Omnimaga
General Discussion => Technology and Development => Other => Topic started by: Nick on January 28, 2012, 12:07:24 pm
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hi
i've been thinking to start an electronic project to learn more about the working of all those components and circuits. the only problem is that i don't really have ideas
i want to make something 'special', but feasible as a starter.
it might be something radio controlled, since i have a sender/receiver here from an old rc car, and i wanna do something with it, but i don't really know what xs
i hope you understand what i mean, and if someone has any ideas, feel free to tell me :) thanks a lot!
P.S. not with an arduino or any other microcontrolled stuff yet, since that will be too hard to start with, and i will do thing i don't understand myself :)
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do you have any experience with this stuff yet? if not, you should just grab yourself a breadbord, some wires, some basic gates/capacitors/LED's/switches/etcetera and just try setting up a few simple circuits that implement different expressions(things like (AandB)or(BandC)or not(D)) before you start working with anything more complicated. after that, try setting up simple devices, like a receiver for a key fob (those things that open garages/car doors).
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a little yes, but very little.. i built a board that makes two led blink after each other, but that's it xs
well, that was what i was planning to do, but i want something to make, like "running" leds or so, something simple
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hmm, im taking a college electronics class and i have a book of projects at school...
i'll see what i have in it, it is prety basic
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Actually, the Arduino is pretty straightforward to use. But yeah, you should get a breadboard and all this stuff to get the hang of it. Start with basic stuff, then you could do more complicated stuff.
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i would love to use the arduino, but if i don't understand the basics of it, it's useless to start arduinoing.. but i will pass to that stage later on :)
and jwalker thanks, it would be wonderful to have some ideas, since on the internet i don't really find any xs
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i will see what i can do, i have to get it moday because it is at school, they have some prety cool projects too
also, if you know some C, the arduino is realy easy to understand, i made a sketch that allowed me to do some stuff with a parallel
circuit that would blink leds at diffrent intervals the verry day i got it
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would it be a good idea to buy for example this (http://iprototype.be/products/kits/iprototype-starterkit) or this (http://iprototype.be/products/kits/starterkit) ?
it's a kit with an arduino, breadboard, resistors etc, for €60 (about $65 i guess), then i have different components, and an adruino for later on, or is too expensive?
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since their about the same price... either one would be fine, it comes down to what you think you would want for components in any projects.
if you dont know what a component is, look it up and see what are its capabilities and limitations and what it can do, this will help you decide.
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i know all of them (their functions, not the specifications) and i like the one with the servo the most, because (in the future) i would like to make an wireless (radio/ir) controlled robot, so that would be already a start :) and one can buy the other components everywhere, so i think i would take that one..
so you think i should do that? ok, thanks :)
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if it has what you need, then yes
the arduino is a great, i love my 2560, that is for sure
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I'm also taking my 1st steps through the world of electronics and what I did was to buy a 28X1 picaxe microcontroler which is programable in BASIC and it's really easy to start with. Then I bought a breadboard, a capacitor and a resistor kit, a bunch of LEDs, some temperature sensors to have some inputs, some ICs and so on... I buy most of that stuff in ebay, except for the PICAXE microcontroler.
You can also buy a project board with the microcontroler... I think that it is easier to program than the arduino but to some extent is more limited also so I am planning to buy an arduino in the near future even knowing that by now it can do anything I imagine doing to do.
I am planning to create a shield to interface with the nspire through RS232 and a C program on the nspire it would be great to have some help thinking about that :D
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hmm, that would be great, but i won't be able to help you xs since i'm new, and my C programming skills are still 0... but i hope it will work, but it won't be easy, be sure of that
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I'm near zero in C programming also. We would start at the same level... I think that the harder part would be the C programming to the nspire since the electronics part and the picaxe programming seem pretty easy ;)
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yeah that's true, but do you know how you can make them communicate? i have heard of protocolls and such, but i really don't know anything about it xs you should make it look like a real nspire somehow, so it can just send/receive files like from another nspire
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there are commands to send/recieve strings (through serial RS232) on both the picaxe and ndless ;) so it should be fine.
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i don't think it's that easy, isn't the nspire sending in a specified format, like ith a code to validate if it's a true nspire and so on?
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not in an ndless prog or a lua one. Ifyou're going over RS232 that's the dock connector, and it's only used by the OS in startup stuff.
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so you mean it can just send and receive from anything via the usb?
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no, by the RS232. That's on the dock connector (not the USB)
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oh, nice.. so you can then receive single bytes? one should use the ports on this page: http://hackspire.unsads.com/wiki/index.php/Memory-mapped_I/O_ports isn't it?
