How an animation is done with LEDs?

Question

while(true) {
  movePlayer('upright', '10 * Time.deltaTime');
}

Here, an animation is done. No button or mouse click is done. Everything moves automatically.

How to make that in electronics ?

I know that with an human action, this can be done

[Mouse click]-------| \--------[Light pixel on (10,10)]

but... I want to automate this without any human action. How to do that ? For instance, if I want to light on, light off, light on, light off... several times, how to do that ?

Answer 1

For microprocessor development, "blink LED" is the "Hello World" program, the fist program a beginner should try to see if everything is working.

For an example watch https://training.ti.com/msp-exp430fr2433-launchpad-kit-blink-led.

In Mecrisp Forth for the MSP430 the code will be something like:

$0001 constant BIT0              \  define pin where led is connected
$0021 constant P1OUT             \  define port where led is connected

: P1.0_set_out ( -- )            \ Set P1.0 to output direction
  BIT0 P1DIR cbis!               \ clear bit
;

: toggle_P1.0 ( -- )             \ Toggles P1.0
  BIT0 P1OUT cxor!               \ xor bit
;

: delay( n -- )                  \ delay program by looping at 16 MHz
  0 do loop 
;

: ms ( n -- ) 
  0 do 16000 delay loop           \ wait n ms (replace later with threading)
;


: blink ( -- )
  P1.0_set_out
  begin 
    toggle 100 ms                \ toggle and wait 100 ms
  key? until 
;

Enjoy your first embedded program.

See also this Jeelabs article.