Arduino

[RobertISaar]

since we do seem to have a few programmers here, anyone mess with an Arduino before? it seems like it wouldn't be that difficult to learn it's language compared to a 6811.

[Six_Shooter]

I have an Arduino Uno sitting on my bench.

I'm having trouble learning the program language to get it to do what I want, I understand the basics, in that you need to set up everything in the sketch and then have loops and such running, but I just don't seem to understand how to actually write it to get it to work. :(

[RobertISaar]

people don't post examples anywhere?

it seems pretty simple to me, from taking a look at the instruction set, though i have yet to view any programs. from the looks of it, i may want an Uno for controlling some things in-car that i would have otherwise needed to use an ECM as a BCM for.

and supposedly, the instruction set is based off of C? i can't understand C at all, i tried making a tunerpro plugin or even trying to understand how a plugin works and got nowhere real quick.



i can program the hell out of motorola 68xx code, but i can't seem do anything PC based at all beyond simple HTML and it's derivatives.

[88ragtop]

The Arduino is a lot of fun. I had been wanting to muck with microcontrollers for a long time, but found it a bit confusing and the easier stuff was very costly. The Arduino makes it easy to get started. The 'reference' hardware (even though it's nothing special) gets everybody on an even playing field that needs nothing additional for programming. The language is pretty easy to pick up on. I'm far from an expert but have been able to do a couple of good projects with some help from google. The best part is the abundance of information out there since it has become so popular.

I started with the usual blinking LED and hello world on an LCD stuff, and then fought my way through a couple of projects that were a little over my head. The first project was a whole house power monitor (based off this project: thttp://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/58) that measures voltage and current usage, displays it on an LCD, and sends it to a linux box wirelessly via XBee modules. On the linux box I log the data, generate graphs of usage over time, etc.

The second bigger project was my own design to monitor the state of battery banks in RVs/Camping Trailers. There's some commercial products that do this, but they are big bucks and every one I played with had some quirks. Here's the circuitry breadboarded up for testing when I first started:



Once the hardware was working I etched a PC board for it:



And built the prototype:



The software is about 75% done. Discharge tracking works, and charge tracking mostly works. I need to finish up the charge portion and the rest of the user interface. Right now it's been back burnered while I get some furniture built. When I get a chance I'll see if I can make a quick video of it working..

Another thing I thought would be a fun Arduino project would be a little box with LCD to display a mini "dash" from ALDL values.

- Frank

[RobertISaar]

Another thing I thought would be a fun Arduino project would be a little box with LCD to display a mini "dash" from ALDL values.

it does support TTL communications(either natively or via an adapter), from what i've read, which will work with ALDL.

i've considered a great many uses for it, the most exciting of which is similar, though i am leaning more toward the HUD route and have values projected onto the windshield.

[88ragtop]

it does support TTL communications(either natively or via an adapter), from what i've read, which will work with ALDL.

i've considered a great many uses for it, the most exciting of which is similar, though i am leaning more toward the HUD route and have values projected onto the windshield.

True Heads Up would be cool. The TTL should be very easy to handle, as that's pretty much the native capability. To go to RS232 they use an interface, just like we do to talk to the ALDL. USB is also handled in a similar manner.

Does anyone know what the original powertrain engineer HUDs looked like? That could be an interesting thing to try to replicate.

- Frank

[FSJ Guy]

Another thing I thought would be a fun Arduino project would be a little box with LCD to display a mini "dash" from ALDL values.

- Frank

That is EXACTLY why I'd love to have the time to learn Arduino. I worked with the creator of a commercially available product to do something similar and was hoping it would be available by now, but that project has stalled.

[historystamp]

and supposedly, the instruction set is based off of C? i can't understand C at all, i tried making a tunerpro plugin or even trying to understand how a plugin works and got nowhere real quick.

i can program the hell out of motorola 68xx code, but i can't seem do anything PC based at all beyond simple HTML and it's derivatives.

I agree with you on C and the TurnerPro plugin. I've never been able fathom C that well. I guess I don't agree the philosophy behind C. I've taken a look at the C source to BitHoist & that makes my head spin. Took me several hours to find where the author was parsing the command parameters.

I assume you could program it in assembler if you want.

A lot of it will be how well the manufacturer documents the micro. With C, you end up having to learn how the hardware works then having to learn how to access the hardware through C. In assembler, your good to go once you learn the hardware.

Anyway, programming in C on one of these boards should be easier because you will be writing the code in your own style. From a C coding perspective, I think C is more suited for the micro processor environment. You can avoid a lot of the complexities of C. I think C falls down in the large system programming environment.

I'm familiar with one or two of the Micorchip pic controllers.

Robert