PyBadger Event Badge

2024-06-04 | By Adafruit Industries

License: See Original Project

Courtesy of Adafruit

Guide by Kattni Rembor

Overview

Download PyBadge FeatherWing Snapfit Case

hello_1

You're headed to the next big conference or event. They'll likely ‎provide a badge with your name on it, but what if you could have ‎something better?‎

That's where PyBadger and PyBadge (or PyGamer or CLUE) come in! ‎Use CircuitPython to easily create an interactive conference or event ‎badge. You can display a "Hello My Name Is"-style badge that you ‎can quickly add your name to or customise it entirely. You can ‎generate and display a custom QR code to direct people to your ‎website. You can also display a "business card" with an image, such ‎as your face or company logo, and a string of text, such as your email ‎address.‎

PyBadger also gives you access to the other features on the board, ‎such as the buttons, NeoPixels, light sensor, and accelerometer. You ‎can easily add all kinds of features to your badge if you choose to.‎

CircuitPython's own Blinka is headed to the next Circuit Playground ‎conference and wants to have the coolest badge there. This guide ‎will walk you through Blinka creating an interactive conference ‎badge. Follow along and customise it to fit your needs!‎

badge_2

All you need to follow along is a PyBadge, battery and lanyard, we ‎have a few options for each, so you can deck out in the fanciest style, ‎or go for an affordable-yet-stylish look.‎

Prepare Your Badge

pybadge_3

Adafruit CircuitPython PyBadger makes it easy to create an ‎interactive conference or event badge with PyBadge or PyGamer. ‎Blinka is headed to a fun conference and is excited to create a ‎badge. Let's take a look!

Download PyBadger

Adafruit CircuitPython PyBadger requires the latest CircuitPython ‎and a number of libraries to work.‎

To download CircuitPython, visit the following link for CLUE, ‎PyBadge or PyGamer, depending on what you're using, and ‎download the latest CircuitPython version for your board.‎

Download CircuitPython for CLUE from circuitpython.org

Download CircuitPython for PyBadge from circuitpython.org

Download CircuitPython for PyGamer from circuitpython.org

Next visit the following link and download the library bundle that ‎matches your CircuitPython version.‎

Download the CircuitPython Library Bundle from circuitpython.org

PyBadger requires the following libraries to work. Download the ‎library bundle and unzip the file. Open the folder, find the lib folder ‎within, and open the lib folder. Copy the following folders and files to ‎the lib folder on your CIRCUITPY drive:‎

adafruit_bitmap_font
adafruit_bus_device
adafruit_display_shapes
adafruit_display_text
adafruit_miniqr.mpy
adafruit_pybadger
neopixel.mpy

If you are using PyBadge or PyGamer, copy the following library:‎

adafruit_lis3dh.mpy

If you are using CLUE, copy the following library:‎

adafruit_lsm6ds.mpy
adafruit_register

Once you have the listed files and folders copied to the lib folder on ‎your CIRCUITPY drive, you're ready to go!‎

Using PyBadger

Using the PyBadger library is easy. Simply import the library.‎

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from adafruit_pybadger import pybadger

Now you have access to all the features PyBadger has to offer, ‎including badge, business card, and QR code creation.‎

Hello My Name Is...‎

First, we'll create a "Hello My Name Is" style badge to display initially.‎

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pybadger.show_badge(name_string="Blinka", hello_scale=2, my_name_is_scale=2, name_scale=3)

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To change the badge to display your name, set name_string="Your ‎Name" when you create the badge object.‎

Each of the scales applies to a different line on the badge, ‎e.g., hello_scale applies to the HELLO string on the badge. When using ‎the default font, the above values for hello_scale and my_name_is_scale are ideal. Depending on the length of ‎your name, you'll want to tweak name_scale to allow it to fit properly.‎

Auto-Dim the Display

The display is the part of the badge that uses up the most battery. To ‎help mitigate that, PyBadger includes the ability to auto-dim the ‎display if the badge isn't moving. If you set it down somewhere, it'll ‎use less battery.‎

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while True:
    pybadger.auto_dim_display()

dim_5

It defaults to dimming after 5 seconds and brightening up again on a ‎fairly small movement threshold of 1.5. If you would like to change ‎either of those, you can do so when adding ‎the auto_dim_display() function to your code. For example, to change it to ‎wait 10 seconds before dimming, and require more movement to ‎brighten up again, you would add the following:‎

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    pybadger.auto_dim_display(delay=10, movement_threshold=20)

The higher the movement_threshold, the more movement it takes to cause ‎the display to return to full brightness.‎

Business Card

Everyone exchanges business cards at conferences. But it means ‎carrying extra things around and trying to remember who gave you ‎the card in the first place. Not anymore! Now you can display a ‎simple business card with your picture, name, and email address. ‎Someone can snap a quick picture of it and have your face and info ‎available for later.‎

Blinka wants to display her name, email and image when pressing ‎button A.‎

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    if pybadger.button.a:
        pybadger.show_business_card(image_name="Blinka.bmp", name_string="Blinka", name_scale=2,
                                    email_string_one="blinka@", email_string_two="adafruit.com")

card_6

The show_business_card function requires you to provide a bitmap image ‎name as a string. You can optionally add your name as a string, and ‎up to two lines of an email address (or any other info you'd like to ‎provide!).‎

The badge will continue to display the business card until you tell it ‎to display something else by pressing another button.‎

Images must be in 16-bit or 24-bit BMP format, and ideally 160x128 ‎pixels. Here's the blinka.bmp file if you need to see what the format ‎is:‎

blinkabmp_7

QR Code

Blinka wants to direct other conference attendees to her website. ‎She can easily do that by generating a QR code and having it display ‎when pressing button B.‎

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    elif pybadger.button.b:
        pybadger.show_qr_code(data="https://circuitpython.org")

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The show_qr_code function allows you to set its target by setting data= a ‎string with the target info in it. For example, Blinka wants to point to ‎circuitpython.org and so she sets data="https://circuitpython.org".‎

The badge will continue to display the QR code until you tell it to ‎display something else by pressing another button.‎

Return to Hello My Name Is...‎

Blinka needs a way to display the Hello My Name Is part of the ‎badge again after showing off her business card and QR code. So, ‎the last thing included is assigning the start button to display it.‎

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    elif pybadger.button.start:
        pybadger.show_badge(name_string="Blinka", hello_scale=2, my_name_is_scale=2, name_scale=3)

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That's all there is to creating a fun, interactive conference or event ‎badge!‎

Full Example Code

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# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 ladyada for Adafruit Industries
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

from adafruit_pybadger import pybadger

pybadger.show_badge(
    name_string="Blinka", hello_scale=2, my_name_is_scale=2, name_scale=3
)

while True:
    pybadger.auto_dim_display(
        delay=10
    )  # Remove or comment out this line if you have the PyBadge LC
    if pybadger.button.a:
        pybadger.show_business_card(
            image_name="Blinka.bmp",
            name_string="Blinka",
            name_scale=2,
            email_string_one="blinka@",
            email_string_two="adafruit.com",
        )
    elif pybadger.button.b:
        pybadger.show_qr_code(data="https://circuitpython.org")
    elif pybadger.button.start:
        pybadger.show_badge(
            name_string="Blinka", hello_scale=2, my_name_is_scale=2, name_scale=3
        )