Blog

Mar

22

2017

Gobot - 1.3 Is Here

Hello, dear friends. We present to you today release v1.3 of Gobot, our Golang framework for programming devices in the real world.

We've been very busy at conferences like SCaLE 15x over the last month since the big Golang birthday bash, but thanks to our hard-working team and contributors we're so very happy to present to you our latest and greatest.

BBC Microbit support

Inspired by lots of activity around the BBC Microbit in the kids programming world, we now have support for this friendly Bluetooth LE connected microcontroller.

Here is an example that uses the built-in LEDs to display "Hello" then a smile:

package main

import (
        "os"
        "time"

        "gobot.io/x/gobot"
        "gobot.io/x/gobot/platforms/ble"
        "gobot.io/x/gobot/platforms/microbit"
)

func main() {
        bleAdaptor := ble.NewClientAdaptor(os.Args[1])
        ubit := microbit.NewLEDDriver(bleAdaptor)

        work := func() {
                ubit.Blank()
                gobot.After(1*time.Second, func() {
                        ubit.WriteText("Hello")
                })
                gobot.After(7*time.Second, func() {
                        ubit.Smile()
                })
        }

        robot := gobot.NewRobot("blinkBot",
                []gobot.Connection{bleAdaptor},
                []gobot.Device{ubit},
                work,
        )

        robot.Start()
}

The Gobot interface uses the cool Microbit firmware created by @sandeepmistry we are able to use the Microbit's BLE interface to access some of the built-in capabilities.

DragonBoard

Thanks to contributor @thetooth we now have support for the DragonBoard using the GPIO and I2C interfaces. Thank you!

More I2C Devices

Thanks to contributor @erkkah we have more work on the the Gobot I2C implementations, alongside a couple of new I2C devices:

• DRV2605L Haptic Controller
• TSL2561 Luminosity Sensor

New Gort Release

We've also released Gort v0.8.0 to support the Microbit, along with a couple other updates.

Code Coverage

We've switched our code coverage to an awesome new free service codecov.io and worked on upping our coverage based on the more realistic numbers.

The code coverage dashboard for Gobot is located at https://codecov.io/gh/hybridgroup/gobot

First, the good news:

• Gobot core is at an excellent level of code coverage, with only a handful of lines lacking tests.
• Gobot API is also at over 96% coverage.

Now, the areas where we need work:

• Gobot sysfs around 65% coverage.
• Gobot drivers around 75% coverage.
• Gobot platforms only around 57% coverage. Ouch!

So, if you ever wanted to help out, dear reader, that would be a greatly appreciated place to pitch in.

Full Changelog

There are many fixes and features in this new release, please take a look at the release info at https://github.com/hybridgroup/gobot/releases/tag/v1.3.0.

Keep On Moving

Stay in touch with the project by following us on Twitter at @gobotio. Thank you!