pulseIn

[brasilikum]

Would be nice if support for "pulseIn" could be added.

The example:

board.on("ready", function() {
  var ping = new five.Ping('D4');
  ping.on("change", function() {
    console.log("Object is " + this.in + " inches away");
  });
});

results in:

TypeError: Object #<Spark> has no method 'pulseIn'
    at Ping.<anonymous> (/home/georgzahlz/johnny/node_modules/johnny-five/lib/ping.js:45:13)
    at wrapper [as _onTimeout] (timers.js:261:14)
    at Timer.listOnTimeout [as ontimeout] (timers.js:112:15)

[Resseguie]

Ping requires a special firmata be installed, even on plain ol' Arduino. Not sure what it'd require to implement something similar on the Spark.
See: https://github.com/rwaldron/johnny-five/wiki/Ping

[rwaldron]

Ping requires a special firmata be installed

To elaborate: pulseIn is not supported in the Firmata protocol, because it's a process blocking operation. Unfortunately, the version of Firmata we have to support Ping isn't a generalized implementation—it's specifically for a Ping sensor.

Incidentally, pulseIn doesn't appear to be provided in the Spark's environment: https://github.com/spark/firmware . There are a few forum discussions that offer some sound solutions, but I have serious concerns about adding an operation that requires process blocking on the Spark itself, where it already suffers from wifi latency.

[brasilikum]

Ok, I understand that.
This solution really seems to be blocking:

// Wait for the pin to enter target state while keeping track of the timeout.