Arduino Development Thread

[vortex]

Otherwise, if you want to control the voltage, you could always buy a variable voltage power pack?

Probably what i"ll end up doing, but was trying to do it for $2 instead of $20 I was sure I'd seen someone use a simple pot soldered inline to control the voltage and I assumed it was a potentiometer, I guess I didn't see it right

 

[vortex]

http://www.users.on.net/~pfitzsimons/MagStirrer/MagneticStirrer.htm
Looks like he used a 500Ω linear pot, as suggested. Thanks guys.

 

[browndog]

I have been off work with a really bad case of the flu but it has given me time to play around with the design of the board there was over 600 errors when i did a design rule check, all which related to the silkscreen layers going over the stop masks so i spent time modifying the component packages to fix the problems. I also enlarged the tracks for the pump contacts, the relay is rated at 240v 5 amps so the tracks can handle 5 amps and I increased the clearances around those tracks, I didn't think having a ground plane only 10millis away from 240v would be a good idea so i removed the planes from that area. Making the prototype has shown a few problems that i have fixed up and I'm confident that the design is ready.

View attachment 51113

there is no point in getting anything made up until i have a program for it so thats the next step.

Forgive the ignorance Matho, but would you mind explaining what your shield does that the arduino (or bonjuino) wont? What kind of benefits does it offer?

cheers

Brownodg

 

[matho]

Forgive the ignorance Matho, but would you mind explaining what your shield does that the arduino (or bonjuino) wont? What kind of benefits does it offer?

cheers

Brownodg

The shield still needs the arduino plugged into it, what it does provide is points to connect the sensor, pump , buzzer and SSR and the drive circuitry for them, LCD and a connection point for the four buttons. So the arduino is the brains and the shield is an interface for it to the outside world, you could do the same thing with components and vero board, this will be just a plug and play kinda option.

cheers matho

 

[QldKev]

Probably what i"ll end up doing, but was trying to do it for $2 instead of $20 I was sure I'd seen someone use a simple pot soldered inline to control the voltage and I assumed it was a potentiometer, I guess I didn't see it right

A pot should do it
http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=RP...mp;form=KEYWORD
Just make sure you don't exceed the 0.5w rating


What about one of these
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC-12V-8A-LED-L...=item5d2ffac9e3


or for more bling, remote control
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Wireless-Remote...=item415ff4f124

QldKev

 

[vortex]

What about one of these
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC-12V-8A-LED-L...=item5d2ffac9e3


or for more bling, remote control
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Wireless-Remote...=item415ff4f124

Thanks Kev. I'm going past a couple of PC shops today to see if I can find a fan controller - much easier in the short term just to get something working Otherwise it's onto Ebay

 

[browndog]

The shield still needs the arduino plugged into it, what it does provide is points to connect the sensor, pump , buzzer and SSR and the drive circuitry for them, LCD and a connection point for the four buttons. So the arduino is the brains and the shield is an interface for it to the outside world, you could do the same thing with components and vero board, this will be just a plug and play kinda option.

cheers matho

Nice Matho, so how will I be able to get my hands on one of these shields of yours?

cheers

Browndog

 

[matho]

Just to clarify things a bit further the arduino pins can handle about 40mA at a voltage level of 5v if you want more current or voltage, then you need to use something to drive it, mainly a transistor will do the job. The shield plugs into the arduino and provides two 12v 100mA outputs for driving the buzzer and the heater control device which would most likely be a SSR, it also has a relay on the board which can handle 5 amps at 240v and that is for the pump. There is also a connection point for a DS18B20 temperature sensor with the pull-up resistor installed on the shield so all you have to do is connect the three wires to the board and it will work. Then comes the HMI which is the LCD and buttons, the LCD solders straight to the board with all the connections and contrast taken care of and the connection for the buttons will be for an 8 way ribbon cable (2 wires per button and four buttons) with the pull-up resistors mounted on the shield, you require pull-up or pull down resistors on binary inputs so that you know what state is on and what state is off, the way i have it set up is when the button is open then the input will be high or 1 (pulled up by the resistor) and when it is closed the input will be low or 0.

So when im finished there will be the shield to make a braumiser control unit and a program for the arduino that plugs into the shield

cheers matho

 

[matho]

Nice Matho, so how will I be able to get my hands on one of these shields of yours?

cheers

Browndog

hopefully not too long ill work on the code over the xmas break when i get that finished ill be putting out the call for interest in the shield and if we can get enough then ill get the boards made up and make up a kit

 

[browndog]

hopefully not too long ill work on the code over the xmas break when i get that finished ill be putting out the call for interest in the shield and if we can get enough then ill get the boards made up and make up a kit

That's awesome Matho, I hope the members show some interest. How difficult would it be for me to incorporate a flow meter into your sheild and code once finished?

