I have tried everything (Firmata, browser, system updates) and couldn’t get the Developer board to work. I plugged in the Classic board and it worked immediately.
I agree, direct us to the correct place. It took my class and me a bit of frustration and time to realize to open through the app and not a web browser.
I am a Tech Teacher and have lots of experience and yet I too have had quiet a time getting the New Playground Expresses to work. I did finally follow every complicated direction with my Circuit Playground Expresses to get them to work with the Code.org Maker Toolkit App. Then I found out that once I set them up to work with the Maker App these Circuit Playgrounds cannot simply be used in Makecde or Scratch. They have to be wiped first.
I admire CODE ORG and what they have done to change the face of computer science in the world. I know CODE ORG wants to say that anyone can teach the curriculum, however I cannot see that regular teachers will understand this complicated set-up. The rest of the curriculum is much easier to say that anyone can teach it and its FREE. It is free until you want to teach Physical Computing. Then money is being spent on devices that are very complicated to use in a classroom situation.
@kimberly.curran.smit @josh
I just wrote a grant proposal to purchase the express models (I thought that these would be more versitile based on the description) for my 7th grade class. I have no experience with working with circut boards, so this would be a first for me.
My students work on chromebooks only.
I am reading this thread and getting a little nervous, from the descriptions I have read, I thought the set up and everything would be really simple.
Can you give me some advice on this? Would purchasing the classic models be better? (It said express can work with circutpython, which I was going to explore in addition to the code.org stuff.) Is it going to be a pain to set them up? Will there be issues using them with chromebooks?
I appreciate any advice, I will need to defend my proposal in front of the grant board, so I want to know what I am talking about and feel confident I can get them to work if I do get the grant. Thanks!!!
Kacie,
Here is link to setting up both the classic and express models of the circuit playgrounds. https://support.code.org/hc/en-us/articles/115003407851-Maker-Toolkit-and-Circuit-Playground-Setup-Support
I followed these instructions and have had no problems with my circuit playgrounds.
Karen
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Hi @krea ,
We are working on the Circuit Playgrounds now. I just received a new set of Circuit Playground Express kits for my students. Most of my students are on our iMacs in the lab but we’ll need to use their Chromebooks for the boards in a few weeks as our final project is a HackAPumpkin (we code a theme for carved pumpkins with buzzers, LED Arrays, and circuit LEDs, and place them in the pumpkins). So, I had my kids see if the boards work on their Chromebooks. We followed the setup beginning Unit 6, Lesson 3, Activity/bubble 4 and installed the Chrome Serial Connector. These instructions are outlined in the article posted by @karenmaand and I also recorded a video (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iZiP0cHH2SAt6KujmOS1PiCq8rGF9y8O/view?usp=sharing) of our steps and it worked just fine for us. (FYI - the board also continued to work on our iMacs). I hope this helps you feel more confident with the circuit boards running on the Chromebooks.
~Michelle
Thank you! I will check it out!