Makeability Lab Arduino Library

A library for Arduino that provides useful classes for physical computing projects, including joystick input, OLED graphics, signal filtering, and more. Created for courses at the Makeability Lab, University of Washington.

Officially available in the Arduino Library Manager — search for MakeabilityLab.

📖 Interactive textbook: makeabilitylab.github.io/physcomp

What's Included

Class	Header	Description
ParallaxJoystick	ParallaxJoystick.hpp	Read input from a Parallax 2-Axis Joystick, with support for different orientations
Button	Button.hpp	Debounced digital button with press/release detection
Shape, Rectangle, RoundRect, Triangle, Circle, Ball	Shape.hpp	Drawing primitives with collision detection, velocity, and boundary checking for monochrome OLEDs (Adafruit SSD1306)
ScrollingLineGraph	ScrollingLineGraph.hpp	Single-value scrolling line graph for OLEDs
ScrollingLineGraphMultiValue	ScrollingLineGraphMultiValue.hpp	Multi-value scrolling line graph with per-line symbols
MovingAverageFilter	MovingAverageFilter.hpp	Sliding-window moving average for smoothing sensor input
ColorName	ColorName.hpp	Named RGB colors with closest-color matching (e.g., for color sensors)
FileUtils	FileUtils.hpp	SD card file utilities: list, count, and search files by extension

Installation

Option 1: Arduino Library Manager (recommended)

In the Arduino IDE: Sketch → Include Library → Manage Libraries…, then search for "MakeabilityLab" and click Install.

This will also automatically install the required dependencies (Adafruit SSD1306 and Adafruit GFX).

Option 2: Clone from GitHub

git clone https://github.com/makeabilitylab/makelab-arduino-lib.git

Then copy (or symlink) the folder into your Arduino libraries directory:

OS	Libraries path
Windows	C:\Users\<YourName>\Documents\Arduino\libraries\
macOS	~/Documents/Arduino/libraries/
Linux	~/Arduino/libraries/

Verify installation

After installing, open one of the example sketches below (File → Examples → Makeability Lab). If it compiles, you're all set.

Quick Start

Include the header you need at the top of your sketch:

#include <Shape.hpp>            // for Shape, Rectangle, RoundRect, Triangle, Circle, Ball
#include <ParallaxJoystick.hpp> // for joystick input
#include <Button.hpp>           // for debounced buttons

Examples

These example sketches are included with the library (File → Examples → Makeability Lab):

Example	What it demonstrates
BallBounceObjectOriented	Ball with velocity, boundary detection, isOutOfBoundsX/Y
BallBounceShapes	Shows all shape, collision detection with overlaps()
FlappyBird	Game loop, subclassing Rectangle, collision with overlaps()
Pong	Two-player input (joystick + buttons), ball-paddle collision, scoring
MoveBallJoystickTest	ParallaxJoystick controlling a Ball on the OLED
CollisionTest	Polymorphism with Shape pointers, mixed Ball/Rectangle collision

Dependencies

Some classes require external libraries. If you installed via the Library Manager, these are handled automatically. Otherwise, install them manually via Sketch → Include Library → Manage Libraries…:

This library class	Requires
Shape, Rectangle, RoundRect, Triangle, Circle, Ball	Adafruit SSD1306, Adafruit GFX
ScrollingLineGraph, ScrollingLineGraphMultiValue	Adafruit SSD1306
FileUtils	SD (built-in)
ParallaxJoystick, Button, MovingAverageFilter, ColorName	(none — standalone)

Class Reference

ParallaxJoystick

Handles analog input from the Parallax 2-axis joystick, with support for different physical orientations (UP, RIGHT, DOWN, LEFT).

ParallaxJoystick joystick(A0, A1);                    // up/down pin, left/right pin
ParallaxJoystick joystick(A0, A1, 1023, RIGHT);       // with max analog value and orientation

void setup() { }

void loop() {
  joystick.read();
  int upDown = joystick.getUpDownVal();       // 0–1023
  int leftRight = joystick.getLeftRightVal(); // 0–1023
}

Button

Debounced button input with configurable debounce time and active-low/active-high support.

Button myButton(2);           // pin 2, 25ms debounce, internal pull-up, active low

void setup() {
  myButton.begin();           // must call before read()
}

void loop() {
  myButton.read();
  if (myButton.isPressed()) { /* button is held down */ }
  if (myButton.wasPressed()) { /* button was just released */ }
}

Shape / Rectangle / RoundRect / Triangle / Circle / Ball

Drawing primitives for SSD1306 OLEDs with bounding-box collision detection. All shapes support velocity (setSpeed, update, reverseXSpeed, reverseYSpeed) and boundary checking (isOutOfBoundsX, isOutOfBoundsY, forceInside).

Circle ball(64, 32, 5);       // xCenter, yCenter, radius
Rectangle paddle(0, 28, 5, 8); // x, y, width, height

ball.setDrawFill(true);
ball.setSpeed(1, 1);          // any shape can have velocity

void loop() {
  ball.update();

  if (ball.isOutOfBoundsX(0, 128)) ball.reverseXSpeed();
  if (ball.isOutOfBoundsY(0, 64))  ball.reverseYSpeed();
  ball.forceInside(0, 0, 128, 64);

  if (ball.overlaps(paddle)) {
    ball.reverseXSpeed();
  }

  display.clearDisplay();
  ball.draw(display);
  paddle.draw(display);
  display.display();
}

Additional shape classes:

RoundRect button(10, 2, 50, 12, 3);   // x, y, width, height, cornerRadius
Triangle arrow(60, 20, 80, 32, 60, 44); // three (x,y) vertices

Ball is kept for backwards compatibility — it's just a Circle with checkXBounce/checkYBounce convenience methods (equivalent to isOutOfBoundsX/isOutOfBoundsY on any shape).

MovingAverageFilter

Smooths noisy sensor input with a sliding-window average.

MovingAverageFilter filter(10);  // window size of 10

void loop() {
  int raw = analogRead(A0);
  filter.add(raw);
  int smoothed = filter.getAverage();
}

ScrollingLineGraph

Real-time scrolling graph for visualizing sensor data on an OLED.

ScrollingLineGraph graph(128, 64);  // width, height in pixels
graph.setDataLabel("Sensor");

void loop() {
  graph.addData(analogRead(A0));
  display.clearDisplay();
  graph.draw(display);
  display.display();
}

ScrollingLineGraphMultiValue

Like ScrollingLineGraph but supports multiple data series with distinct symbols.

PointSymbol symbols[] = {CIRCLE, SQUARE};
ScrollingLineGraphMultiValue graph(2, symbols);

void loop() {
  graph.addData(0, analogRead(A0));  // line 0
  graph.addData(1, analogRead(A1));  // line 1
  display.clearDisplay();
  graph.draw(display);
  display.display();
}

Author

Jon E. Froehlich Professor, Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington Director, Makeability Lab

License

This library is released under the MIT License.