CZ20/Intro
Be sure to have followed the assembly instructions before continuing here.
Contents
Starting apps on your badge
As you will have heard when your badge first booted up, you can start apps by pressing on the coloured buttons in the homescreen. If you keep a button pressed, you will hear its name being spoken out loud. You can play with some of the apps already at this point, but the BNR Radio will work only after we configure WiFi.
Playing with your badge in the browser
Open a Chrome-based browser (e.g. Chrome, Chromium, Brave, or the latest Chromium-based Microsoft Edge), and connect your badge to your computer via USB. You should get a popup in Chrome that brings you to https://webusb.hackz.one. Click on it, and you should see the following screen:
Now, click anywhere on the screen. A popup will appear, in which you need to select the CampZone 2020 badge:
Press "Connect". Your badge is now connected. Having trouble on Linux? Check out this page. When you disconnect the badge or reload the page, you will have to allow Chrome to use it again when you reinsert it.
Configuring WiFi
Navigate to the Settings page using the left menu. In the WiFi box, fill in your home access point name and password. This is case sensitive, you should type it exactly as it appears on your computer. There is no scanning functionality yet, so you have to type it by hand. The page does not save your credentials (they are gone the next time you open the page), but your badge does. You can test whether WiFi works by opening the BNR Radio app installed by default on your badge.
You can also configure the audio volume on this page, and some apps you may install later can also add their configuration settings to this page!
Important: Software Update
Badges always have bugs, and this one is no different. It's very important that you update the firmware when you first get the badge, because many bugfixes will have been made between when your badge got programmed and when you got it in the mail. Find the "Update" page in the menu on the left and run an update after configuring WiFi.
Installing new apps
The volunteers of HackZone, and many others, have already made a few apps for you to try. You can install them from the web interface on the Apps page. At the bottom of this page you can find new apps to install. Installation can take a while, especially for some apps that are bundled with many larger files like the bubblewrap app. There is no progress bar for installation yet, but we're working hard on getting one! Please wait up to a few minutes for apps to install.
At the top of the page, you can configure the homescreen on your badge. Click on one of the coloured or grey buttons on the left, and select what app and what colour you want to assign to it on the right:
Modifying and making apps
The web interface allows you to modify files on your badge on the spot, isn't that neat? You can use it to upload files, modify apps, or develop your own! Apps are all written in Python, and some are really well suited for learning how to code. Look at the BNR app in /flash/apps/bnr_radio/__init__.py for example. Can you modify it to play some sweet jazz (https://icecast.omroep.nl/radio6-bb-mp3?.mp3)?
At the bottom of the page, you have a simple Python terminal. You can see what your app prints here, and you can type Python commands in the text field below it as well:
If you're doing advanced things and want to see the output of lower-level firmware components too, you can still connect with your badge over serial using a program like PuTTY or screen, like the previous generation of badges.
Check out what special Python modules you can use with your badge here: https://docs.badge.team/badges/campzone-2020/
