A4S (Arduino For Scratch)

A4S is an experimental extension for Scratch 2 that allows it to communicate with Arduino boards using Firmata. It consists of a Java server that Scratch connects to over HTTP and which communicates with an Arduino board over (USB) serial. A4S is being developed by David Mellis, based on documentation and code from the Scratch team. For updates, see: https://github.com/damellis/A4S/

This extension has been superseded by the new ScratchX.org site and extension system. See the Arduino extension for ScratchX.org.

Prerequisites

Ubuntu

Install the librxtx-java library : sudo apt-get install librxtx-java.

Instructions

1. Install the Scratch 2 offline editor.

2. Install the Arduino software. Instructions: Windows, Mac OS X.

3. Upload the StandardFirmata firmware to your Arduino board. (It's in "Examples > Firmata".)

4. Download the A4S code from GitHub and unzip it.

5. Launch the A4S server using the "run.sh" script on the command line. Pass the name of the serial port corresponding to your Arduino board as the first argument to the script, e.g. "./run.sh /dev/tty.usbmodem411". You should see a message like:

    Stable Library
    =========================================
    Native lib Version = RXTX-2.1-7
    Java lib Version   = RXTX-2.1-7
    HTTPExtensionExample helper app started on Mellis.local/18.189.9.217
   

6. Run the Scratch 2 offline editor.

7. While holding the shift key on your keyboard, click on the "File" menu in Scratch. You should see "Import Experimental Extension" at the bottom of the menu. Click on it.

8. Navigate to the directory containing A4S and select the A4S.s2e file.

9. You should see the A4S extension and blocks appear in the "More Blocks" category in the Scratch editor. If the A4S server is running, there will be a green dot next to the "A4S" title.