stacyh3's Content

#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

#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

#14240 CfrazyFlie Quadcopter

Posted by stacyh3 on 11 June 2011 - 10:24 PM in General Discussion

CrazyFlie QuadcopterThis would be cool to build:

#10389 Chris the star!

Posted by stacyh3 on 28 February 2011 - 02:26 PM in General Discussion

Great as always! Well done!

#9576 Color Sweeper

Posted by stacyh3 on 15 February 2011 - 07:32 AM in Project Showcase

With common cathode, you'll drive power to each of the colors using OutputPorts or PWM. With common anode, you'd pull current through the LEDs by doing the opposite (i.e. writing 'false' to OutputPort would turn the LED off).

I prefer common cathode because it's straight-forward, but common anode may be more popular. Also--how much current do you need to drive?

Chris

I see what you mean about common cathode being more straigh-forward. For now, the project is just a single RGB LED, so not much current draw. It's one that I picked up from Radio Shack. I think I might want to go bigger/brighter at some point, but I'm not sure yet. I may also attach an LCD display.

Stacy

#9380 Color Sweeper

Posted by stacyh3 on 13 February 2011 - 03:28 AM in Project Showcase

Funny that you should post this today - I've been playing around with a similar project this afternoon .

Regards,
Mark

Okay. Crazy coincidence! I've been playing with RGB LEDs today too! I found out that there are at least two types: common cathode and common anode. Does anyone have pros/cons for using the different types? Any tips?

Thanks,
Stacy

#9983 Color Sweeper

Posted by stacyh3 on 22 February 2011 - 01:38 AM in Project Showcase

For those who have played with either the MinM - Miniature BlinkM or the ShiftBrite, how's the color mixing? The RGB LED that I got from Radio Shack is okay, but the color mixing is pretty lousy. I've tried various diffusers, etc., but still can't get decent mixing. Making "yellow" for example, always shows red and green as well.

Thanks,
Stacy

#3314 DNS functions

Posted by stacyh3 on 01 October 2010 - 12:04 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I'm trying out the DNS features and seeing the following. Dns.GetHostEntry("www.microsoft.com") works fine and seems to return the right address. Dns.GetHostEntry("mymachine") and Dns.GetHostEntry("myfullmcahine.company.blah.blah") returns the wrong IP address. I'll keep trying... Stacy

#3350 DNS functions

Posted by stacyh3 on 01 October 2010 - 12:50 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Hi Stacy,

Interesting. In desktop .NET, does Dns.GetHostEntry("mymachine") resolve the IP address of local machines against a DNS server--or does it discover the local machines in another way?

Chris

Good question. I'll take a look to see what the code is doing on the desktop. I'm on Amtrak right now and tethered to my phone, so it'll be a while. Maybe I'll shoot an email to one of our networking guys.

Stacy

#3351 DNS functions

Posted by stacyh3 on 01 October 2010 - 01:04 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

There's a long thread here that might give a clue: Dns.GetHostEntry functionality
Stacy

#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

#1267 Electronics Books

Posted by stacyh3 on 25 August 2010 - 01:23 AM in General Discussion

Hey everyone,

I'm a long time developer and very new to electronics. Can anyone recommend any books on the subject matter to get me up to speed?

I'm in the same boat. This book has been fan-freakin-tastic: Make: Electronics

Stacy

#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.

#1563 Feedback on proposed SD card mounting functions...

Posted by stacyh3 on 31 August 2010 - 12:21 PM in Beta Firmware and Drivers

This would be very useful. I assume that I would attach an interrupt to the card detect pin to determine when the card is inserted/removed. 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

#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

#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

#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

#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

#10010 inPulse Watch

Posted by stacyh3 on 22 February 2011 - 09:08 PM in General Discussion

Someone posted this on the tinyclr forum, so I thought I'd share it here as well.
InPulse Hackable Watch
It would be cool if this could be flashed with the .NET Micro Framework. The rebirth of SPOT!

#1674 Metal Detector Robot

Posted by stacyh3 on 02 September 2010 - 02:15 PM in General Discussion

I just need more time!!!
I want to make one of these: Metal Detector Robot. This would be so cool with a Netduino with Ethernet. Imagine a little web service on the device that would give PGS coordinates of the found items and you could use on a laptop to see the location in Bing Maps.

So many cool things!!!

#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!

#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