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@ReedMikel

There is no difference between having a library and using custom blocks (My Blocks). All libraries start out as custom blocks and then get exported.

If you want to or plan to use ESP01 a lot, you are going to need much more than just the library. In cases like ESP01 comms, there is also the need for what I call "glue" logic that makes coordination of events work. These are never in the library. You are not in an environment where you make sequential library calls and string them together as in Python or Arduino IDEs.

Best approach is to first study the example and understand the comm flow, msg handling, msg parsing, etc. Then you can modify the behavior to your needs.

Please keep in mind that you are working in a very memory constrained micro processor environment in a real time fashion. There is no compiling and optimizing code by a compiler. There are limits to size of code and libraries. Therefore, when working in MicroBlocks with advanced projects one needs to get good in understanding of the environment and restrictions. We simply cannot put everything into a Library; it would be huge and will not fit. So work needed has to be split between some custom block code and some application coordination logic.

However, that does not mean one cannot do serious stuff in MB. The perfect example is the OLED library that I have written, which performs at C++ levels or better, is 26K+ in size and is TOTALLY written in MicroBlocks, manipulating the hardware. You can open read each and every block of it. There is no hidden magic behind the scenes.

The PicoBricks kit and the block programming paradigms provided are primarily a learning environment where experimentation and exploration is the key learning approach. If you are only comfortable with running examples and don't feel like experimenting, then you might not be happy with the exploratory approach, and might be better served by the Python or Arduino environments, with their compiled, linked, and downloaded approach to programming. and relatively less memory restrictions.

I understand the overwhelming amount of "NEW" that needs to be absorbed, understood, and applied. I will try to coordinate a few WEB presentation sessions to cover the complicated projects, as it is rather lengthy and hard to write about each and every detail. I believe an interactive session with interested users like yourself will be more productive.

Many ways to skin a cat...

"Why was that particular example included if the hardware requirements are different than what ships with our PB kits?"

Using MicroBlocks you can program a lot of different boards. https://wiki.microblocks.fun/boards/supported, not just Raspberry Pi Picos.

The example @Turgut showed was made with another board/screen in mind. You could change it so it works with the OLED screen of your PicoBricks.

There's an rtc in the pico 2040, but there are to issues with it:

• it is not sub-second capable
• there is no built-in battery, so it cannot persist.
• also. from MicroBlocks, there is no block to accees the rtc component of the processor.

However, as usual, there are always workarounds:

Under FIle/Open/Examples/Network there is a project called "Online Clock Example".

Starting with that, and adopting it to work with the ESP01 WIFI module, you can implement a clock logic that can initialize itself upon startup, with the network time. Since MB is capable of the ticking at millisec level, it might end up being better than the Pico rtc option.

There is also a timer project in the PicoBricks activities that implements a countdown timer, which can be modified to serve as the basis of a clock logic.

Of course, you are also free to experiment with many other methods that can be implemented using the Python or Arduino interfaces.

I think, this is the beauty of these microprocessors and simple programming methods that allows one to try out many different things.