-BD

 

[matho]

That's awesome Matho, I hope the members show some interest. How difficult would it be for me to incorporate a flow meter into your sheild and code once finished?

-BD

there are a couple of pins left so that would be a problem and im sure bonj or someone could work out the code, I'm learning the language at the moment, electronics is my hobby , programming is just a necessary evil

cheers

 

[sshann001]

Hi Matho & Browndog.

I would like to officially register my interest in a kit. I have been following this thread, and the one on the Braumeiser for some time. All very exciting!

 

[matho]

it lives



now too start playing with some code and just getting the text up on the LCD

cheers steve

 

[ArnieW]

it lives

View attachment 51148

now too start playing with some code and just getting the text up on the LCD

cheers steve

Well done Matho.

I'm also interested in a shield kit when things are ready to go.

 

[Nibbo]

Sorry to knock this thread back a little, but i'm having a crap time trying to get my 2005 Mac laptop to befreind my Arduino mega with a 268 chip in her. Part of the issue is i don't have access to the internet at home. So i have been downloading the software i'm thinking i need at work onto a usb and then taking it home to install. I think the problem is getting the usb outlet to start to believe it's a port for the arduino. In some instructions im seeing, they are downloading a file which sets itself up onto the computer which does this. The software i have on my usb stick doesnt seem to have this. I run a command on terminal to check what devices are available and it only brings up the modem. Does anyone out there have any answers or hints that may help?

 

[justsomeguy]

Sorry to knock this thread back a little, but i'm having a crap time trying to get my 2005 Mac laptop to befreind my Arduino mega with a 268 chip in her. Part of the issue is i don't have access to the internet at home. So i have been downloading the software i'm thinking i need at work onto a usb and then taking it home to install. I think the problem is getting the usb outlet to start to believe it's a port for the arduino. In some instructions im seeing, they are downloading a file which sets itself up onto the computer which does this. The software i have on my usb stick doesnt seem to have this. I run a command on terminal to check what devices are available and it only brings up the modem. Does anyone out there have any answers or hints that may help?

Got the FTDI(?) driver installed on the Mac ?

I've had it all work correctly on a circa 2002 machine with no problems once the driver was installed. Haven't run the latest Arduino 1.0 IDE on an old machine so there may be issues there.

Regards,
garyd

 

[Nibbo]

Got the FTDI(?) driver installed on the Mac ?

I've had it all work correctly on a circa 2002 machine with no problems once the driver was installed. Haven't run the latest Arduino 1.0 IDE on an old machine so there may be issues there.

Regards,
garyd

Well...this is my issue i think. I'm downloading the driver but i'm getting the wrong one or im missing something. I've actually downloaded a few different drivers. I've got 2.2.16 and also 1.0f4.

 

[Nibbo]

I think maybe my laptop doesnt allow the driver to be installed. A pop up appears saying it cant copy due to blah blah blah...needless to say my memorys fragile at best. when it happens next i might print the page.

 

[justsomeguy]

I think maybe my laptop doesnt allow the driver to be installed. A pop up appears saying it cant copy due to blah blah blah...needless to say my memorys fragile at best. when it happens next i might print the page.

There should be an installer for the driver. Run that to get the drivers installed. You should not have to manually copy drivers around. Actually if you do just try to copy drivers to the right place the OS will NOT load them due to security issues. Use the installer as it will put them in the right place with the right permissions so that the OS will load them.

Regards,
garyd

 

[matho]

I have been playing around with a simple thermostat (I have to crawl before i can walk). One thing I'm concerned about is the size of the code 7500 bytes already, considering the whole code for the braumiser v1 was 19k , 9k for the process and 10k for the menu, I hope i don't run out of space. The other thing is I don't like how the Dallas temperature library works, it slows down the loop too much, what I'm thinking of doing is because Ill only have one DS18b20 connected, is i can make a function up that will, start conversion on the first call and then on the next call it will check if the conversion is complete using the feature of the DS18b20 that when it is powered you can send a read command and it will return a 0 when it is doing a conversion and a 1 when complete,if the conversion isn't complete it returns,when it is complete it will read the scratch pad and return the temp, then the next time it is called it will start the whole process over again. doing it this way will speed up the loop because i can do other things instead of waiting 750ms for the conversion. More playing is required




cheers matho