scratchClient Tutorials
When looking how to do physical computing with Scratch on Raspberry Pi, I found a great program called scratchClient. This program, created by Gerhard Hepp, can, among others, make a link between Scratch and the GPIO pins on Raspberry Pi or on a USB connected Arduino Uno or Nano.
So this is what I use since in my programming classes at IMC Weekendschool and Trudo Weekendschool in The Netherlands.
To let others also benefit more from scratchClient, I, Hans de Jong, made the installation and operation of the program easier, created some tutorials in English, German and Dutch and opened a Youtube channel about it.
This website gives an overview of that material and also explains the benefits I have experienced using scratchClient.
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Main benefit: program in real world logical names
Benefits of scratchClient
- Children can program in Scratch using real world logical names rather than technical terms
- Interface with the GPIO pins on Raspberry Pi
- Interface with the GPIO pins on a USB connected Arduino
- Interface with
- SPI and I2C connected peripherals
- MQTT
- Sonic Pi
- Sensehat
- Text to Speech
- Many more
Benefits of using Arduino
Why using an Arduino when Raspberry Pi also has GPIO pins? Here are the benefits:
- Arduino has analog in
- Arduino has HW pulse width modulation (PWM)
- Arduino GPIO pins are 5 volt tolerant
- Easier to make connections (+, - and signal next to each other)
- When misconnecting, blowing up an Arduino clone of 2 euro is less of an issue than a RPi of 40 euro
The Setup
Getting started / getting more information
Now that you got the overview, are you interested to take the next steps?
