Ah so that's you! We should chat some day I made my own LCD Transfer Provider based on your class as concept at the moment. I did this so it can use multiple 74HC595 IC's with the same latch pin. With my provider it's also possible to link multiple LCD's to the same SPI-pins as well If you like, I can send you my code, so you can take a look at it?

That would be great extension! If you'd like to join the project just send me your login at CodePlex.

Thanks!
-Szymon

Hi Rob, I wrote a library that simplifies connecting with various types of LCDs. You can read about it on my blog http://geekswithblog...id_crystal.aspx The library is hosted on CodePlex: http://microliquidcr...l.codeplex.com/

OZ, it sounds like you'll have a very nice looking case whatever you do!

Szymon, Chris Seto--thanks for the links to the cases. Maybe we should ask one of the manufacturers to make a Netduino-specific case?

Chris

I think that in general you would choose the case that fits best for your project, considering all additional components that you might be using.

That said I think adafruit's case looks quite robust and can fit quite a lot. For larger or more ruged projects Chameleon case might work better http://www.esawdust....cl-cham1-basic/

For both enclosures we just need a proper faceplate to expose the netduino ports (or just a template to cut them ourselves from blank faceplate).

Here are few more examples:
http://blog.makezine..._enclosure.html
http://blog.makezine...duino_case.html
http://blog.makezine...duino_case.html
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1664

Hi, I received the adafruit's arduino enclosure today. Netduino fits nicely inside but of course I will have to make a new hole if I wanted to plug USB from outside. Also because the power plug dosn't stick out as much as on arduino there is a little gap between the bottomplate. Here you can see few photos of it: http://cid-4c7ec0c21...e.aspx/Netduino Overall the board looks good. I will try to connect the LCD and figure out how to add the buttons (probably will use switch buttons on the proto shield).

bah those look boring I'll make my own out of Plexiglas

Here is another enclosure from Adafruit
http://www.adafruit....products_id=271

I just ordered one so I can tell you shortly how netduino fits inside.

Hi,
I have published my second project. This time I upgraded the robotic kit from oomlout with Netduino. The robot uses continous rotation servos as differential drive (works great with Chris Seto's Servo class). It also uses Nintendo Wii Nunchuck as contoller (and includes my WiiChuck driver) and adds wireless communication via pair of XBees.

Here is the blog post http://geekswithblog...ervo-robot.aspx

The source code is here: http://cid-4c7ec0c21...b^_20100831.zip

This time no video because its to dark now. Let me know if I should make one tomorrow :-)

Thank you for writing the WiiChuck driver! I was going to take a stab at this, but now I don't have to. AWESOME! Thank you SO much, you have provided so much help to us newbies. :-)

No problem. Now we can be Netduino Ninjas :-)

Let me know how it works out for you or if you have any suggestions how to improve it.

Nice project, I was curious what is the board that you are using that is connected to the Netduino?---AJB

It's the Adafruit's prototyping shield http://www.adafruit....&products_id=51

I just saw this article; a Netduino user in Japan has written preliminary code using an OLED screen with a Netduino.

Very nice.

http://www.microsoft...x-EyED/20100821

Chris

Interesting. I've noticed that there is lot of chat on twitter about netduino in japanese. I wonder what they are up to ;-)

Thank you for visiting my weblog... ;-)

http://ecrafts.g.hat...e.jp/Lynx-EyED/

Hi lynxeyed_atsu,

Very cool that you are here too. It looks like lot of people in Japan are excited about netduino (or maybe with .NET Micro Framework in general?). Due to language barier it's hard for me to keep up with what you are doing. Hope you could give us some updates on cool project you are working on.

Wow. There is already a Netduino wiki in japanese: http://www.microsoft...%c8%a4%a4%ca%fd

If you plan to use it as a sensor node maybe it would be worth adding some wireless options directly on the board. I'm thinking something like this guy: http://www.sparkfun....roducts_id=9712

Hi Xander, welcome to the forums!

We will have resellers in Europe (and probably Asia and Australia as well) in the coming months. Today, MakerSHED should be able to serve you well. But we know that Europe is a priority (for cost reasons) and we're on it...

Chris

Hi Chris,
I live in Poland so I'm also very interested in Europe based resseler. The closest distributor is in Czech Republic http://informatix.mi...microframework/

They carry many different .NET MF boards so I hope yours will be available shortly too :-)

Best Regards,
Szymon Kobalczyk (MVP)

PS: Thanks for this great project!

I'm pretty new at this, but am wondering whether this board could be used to run the Mendel REPRAP machine? I mean, would it simply be a case of recompiling the Java code they provide, or would it need to be re-written from scratch?

