Firefly

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Firefly offers a set of comprehensive software tools dedicated to bridging the gap between Grasshopper, (a free plug-in for Rhino) the Arduino microcontroller and other input/output devices. It allows near real-time data flow between the digital and physical worlds – enabling the possibility to explore virtual and physical prototypes with unprecedented fluidity.

Website: http://www.fireflyexperiments.com/
Location: Cambridge, MA
Members: 316
Latest Activity: on Monday

Firefly Experiments

Firefly offers a set of comprehensive software tools dedicated to bridging the gap between Grasshopper (a free plug-in for Rhino) and the Arduino micro-controller. It allows near real-time data flow between the digital and physical worlds – enabling the possibility to explore virtual and physical prototypes with unprecedented fluidity.

As a generative modeling tool, Grasshopper offers a fluid visual interface for creating sophisticated parametric models, but by default, it lacks the ability to communicate with hardware devices such as programmable microcontrollers or haptic interfaces. Firefly fills this void. It is an extension to the Grasshopper’s parametric interface; combining a specialized set of components with a novel communication protocol (called the Firefly Firmata or Firmware) which together enable real-time communication between hardware devices and the parametric plug-in for Rhino.

A notable distinction for Firefly is that it is the first visual microcontroller programming environment designed specifically for a 3-D parametric CAD package (such as Rhino). This feature means that real-world data, acquired from various types of sensors or other input devices (video cameras, internet feeds, or mobile phone devices, etc.) can be used to explicitly define parametric relationships within a Grasshopper model. Firefly completes the communication feedback loop by allowing users the ability to send information from Grasshopper back to the microcontroller in order to incite specific actuations (ie. lights, motors, valves, etc). Ultimately, this workflow creates a new way to create interactive prototypes.

Discussion Forum

Remembering values with rotary switching 10 Replies

Hi Everyone.I am using a rotary switch with firefly that sends values to a stream gate. I want to remember the last set of data sent via the stream after switching. Can VB scripting do this? In the image below stream 1 is reading data but stream 2…Continue

Tags: gate, stream, switching, firefly

Started by Scott Mayson. Last reply by Andy Payne May 14.

Serial read problem in Firefly 6 Replies

Hi guys,I'm communicating with a 3D printer via Grasshopper / Firefly (and eventually) Silkworm.So far, I can quite happily send G-Code move commands to the printer - which is a Leapfrog Creatr, based on Arduino Mega / RAMPS electronics - via the…Continue

Tags: GCode, Read, Serial, Firefly

Started by fergal.coulter. Last reply by fergal.coulter May 10.

Possible to connect 12 micro servos to Arduino Uno board and control each one separately? 4 Replies

I am as much of a novice to Firefly and Arduino as one can get. I have 12 servos and an Arduino Uno board... is it possible to connect them all to a single board and control their rotation values in Firefly...? I'm investigating myself as of writing…Continue

Started by Adam Roark. Last reply by Andy Payne Apr 23.

Pleated Skin Actuation

Hi I'm trying to actuate the pleated skin shown in this model. I am planning on using servos to move the pleated skin in the form of a sin wave. I have a series of structural columns in the model that would be the base for the servos, but I was…Continue

Tags: pavilion, firefly, pleats

Started by Nicholas Murao Apr 9.

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Comment by Steve Moody on August 23, 2012 at 4:16pm: Hey Andy, my Firefly tab looks similar to CarloMaria's, and I wanted to make sure there isn't something I'm missing. I've never been able to use the vision or audio tools in rhino 5, but the OSC components were invaluable to me and were working fine in 64bit rhino 5 until I upgraded to grasshopper 0.9 and the timer attached to the listener started going haywire. Are the OSC components also broken in 64bit now?

Thanks!

Comment by CarloMaria Ciampoli on August 21, 2012 at 7:46pm: Thanks for your reply Andy!

Comment by Andy Payne on August 21, 2012 at 6:22am: Hi CarloMaria,

Unfortunately, Firefly isn't yet supported on 64-bit applications. Well, to be more accurate... the computer vision and audio tools aren't supported on Rhino 5 64-bit. This is because the C_sawapan_media.dll which is what Firefly uses to tap into the video capture devices and microphones isn't compiled for 64-bit applications (this was noted as a known bug in the ReadMe.txt file in the download zip file). It's on the list of things to work on over the next few months (it's actually a relatively big task to update that library)... but for now, if you want to use the Computer Vision and Audio tools, you have to use either Rhino 5.0 32-bit or Rhino 4.

Sorry for the confusion.

Cheers,

Andy

Comment by CarloMaria Ciampoli on August 21, 2012 at 4:09am: This is not really the way it should look, right?

Is Firefly supported on R5 64-bit?

Thanks Andy

Comment by Carlos B.M. on August 2, 2012 at 1:38pm: Ok Andy!! thank you very much for your suggestions, any way I changed my strategy, and I have used an other arduino board in the computer of my partner, to save up time. I will check forward these steps to try to knwo What-the-Fck is going on with mine!

Thanks for all!!

Comment by Andy Payne on August 1, 2012 at 2:44pm: Hi Carlos,

For future reference, it's probably better to start a discussion (above) for more detailed questions... that way we can start a thread about the topic and track any questions all the way through. Nevertheless, the description of your problem makes me think that for some reason the data being sent from your arduino isn't being formatted correctly, and thus the Uno Read component is throwing an error when the incoming data doesn't match the expected format. You may have already tried this, but can you double check that you have loaded the Uno Firmata properly onto your board. You might have loaded the Mega Firmata onto your Uno board, in which case it may not be sending the right data over to Grasshopper. To see if the firmata is working properly, load it onto your board and then launch the serial monitor in the Arduino IDE (make sure your port is closed in Grasshopper and that the serial monitor baud rate is set to 115200). You should see a long string of data (separated by commas) streaming down the page. That is the string of data that is being sent over to Grasshopper... so if this is working properly, then you should be able to open the port in Grasshopper and then use the Uno Read component to retrieve that data and parse it up.

If this doesn't work, could you post a screen shot of your circuit, or provide more information about what type of sensor you are using? You mentioned a sound sensor (is that a microphone?). Hopefully we can figure this out before your deadline (although I'm currently out of town and do not have regular access to my computer... so I may be a little less responsive than usual).

Cheers,

Andy

Comment by Carlos B.M. on August 1, 2012 at 10:28am: Hi!!!

I'm having problems With the "UNO READ": it 's red all the time and no data is collected. I can "Write" and control manually some Leds, but not through the data collected by my sensors. I have developed an equalizer definition, And I need to control it With a sound sensor.

Even When I change the position of the USB in other sockets, always recognize that I'm using COM 3. Is this normal??

I hope you could help me to make it work, before Friday! It's my project delivery day.

Thanks,

Carlos

Comment by Mohammad Azinkia on March 28, 2012 at 3:36am: Thanks andy!

Comment by ryles on March 26, 2012 at 9:40pm: @Andy... this is really odd. it didn't work with my laptop's camera, plug in the PS Eye, and the laptop camera then works and it doesn't use the PS Eye. Tried disabling the laptop camera and it stopped capturing. No complaints, just thought i'd share that oddity. Main thing is, I can get it working now!

Comment by ryles on March 26, 2012 at 9:11pm: @ Andy... Got it working flawlessly with my PS Eye, guess my laptop's webcam is bunk.

Thanks for your help and the plugin!