CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to Blenduino

Do you have thoughts on how to more usefully implement python threading? Can you think of a feature that you'd want to use? Do you think the serial stream could be more efficiently handled? By all means, feel free to contribute!

Submission Steps

To help me keep track of stuff, please submit an issue before submitting a pull request. In your pull request, tag the issue that you are referencing!

Code Overview

I have tried to structure the code so that it is understandable through comments. Here is an overview of the current functions:

register() and unregister()

Blender API function to start and stop addon

initSerialProperties()

Creates variables within the context of Blender. This allows other data blocks in Blender to access the variables within this code

CreateSerialPanel()

Uses the Blender API to create a UI panel in the tool shelf, and renders the buttons for Blenduino

ToggleSerial()

Keeps track of threads created to read the Serial stream. Creates requests to kill threads if more than one is detected

SerialDataThread()

Creates a new thread to read the Serial stream. Current implementation also parses data and writes it to Blender variables in the scene context.

DebugSerial()

Toggles a serial monitor in the python console

Helpful Resources

• Python 3.6.4 documentation
• Blender Python API docs
• Arduino Serial docs