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Building Experiments

This section is the heart of GLIDER: how you turn an idea for an experiment into a working, runnable design. You do this by wiring together a node graph — a visual flowchart where each box (a node) does one small job, and the wires between them decide what happens, and in what order.

You don't write any code. You drag nodes onto a canvas, connect them, bind the hardware ones to real devices, and press Start.

What's in this section

  • The Node Graph

    Add nodes, wire execution and data ports, and build a flow that runs from StartExperiment to EndExperiment.

  • Devices & Hardware

    Add boards and devices, bind a device to a node, and understand how a value's range is decided.

  • Functions

    Package a reusable chunk of your graph as a named function you can call again and again.

  • Custom Devices & Plugins

    Teach GLIDER about hardware it doesn't ship with — either with the no-code builder or a Python plugin.

How the pieces fit together

A GLIDER experiment has two halves that you build side by side:

  1. The graph — the logic of what happens. Nodes fire one after another along execution wires, and pass numbers and readings to each other along data wires.
  2. The hardware — the boards and devices that the graph acts on. A node like Output doesn't know anything about pins on its own; it becomes meaningful only when you bind it to a device.

New to GLIDER?

If you haven't built anything yet, start with Your First Experiment for a guided end-to-end walkthrough, then come back here to go deeper. The concepts behind it all are collected in How GLIDER Works.

When you want the full, exhaustive list of every node or device type — beyond the ones covered here — see the Node Catalog and the Device Catalog.