Piper Command Center

Beta Launch Review

About

The Piper Command Center is a game controller you get to build and program. With an Arduino Micro as the brain, you get to code the joystick and button pad however you see fit. It plugs into your computer or Raspberry Pi via USB. It works with basic games, simple art programs, and anything else you can hook it up to and control.

The controller has two modes, Keyboard Mode and Mouse Mode. Keyboard Mode lets you program the Joystick and Button Pad to work like keys on a keyboard. Mouse Mode lets you control the cursor and any buttons you program it to. There is a default set up for both of these modes but you can change any of the button bindings at any time.

The Piper Command Center is for ages 13 and up and is currently in Beta Launch, this means some things may change.

Assembly

It’s pretty straightforward how to assemble the Piper Command Center. It takes 7 steps to assemble and took me 1 hour and 14 minutes to fully put together. At this point in time, there are only two minor problems on steps 2 and 3.

On Step 2, the wire colors for blue and purple both look purple in the instructions. The slightly darker wire in the picture for the Joystick is the blue wire, I believe. My Command Center works fine either way.

On Step 3, I put the Joystick together from bottom to top. But because of how a certain piece (called a standoff) works it’s best to assemble it from top to bottom. Standoffs are like screws and nuts combined into one, meaning you can also put a screw in the nut side. The instructions don’t say which way to assemble it but it’s only one of two ways. Only one way actually works, which is top to bottom.

Aside from these two little problems, building the Command Center went smoothly. At this point in time, I’m not sure what the attachable Breadboard is for, but I guess we’ll find out during or after the Piper Command Center’s Beta.

What you can currently do

As one of the first few tutorials, you’ll not only learn how to set up and code your controller, but how to make a program similar to a digital Etch-A-Sketch. This is a great way to teach when a certain button is pressed, you’ll get a certain result or a certain action with occur. Of course, both the controller and program are coded by you, so you can change how anything works once you get the basics down.

Next, head to the resources page to test the Command Center with a few games. Some games you can play in Keyboard Mode and others you can play in Mouse Mode. Sometimes you may have to change a few keys to work with that game, which is great because it tests your knowledge of how the Command Center works. It works with games and programs outside of the resources page too.

The first game I tested was Minecraft. For this, you need to switch between both Keyboard and Mouse mode to move, look, punch, place blocks, open your inventory, and a few other things. In each mode, you’re limited to 8 buttons, 4 directions for the Joystick and 4 buttons on the Button Pad. Because of this, the fewer key bindings there are, the easier it is to control something. I tried some browser pixel art editors and it works well.

I also tried this on my 6-year-old laptop and the Piper Computer Kit Version 2016. The slowest part on my laptop was downloading the Arduino IDE to program the controller and the Processing IDE to make the Etch-A-Sketch. Otherwise, everything ran fine. The Command Center works well as a controller in the Piper Bot and Pip lessons in the Piper Computer Kit.

However, since the Piper Computer Kit Version 2016 doesn’t have a lot of space I couldn’t download the Processing IDE and the Arduino Web Editor wouldn’t load. So I technically can’t program the controller in the Arduino IDE nor run the Etch-A-Sketch program in the Processing IDE.

Pros

• Easy to Assemble.
• Easy to Set Up.
• Great Introduction to Programming an Arduino.
• Previous basic coding knowledge isn’t required but having basic coding knowledge does help.
• The two programs you download take less than 650 MB combined. 500 Megabytes is 0.5 Gigabytes of space. Combined they don’t even take up 1 GB of space on your computer.
• Works with old Computers.
• Works with the Piper Computer Kit, even the 2016 version.
• Portable. Just make sure if you do take it somewhere, you have all the controls set up. This way you won’t have to download the Arduino IDE or Processing IDE if you don’t want to or can’t.
• Doesn’t need Batteries or need to Charge. It works via USB so if you’re not using it just unplug it and plug it in when you’re ready to play. The minute you finish building it you can start setting up the controls.

Cons

• Can’t use it with Piper Code on the Piper Computer Kit. As far I can tell, there isn’t a way to make an LED light up or sound play when you press a button on the Piper Command Center. This was something I was looking forward to doing.
• The tutorials tell you how to set something up and running, but not necessarily why it works. If you need to know why a line of code is written the way it is and why it works to understand it, then you might have a little trouble. These tutorials aren’t meant to teach you the basics of the Arduino coding language as a whole, but rather the basics of setting up an Arduino for the Command Center and changing the key bindings. However, in the resources page, a Glossary is coming soon so explanations for lines of code and common code terms may come in the future.
• No spare parts. No, the two leftover screws aren’t spares, they’re for the attachable Breadboard. Because how small it is and it doesn’t take long to assemble, you shouldn’t need extra parts. But if multiple people are assembling it (e.g a classroom) or put half of it together and move it temporarily, you’ll be out of luck if you lose a screw, standoff, or some other part. On the Piper website, you can buy most of the parts for their products, although currently, parts for the Piper Command Center are not on there. Once it is out of Beta you will most likely be able to buy its parts if you happen to lose any.

Final Verdict

The Piper Command Center is a very fun and educational gadget. Perfect for people who want to learn programming, electronics, and play with an Arduino. It is in Beta, so things are subject to change. New and or different things are sure to come for it, and maybe we’ll learn what we can do with the attachable Breadboard. I will mostly do another review once it is out of Beta.

I give it a 6.5/10.

Huge thank you to the Piper Team for sending me a review unit of the Piper Command Center. I look forward to the updates on this product.