Learn to create your own graphics programs with Turtle Graphics on the Circuit Playground Bluefruit!

The legendary Turtle graphics of the Logo programming language has made their way to CircuitPython! Now, you can learn to program your own graphics right on the TFT Gizmo screen attached to a Circuit Playground Bluefruit board!

In this guide, we'll look at some general Turtle commands, then we'll set up the Circuit Playground Bluefruit and TFT Gizmo to use Turtle in CircuitPython, and then we'll run some example programs to draw sweet graphics on the display!

Besides the CPB with TFT Gizmo, the adafruit_turtle library will run on most of the M4 based boards, such as the Hallowing M4, but will require some fine tuning of the pin assignments and other details.

You may have heard of, or even played around with, turtle graphics. Simply put, this is a metaphor for drawing vector images where you control a turtle that can drag a pen along with it. Commands to the turtle include things like move forward some distance, turn left or right by some angle, lift the pen off the paper (so that moving won't make a mark), or put it on the paper (so that moving will make a mark).

There have been many on-screen implementations of turtle graphics, most notably the LOGO programming language. Versions have also been made that control a robot that has a pen so as to create on-paper copies of turtle drawings.

Parts

shot of a Black woman's neon-green manicured hand holding up a Circuit Playground Bluefruit glowing rainbow LEDs.
Circuit Playground Bluefruit is our third board in the Circuit Playground series, another step towards a perfect introduction to electronics and programming. We've...
$24.95
In Stock
Hand pressing buttons on circuit playground, then turning over to show TFT gizmo display an image of a friendly robot or snake
Extend and expand your Circuit Playground projects with a bolt on TFT Gizmo that lets you add a lovely color display in a sturdy and reliable fashion. This PCB looks just like a round...
$19.95
In Stock
Fully Reversible Pink/Purple USB A to micro B Cable
This cable is not only super-fashionable, with a woven pink and purple Blinka-like pattern, it's also fully reversible! That's right, you will save seconds a day by...
$3.95
In Stock
Lithium Ion Polymer Battery 3.7v 350mAh with JST 2-PH connector and short cable
Lithium-ion polymer (also known as 'lipo' or 'lipoly') batteries are thin, light, and powerful. The output ranges from 4.2V when completely charged to 3.7V. This...
$5.95
In Stock

This guide was first published on Nov 05, 2019. It was last updated on Sep 30, 2023.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Nov 01, 2019.

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