Further Exercises

Optionally, go beyond the tutorial and try to add features to this example. Two options are:

Adjustable rates

Define two kivy Slider widgets that allow changing max_speed & max_angular_rate! Play around with where you can put these and how you can link them directly to the value in the VirtualJoystickApp.

Just remember, the actual rates the amiga drives at are limited by the vehicle control unit (VCU), so don't be surprised if the true max speed doesn't reflect the slider.

Toggle between Auto modes

Try to add a kivy Button widget that toggles the requested AmigaControlState so the brain is not constantly trying to take control of the dashboard while running.

Customizing an app

In order to customize an app we leverage the setup.cfg that contains all the metadata and package configuration. More can be found here!

The most important first steps are to modify the metadata of the project and dependencies:

1. Inside the setup.cfg file, adjust the fields under the tag [metadata]

   • For basic users, the package name (project_name in the project structure above) goes in the name field, and must match with the directory name right under the libs/ directory.

     • I.e., change both the name field and the directory name under libs/ to your new app name.
     • VScode should prompt you to change the import names in test_dummy.py once you change the directory name.

       • If not, manually change:

         from amiga_package import __version__
         from amiga_package import ops

       • To:

         from <project_name> import __version__
         from <project_name> import ops

   • For advanced users, you can modify as much is compliant with Python setuptools.

2. Adjust the package dependencies
   • Include whatever extra dependency you need in the install_requires field.
   • Our only requirements are:
     • wheel: for packaging the app.
     • kivy: to generate the graphical user interface (GUI).
     • farm-ng-amiga: the Farm-ng Amiga public SDK.

Development and Debug an app

The workflow for development is pretty much the same as any standard gui application.

1. Make changes in the code.
2. Run the code with the play button in vs-code.
   • [Optionally] Add a breakpoint to any line and use the Debug Console to interact.
3. Go to step 1