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You could left the rc system on your car and make a controller on your calc, for example 2nd to stop/'launch' car and left/right to drive it...
You just need a part of a calc cable, and maybe a one-bit memory (2 NOR logic circuits for example), and leds if you want.
I can make you program if you want (already done ...).
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I'm not sure if it can be done with single bytes since I don't know exactly how the RS232 protocol works, but I'm sure it won't be that hard to accomplish some communication between both and to exchange strings of data.
To start I'll want to show data read from the temperature sensor on the calculator screen.
These are the topics in question on the nspire side:
http://hackspire.unsads.com/wiki/index.php/Hardware#RS232
http://hackspire.unsads.com/wiki/index.php/Memory-mapped_I/O_ports#90020000_-_Serial_UART
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You could left the rc system on your car and make a controller on your calc, for example 2nd to stop/'launch' car and left/right to drive it...
You just need a part of a calc cable, and maybe a one-bit memory (2 NOR logic circuits for example), and leds if you want.
I can make you program if you want (already done ...).
i thought of that too, but i din't know how to check the bytes in an analog way. in fact, that was my first thought xp
so, how do you do that? well, it would be great to see the program, but i would first like to understand how the splitting works :)
@ renatose, it has Rx and Tx, so TTL should work Ö
that's not really for sending, but to read from things like temp stuff and so
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following some search that I've just done it looks that rs232 is the protocol and ttl a standard and in fact we will be using both here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090211134205AApzAvY
following this we will be using the rs232 protocol with the ttl voltage levels.
and it looks very common to be like this...
EDIT: Aborting this idea since the baud rate of the nspire is 115200 it's too high to a picaxe microcontroller. I don't know if the nspire's baud rate can be lowered or it the arduino supports such a high baud rate.
Anyone here knows?
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115200 is possible with the arduino :) i don't know anything about it, but this comes fro the site:
An ATmega328 running at 16 MHz with auto-reset, using the optiboot bootloader (115200 baud, 0.5 KB)
so that shouldn't be a problem
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yeap :D when I got an arduino I'll start doing that, in the meanwhile I've got much more to do :P
But me/we could start doing the nspire part as it's always possible to test with a computer linked to the nspire at 115200 baud.
It shouldn't be that difficult and is a starting idea... It's always good to have an objective when learning a new language.
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that about the objective is true, but i really think it's too complicated for me xs
i think i'm going to buy this set:
- €24 arduino
- €20 starter set (wires, breadboard, components etc)
- €17 robot platform
- €14 motor shield
- €3,5 battery box (to power arduino)
this is the robot platform:
(http://iprototype.be/images/products/745_original.png)
it might be stupid to already buy the robot platform, but i'm sure i'll buy it later, and if i don't buy it now i have to pay €10 shipping costs and another €10 when buying the platform, so i thought to buy it together :) saves me €20..
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You won't learn anything about electronics with that thing. Buy a small prototyping board and some components and start experimenting. That's how I learned it :)
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it probably would work for something right away to get an idea about some of the arduino stuff
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it probably would work for something right away to get an idea about some of the arduino stuff
But... but in the beginpost he stated that he didn't want to venture into arduino or other digital things.
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no, i'm just buying it all together now because is surely will in the future, and then it's cheaper to buy it all right now..
but i'll just start with the breadboard :)
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Do you have something in mind? I built logic gates and voltage regulators to start with.
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i thought of starting with some simple led manipulations, in combination with potentiometers, buttons, transistors etc
i really don't know how you could make a voltage regulator, do you have some schematics of it?
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i thought of starting with some simple led manipulations, in combination with potentiometers, buttons, transistors etc
i really don't know how you could make a voltage regulator, do you have some schematics of it?
No, but the internet has.
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Make sure to not destroy your LEDs with too high voltage. Also I know you have transistors to regulate the voltage, but last time I messed with them with my friend in electronics it was rather complicated and a PITA.
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Make sure to not destroy your LEDs with too high voltage. Also I know you have transistors to regulate the voltage, but last time I messed with them with my friend in electronics it was rather complicated and a PITA.
When I didn't know anything much about electronics, I hooked an LED up to one of those huge lantern batteries...it was supposed to be white, but it was orange, then brown, then really really bright, then poof. It started smoking and smelling really bad.
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Make sure to not destroy your LEDs with too high voltage. Also I know you have transistors to regulate the voltage, but last time I messed with them with my friend in electronics it was rather complicated and a PITA.
