Plum Geek Forum

Does the remote do anything with Ringo out of the box?

I removed the plastic battery tab from the remote, but Ringo doesn't respond to any buttons from the remote.

The behaviors were left out before shipping I believe but they are available for download. I tried uploading them but I got an error message.

Load compile and run "Ringo_PreLoaded_Behaviors_Rev01.ino". Then read through the comments for the sketch and you will see how to choose the various "behaviors" by using the Remote. Note: You'll have to do a RESET button push on the Ringo to switch from one behavior to another. Then the fun begins. These guys write great code with lots of comments making easy to learn and understand what is going on and how you might change, mix and match code segments to make Ringo do some amazing things.

Pete

I did finally get the behaviors to upload

I am not a very tech savvy person when it comes to coding and anything involved there. I actually purchased this because I LOVE the idea and hoped to enjoy the preset behaviors while my son (who is teaching himself to code), learned the more difficult things to do. That being said, neither us knows anything about Arduino or how to use it. I downloaded it and the current available behaviors, and I opened them in Arduino. But now I have no clue what to do from there. I have a USB to micro, so I plug that into the board? And the cable into the board and Ringo? And then what? I have no clue how to get the behaviors from the computer onto Ringo or how to make them work. I'm certainly not cut out for all this stuff I've never worked with before - it's just highly confusing to me.

Hi xxandrek13,

You made a good choice with the Ringo. The Arduino platform may seem daunting at first but it's one of the easier and more friendly micros to work with. Once you spend a little time with it you'll find it easier to us and possibly a great avenue for you to learn along side your son. I suggest you read through the Web pages here and the Ringo Guide. That will help you get started. Once you have the Arduino IDE program properly set up, loading a "sketch" (.ino program) into the Ringo it just a click of the mouse. Even if this seems overwhelming, don't panic as their are lot folks here in this forum willing to help. I don't have any affiliation with Plum Geek but recognize this as one of best Kickstarter campaigns with an Arduino based products I've seen or invested in. The sketches are extremely well commented so the function or purpose of each line of code is easier to make sense of.

Anyway, ask questions for each step you cannot figure out but maybe ask about only one thing at at time so it's easier for folks to give clear and helpful responses.

Yes, you have it right. USB from computer to Programmer, Programmer board to the Ringo. Ringo must be switched on to receive data from the computer via the programmer. Once you have the sketch open in the Arduino IDE you can send it to the Ringo. The Ringo Guide should make that clear.

Hope this all was helpful

Pete

Well we just got it and my daughter was excited to see what Ringo could do, so I'm a bit disappointed that they weren't "pre-programmed".

I installed the FTDI drivers, but have not been able to get it to recognise that the programmer/Ringo is plugged in yet, so I guess that's the other problem to work on now.

I have OSX v10.10.4, Arduino v1.6.5