Arduino Development Thread

[matho]

yeah what bonj said

I haven't used seeedstudio yet but going off the bonjuino they look fairly good so ill be putting an order in for 10 boards soon

cheers steve

 

[Edak]

yeah what bonj said

I haven't used seeedstudio yet but going off the bonjuino they look fairly good so ill be putting an order in for 10 boards soon

cheers steve

Judging by the interest you have received on the other thread you might want to order more than 10 boards.

I am very interested to see your source code and schematics. Which temp sensor are you using again?

Still keen to make my own braumiser if I can find the right time and parts. I keep hesitating to press the buy button on any pots because I first think I am going to get a good deal and then I find that the quality of the item sucks. I also think that the value of the items is significantly reduced when you have to heavily modify them.

Edit:autocorrect mishap.

 

[matho]

here is the schematic it doesn't look like much but thats because its for a shield design



and here is the latest board design



I'm using a DS18b20 as a temp probe, I'll be posting the code and eagle files very soon just sorting out a few things. I'm going to get 10 done and see, unfortunately a lot of the parts I'm ordering, a price reduction only occurs at 25+ and I'm not going to outlay the cost for 25 kits because I don't want to be stuck with them.

cheers steve

edit: I'm thinking of making another shield to fit in between the arduino and the brauduino shield to bring out the unused pins so they can be used for other things

 

[bonj]

I'm going to get 10 done and see, unfortunately a lot of the parts I'm ordering, a price reduction only occurs at 25+ and I'm not going to outlay the cost for 25 kits because I don't want to be stuck with them.

Matho, I was wondering if a kickstarter project might be a good way to fund a larger order. We can all contribute and you only get the funding if the target is reached. That way, we all "back" the project, and if you hit the target, you get the funding though kickstarter.

 

[matho]

Matho, I was wondering if a kickstarter project might be a good way to fund a larger order. We can all contribute and you only get the funding if the target is reached. That way, we all "back" the project, and if you hit the target, you get the funding though kickstarter.

I don't quite understand, I might order 20 boards and make up 10 kits, the only reservation I have is if I make a mistake on the boards Ill end up with 20 dud boards, I will chat with you later about this cheers mate

 

[Edak]

Matho, I was wondering if a kickstarter project might be a good way to fund a larger order. We can all contribute and you only get the funding if the target is reached. That way, we all "back" the project, and if you hit the target, you get the funding though kickstarter.

I love kickstarter, what a great idea!

I plan to use the Ds18b20 also, have you seen the units with thermowell on eBay or from sure electronics? I might buy a couple but don't know if they would be suitable for food use.

http://www.sureelectronics.net/goods.php?id=1276
http://www.sureelectronics.net/goods.php?id=1275

What do you think?
I could just buy some good thermowells and some sensors and wire them up myself.

 

[seemax]

Bought one of these about 6 months ago and it works fine with my Arduino Demi.

Easy to install too, just make sure you get a snug fit as the seal isn't very wide.

 

[Edak]

I might do my own shield with
Bought one of these about 6 months ago and it works fine with my Arduino Demi.

Easy to install too, just make sure you get a snug fit as the seal isn't very wide.

Cheers seemax, I will try them out sometime.





Steve,
Looking at your schematic, I see you have pull up resistors on the buttons. Is there any reason why you did this instead of using the internal pull up resistors on the arduino/atmel? Also, I am guessing that you used transistors for the heater and buzzer to be more compatible? I suppose that is a good idea even though some options would be able to use these low output voltage and currents with no transistors.
Very good work

 

[bonj]

Cheers seemax, I will try them out sometime.





Steve,
Looking at your schematic, I see you have pull up resistors on the buttons. Is there any reason why you did this instead of using the internal pull up resistors on the arduino/atmel? Also, I am guessing that you used transistors for the heater and buzzer to be more compatible? I suppose that is a good idea even though some options would be able to use these low output voltage and currents with no transistors.
Very good work

Edak, I can't speak for Steve, but I can say that using external pull-up resistors is a Good Thing because with a code base that is freely available and user configurable/modifiable, it removes the need for the internal pull-ups to be configured in the code. A little mistake by an inexperienced user could cause havoc with floating inputs.

 

[bonj]

Also, I got this in my inbox this morning... might be some good savings there (today only).

Today we're having a massive 20% off sale on all Freetronics Gear http://littlebirdelectronics.com/collections/freetronics .
Use the coupon code MAYTHEFORCEBEWITHYOU at checkout to save. The sale ends at midnight!

 

[angus_grant]

oh man, I ordered a Freetronics LCD last week. ha ha

I did purchase a colour LCD but worked out afterwards it is a 9-pin LCD and I can't really find any examples using it with the NetDuino, so I ordered a good old 16*2 LCD with keypad as well. This can use the ported LiquidCrystal display library for NetDuino so should be "plug and play". The colour LCD will be on the back burner (and will probably stay there) because I want to make some progress developing my "BrewBot".