When I didn't know anything much about electronics, I hooked an LED up to one of those huge lantern batteries...it was supposed to be white, but it was orange, then brown, then really really bright, then poof. It started smoking and smelling really bad.
Yep, the perfect way to fry a LED. Those are kinda fragile and burns for nothing, you know.
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Make sure to not destroy your LEDs with too high voltage. Also I know you have transistors to regulate the voltage, but last time I messed with them with my friend in electronics it was rather complicated and a PITA.
When I didn't know anything much about electronics, I hooked an LED up to one of those huge lantern batteries...it was supposed to be white, but it was orange, then brown, then really really bright, then poof. It started smoking and smelling really bad.
lol, well i never had it burnt before, but i had a yellow one that was red (from only 9V) but i detached it directly and nothing was broken (lucky me xp)
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Use lightbulbs instead if you want to be completely safe (or tie a 1k resistor to the led)
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yay, i got my breadboard, some leds, condensators, resistor and diodes, they didn't have any transistors Ö so now i con't yet make something useful, just some leds in parallel and serie lol
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Use lightbulbs instead if you want to be completely safe (or tie a 1k resistor to the led)
Yeah, most people tie resistors everywhere to be safe. Those'll be your best friend :P
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If you're going to go with a development board, it'll be more software than anything. With my PICkit, all I have to do to light up an LED is put
TRISD = 0b01111111;
LATDbits.LATD7 = 1;in my code. No actual hardware modding. But it's still a fun and educational experience :)
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ow many volts is that output? or is that the standard built-in led you light up with that?
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yay, i got my breadboard, some leds, condensators, resistor and diodes, they didn't have any transistors Ö so now i con't yet make something useful, just some leds in parallel and serie lol
You can make passive filters with those. Google RC low-pass filter and RC hi-pass filter. Those filters modify audio signals for example.
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yay, i got my breadboard, some leds, condensators, resistor and diodes, they didn't have any transistors Ö so now i con't yet make something useful, just some leds in parallel and serie lol
You can make passive filters with those. Google RC low-pass filter and RC hi-pass filter. Those filters modify audio signals for example.
thanks for that hint, i made both of them, and now i improved it a bit so now i can place it between the output of my mp3 and the input of the amplifier and i can adjust the low and high frequencies now, and it sounds amazing :)
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Sounds like fun! How was getting your feet wet?
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Sounds like fun! How was getting your feet wet?
nice especially when it worked :) well, it seems like fun to me, now i only learn the real stuff..
and my arduino and some new components are being shipped, so now i have to wait :)
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I'm back into business! I made some minor electronic things like leds blinking, potmeter controls etc.. well, now i'm quite familiar with it, and i thought it would be nice to step over to the arduino, which i did ! and i'm extremely happy with it..
i made a servo controllable with a joystick, fading leds, and a led with 3 'modes': blinking, on and off. I used a button to switch between the modes.
All these things are basic, i know, but they were perfect to get started with arduino.
Now i'm working on a computer interface in which i can send data to the arduino and collect data it sends to the pc to display in a textbox (maybe a graph later)
i already made the programs for both the arduino and the pc (in vidual basics) and it all works fine.
It can display the string i send from the arduino to my textbox in the form :-) and i'm extremely happy with that xp
But now i discovered something, there are always 2 bytes send after the data transmission arduino->PC. those bytes are 10 13 (in that order), what are they? they're not ASCII chars, and they appear after each sending. So i thought it's just a kind of closing bytes or so. Does someone have experience with that?
edit: i should've waited another 13 mins to post, it would have been exactly one month Ö
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Binairy :)
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so i don't have to worry about them? ok then :) thanks..
oh, and it also makes it possible to switch a led on and off with 2 buttons in the VB program
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so i don't have to worry about them? ok then :) thanks..
oh, and it also makes it possible to switch a led on and off with 2 buttons in the VB program
Well those are headers I guess.
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It probably is closing bytes. Don't worry about it if it's working.
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It all works fine, here's a screenie of the prog:
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/Program.gif)
but now i have another problem.
I can send everything and receive the bytes to paste them back together to 1 thing (since every character is sent apart)
now i was trying to find how i could send for example 101 to the arduino. I can split it up into string with the pc, but how can i make it readable for the arduino that it is 101, and not 49 48 49 ... i tried a lot, but nothing seems to be working xs
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So, you want to send it as the integer 101, not the string of chars 1,0,1? That shouldn't be too difficult.
Serial.write() writes binary values instead of strings, but you'll need to give it an integer input to get an integer transmission. How are you sending the values?
