The Arduino Thread

Daktologist · July 2010

who else here has played around with the arduino. share your ideas

13579 · July 2010

Right here, man. I had a robotic arm I controled from my computer for a little while, though the arm mainly consisted of hotglued pentubes and crochet needles.

At the moment I have a 3x3 LED cube hooked up to it, and man, people love it. Stoners do nothing but stare at it, and most girls are amazed I made such a thing (:D).

Next, I think I'm going to make my room automated. Servos to control the up/down of my window blinds, along with open/closed. I also have a dimmer switch for lights I'd like to make computer-controlled.

Love how easy it is to program for....I'm running the Duemilanove board myself.

Katzenklavier · July 2010

Personally, i like to just use the IC. A whole duemilanove board is quite wasteful for small projects. The arduino is easy as hell to use standalone, and cheap. That's why i like it. Right now i'm working on something pretty cool, but i won't tell you until it's done.

Daktologist · July 2010

i have only just started really getting into the different uses of the arduino and im pretty impressed by it so far

Katzenklavier · July 2010

Have you played round with the libraries? They make coding so much easier.

Daktologist · July 2010

i have tried nearly all the examples and have altered some of the code to do different things but since i have next to no coding experience what so ever i found it difficult at first but im getting the hang of it now fortunately

Katzenklavier · July 2010

Nice. This is what i'm working on.

//&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608; Setup &#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;
#include "WProgram.h"  
#include <LiquidCrystal.h>              
#include "Bargraph.h"

//======================================= Variables ===================================

boolean event = false;
const int longCount  = 5000;  //ms for long sample
const int shortCount = 3000;  //ms for short sample
const int maxCPM     = 10000; //meter overflow limit (CPM)
unsigned long startTime;
unsigned long startPeriod;
unsigned long CPM;
unsigned long totalPeriods;
unsigned long totalCPM;
unsigned long counts;
unsigned long samplePeriod;

LiquidCrystal lcd(13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8);
 
//====================================== Other Setup ===================================
void setup(){0;
  attachInterrupt(1,GetEvent,FALLING);      // Geiger event on pin 2 triggers interrupt
  samplePeriod = longCount;
  lcd.begin(16,2);                          // set lib for display size (8x2)
  lcd.createChar(0, bar_0);                 // Create mini blocks for bargraph
  lcd.createChar(1, bar_1);
  lcd.createChar(2, bar_2);
  lcd.createChar(3, bar_3);
  lcd.createChar(4, bar_4);
  lcd.createChar(5, bar_5);
  lcd.createChar(6, bar_6);
  lcd.setCursor(0,0);
  lcd.clear();
  delay(100);
  lcd.print("CPM       Bq");                 // Print labels
}

//&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608; Main Loop &#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;
void loop()
{
  if (millis() > startPeriod + samplePeriod) 
  {
    countProcedure(); 
  }
  if (event == true)
  {           
    counts ++;
    event = false;
  }
}

//&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608; Subprograms &#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;

void countProcedure()
{ 
  CPM = (counts * 60) / (samplePeriod / 1000);               // calc CPM for the period                      
  counts = 0;
  startTime = millis();
  samplePeriod = startPeriod;

  if (CPM > 99)                                       
  {
    samplePeriod = shortCount;   
  }  
  else 
  {
    samplePeriod = longCount; 
  } 
  printToDisplay();
}

//======================================= Print to LCD =======================================
void printToDisplay()
{
  lcd.setCursor(4, 0);
  lcd.print("      ");            //Blank
  lcd.setCursor(4, 0);
  lcd.print(CPM);                 //Print Counts/Minute
  lcd.setCursor(13, 0);
  lcd.print("      ");
  lcd.setCursor(13, 0);           //Blank
  lcd.print(CPM/60);              //Print Counts/Sec
  
  lcdBar(CPM);                    //Print Bargraph 
}

//======================================== Bargraph ===================================================
void lcdBar(int counts)
{    
  int cntPerBar = (counts / (maxCPM / 94));    // Maximum Bargraphs ahould be what?
  int fullBlock = (cntPerBar / 6);             // Divide each character into 6 bars 
  int prtlBlock = (cntPerBar % 6 );            // Figure out what's left
  lcd.setCursor(0,1);                   
  
  for (int i=0; i<fullBlock; i++)
  {
    lcd.print(5,BYTE);                         // Print full character blocks
  }
  
  lcd.print(prtlBlock,BYTE);                   // Print remaining blocks with custom char
  for (int i=(fullBlock + 1); i<16; i++)
  {
    lcd.print(" ");                            // Clean up leftover
  }  
}

//====================================== Interrupt Called Procedure ===================================

void GetEvent()
{
   event = true;
}

13579 · July 2010

Daktologist wrote: »

i have tried nearly all the examples and have altered some of the code to do different things but since i have next to no coding experience what so ever i found it difficult at first but im getting the hang of it now fortunately

Ah, that's pretty cool. Only reason I haven't messed with LCDs is because I don't have any.

Do you/anyone know how hard it is to use random LCDs scavenged from electronics? Where did you get yours/how much was it?

Katzenklavier · July 2010

13579 wrote: »

Ah, that's pretty cool. Only reason I haven't messed with LCDs is because I don't have any.

Do you/anyone know how hard it is to use random LCDs scavenged from electronics? Where did you get yours/how much was it?

Typically they are all have the Hitachi HD44780 controller. It's the de-facto standard. If it has 14 pins (16 if it has a backlight), you can use it.

You can get LCD's on ebay for about $6 shipped. DO NOT GET THE $1-$3 ONES FROM CHINA! They are all garbage off the production lines. Plus they take weeks to get to you.

Daktologist · July 2010

i ordered mine through sparkfun.com they have cheep lcds

Katzenklavier · July 2010

I get mine from DIPmicro

http://stores.ebay.com/dipmicroelectronics

fractals · August 2010

I want to make a head unit for my car stereo. It'll probably start off as an ipod controller with a LCD to show the song playing and run the audio through an amplifier. Hopefully it'll end up being a full carputer, with a nice big touchscreen built into my dash, and make it control everything in my car. At that point it will be multiple arduinos and avrs and probably a gumstix running linux for the touchscreen.

Katzenklavier · August 2010

Google yenka pics. It's a flowchart like designer that writes the code for you.

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