Along with the launch of Edison V2.0 we are also super excited to announce EdPy www.edpyapp.com. EdPy is a free online app for programming Edison in the Python programming language.
Text based programming for Edison has been one of the most frequently requested features from teachers. When we looked at our programming language options, we couldn’t go past Python. It’s easy to learn, has high readability and is very popular. The popularity of Python can’t be underestimated. Python is now the most popular introductory teaching language at top U.S. universities and is used by the world’s largest tech companies such as Google, Dropbox and Netflix.
With Python, students are learning a real-life programming language, and they can apply what they learn as part of a professional career. So, for us, choosing Python was a no brainer.
But we didn’t want to just release an average programming environment. We wanted something more, something that made a real difference to how quickly students could pick up and learn to code in Python. To achieve this EdPy has a number of features that help students quickly become familiar with Python and text-based programming.
Line help
Place the cursor over a line of code and an English interpretation appears in the bottom right of the screen.
Autocomplete
Start typing a function and matching options start to appear. A complete function can be selected from the dropdown list, free from spelling errors. EdPy’s autocomplete feature also adds descriptions for the parameters that need to be completed. For example:
Students can then just type over the parameter names direction, speed and distance to complete the line of code.
Popup help
As you type a function a help box appears with a description of the function and how to use it.
Help text and examples
No need to go digging through a book or separate webpages for help. EdPy’s help text and example programs are right there on the screen next to your code.
Share the code
Saved EdPy programs can be shared via a link. Students can submit their programs as a list of links that can be opened and reviewed with a single click.
We have incorporated many other useful features such as tabs, to have multiple programs open at once. Also, a list of saved programs can be opened with a single click.
We think the best feature of all is that students will be excited and motivated to learn text-based coding when they can see their code come to life in the actions of a real-life robot.
Check out EdPy and leave us some feedback below. We’d love to hear what you think.
I volunteer at an after school program for low income students. I bought a 3 pack and although the kids were excited at first, they lost interest when Edison wouldn’t drive in a straight line or turn correctly. There was much frustration! I’m glad that Edison2 is improved. Is it possible that I could return the pack of 3 for credit toward the new version Edison2? Karen Lenox
Such a nice thought!
Hi Karen,
Not driving perfectly straight is something Edison V1 was not great at. There is, however, a drive calibration option in EdWare online to minimise this. We do not have an upgrade option for Edison V2.0, sorry.
This is awesome! Where can I find this drive calibration option in EdWare? Is this calibration only available online or will it be within the ios app as well?
In addition, I purchased 150 Edisons last Februrary (2016)…do these need a firmware update in order to accept this drive calibration?
Thanks so much! My students loved Edison last year (except the frustration of not driving straight or turning as expected)…looking forward to starting our robotics unit in a few weeks!
The drive calibration is currently only on the online version of EdWare.
Your Edisons have up to date firmware and will be able to accept a drive calibration
Hi folks, any news on when this will be available for V1 robots?
/Mark
Hi Mark,
We hope to have updated firmware for Edison V1 in the next few weeks. It’s being worked on now.
Hi Brenton,
sorry to pester but any updates on this?
/Mark
Hi Mark,
I’m sorry we are still working on updating the V1 firmware. It is turning out to be a bigger job than we first though. Work is progressing, but unfortunately, it is slow. I’m cautious about providing a time estimate on this now. I can say that the update is unlikely to be available before February. I am sorry.
You have done a great job! All my programs work with Edison ( one) and now I’ve received four Edison two . I’m eager to try Edpy; even if it demands some skills…
But I have one question : the only problem with the Edison is to find a suitable visual program for the remote; Once it works, and next week; no more snif snif…( and the remote works fine with the code barre , anyway)
Have you some ideas?
Thanks a lot and greetings from Belgium!
J-M
Hi J-M,
Thanks so much!
If you are using a universal remote you may have pressed a button to set the remote to another device. i.e. You programmed Edison with DVD setting, but now the remote is set to be a TV remote. This is just a guess as it has happened to me with our universal remotes. 😉
Are you able to reprogram Edison to respond to remote control commands again?
Hello Brenton,
thanks for the answer , and recently, I have succeeded to write a (small visual) program to control Edison ( with a little trick!). By the way, Edison is very versatile ( in comparison with other educative robots I own ; and much less expensive.)
Yesterday, We play a( remote) football game with the Edison , and It was ok.
Next week begins the BIG plan : educational programming for the schools I have to explain ( and convince the town council, here , ) with Edison and another robot: Thymio ( maybe you know?) It could be the beginning (why not dreaming) of a breeder collaboration with the differents schools of the neighborood.Actually : there is nothing , here …for in computer science for the kids
J-M
Hey there
Thanks for implementing a text based method of programming the Edison. I am an experience programmer working with the Edison for a school program. There are currently a few issues with the current editor firstly, the error messages are not very intuitive. I just received one saying “Compiler internal error 3.” This makes programs very hard to bug fix. Another issue I encountered was some weird restrictions on what can go where. It seems to be impossible to make a call to the Edison library functions within a function which is very limiting.
Hi Samuel
The “Compiler internal error 3” should have been removed after development, I will pass a message onto the dev team.
In regards to function calls inside function calls, this was done intentionally.
