stacyh3's Content

#2499 Experimental Drivers for Wiznet-based Ethernet Shields

Posted by stacyh3 on 19 September 2010 - 05:20 PM in Beta Firmware and Drivers

P.S. Based on preliminary tests with the v4.1.1 alpha firmware (and a temporary jumper wire between D4 and D10), you can use the MicroSD card slot on the new Arduino Ethernet shield as well.

That seems cool. A two-for-one shield. Too bad, I already ordered the shield with no SD. Oh well. Maybe for a future project.

#1366 DS1307 Real Time Clock

Posted by stacyh3 on 26 August 2010 - 10:15 PM in Project Showcase

Attached is some code for using the DS1307 Real Time Clock chip via the I2C bus. The code includes a simple test application. Nothing facny, but it works. It also shows the use of extension methods which are pretty handy. The code comments include instructions on connecting the DS1307. Also, I scavanged an old ribbon cable and soldered one end to the SparkFun breakout board for the clock chip. I added pins to the other end to make is easy to use for prototyping. I figured that when I mounted this into a project box, it would be handy as well since it will allow easy access to the backup battery. Enjoy! Stacy

Attached Files

RealTimeClockTest.zip 9.93KB 934 downloads

#1367 BlinkM

Posted by stacyh3 on 26 August 2010 - 10:20 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

I was running into some odd issues too. It turned out to be my pull-up resistors. I guess most people know to double check this, but I figured I suggest it anyway. Stacy

#1002 TMP36 Temperature Sensor/SB Protoshield

Posted by stacyh3 on 21 August 2010 - 11:32 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

yes please

Selectable in code would be cool.

I also had a question about pull-up resistors. In wiring my I2C clock chip, I used external pull-up resistors. Is it possible to use the internal pull-up for this? I'm not really using the pins as input per-se, but if I plug in an I2C device, it likely needs pull-up resistors. Yes, I'm a hardware newbie... I'll bet it shows. :rolleyes:

Stacy

#198 TMP36 Temperature Sensor/SB Protoshield

Posted by stacyh3 on 10 August 2010 - 08:29 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

P.S.

We could add an "internal 3.3V analog reference" option in a future board revision. Would that be a valuable feature for everyone here? We'd make it optional and selectable in code.

Chris

It seems like this would be useful. Especially so for people who are "porting" Arduino projects.

Stacy

#1266 .NET micro Framework device

Posted by stacyh3 on 25 August 2010 - 01:14 AM in General Discussion

My 2 cents, I like the idea of a variety of boards. If I need Ethernet in my project, I'd choose that one. If not, then I'd choose the base model. Some things can be done with "shields", but having them integrated is cleaner and smaller. Stacy

#2967 Netduino Plus Unable to connect to from MFDeploy or Visual Studio after loadi...

Posted by stacyh3 on 26 September 2010 - 10:53 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I've been running into the same issue every once in a while. I've been able to get around it by going through the erase process as well. It seems like there's some timing going on there too. Sometimes it takes 2-3 tries to get through the erase. I'll try to keep track of my steps to see if I can make the problem repeat and maybe gain some insight into the issue. Stacy

#3156 How to use the SD card and StreamWriter

Posted by stacyh3 on 29 September 2010 - 03:08 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Here's an odd thing. I was unable to write a file to the MicroSD card using FileStream/Stream/etc. I decided to check the card by writing a file to it on the PC. That worked fine, so I stuck the card back into the netduino to see if it could read the directory. It read the directory just fine and was able to write files without any issues from then on! I'll keep playing with the file system and reporting my results. Stacy

#2020 Power Converter? What are those things called?

Posted by stacyh3 on 09 September 2010 - 01:42 PM in General Discussion

Thanks. That's good to know. At this point, my hardware skills are minimal. The idea of surface mount soldering seems a bit beyond me. I have basic soldering skills and will be trying my hand at something that's more advanced - for me anyway - within the next few days. Stacy

#2016 Power Converter? What are those things called?

Posted by stacyh3 on 09 September 2010 - 01:24 PM in General Discussion

While you're on the topic of soldering, maybe a thread or blog post on techniques would be cool. There are a few "how-to's" out there, but they miss a few things that scare beginners. For example, I sometimes see chips soldered directly to a board, and other times I see them in the little chip holders. (Hmm. Chip DIP jokes come to mind). How do I know when to do which? I'm learning a lot of this as I go, but could certainly benefit from the wisdom of others. Stacy

#1874 Real Time Clock

Posted by stacyh3 on 07 September 2010 - 12:04 AM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

And of course, if you're using the DS1307, check out my post w/code here: DS1307 Real Time Clock.

This clock is pretty inexpensive and works well. I'm sure that there are better ones out there with alarms, etc.

#1659 Motor Control in an Airsoft gun

Posted by stacyh3 on 02 September 2010 - 01:18 AM in General Discussion

Okay. I'm starting to understand a bit more. I'll ask my son and his friend to look on the motor itself for any additional specs, and I'll look at the types of transistors you mentioned. I appreciate the great explanations! It makes this fun for novices like me when we get such great help. Thanks! Stacy

#1654 Motor Control in an Airsoft gun

Posted by stacyh3 on 01 September 2010 - 08:58 PM in General Discussion

Yes, those ideas make more sense than the switch. I'll take another look at the lever in the gun to see what we can do. This is fantastic help. Thanks very much!

The motor is this one: ICS Turbo-3000. I haven't found an actual spec sheet yet. We just need to control on/off really.

I also ran across this: Using a transistor to control high current loads with an Arduino which seems like it would work.

Thanks again!

