8 replies to this topic

[ATmega-Man]

Hi all, my Netduino arived from SKPang today (excelent service!) I've come from Arduino because the syntax just doesn't make any sense to me. I've come from a .net background with loads of VB.net experience and a little C#. I'm looking for some good Netduino books/tutorials/educational resources to get me started, any help would be apriciated. Thanks Adam

[Stefan]

Hi ATmega-Man and welcome to the boards!

A list of nice resources:
- Three youtube introductions: Getting started with Netduino, Button tutorial and Using event handlers
- API Reference for .NET Micro Framework
- Netduino Wiki
- Netduino for beginners - Gentle introduction with basic electronic project

If you have a Netduino Plus, ISBN 978-1449393571 (Getting Started with the Internet of Things: Connecting Sensors and Microcontrollers to the Cloud) might be interesting.

[ATmega-Man]

Hi Stefan, thanks for the prompt reply and post approval. I didn't get the plus I only got the basic version and spent the £20 saved on loads of sensors due to arrive from the far east in a week or so. I'll have a look at the links you've posted and see where it leads me. Can you answer me one question? The Arduino Mega I have runs on 5v now I know the Netduino runs on 3.5v but I can plug anything upto 12v into the Ardu and it will throttle the voltage down, will the Netduino do the same? I ask as I have a 11.1v 3600MaH battery on a tracked chassis that I'd like to use but I'd rather check if it will blow my board up before I do it. Thanks again for your help

[Stefan]

The Arduino Mega I have runs on 5v now I know the Netduino runs on 3.5v but I can plug anything upto 12v into the Ardu and it will throttle the voltage down, will the Netduino do the same?

I shall devide this question in a few parts, hopefully it's clear. If not, please let me know.

The Netduino has a power barrel with an input voltage (Vin) from 7.5 to 12V. This is for the micro controller, not the signal pins. The same counts for the power barrel on the Arduino. It's also possible to put 5V on the 5V pin to power it up, just like with Arduino.

Then there are signal pins. With some Arduino boards the pins work with 5V signals (although Arduino is also moving towards 3V3). The Netduino can accept both 5V and 3V3 on it's pins, but it will only output 3V3. One exception are the analog pins. Since it needs to convert 0-3V3 to an integer (0 to 1024) it's limited to 3V3 as input voltage. But that only counts when using the pins as analog input.

[ATmega-Man]

Awesome, so unless I'm mistaken the batterys fine and the only thing that will have an issue are my arduino shields and bits that are 5v output dependent?

[Stefan]

Awesome, so unless I'm mistaken the batterys fine and the only thing that will have an issue are my arduino shields and bits that are 5v output dependent?

Indeed. And you will notice that shields rarely depend on 5V signal output. It actually only happens with analog devices. So far I had two shields which I had to modify: the Dangershield and Joystick Shield. Even in those cases, a simple modification was sufficient to get everything working.

[ATmega-Man]

Sounds like a plan! I have an KS108 chipset LCD that I think is gonna cause issues and a motor controller that could be an issue but other that I should be ok Thanks mate

[Stefan]

Just try it if it doesn't work you could add a logic level converter as well. But first try if it works on 3V3. Most electronics do.

[ATmega-Man]

Ill give it a shot, the LCD has like 20 pins that I'm gonna have to mess with and all the code to get it to work so that can wait until im in the mood for a couple of hours of pain.