Use VScode to code with Spike Prime

[Xylar52]

Is it possible to use Visual Studio (code) to use pybricks on Spike Prime, like how it's done with EV3. I personally prefer VS over coding on the website or the app, mostly because it's the application that i use all the time.

[dlech]

There is not an extension like there is for EV3, but you can use the pybricksdev command line tool to download and run programs written in VS Code. You can also set to a Python virtual environment and install the pybricks package to get code completion/intellisense working.

[Xylar52]

So i installed all i needed but how do i connect the hub because when i run the command it just search and finds nothing

[dlech]

Did you install the Pybricks firmware on the hub first? I would recommend using Pybricks Code to do that.

[Xylar52]

Well yes, I have been using Pybricks code for a long time now, I already have the firmware

[dlech]

And the hub is turned on with blinking blue light when you try to connect?

You can also run with debugging turned on to get more info:

pybricksdev --debug run ble my_program.py

[Xylar52]

Yes it was blinking but I didn't try debugging I will try that when I can

[Xylar52]

@dlech So i tried the debug and this is what it said :

With the Spike connected to Pybricks Code :

With the Spike connected to nothing :

[dlech]

With the Spike connected to Pybricks Code :

Only one connection at a time can be made to the hub, so if it is connected already with Pybricks Code, you can't also connect at the same time with pybricksdev.

With the Spike connected to nothing :

The advertising data seems to be missing the service UUID in the advertising data dictionary. I will try to see if I can reproduce the problem on my Mac later. Which version of macOS do you have?

[Xylar52]

Which version of macOS do you have?

Mac OS Catalina 10.15.7

[dlech]

It is working for me on macOS 13.3, so I'm guessing that the problem might have to do with the older macOS version.

I previously thought the kCBAdvDataServiceUuids` key was missing in your debug logs, but I see it now, it is just in every other callback. On mine, the debug output looks like:

2023-04-06 19:24:33,928: DEBUG: bleak.backends.corebluetooth.CentralManagerDelegate: 'isScanning' changed
2023-04-06 19:24:33,989: DEBUG: bleak.backends.corebluetooth.CentralManagerDelegate: centralManager_didDiscoverPeripheral_advertisementData_RSSI_
2023-04-06 19:24:33,990: DEBUG: bleak.backends.corebluetooth.CentralManagerDelegate: Discovered device 2C0DBF83-22FE-9CC8-A712-9434EF6C1718: prime_hub @ RSSI: -37 (kCBAdvData <nsdict_keys(['kCBAdvDataTimestamp', 'kCBAdvDataRxPrimaryPHY', 'kCBAdvDataServiceUUIDs', 'kCBAdvDataRxSecondaryPHY', 'kCBAdvDataTxPowerLevel', 'kCBAdvDataIsConnectable'])>) and Central: <CBCentralManager: 0x600003164500>
2023-04-06 19:24:33,990: DEBUG: bleak.backends.corebluetooth.CentralManagerDelegate: centralManager_didDiscoverPeripheral_advertisementData_RSSI_
2023-04-06 19:24:33,990: DEBUG: bleak.backends.corebluetooth.CentralManagerDelegate: Discovered device 2C0DBF83-22FE-9CC8-A712-9434EF6C1718: prime_hub @ RSSI: -38 (kCBAdvData <nsdict_keys(['kCBAdvDataTimestamp', 'kCBAdvDataServiceData', 'kCBAdvDataRxPrimaryPHY', 'kCBAdvDataIsConnectable', 'kCBAdvDataRxSecondaryPHY', 'kCBAdvDataLocalName', 'kCBAdvDataTxPowerLevel', 'kCBAdvDataServiceUUIDs'])>) and Central: <CBCentralManager: 0x600003164500>
2023-04-06 19:24:33,990: DEBUG: bleak.backends.corebluetooth.CentralManagerDelegate: 'isScanning' changed

I have both kCBAdvDataLocalName and kCBAdvDataServiceUUIDs in the same callback while you don't, so I think that is why yours is failing to connect. (In BLE terms, it looks like yours is keeping the ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP separate but mine combines them).

We might be able to workaround the issue by removing these lines: https://github.com/pybricks/pybricksdev/blob/54f37253a46ea29f630fd75a655f82a52258f59e/pybricksdev/ble/__init__.py#L46-L48