jamesgkent / usbroboarm

USBRoboArm

This python library provides an interface to control the USB robotic arm available from maplin:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/usb-controlled-robotic-arm-kit-a37jn
the libary exposes a simple interface by creating an object for the arm, and calling methods of it to move:

from usbroboarm import Arm
import time

arm = Arm()
arm.base_left()
time.sleep(0.5)
arm.base_stop()

Every movement command except the stop commands can be passed an optional duration argument:

arm.base_left(0.5)

This argument is in seconds, and is a blocking call, ie you cannot do anything else until the move has completed.
calling with a duration as above is equivelant to doing:

arm.base_left()
time.sleep(0.5)
arm.base_stop()

By exposing a method to start a movement and a method to stop the movement means we can 'add' movements together:

arm.base_left()
arm.shoulder_up()
arm.wrist_up()
time.sleep(0.5)
arm.base_stop()
arm.shoulder_stop()
arm.wrist_stop()

To halt all movement the function

arm.stop_moving()

Planned improvements:

1. asyncronous delays (non blocking call with a duration)
2. add connect and disconnect methods