Merge branch 'master' into packaging

Author: dannystaple

readme.md

@@ -1,16 +1,19 @@
 Python Code to drive the Maplin/OWI USB Robot arm
 
+[Video Demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAvWBOTtGnU)
+
   Tested on:
   * Raspbian 
   * Linux 
   * OSX (Lion, Mountain Lion)
   May work on Windows.
+  * Windows 8 [Windows Help](windows_setup/help.md)
 
 Requirements
 ============
 * Python 2.7 or 3
-* Libusb
-* pyusb
+* Libusb (on linux, mac or windows - http://sourceforge.net/projects/libusb-win32/files/latest/download) - the apt-get package will work.
+* pyusb via pip
 
 Usage
 =====
@@ -54,6 +57,8 @@ BaseCtrClockWise
 
 Stop
 
+LedOn
+
 Combining Movements
 -------------------
 Movements are based upon the BitPattern class, and you can feed arbitrary bitpatterns to it, but all those the

usb_arm/__init__.py

@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
-"""Maplin USB Robot arm control"""
-import os
-os.environ['DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH'] = '/opt/local/lib'
+"""Maplin USB Robot arm control.
+Usage - 
+>>> import usb_arm
+>>> arm = usb_arm.Arm()
+>>> arm.move(usb_arm.OpenGrips)
+>>> arm.doActions(block_left) # WARNING - ARM SHOULD BE ALL THE WAY RIGHT BEFORE TRYING THIS
+
+Trouble:
+"NO back end found" - you need to install a libusb driver on your system.
+"""
 import usb.core
 from time import sleep
 
@@ -74,9 +81,11 @@ def safe_tell(self, fn):
 
     def move(self, pattern, time=1):
         """Perform a pattern move with timing and stop"""
-        self.tell(pattern)
-        sleep(time)
-        self.tell(Stop)
+        try:
+        	self.tell(pattern)
+        	sleep(time)
+        finally:
+        	self.tell(Stop)
 
     def doActions(self, actions):
         """Params: List of actions - each is a list/tuple of BitPattern and time
@@ -96,16 +105,16 @@ def doActions(self, actions):
                 else:
                     time = 1
                 self.move(action[0], time)
-        except:
+        finally:
             self.move(Stop)
-            raise
 
+def makeGrabAndMove(baseDir):
+	return [[CloseGrips, 1.1],
+                [ShoulderUp | ElbowUp | WristDown | baseDir],
+                [baseDir, 8.5],
+                [ShoulderDown | ElbowDown | WristUp | baseDir],
+                [OpenGrips]]
 
-block_left = [[ShoulderDown], [GripsClose, 0.4], [ShoulderUp],
-              [BaseClockWise, 10.2], [ShoulderDown],
-              [GripsOpen, 0.4], [ShoulderUp, 1.2]]
-block_right = [[ShoulderDown], [GripsClose, 0.4], [ShoulderUp],
-               [BaseCtrClockWise, 10.2], [ShoulderDown],
-               [GripsOpen, 0.4], [ShoulderUp, 1.2]]
-left_and_blink = list(block_left)
-left_and_blink.extend([[LedOn, 0.5], [Stop, 0.5]] * 3)
+blink = [[LedOn, 0.5], [Stop, 0.5]] * 3
+block_left = makeGrabAndMove(BaseClockWise, 0.4) + blink
+block_right = makeGrabAndMove(BaseCtrClockWise, 0.4) + blink

windows_setup/help.md

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+Help Setting Up On Windows
+==========================
+
+Tested with Python 2.7, Windows 8 64 bit.
+
+First ensure you have a version of python installed.
+
+[Windows Installation Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNp8Z_MH7iQ)
+
+LibUSB - The Backend
+====================
+To get libusb running, the backend, go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/libusb-win32/files/ and pick up the latest release.
+
+Extract this zipfile, then go into the extracted folder and find bin/inf-wizard.exe. Run this _as administrator_.
+When you are asked to find the device - it has Vendor ID 0x1267, Product ID 0000.
+
+This should install a driver on your computer giving you access to the arm. 
+If it complains about installing the driver, remember that this tool shoudl be run as administrator.
+
+PyUSB
+=====
+Warning - confusingly there are two completely different python libraries of this name. 
+
+This is the correct one: http://walac.github.io/pyusb/
+This is the wrong one: http://bleyer.org/pyusb/
+
+On the walac site, there is a zip. Download this, and extract it into a folder.
+Start a terminal, and CD into the folder.
+Then run :
+python setup.py 
+
+Now you should be able to run the usb_arm code. Import it and try some simple movements.
+
+