If you're using the serial monitor, you'll either need to find another sending method, or have the conversion occur on the arduino's side. first you'll need a loop checking that the values in the string recieved are between 48 and 57, to make sure it only has 0-9 inside, then just subtract 48 from every value, and add them together with proper adjustment for size. (ie 9012 would be 9*1000 + 0*100 + 1*10 + 2)
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well, that was what i thought of it too, but i tried it, and it seems not to be working xs it gives overflow (i suppose), it returns -1, and sometimes -100..
the sending as 1,0,1 could work perfectly, but receiving and rewriting them seems the problem, but i'll figure it out :)
now another problem..i have this code:
int recVal;
int pwmVal;
int ledPin = 10;
boolean dataReceived = false;
int dataTimer = 0;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(19200);
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
if (Serial.available() > 0) {
recVal = Serial.read();
if (recVal == 'S') {
dataTimer = 0;
while (dataReceived == false && dataTimer < 100) {
pwmVal = Serial.read();
dataTimer++;
if (pwmVal != -1) {
Serial.println(pwmVal);
}
}
if (dataTimer >= 100) {
Serial.println("Nothing received");
}
}
}
}
but it seems that the pwmVal = Serial.read() does not return anything. it gives or an ndless loop (that's why i put the dataTimer into it), or it returns -1, which means nothing is received, while i send "S" and another string ("a") directly after each other (in visual basics) like this:
Arduino.Write("S")
Arduino.Write("a")
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It could be that it's just missing the sent bytes. The best way to ensure that's not happening is to have some sort of acknowledged receiving system. Have the sender send until it recieves an acknoledgement, and have the reciever send an acknowledgement if it ever recieves something when it checks.
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wow, that's actually a great idea, i'll try to do that.. but it receives the "S" i'm sure of that, so why not the "a", that's what i think is strange..
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Chances are that VB is sending them too fast, so the arduino is still busy processing that it got the first one.
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i got it working to receive values and print them in a graph.
Now i'm working on a virtual screen for the arduino.
With virtual i mean my arduino connected cia usb (serial) to my pc and run a program on the pc that interprets the sent data from the arduino and prints what the arduino sent.
It currently supports text, rectangles, filled rectangles, ellipses and filled ellipses. i'm working on the line drawing system, which shouldn't be that hard to make :)
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/screenEmulator.gif)
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So, theoretically you could hook up an LCD with your own controller and have a custom arduino Screen!
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true, but that's kinda stupid since then you have an lcd display, so you could better use it as screen for you arduino itself. The framerate is only 10~20 fps due to speed of communication, so it(-'s not that fast either
now lines, rectangles, filled rectanlges, ellipses, filled ellipses, text and variable printing works, so that's already nice :)
colors wotk too (not for text)
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Err, how is using an lcd with a small display controller any different from using it directly on your arduino? You don't have the IO or the ram to directly drive it that directly. Display controllers give you a serial control of the LCD and have internal screen management.
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but my "screen" works in a software environment on my PC. it is jst a program running tan interprets the sent commands from the arduino through the serial port (usb) and displays it on the screen with a resolution you can choose yourself.
So you don't have a physical screen...
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Update! the virtual screen is published on my website, but i'm still working on it. I'm adding a command prompt so you can send commands from the pc too, that saves a lot of time and a lot of data that will not have to be sent.
and a little video of a simple project with arduino, just to get into the coding :)
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I don't understand much how this works, but basically the small lights turns ON when you move the blue lightning towards them? ???
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he is using analogue input from the controller to increase/decrease the voltage in the section on the right. as the voltage increases, the light on the bottom gets brighter, and, at a certain voltage, power is able to flow through the resistor that connects to the next light. this process is repeated, so that, as he pushes the joystick forward, more light up and, as he pulls it back, fewer do.
or that's what i think is going on, at least.
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Oh wait that's a joystick lol. I didn't notice, since the base is so small. ;D
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yep that's it :) it's pretty simple, one of the most basic things you can do with it, but i saw a lot of the same project using 1000 if statements, and it thought there had to be a different way of handling this, and there is..
but the ay schmibs told it it must be possible too, now i do it completely with code, but somehow with some transistors and stuff i might be able to make the code smaller, i'll take a look at it
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Ok good luck and nice you found a more efficient way to do it. Glad to see more people into hardware, especially arduino stuff lately :)
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here's a video about my software-screen: the virtual arduino screen! it's a software driven screen for the arduino, using serial communication.
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Very Nice!