Next: order a 2200W heating element from CraftBrewer, and a thermowell for the temp probe. I have read somewhere (perhaps a post on here somewhere) that they filled the thermowell with some form of liquid to get an accurate temp reading. Is this necessary? I was just going to install the thermowell and then shove the temp probe into the thermowell. I may temporarily seal up the end of the thermowell to see if this improves temp readings.

I will be installing the element into my Big W 19L pot for starters to prototype my BrewBot, so am fairly sure this will have enough heating power to get a good boil going seeing people install them into keggles and such. I will be able to use this outside which will please my 6 month pregnant wife who didn't particularly enjoy the aromas of boiling Hallertauer and honey, etc of my last brew.

At this point I am starting to wonder about even moving on to doing full mashes. If I can achieve good beers using extracts and adding my own adjuncts, why move on to the complexity of mashing, BIABs, whirl-pooling, trub, etc, etc...

Anyways, if I decide to move onto mashing, I can then pick up a relay board for my Netduino off eBay to run the heating element through, and will then have the basis for the next phase of actually BIAB'ing: maintaining mashing temps, count-down timers

 

[Parks]

Also, I got this in my inbox this morning... might be some good savings there (today only).

Cheers Bonj! Just bit the bullet and bought a board to play with

 

[matho]

Steve,
Looking at your schematic, I see you have pull up resistors on the buttons. Is there any reason why you did this instead of using the internal pull up resistors on the arduino/atmel? Also, I am guessing that you used transistors for the heater and buzzer to be more compatible? I suppose that is a good idea even though some options would be able to use these low output voltage and currents with no transistors.
Very good work

Edak,

just a left over from my PIC days, I have always put pull-ups on my push buttons. I know that I could have driven the SSR directly from an output pin but I wanted a LED driven off the same pin, then you know on light no output, with a 1.2v drop across the LED I was getting very close to the 3v operating limit of a SSR so I decided to go with the transistor. With the buzzer have you ever heard a piezo at 5v its not very loud so again I went with the drive transistor. Its good that I posted the schematic because looking at it I have noticed some errors like the +5v supply on the relay and the use of BC 547 instead of 2N2222a which is what I'm going with.

cheers steve

 

[Edak]

Edak,

just a left over from my PIC days, I have always put pull-ups on my push buttons. I know that I could have driven the SSR directly from an output pin but I wanted a LED driven off the same pin, then you know on light no output, with a 1.2v drop across the LED I was getting very close to the 3v operating limit of a SSR so I decided to go with the transistor. With the buzzer have you ever heard a piezo at 5v its not very loud so again I went with the drive transistor. Its good that I posted the schematic because looking at it I have noticed some errors like the +5v supply on the relay and the use of BC 547 instead of 2N2222a which is what I'm going with.

cheers steve

That's all good Steve, just checking.
I didn't notice the LED in series because in my mind I shorted the connector since I saw no actual LED symbol.

I am very keen to see your PCB's when you receive them.

 

[lagers44]

I found this looking through the Altronics updates Altronics , looks like they will start selling Arduino items soon + programming books

For those interested.

 

[Edak]

I found this looking through the Altronics updates Altronics , looks like they will start selling Arduino items soon + programming books

For those interested.

Sounds good, but I like those guys and have a trade account with them. Hopefully they get more in than what you listed. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[matho]

so Here is the code I have been working on for the brauduino, there is some more work to do but it seems to be working well, after a bit of advice from zizzle and bonj I have reduced the size of the code from 16.8k to 14.4k compiled.

cheers steve

 

[bonj]

so Here is the code I have been working on for the brauduino, there is some more work to do but it seems to be working well, after a bit of advice from zizzle and bonj I have reduced the size of the code from 16.8k to 14.4k compiled.

cheers steve

Thanks for the credit, but all I really did was say "What Zizzle said" haha. Code is looking good. I wonder if it will fit on an atmega168 now... I can't remember how much space is free after the bootloader

 

[matho]

Thanks for the credit, but all I really did was say "What Zizzle said" haha. Code is looking good. I wonder if it will fit on an atmega168 now... I can't remember how much space is free after the bootloader

it still was advice

 

[Edak]

so Here is the code I have been working on for the brauduino, there is some more work to do but it seems to be working well, after a bit of advice from zizzle and bonj I have reduced the size of the code from 16.8k to 14.4k compiled.

cheers steve

I like your modal code, very good job and I see how it will replicate the Braumeister almost perfectly. I really love how you have handled the buttons, very simple!

I am curious to how much ram gets used in your program because every string is loaded into memory and you have nearly 700 characters which get displayed on the LCD.
If you are using arduino 1.0 then it is possible to load them into flash memory (it increases program size, but doesn't use anywhere near this much ram.) using the F().

eg.
lcd.print(" Add Hops");

becomes
lcd.print(F(" Add Hops"));


Going through your code it's probably not a problem, but just a note... I am really finicky about reducing ram requirements because I have been bitten in the past with some huge data transfer programs.


EDIT:

Where you use delays (eg for the 1_sec buttons), have you considered using a while and reading millis() instead? This way, if the user changes their mind or goes from one button to another there is no risk of having a dead delay.