How It Works
FlowPaw is a unique combination of hardware and software that allows anyone to learn about programming and electronics in a way that is fun and engaging.
Our FlowPaw board is extremely versatile and gives you access to a whole range of electronic gadgetry.
Our FlowStone software provides an easy way to program the board. It allows you to start simply and quickly with graphical programming before progressing on to text based programming.
The FlowPaw Board
The FlowPaw electronics board plugs straight into a PC via USB. It has all the things you need to build your own gadgets and gizmos: buttons, LEDs, sensors and electronic inputs. You can also plug remote controlled (RC) servo motors directly onto the board to create robots or other mechanical devices.
FlowPaw is expandable using extensions called Click Boards. There are 4 claws on the Paw and each can take a different click board. Currently we support 12 Click boards (including Bluetooth) and we will be adding many more over time.
BOARD FEATURES:
- 4 x Expansion 'claws'
- 4 x LEDs
- 4 x Push Buttons
- 4 x Digital Inputs
- 4 x Analog Inputs
- 8 x Servo Motor Outputs
FlowStone STEM Programming Software
We've partnered FlowPaw with FlowStone STEM a new version of our award winning graphical programming software, FlowStone.
It's super intuitive; by simply connecting building blocks together you literally draw out a program. Best of all, everything works in real time so you can modify your creation as it's running!
With FlowStone you can create easy to manage, modular programs as quickly as you can think them up. By mixing graphical and text based programming children can learn how to code at their own pace without being dropped in at the deep end.
You can learn more about FlowStone on our main web site: www.dsprobotics.com
What Can I Make?
Almost anything!
As well as the FlowPaw board and its randge of sensors, FlowStone STEM allows you to connect to a whole range of other hardware and devices so you're really only limited by your imagination.
What's in the box?
We've designed a beautiful package to deliver FlowPaw to you that's small enough to fit through a standard letterbox. Inside you'll find the FlowPaw board itself, a neat retractable USB cable, four awesome click boards comprising an 8x8 LED display, accelerometer (think Wii), proximity sensor and a buzzer (mono synthesizer).
There's also a handy quick start guide and a CD for installing the FlowStone STEM software, which comes with a host of examples to get you started.
How does FlowPaw help children learn coding?
Having something physical to program is so much more interesting than just seeing something happening on a screen. With just a few components a child can easily wire up a button to play a sound or turn an LED on. It's simple stuff but it's incredibly rewarding.
We've watched children's reactions to this and they just love it. By making programming fun a child is instantly engaged in what they are doing and they'll push on to learn more.
Our FlowStone software is incredibly visual and immediate in its nature. You don't need to learn about source files or compilers before you can get started. Just drag a few components to your schematic and you're up and running.
What's more, everything you do runs in real time. No building and testing - it all happens instantly.
Because there are no barriers in the way, children can concentrate more on their project and less on wrestling with the technology.
Finally, the software is modular. Functionality can be hidden away in modules that children can start to learn about when they are ready - they don't need to deal with this up front.
When they are ready to try some text based coding they can do it in little snippets using our amazing Ruby component.
This integrates seamlessly with the rest of the graphical programming in FlowStone so projects can have any proportion of code from zero to completely coded.