EdPy is not a pure version of python, it has been designed to be an introduction to text based programming and has to be compiled down to tokens to run on Edison.
We understand that experienced python programmers love to try and get all code down to one line by stacking function calls into function calls, but this type of code is not easy to read and it is near impossible for the “line help text” to make sense of.
By restricting the use of function calls, we are hoping to make students code easier to read, easier to mark and easier for students who have come from EdWare to understand
It is a simple matter to add an extra variable to your code, store the result of the function in the variable, then use the variable in the second function
Are there any educational materials to help kids get started with EdPy, like there are for EdWare? Simple lesson plans or worksheets?
Hi Dorothy
We are currently working hard on a set of 10 lesson plans for EdPy.
We aim to have them released within the first half of this year.
We will announce their release with a blog post
That’s great! Thank you.
Hi Dorthy!
The EdPy lesson plans are available now – check out https://meetedison.com/robot-programming-software/edpy/ to download both the student worksheets and the teacher’s guide.
Bumping this conversation in case you’re still interested. I’m hosting a series of online trainings for educators that have Edisons and need more hands-on programming/robotics experience. (www.learnrobotics.org)
Hi,
Any update on the lesson plans for EdPy.
Thanks!
We have been working hard on polishing the lesson plans so they are as good as they can be.
They should be released within the next 4 weeks
Hi Ben
Will EdPy lessons plans be available in April. Edison is a really good robot and we’ve been using it in our enrichment programs. We would now like to introduce EdPy to our class in May/June.
The lesson plans are currently undergoing review and aren’t scheduled for release until late June.
However, if you would like access to a working draft, please send us an email via our contact us form
Can I get access to these please?
Hi Geoff
Please send us an email to get access to the draft of the EdPy lesson plans
I am having a few problems with your EdPy app relating to compiling.
(Is there a desktop version of the Python Edison program?)
I have been able to modify a sample program, copied it into a blank program and saved it once creating my own user profile. The programs upload fine onto the Edison robot as well. But every once in a while I am having problems with compiling.
I believe the problem is related to the way the app treats carriage returns. I have been copying one working line of code from one part of the program and pasting it somewhere else. When I try to compile the new line of code gives me compilation errors. I have been able to fix this each time by deleting the carriage returns before, after, and within the pasted code, and manually typing where appropriate.
Have others experience this?
I’m using Firefox 53.0 32-bit on a Windows 10 Pro 64-bit machine.
(This is the 2nd time writing this comment, as it had a field entered incorrectly the 1st time in the form and when I went back all the fields were blank.)
Hi Jan
We currently do not have a desktop version of EdPy.
What error message are you getting with the copy and pasted code?
Where are you copying the code from?
I am getting “Syntax error” on the line that is pasted.
I am copying the code from within the same EdPy sample program “Clap_to_drive_back_and_forth”. Code that compiles/checks fine.
I just tried copying and pasting the whole program and am not getting the error.
What browser are you using?
Do you have access to the email I give here? Email me and I will give you a login with problem code that does not work. Initial copy and paste was fine but when I copy lines of code from within that sample into the same program, I get syntax error at the end of lines.
“I’m using Firefox 53.0 32-bit on a Windows 10 Pro 64-bit machine.”
Even when I managed to remove one syntax error, more would appear after further internal pasting. Wasn’t able to remove most recent error so I I have hand entered the code and it works fine, as a work around.
Still need to resolve this, however.
Hi Jan
I have managed to find this error in firefox.
Its not an error with the return characters, its an error with the Tab characters.
To avoid this bug please copy and paste the whole line, including tabs or copy and paste just the code to the back of the line above where you want it then use enter to push it to the correct line.
I’ll add this bug to our developer’s list.
We have the sae issue but my peers tell me the indents are wrong – what are indents because no one will tell me
Hi there,
An indent is the space between the very left-hand side of the program and where the text of that line actually starts – also known as the white space. You can create this using either the tab button or the spacebar. EdPy automatically creates indents when the syntax is entered in correctly. You can learn more about indenting in EdPy and Python through our teacher’s guide and lesson plans for EdPy at https://meetedison.com/robot-programming-software/edpy/#edpy-resources
Hope this helps!
Hi, Just a question about Python prog. Could I find some pdf sheet on the line command to download for my young students? Just a list of all function that they could use.
Thanks.
You do a super job. The MeetEdison is very fun to teach.
Hi
We don’t currently have a PDF you can download.
We are working on one, it should be released by the end of the month
I was wondering if you could please send me the draft lesson plans for ed.py
Hi Kim
Please send us an email via our contact us form for access to the draft lesson plans
Hello,
I was wondering if you could send me the draft lesson plans for edpy.
Thanks for your help,
Rick Gage
Hi Rick
Please send us an email via our contact us form for access to the draft lesson plans
Hi,
Edpy lesson 3, worksheet 3.1,3.2,3.3 edison has to be turn exactly 90 or 180 or 270. whatever the code it turns 360! can you please help me
Hi there!
Hmmm… that’s a strange sounding issue. It may have something to do with the code you are using in your program. Our technical support team will be happy to try to help you out though! Please use our contact form at https://meetedison.com/edison-robot-support/contact-us/ to send us a ticket with your issue, and please include a copy of the program you are using as well. One of our friendly team will be happy to help!