Sunfounder Create Agent

SunFounder Create Agent is a simple application that helps connect SunFounder Online Tutorial to your Raspberry Pi!

The Agent opens a local websocket service, allows Online Tutorial to connect, and connects to the Raspberry Pi via SSH, so that you can establish a connection between Online Tutorial and the Raspberry Pi.

With the Run button of the Online Tutorial, you can run the commands and code directly.

Download and Install

In our tutorials you will see the word Disconnected in the top right corner, click on it to connect and run commands and code to the Raspberry Pi, but you need to download the SunFounder Create Agent first.

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Here are the tutorials for installing on different systems:

Windows

  1. Click on Disconnected, and select Download the Agent in the pop-up window. If you have already downloaded and installed it, please see Quick User Guide.

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  2. Click on the downloaded SunFounder-Create-Agent-win32-xx.x.x.exe file, which is usually in the Downloads/ folder.

  3. Select install mode.

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  4. The default installation path is shown in the figure. You can also choose another path by using the Browse button and click Next.

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  5. Select whether to create a desktop shortcut.

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  6. Click Install to continue with the installation, or click Back if you want to review or change any settings.

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  7. Wait a very short time and when the following pop-up window appears, the installation is successful. In this pop-up window, Launch SunFounder Create Agent is checked by default, click Finish, and this Agent will be run at this time.

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Mac OS

  1. Click on Disconnected, and select Download the Agent in the pop-up window. If you have already downloaded and installed it, please see Quick User Guide.

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  2. Click on the downloaded SunFounder-Create-Agent-darwin-xx.x.x.dmg file, which is usually in the Downloads/ folder.

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  3. Drag the SunFounder-Create-Agent-darwin-xx.x.x.dmg to the Applications folder to install it.

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Raspberry Pi OS

  1. Click on Disconnected, and select Download the Agent in the pop-up window. If you have already downloaded and installed it, please see Quick User Guide.

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  2. Click on the downloaded SunFounder-Create-Agent-linux-xx.x.x.deb file, which is usually in the Downloads/ folder，then select Install.

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  3. Enter the username and password, click OK.

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  4. Wait for a very short time, when the pop-up window disappears, the installation is successful.

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If the installation is not successful, please refer to the FAQ.

Run or Quit

You will need to run this Agent manually every time your computer restarts. The usual method is to find the SunFounder Create Agent you installed, and then open it to let it run in the background.

Windows

Run

You will need to run this Agent manually every time your computer restarts. If you created a desktop shortcut, then you can find the following icon and double-click it to run.

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If you have not created a shortcut, you can search for: Sunfounder Create Agent in the search box in the lower left corner, click it to run.

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Quit

Generally, it only runs in the background and does not affect other processes. If you want to quit it, after finding it in the taskbar, right click and select Quit.

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Mac OS

Run

You will need to run this Agent manually every time your computer restarts. Find it in the Applications folder, click and select Open to make it run in the background.

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Quit

Generally, it only runs in the background and does not affect other processes. If you want to quit it, after finding it in the taskbar, right click and select Quit.

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Raspberry Pi OS

Run

You will need to run this Agent manually every time your computer restarts. Click on the Raspberry Pi menu icon in the upper right corner and select Accessories –> Sunfounder Create Agent.

After a while a pop-up will show that it is already running in the background.

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Quit

Generally, it only runs in the background and does not affect other processes. If you want to quit it, after finding it in the taskbar, right click and select Quit.

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Quick User Guide

Connect to Raspberry Pi

  1. You will need to run this Agent manually every time your computer restarts. The usual method is to find the SunFounder Create Agent you installed, and then open it to let it run in the background.

  2. Click Disconnected.

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  3. If you do not have the Agent installed, please click Download the Agent, detailed tutorial refer to: Download and Install. If you have downloaded and installed the Agent and have it running, click I have the opened the Agent.

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  4. Click OK.

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  5. Enter the Raspberry Pi IP, username and password, and click Connect.

    Note

    If you are reading the tutorial on Raspberry Pi and want to connect with itself, you can use local ip address 127.0.0.1 or local network name localhost

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  6. The connection is successful and you can now run the code directly from your browser.

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Run the Command and Code

  1. After successful connection, the Raspberry Pi IP will be displayed in the upper right corner. And Terminal will appear on the right side.

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  2. On the page, you will see some command lines and codes with boxes as shown below, which means you can Reset/Copy/Run/Stop them directly.

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    • Reset: Reset to initial state.

    • Copy: Copy the complete command or code to the clipboard. This function is generally used when you have modified the code and there is no problem with debugging. You can copy the complete code and paste it into the source .py file.

    • Run: To run the command or code, you need to stop the previous run before you click Run next time.

    • Stop: Equivalent to Ctrl+C, used to stop a command or code.

  3. The Terminal on the right side is also editable，but you need to click on the right area first before you can start entering commands.

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  4. You can disconnect the Raspberry Pi by clicking ip -> Disconnected in the top right corner.

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FAQ

What kind of operating systems does Agent support?

Currently Agent supports Win10, macOS Big Sur 11.5, Raspberry Pi OS Buster and above.

Agent installation failed?

The Agent may fail to install in Raspberry Pi OS, in which case you need to update via sudo apt update.

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After the update is successfully installed, double-click SunFounder-Create-Agent-linux-xx.x.x.deb again to install.

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Recognizes as a “virus”?

If during the process of installing the Agent, some security protection software recognizes it as a “virus”, please trust this software. If possible, please give us a screenshot, and we will actively communicate with them.

Agent connection failed?

If you run the code without opening SunFounder Create Agent, Agent connection failed will pop up. Reopen SunFounder Create Agent, click “Try again” to reconnect.

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Run button doesn’t work?

When you click Run, the command or code doesn’t run, there are 2 reasons.

  • Raspberry Pi is disconnected, you need to disconnect by clicking ip -> Disconnected in the top right corner and then reconnect again.

  • There is a program running, you need to stop it first when you click Run next time.

Unable to edit in Terminal?

  • You need to click on the right area first before you can start entering commands on the Terminal.

  • Or if the Raspberry Pi has been disconnected, you need to reconnect by clicking on the ip -> Disconnected in the top right corner.

No module named ‘xxxxx’？

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Because some codes need to manually install the module, you need to run the command on the page to install the module.

Or run under a specific path, because some libraries are not provided by the Raspberry Pi, but provided by SunFounder. Generally, these modules will be placed under the xxxx/python/ path, so you need to enter this path before running the code.

Can only run Python code, but not C?

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Because Run button is basicly copy commands and hit enters for you, it only works if everything in the editor can run in terminal. And for Python, it also adds a python command ahead to run it under python. You can run Python code directly with Python command, but you cannot do it with C. You can still run commands to compile C into an excutable and run it.

What browsers are supported?

  1. SunFounder Create Agent currently supports Chrome and Firefox browsers, and does not support Safari and Internet Explorer browsers.