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  • Author Author: Former Member
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 2080 views
  • Likes 9 likes
  • Comments 8 comments
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Raspberry Pi Sense Hat - Enabling The Joystick

Former Member
Former Member

Having had some fun playing with the display on the Sense Hat I moved on to trying to utilise the Joystick. However copying the examples set out in the Sense Hat API results in the following error

 

AttributeError: 'SenseHat' object has no attribute 'stick'

 

Upon further investigation it turns out that the sense_hat.py library doesn't include any functionality for the joystick, trying to run sudo apt remove --purge sense-hat then sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get install sense-hat only installs the same version without the joystick functions.

 

Navigating to the github repositories shows that there is an updated version that does include the joystick functions, to get the updates were going to have to manually install them.

 

Time to implement the update!!

 

Step 1.

 

Open up a terminal on the Raspberry Pi (or if your going over ssh just use the terminal your already in).

 

Navigate to the sense_hat python directory

cd /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/sense_hat

 

delete the existing files

sudo rm __init__.py sense_hat.py __init__.pyc sense_hat.pyc

 

Step 2.

 

Download the new files straight from github

 

sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RPi-Distro/python-sense-hat/master/sense_hat/__init__.py 
sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RPi-Distro/python-sense-hat/master/sense_hat/sense_hat.py 
sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RPi-Distro/python-sense-hat/master/sense_hat/stick.py

 

Step 3.

 

We just need to make a slight alteration to the sense_hat.py file that was downloaded, open the file using nano:

sudo nano sense_hat.py

 

 

Line 17 (highlighted in the picture below) reads

 

from .stick import SenseStick

 

the .  needs deleting from in front of the work stick so it reads:

from stick import SenseStick

 

Press ctrl+o then enter to save changes and ctrl+x to exit nano.

 

image

 

Thats it! happy playing!!

 

Here's an example code and video showing how to move a pixel around using the joystick:

 

from sense_hat import SenseHat
sense = SenseHat()

x = 3
y = 3

def draw_dot():
 sense.clear()
 sense.set_pixel(x,y,255,90,90)

def pushed_up():
 global y
 y = y - 1
 if y < 0:
  y = 0
 draw_dot()

def pushed_down():
 global y
 y = y + 1
 if y > 7:
  y = 7
 draw_dot()

def pushed_left():
 global x
 x = x - 1
 if x < 0:
  x = 0
 draw_dot()

def pushed_right():
 global x
 x = x + 1
 if x > 7:
  x = 7
 draw_dot()

sense.stick.direction_up = pushed_up
sense.stick.direction_down = pushed_down
sense.stick.direction_left = pushed_left
sense.stick.direction_right = pushed_right

draw_dot()

 

 

This video is unavailable.

  • in reply to tonygo

    It's a bit late for this thread but I can confirm that the same issue exists in 2018, and the same fix works identically for python 3

  • Former Member
    Former Member in reply to tonygo

    For other versions of Python you could always download the libraries straight to your scripts directory and the interpreter will look there first. Maybe also theres a dist-packages folder in /usr/lib/python3.0 to wget them to or alternatively start your Python 3 script with:

     

    import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/sense_hat')
from sense_hat import SenseHat

     

    Its maybe not the best solution but it adds the python2.7 versions sense_hat directory to your python3 imports search directories. Im not home to test it at the minute but provided all of the other import dependencies used by the sense_hat library are met then it should work just fine.

  • Very useful blog - thanks.

    How do you make it work in Python 3?

    Why has the update not been included in the official update list?

     

    I used pygame to get it to work

    """

    # Modified from Astro Pi Guide for Teachers
    #      raspberrypi.org/resources
    # Tony Goodhew 26 Sept 2015
    import pygame

    from pygame.locals import *
    from sense_hat import SenseHat

    pygame.init()
    pygame.display.set_mode((90,5))#Big enough

    sense = SenseHat()
    sense.clear()

    print("Steer the BLOB with the joystick")
    print("  * Up, Down, Left or Right *\n")
    print("Quit with Joystick Centre Button, RETURN or ESC\n")

    running = True

    x = 0
    y = 0
    sense.set_pixel(x, y, 255, 255, 255)

    while running:
        for event in pygame.event.get():
            if event.type == KEYDOWN:
                sense.set_pixel(x, y, 0, 0, 0)  # Black 0,0,0 means OFF

                if event.key == pygame.K_DOWN and y < 7:
                    y = y + 1
                elif event.key == pygame.K_UP and y > 0:
                    y = y - 1
                elif event.key == pygame.K_RIGHT and x < 7:
                    x = x + 1
                elif event.key == pygame.K_LEFT and x > 0:
                    x = x - 1
                elif event.key == pygame.K_RETURN:
                    running = False
                    sense.clear()
                    print("** BYE from Joystick **")
                if running: sense.set_pixel(x, y, 255, 255, 255)
               
            if event.type == QUIT:
                running = False
                sense.clear()
                print(" ++ BYE from mouse QUIT ++")

    """

  • in reply to Former Member

    And such a bizarre game, based around crushing tin cans (or being crushed by them). I think that's what I liked about it.

     

    Just checked out the coin-op version, and you're right. Plus, I like how it starts with "Ready Yourself Player One" image

     

    My favourite book image

  • Former Member
    Former Member in reply to spannerspencer

    When I found that wall paper I immediately went looking for emulator roms, by far the best is the arcade version all round. The early computers couldn't compete with the graphics, rich sound and responsiveness of the input and the later versions like the Amiga seemed like a half hearted attempt hah!! I also love the way the posters were purely artistic and had zero representation of in game footage!