I just found that there is a new RepRap G5 Mini Shield posted on http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3863
It is specially designed to work with ARM boards, such like Netduino, FEZ domino, Maple Leaf and etc.
So I think that would take care of the hardware side.

On the software front I also found that the RepRap firmware is written so that it can be compiled by GNU GCC compiler:
http://reprap.org/wiki/General_FAQ

So I think instead of rewriting it in .NET Micro Framework, the easiest route would be to compile it natively and reflash the board. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of RepRap.NET too, but .NET MF is not designed for real-time devices so I'm afraid it wouldn't work in this scenario. But I still hope someone else will shortly prove I was wrong.

Since .NET MF allows interop with native code, this is definitely possible using a mix of native C++ and managed C# code. Maybe managed C# code alone.

100% Native C++ code on the Netduino is definitely possible as well.

Chris,
It sounds very tempting to give it a try, and besides I wanted a MakerBot for some time alredy... but maybe I should finish some other projects first :-)

I think one of the strengths of Arduino is the Playground area at http://www.arduino.cc/playground/ and especially the pages that collect information (including links to any libraries) about interfacing with various hardware: http://www.arduino.c...ingWithHardware Do you plan to add similar Wiki on this site? There are already some good libraries for .NET MF but its hard to find them on the web. It would be cool to have a single source for such information.

Just out of curiosity, what features will a "weather" station have? To me personally, using 48 MHz ARM7 processor (with all the features) for temperature measurements seems a bit overkill... I understand benefits of .NET Micro Framework programming, though.

I agree with CW2. I built my weather stations using Arduino clone called JeeNode from http://news.jeelabs.org/. It has a built in low-power radio. It also uses modular design for and specifc "plugs" many sensors and devices are already available in his shop http://shop.jeelabs.com/. There is also lot of discussion about low-power requirements on his blog and forums.

My nodes last for more than a month on 3xAA batteries. Each uses a Room Board (http://shop.jeelabs....ucts/room-board) with temperature, humidity, motion and light sensor. I put them inside Airwick Freshmatic Mini enclosures: http://cid-4c7ec0c21...tal electronics

I think it might be worth using such devices for the sensor nodes but use Netduino with Ethernet shield as a central interface. It could be plug into a PC via USB or report data directly to a cloud service such as http://www.pachube.com/ via the Ethernet shield.

Totally agree Chris - it just came up as a big stink on the Fez boards so I figured I'd post here to try to remind folks that not all code is free (as in beer).

Actually that was the main reason I wrote my own version of LCD library from scratch (and the Wii Nunchuck as well). They are based on open source Arduino libraries and I attributed the creators in source code header or in the coresponding blog post so I hope everything is fine from legal perspective there.

That's a great point. And one of the beauties of open source: we can build off each other's work, and people get credit and kudos for what they've done. It's really a fantastic system in many ways.

Please note that if the source you're building off of is GPL or otherwise share-alike that you'll need to note that in your derivative code. Share-alike code is fantastic, but businesses will often stay away from it due to legal concerns (founded or unfounded).

Chris

I couldn't find what license is covering Arduino libraries. From the Arduino FAQ I understand that the Arduino environment is covered by GPL but this doesn't prevent it's use in comercial products: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/FAQ

The footer on the LiquidCrystal library page says about "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License" but I think this applies to documentation. http://arduino.cc/en...e/LiquidCrystal

I'm not sure how this applies to the code that was ported to different language or platform so if anyone can clarify this I'll be happy to change the licensing or take any other actions as appropriate.

Maybe this is another good reason to publish the project on CodePlex, because it ensures that users accept the license for each download.

Just thought of something else I'd love to see - a couple of power pins for the netduino itself. I'd like to be able to power it with LiPo batteries using a JST connector, but just a a couple of power input pins I can work with.

(no, I don't want to have to hook a barrel connector up to the battery if possible).

If I understand you are thinking about something like with Arduino Pro?
http://www.sparkfun....roducts_id=9221

And similar with Arduino Fio (it even has LiPo charger built-in):
http://www.sparkfun....roducts_id=9712

The processor itself is surely fast enough for 1-Wire, at this time the problem is with native (C++) code generated by GCC, but it works.

It works on Arduino so it would be weird if Netduino's much superior CPU couldn't handle it :-)

I'm really enjoying the device so far.

The application I'm working on uses the Parallax RFID reader which is talking to the Netduino as a serial device on D0 so, I'd have to look at D2/D3 for getting data out. Having a way to talk over the USB would be huge, since it would keep the whole solution smaller, simpler and cheaper.

I would be happy to share once I get something that's ready to share.

