (or just netcat) can
listen there act act upon the packages. 

Write a simple Scratch programm the sends a broadcast on mouse click or
similar. Then run 'nc localhost 42001' and you should see the
communication.

The Remote Sensor Protocol is described along the following links:

http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Remote_Sensor_Connections
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=9458 - Remote Sensor Connections in v1.3 

Asuro USB IR Transceiver
------------------------

The USB IR Transceiver uses the FTDI Chip. You can download and install
the driver from http://ftdichip.com./FTDrivers.htm

The driver comes in two flavours: Virtual Com Port (VCP) or the newer
"direct access" driver (D2XX). AsuroScratcher needs the COM Port but the
newest Asuro Flash Tool needs the D2XX drivers. Luckily the release
notes of the D2XX driver says:

	FTDI CDM Drivers 2.08.14 - Revision Comments 

	FTDI's CDM drivers provide both D2XX and VCP functionality through a
	single driver package on PCs running the following Windows operating
	systems:
	- Windows Server 2008 R2
	- Windows 7
	- Windows 7 x64
	- Windows Server 2008
	- Windows Server 2008 x64
	- Windows Vista
	- Windows Vista x64 
	- Windows Server 2003
	- Windows Server 2003 x64
	- Windows XP
	- Windows XP x64

So after installing the driver and plugging in the Transceiver you
should see an additional COM port on your system.

Turtle interpreter
------------------

I know three Turtle interpreters written for Asuro. One was written by
Wolfgang Rossner
(http://home.arcor.de/Wolfgang.Rossner/roboter/asuro/asuro.html) and two
others are written by Henk Van Winkoop: 
DrivingAsuro1.0 and DrivingAsuro1.1, both can be found here:
http://home.kpn.nl/h.van.winkoop/Asuro/Software/AsuSfwPagFrm.htm

The CommandSequencer will assemble turtle command strings for the
DrivingAsuro1.1 version. You can flash the DrivingAsuro1.1.hex
unmodified to Asuro.

Turtle sequencer
----------------
Load CommandSequencerV1.5.sb into Scratch. Remote Sensor Connections
should be activated on start. If not, got to the "sensing" tab, right
mouse click on one of the sensor blocks ('Sensor pressed' or 'Sensor value')
and activate the Remote Sensor Connections.

AsuroScratcher
--------------
AsuroScratcher will receive the Turtle commands (or anything else
that is sent to port 42001, the Scratch Remote Sensors Port) and
forwards the command string to the COM port with the attached Asuro USB
IR Transceiver. If you hold the Transceiver over Asuro he will execute
the turtle commands.

AsuroScratcher is written in Python. Python for Windows can be downloaded here:
http://www.activestate.com/activepython

Now you can run the asuro.py. Maybe you have to change the COM port
number in asuro.py.

In a linux environment you may want to use asuro.sh 
It has two functions to connect to a socket. Bash built-in
/dev/tcp/$HOST/$PORT or nc with a fifo.