The official Orbotix JavaScript SDK module to programatically control Sphero robots.
$ npm install sphero
To connect to your Sphero, you first need to pair it. To pair your device on OS X, open the Bluetooth settings here: System Preferences > Bluetooth. From this menu, locate your Sphero in the Devices list and click the Pair button to pair it with your computer.
Once you've successfully paired your Sphero, open your terminal and navigate to your system's /dev/ directory and locate the serial device connection for your newly paired Sphero; it should look something like this:
tty.Sphero-RGB-AMP-SPP
Note, your device will likely be different depending on its preset color code (the three colors your Sphero cycles through when you first turn it on). The example above is for a Sphero with a Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) color code.
To make things easy install Blueman Bluetooth Manager. In Ubuntu this is pretty easy, just open the Ubuntu Software Center, type the program name and install it from there. When the installation is complete, open the program and search for devices. Make sure the Sphero is flashing its color code. Once the Sphero appears in the list of devices, select it, click on setup and follow the instructions.
You can connect and disconnect the Sphero from a serialport interface by right clicking on it inside the Blueman list of devices and selecting RN-SPP or disconnect, respectively (after it has been setup and added permanently to the list). Make sure to notice the serialport address Blueman displays after the Sphero connects, as this will be the one used in your code. The serialport address displayed for the Sphero should look something like this:
/dev/rfcomm0
Locate the Bluetooth icon in the taskbar (or inside the system task tray button) and follow the necessary steps to pair with your Sphero.
Once you've successfully paired your Sphero, there are two options available to you to check and see which serialport corresponds to the Sphero you just connected. The first option is to right click on the bluetooth icon in the task bar (same you use to pair), click on Open Settings, when the settings window appears, navigate to the COM Ports tab where you should see a list of ports which should list your Sphero. If your Sphero is listed in more than one port, take note of the one that has RN-SPP in the name, and use that one to connect. The list should look something similar to:
| Port | Direction | Name |
|---|---|---|
| COM3 | Outgoing | Sphero-RPB 'RN-SPP' |
| COM4 | Incoming | Sphero-RPB |
In the above case, you should use serialport COM3.
The second option is to identify the port number. Click the start button and type device manager. Once the program appears in the list, open it. Navigate the tree of devices to Ports, there you should see a list of COM ports, i.e. (COM3, COM4). From that port list, select the one that belongs to your Sphero. If your Sphero name is not listed in the ports list, you can either try them one by one or use the first method to identify which port belongs to your Sphero. The port address should look something like:
COM2, COM3, COM4
To initialize and connect to a Sphero:
var sphero = require("sphero"),
orb = sphero("/dev/rfcomm0");
orb.connect(function() {
// Sphero's connected!
// do some cool stuff here!
});Once connected, you can give Sphero commands:
orb.connect(function() {
// roll Sphero forward
orb.roll(150, 0);
// turn Sphero green
orb.color("green");
// have Sphero tell you when it detect collisions
orb.detectCollisions();
// when Sphero detects a collision, turn red for a second, then back to green
orb.on("collision", function(data) {
console.log("collision detected");
console.log(" data:", data);
orb.color("red");
setTimeout(function() {
orb.color("green");
}, 1000);
});
});For more examples, check out the examples dir, or the JavaScript SDK documentation on the Sphero developer portal.
Use npm install to install development dependencies.
You can run tests with grunt test.
Using grunt lint to run ESLint against both lib and spec/lib.
The grunt command will run both of the above tasks.
Copyright (c) 2015 Orbotix.
MIT Licensed.
For more details, see the LICENSE file.