#1670 Motor Control in an Airsoft gun

Posted by stacyh3 on 02 September 2010 - 10:57 AM in General Discussion

Very cool! Thanks! I'll keep this thread up to date as we make progress. Stacy

#1376 I2CDevice protocol

Posted by stacyh3 on 27 August 2010 - 12:34 AM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

I can post the code later today. Eventually this will be part of a larger project that I'll also share with the community. It's still pretty rough at this point, but it does work

Stacy

The code is posted in the projects section.

Stacy

#319 SerialPort class?

Posted by stacyh3 on 12 August 2010 - 07:30 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

Sorry for the traffic, but I just found it. Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware.SerialPort in case anyone else is looking. csh

#318 SerialPort class?

Posted by stacyh3 on 12 August 2010 - 07:28 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

Oh yes, and I tried other references like Microsoft.SPOT.IO. Oh SerialPort, come out, come out wherever you are!

#317 SerialPort class?

Posted by stacyh3 on 12 August 2010 - 07:25 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

Hello all, I have included a reference to System.IO and a using statement for System.IO.Ports, but the SerialPort class doesn't show up. What am I missing? I'm sure it's probably something simple that I'm overlooking. Thanks!

#761 I2CDevice protocol

Posted by stacyh3 on 18 August 2010 - 03:37 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

I've been working with the DS1307 Real Time Clock mounted on the SparkFun breakout board. In reading data from the clock, I am able to use the following code successfully:

            // Go to address zero.
            transaction = new I2CDevice.I2CTransaction[]
            {
                I2CDevice.CreateWriteTransaction(new byte[] {0})
            };

            result = clock.Execute(transaction, i2c_timeout);

            // Read data
            var data = new byte[7];
            transaction = new I2CDevice.I2CTransaction[]
            {
                I2CDevice.CreateReadTransaction(data)
            };

            result = clock.Execute(transaction, i2c_timeout);

It appears that you should be able to do something like this:

            // Read data
            var data = new byte[7];
            transaction = new I2CDevice.I2CTransaction[]
            {
                I2CDevice.CreateWriteTransaction(new byte[] {0}),
                I2CDevice.CreateReadTransaction(data)
            };

            result = clock.Execute(transaction, i2c_timeout);

This would combine the write to the clock to set the address and the read to get the data. This causes the netduino to freeze and requires me to unplug the clock and erase the netduino code. I'm okay with doing this in two steps, I'm just curious if it's "supposed" to work in one combined transaction.

Thanks!

Stacy

#766 I2CDevice protocol

Posted by stacyh3 on 18 August 2010 - 05:27 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

Very curious. It should work as a single step (and in fact, that's the preferred way to do it with I2C). We tested the RTC on the Adafruit Datalogger shield using the I2C feature similarly and it worked well... We'll get one of these in the lab and run it through the logic analyzer and debugger to see what's going on

Is this the board you're using?

Chris

Yes, that's the board. And I am using the latest netduino firmware with the analog fixes. It almost feels like a timing issue. Like the read may be happening to quickly after the write. of course, that's just a gut feel, since things seem to work fine when I separate the calls.

My connection are 5V and ground as indicated. SCL to Analog 5, and SDA to Analog 4.

Thanks! Let me know if there's any further debugging I can do.

Stacy

#1632 Motor Control in an Airsoft gun

Posted by stacyh3 on 01 September 2010 - 04:12 PM in General Discussion

Hello all,

I'm pretty new to electronics and still developing basic design skills (I'm a software person). I'm hoping someone can give me some simple guidance.

My son and one of his friends are modifying an electric airsoft gun so that the firing mechanism is controlled by a microcontroller. They want to be able to have the trigger be a button press that the microcontroller reads and depending on the programming will activate the motor in the airsoft gun. There's a little lever in the gun that moves each time the gun is fired. By adding another switch that this lever will hit, we can count how many times the gun has fired. The microcontroller can then be programmed to give us variable bursts when firing.

My questions are:

Does this seem reasonable so far?
What's the best way to control the motor?
Should we use a MOSFET or a solid state relay? What are the practical differences in the two?
Anyone care to venture a circuit diagram that will help us?

I realize that being new to this, my questions may not all be well-formed, but I'm hoping this will get us moving in the right direction.

Thanks,
Stacy

#1640 Motor Control in an Airsoft gun

Posted by stacyh3 on 01 September 2010 - 07:40 PM in General Discussion

Thanks! I'll check out those links. I'll take all the knowledge I can get on this one. If anyone else has thoughts, please chime in. I'm going to try to get some photos of the mechanism in the airsoft gun. It's all very heavy and mechanical. I'm also worried about how we're thinking of using a moving lever to tap a switch that will count shots. If we can get that and the motor control nailed, then the rest is just software. Stacy

#1285 I2CDevice protocol

Posted by stacyh3 on 25 August 2010 - 01:26 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

I can post the code later today. Eventually this will be part of a larger project that I'll also share with the community. It's still pretty rough at this point, but it does work

Stacy

#853 I2CDevice protocol

Posted by stacyh3 on 19 August 2010 - 04:52 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

I think I may have found my issue. One of my pull-up resistors was not connected corectly. I usually double check my hardware connections since I'm a hardware novice, but I missed this. Thanks to a magnifying glass, I found the issue. Now the RTC chip is responding reliably every time and I can combine I2C read and write transactions. Yay! I'll keep testing to make sure that there wasn't some other anomaly. Thanks, Stacy

#3349 UART Shield

Posted by stacyh3 on 01 October 2010 - 12:43 PM in Project Showcase

There is this one Arduino RS232 Shield, but it only exposes 1 port.

Stacy