opening the VPL without the thimio

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Summary:

how can i open the VPL without using the thimio robot while the students trying their code?

opening the VPL without the thimio

yossi abuhatsira 25 May 2014 08:29

hi,
is there any way to write a code for the thimio while the robot is disconnected?
i gave my students a mission and after the first time they programmed the robot they disconnected him to check if the code is OK. then i asked them to change the code- but after the robot got disconnected the VPL programm closed.
i also want to give the student mission for grups because each robot is being use by 3 students (and i need them to work seperatly).
thanks,
yossi

Re: opening the VPL without the thimio

mkany 27 May 2014 19:50

Hello,
currently there is unfortunately no way to program the Thymio while the robot is disconnected. Before disconnects the Thymio, they must store the code.
In addition to the Thymio there are other virtual robot in the "Aseba Challenge" and the "Playground" which, however, can not be programmed with the VPL. Eventually there will be a virtual Thymio for the "Playground".
I hope I could help them.

regards
Michael

Re: opening the VPL without the thimio

StephaneMagnenat 28 May 2014 14:21

Michael is right.

That said, there are two work-arounds if you want to compilet the code yourself:

• In the master branch, the standalone VPL executable has a command line setting -anytarget that disables the Thymio check, and therefore can connect to asebadummy. The code will not work, but you will be available to play with VPL. It is useful to develop in the train when you have forgotten your robot.
• In the master branch, playground has an empty Thymio2 robot skeleton, which will allow VPL to connect. It is an empty skeleton and therefore the code will not compile. We have a student project that implemented it, but it is not ready to be released and we do not have the manpower to bring this code to a state of publication. If someone is interesting in contributing on that, we can discuss to release the code.

Last edited on 28 May 2014 14:21 by StephaneMagnenat Show more

Re: opening the VPL without the thimio

mdematos 24 Jul 2015 10:02

Hi everyone,
I'm new to Thymio2 world (I just receives mine few days ago).
I would like to know if there is any change in running VPL without a Thymio connected since the previous post?
Indeed, I purchased the Thymio to be used in primary school (children 7-8 years old, the teacher is my wife), and the school will not have the budget to provide enough Thymio.
Besides, I'm developer in embedded systems, so if there is some work which needs to be completed I may help during my spare time.
I have not yet tried the work-arounds mentioned above, I expect to have look this weekend.

regards,
Manuel

Re: opening the VPL without the thimio

cbarraud 27 Jul 2015 06:04

Hi,

There is no news on this side for now. The work-arounds still works though.

If you want to help on that side, I invite you to join these mailing lists:

This one is for Thymio, the wiki, general stuff

This one is for developpers (Aseba, VPL...)

And on this page you will find a bit more details on what you can do to help :)

Thanks for your message and welcome in Thymio's world ;)

Best.

Re: opening the VPL without the thimio

mdematos 27 Jul 2015 08:58

Hi,
thank you for your reply.
I'll subscribe to the suggested mailing lists.

regards,
Manuel

Re: opening the VPL without the thimio

RobotsvsAnimals 17 Sep 2015 15:28

Hi there,
I agree that it would be extremely valuable to be able to use the VPL without connecting to a thymio. I work on an outreach programme and to run activities with a class of 30 (the usual in the UK) it is prohibitively expensive to buy 15 thymios, but the schools can usually provide 1:2 access to computers.
We have 6 thymios so far, but for this to really work in a classroom in a normal school it needs kids to be able to programme without their own individual thymio.
I hope it can happen at some point as the feedback from kids and schools about the thymios (in small groups!) is really great and we would like to be able to incorporate more coding.
Best Regards
Corra

Re: opening the VPL without the thimio

Erez Kaplan 11 Jun 2018 05:46

I tried in Window 7 (ver 1.6) several combinations with the command line but all of them failed with the same connection error.
Is the still supported ?

thymiovpl -anytarget

Thanks

Re: opening the VPL without the thimio

riedo 14 Jun 2018 13:53

Hello,

first of all, if you just want to code without a physical Thymio, we have now a simulator which you can use for Thymio. this will let you test your code. start the Aseba Playgroung app, and open a playground which contains Thymio robot, then start Thmio VPL and connect to a simulated Thymio.

Then to answer your question, -anytarget is still supported, but you have to start a dummy node first (lanch asebadummynode.exe) and then when you see the connection windows, you will be able to select the dummy node. But with this solution, you cannot test your code.