Introduction: Use PicoBoard for Scratch on PcDuino

The PicoBoard allows you to create interactions with various sensors. Using the Scratch programming language, you can easily create simple interactive programs based on the input from sensors. The PicoBoard incorporates a light sensor, sound sensor, a button and a slider, as well as 4 additional inputs that can sense electrical resistance via included cables.

Designed for educators and beginners, the PicoBoard is a good way to get into the very basics of programming and reading sensors.

In this project, we will show how to use picoBoard for scratch on pcDuino.

Step 1: Install Scratch on PcDuino

pcDuino team developed a special of scratch for pcDuino. To install it, simplly type the following command on a terminal:

$sudo apt-get install pcduino-scratch

The scratch for pcDuino has a special hardware tab, that can be used to interface with hardware. In this post, we will however look at how to use picoBoard to interface with hardware.

Step 2: Install PicBoard

To install picoBoard, please use a  mini USB cable to hook picoboard to the USB host of pcDuino. You don’t need to install additional USB driver as the driver for picoBoard is built in the pcDuino system.

Step 3: Test

To enable the picoboard, we click the sensing tab, and right click the ‘slider sensor value’ to bring the menu.


After we enable the scratch board watcher, we can slide the slider to observe the value changes.