I'm looking to port this WPF PING sensor application over to the Netduino as well.

Hi futileboy,
If all you want is get the RFID data to PC you actually don't need netduino for that. You can simply connect it directly with the FTDI Serial-to-USB cable.
http://www.adafruit....&products_id=70
http://www.sparkfun....roducts_id=9718

Or you can just get the USB version of the same Parallax RFID reader.
http://www.parallax....17/Default.aspx

Then it will show as virtual comport that you can access using System.IO.Ports.SerialPort class (I should have some sample code if you need help).

That's good advice. And I've looked at going straight to the USB version of the RFID reader. My big motivation for using the Netduino though is that I'd like to add more then one sensor and even some other inputs (switches, knobs, etc) and have it do all the physical device handling. That way, I only plug one device into the system and get an array of data out of it.

In this case you could try to turn your netduino into a proper HID USB device. I haven't tried it yet myself but there is a sample in the .NET MF SDK that shows how to make a virtual mouse.

Here is also excellent article written by Michel Verhagen on GuruCE that shows how to communicate with .NET application using WinUSB driver: http://guruce.com/bl...cation-over-usb Looks like bit more work but it might be worth to give it a try.

In both cases you will probably loose ability to debug on the device via USB so you will need serial cable anyway. I surly can't wait until netduino guys figure out how to make this easier.

I'm using Dig Pin5 for DS, Dig Pin6 as Data, Pin7 as latch and reading values from Q0 on Pin0 and Q1 on Pin1.

You should be using the SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino.Pins enumeration instead of Cpu.Pin. This will ensure correct mapping from hardware specific pin numbers to internal numbers. For example Netduino.Pins.GPIO_PIN_D5 true value is 51. So in your case you should change these lines:

            OutputPort DS = new OutputPort(SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino.Pins.GPIO_PIN_D5, false); 
            OutputPort StoreData = new OutputPort(SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino.Pins.GPIO_PIN_D6, false); 
            OutputPort Latch = new OutputPort(SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino.Pins.GPIO_PIN_D7, true); 
 
            InputPort Read1 = new InputPort(SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino.Pins.GPIO_PIN_D0, false, Port.ResistorMode.Disabled); 
            InputPort Read2 = new InputPort(SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino.Pins.GPIO_PIN_D1, false, Port.ResistorMode.Disabled); 

I hope this helps.

Here is a simple Shifter test class extracted from my project:

using System;
using System.Threading;
using Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware;

namespace ShiftRegisterTest
{
    public class Program
    {
        private static Cpu.Pin latchPin     = SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino.Pins.GPIO_PIN_D7;
        private static Cpu.Pin clockPin     = SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino.Pins.GPIO_PIN_D6;
        private static Cpu.Pin dataPin      = SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino.Pins.GPIO_PIN_D5;

        public static void Main()
        {
            var shifter = new Shifter(latchPin, clockPin, dataPin);

            byte value = 0;
            while (true)
            {
/*
                // blink all LEDs
                shifter.Write(255);
                Thread.Sleep(200);
                shifter.Write(0);
                Thread.Sleep(200);
*/
                // blink single LED
                shifter.Write(value);
                value = (byte)(value << 1);
                if (value == 0) value = 1;
                Thread.Sleep(200);
            }
        }
    }

    public class Shifter : IDisposable
    {
        private readonly OutputPort _latchPort;
        private readonly OutputPort _clockPort;
        private readonly OutputPort _dataPort;

        public Shifter(Cpu.Pin latchPin, Cpu.Pin clockPin, Cpu.Pin dataPin)
        {
            _latchPort = new OutputPort(latchPin, false);
            _clockPort = new OutputPort(clockPin, false);
            _dataPort = new OutputPort(dataPin, false);
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            _latchPort.Dispose();
            _clockPort.Dispose();
            _dataPort.Dispose();
        }

        public void Write(params byte[] buffer)
        {
            // Ground latchPin and hold low for as long as you are transmitting
            _latchPort.Write(false);

            for (int i = 0; i < buffer.Length; i++)
            {
                ShiftOut(buffer[i]);
            }

            // Return the latch pin high to signal chip that it 
            // no longer needs to listen for information
            _latchPort.Write(true);
            _latchPort.Write(false);
        }

        private void ShiftOut(byte value)
        {
            _clockPort.Write(false);

            for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
            {
                byte mask = (byte)(1 << i);
                _dataPort.Write((value & mask) != 0);

                // Raise Clock
                _clockPort.Write(true);

                // Raise Data to prevent IO conflict 
                _dataPort.Write(true);

                // Lower Clock
                _clockPort.Write(false);
            }
        }
    }
}