Firefly

Information

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: 628
Latest Activity: Dec 12

Firefly Experiments

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.

Key Features

Read / Write to Arduino microcontrollers and other devices
Visualize Sensor Data within Firefly / Grasshopper
Control LEDS, Lights, Motors, Valves and more
Control Stepper Motors (for 3d Printers and end effectors)
Stream Web Cams and connect with Mobile Devices (iOS + Android) using OSC and UDP
Connect to Internet Feeds and search XML Feeds
Generate code to upload to an Arduino Board
Basic sound input and processing tools
Datalogging, counting and playback
Machine Vision toolkit including edge detection, color filtering, convolution filtering and much more
Kinect toolkit including skeleton tracking

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

Writing to SPI/I2C devices through FT232H 2 Replies

Hi all.I'm recently working on a kinetic project involving a number of hobby servo motors controlled by a I2C PWM controller PCA9685. (or some of you refer to the famous Adafruit 16 channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver - I2C interface )I realize it would…Continue

Started by Victor Leung. Last reply by KieshaEFrederick Dec 12.

Firefly media types: raw video bitmaps vs ordinary firefly bitmaps. 2 Replies

I have a prerecorded video clip that I'd like to run through the 'optical flow' component to generate an extra layer for my video.using the 'video player' as the input for the 'optical flow' component makes the outcome appear bumpy because the video…Continue

Tags: mediatypes, rawvideobitmap, opticalflow, framerate

Started by Johanna Jõekalda. Last reply by yogamaja Nov 25.

How to Sync with ABB robot controller? 3 Replies

Hey There. A quick question: is there any way to synch Arduino/Firefly with HAL?I have a tool attached to my robot arm and I kinda manually control it through Arduino. I need to use Firefly to parametrically and maybe in almost real time (if…Continue

Tags: IRC5, Arduino, ABB, Firefly, Robot

Started by Mehdi FarahBakhsh. Last reply by GabrielaSullivan Mar 21.

Serial read problem in Firefly 7 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 Aaron Porterfield May 16, 2022.

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Comment by Matt O'Brien on June 9, 2013 at 6:29pm: Hi Andy,

Having trouble with the Code Gen in the latest grasshopper 9.0056..

getting this "controlknob" error with any definition,( no control knob component is being used) :

Solution exception:Could not load type 'Grasshopper.Kernel.Special.GH_ControlKnob' from assembly 'Grasshopper, Version=1.0.0.20, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=dda4f5ec2cd80803'.

Comment by Andy Payne on March 18, 2013 at 2:59pm: Hi Shahriar,

Have you made sure you have successfully uploaded the Firefly Firmata on your board before running your GH definition? Also, is there a reason you changed the baud rate to 9600? The baud rate needs to be the same as what is set in the Arduino Sketch. For the Firmata it is 115200... unless you changed this specifically, then you should probably use the default value of 115200 in the Open Port component. This could be possibly what's causing your error.

Comment by Igor on February 17, 2013 at 3:08pm: Hi Andy!

Is there a way to get sound from stream video (Internet video,Skype...) and from Video Player not from microphone only?

At reading attempt from MusicXML file the error stands out. What is wrong?

Example of MusicXML : LVB_OP18_NO1_M1.xml

Comment by Yoshi Fukumori on February 9, 2013 at 10:05am: Hello Andy! it works for 64, but for 32 I still have the problem.

Comment by Andy Payne on February 9, 2013 at 9:22am: Hi Yoshi and Miguel,

Sorry to hear your having troubles. It seems like for whatever reason it's not recognizing the Firefly_X.gha (which contains all of those components). My hunch is that the installer is not overwriting the existing files (even though that is set in the installer settings). Can you both try to manually delete all the existing Firefly files and dependencies (including the C_sawapan_media.dll) and try to re-install. I think if the files are not there, then the installer will copy the new files and it should work (at least I hope). Can you try this and report back. Thanks.

Comment by Yoshi Fukumori on February 9, 2013 at 8:50am: hello Andy! I have the same problem, I have Rhino 5 in 32 and 64, after installing the latest version of firefly the audio tab, computer vision tab and conexion tab are missing.

I check the component folder and all the files are unblock.

thanks for your help and as always thanks for sharing

your knowledge! :)

Comment by Andy Payne on January 24, 2013 at 5:14pm: Are there other tabs missing (ie. Computer Vision)? What version of Rhino are you running?

Comment by Miguel Vidal on January 24, 2013 at 4:44pm: Exactly!

After installing the latest version of Firefly, the "Audio" Tab is not there.

Comment by Andy Payne on January 24, 2013 at 4:39pm: What do you mean, erase the functions for sound management? Are the audio components for Firefly not showing up?

Comment by Miguel Vidal on January 24, 2013 at 2:03pm: Hi Andy!

Thanks for your reply, I´ll try that.

One more question: in the last version of Firefly, did you erase the functions for sound management?