Show us your Arduino projects.
- Thread starter nine4gmc
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American Locomotive
Well-known member
I've done a real time miles-per-gallon meter for an older car, and I'm currently working on an electronic throttle control system for a Jeep.
American Locomotive
Well-known member
The MPG meter is in a friends car, and the electronic throttle control isn't much at the moment since I'm still waiting for the H-bridge motor driver to come in.
I also had a very crude fuel injection setup running off an arduino as well!
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Motion Controller for my CNC mill
Light drive for my paddle board paddle
DRO for my Mill
I have about a dozen projects going with arduinos at any given time. Among the ones I don't have pictures for are:
a string of glass 24 Coke bottle that I stuffed a three leds in each bottle. The arduino controls the color.
I have sheet metal letters of my name with about 500 leds in them. The arduino creates effects.
Quad copter with arduino brain controlling balance.
Remote telemetry on equipment at several locations.
Wifi enable gate and garage door controlled by cell phone app
Solar Car telemetry system
Light drive for my paddle board paddle
DRO for my Mill
I have about a dozen projects going with arduinos at any given time. Among the ones I don't have pictures for are:
a string of glass 24 Coke bottle that I stuffed a three leds in each bottle. The arduino controls the color.
I have sheet metal letters of my name with about 500 leds in them. The arduino creates effects.
Quad copter with arduino brain controlling balance.
Remote telemetry on equipment at several locations.
Wifi enable gate and garage door controlled by cell phone app
Solar Car telemetry system
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There is indeed a thread:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310270
Far and away the best thing I did with the mill.
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jask
Well-known member
more info on the motion control as well please!!
That is in my CNC conversion thread:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=272009
The short version is there is a program called GRBL that converts Gcode into motion. You feed Gcode into the arduino via a virtual serial port (actually a USB port) does motion planning, and then generates to drive stepper motor controllers.
https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki
GRBL does have a slightly limited Gcode library due to the available storage on an Arduino, but is a very very good program.
I did move away from it on the mill because right now it can not do backlash compensation. I had a good bit of backlash in the import mill, so I moved to a more powerful program inorder to be able to deal with backlash. I still used it on my 3d printer, and a few other random motion control product. I will using it again, actually reusing the original mill setup, this spring to build my laser engraver.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=272009
The short version is there is a program called GRBL that converts Gcode into motion. You feed Gcode into the arduino via a virtual serial port (actually a USB port) does motion planning, and then generates to drive stepper motor controllers.
https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki
GRBL does have a slightly limited Gcode library due to the available storage on an Arduino, but is a very very good program.
I did move away from it on the mill because right now it can not do backlash compensation. I had a good bit of backlash in the import mill, so I moved to a more powerful program inorder to be able to deal with backlash. I still used it on my 3d printer, and a few other random motion control product. I will using it again, actually reusing the original mill setup, this spring to build my laser engraver.
Outlander
Well-known member
Cool projects guys. My IoT guys at work are pushing me to Arduino when I keep buying Raspberry Pis.
tjdux
Well-known member
I have a project in the planning stage to automate all my blast gates and dust collection system.
Basically a current sensor at my major tools that will tell the dust collector to power on amd open the appropriate gate/make sure all others are closed just by hitting the power switch at the tool.
Such things already exist but for just a 4 gate system cost 600 to 1000 bucks. Whereas my arduino DIY version is gonna cost $250 or probably less.
I also have a second project in mind using neopixels and arduinos or raspi for making permanent christmas lights that will mount in my house eves. Neopixels make sweet color combos and actually could be used year round. Red, white and blue for 4th july, different green effects for st pats, orange and purple for halloweenen, kids favorite colors on their birthdays, pink for valentines... team colors on game day. Its endless.
Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703
Basically a current sensor at my major tools that will tell the dust collector to power on amd open the appropriate gate/make sure all others are closed just by hitting the power switch at the tool.
Such things already exist but for just a 4 gate system cost 600 to 1000 bucks. Whereas my arduino DIY version is gonna cost $250 or probably less.
I also have a second project in mind using neopixels and arduinos or raspi for making permanent christmas lights that will mount in my house eves. Neopixels make sweet color combos and actually could be used year round. Red, white and blue for 4th july, different green effects for st pats, orange and purple for halloweenen, kids favorite colors on their birthdays, pink for valentines... team colors on game day. Its endless.
Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703
Each has it's place. I use both.
The Arduino is a micro controller. Everything it does is real time processing. It does one process and follows it through. It is very good for input output type things, motion control, and displays. However it really lacks in complex processing power.
The Raspberry is a micro computer. It processes information differently. Depending on the OS it may not have any real time processing capability at all. As a result, it can cause issues if you need precision timing. However, it makes up for it in having massive amounts of computing power.
An overly simplistic example would be a light switch. You want to push the button and the light come one. The arduino would process that exactly as you expect. It receives an input and it creates and sends the correct output. The Raspberry might receive the input, process it, and then might update the clock, updated the display, check the memory, check the wifi signal, and then turn on the light. You have very little control in how and what order it does the operations. However it does them so fast you probably don't notice or care.
There are some time you do care. Displays for example, where precise timing is critical. The Neoplxels Tjdux is thinking about using is a good example. The chips at each pixel use a timed signal to figure out what they are supposed to do. That signal has to be correct to 10 mS for them to work.
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Outlander
Well-known member
Nice explanation with real world examples!
I did forget a couple of reason to use an Arduino. The extra functionality of the Raspberry Pi takes a good bit of power. You may not need a sound card or an HDMI display for your project, but you are still powering the chips for them on a PI. The arduino can run a long time on a small battery. The PI not so much.
The final reason to use an arduino is price. The actual chip that makes an arduino costs about $.30. Most people use them on development boards that cost between $1 and $20 dollars. The PI starts at $25 and the newer ones are $35. That adds up if you are going to use a bunch of them for simple projects that an arduino can handle.
Arduino board are all open source. You can find a lot of varieties and unique features. You can also find dirty cheap clones. The raspberry PI boards are proprietary so you are stuck with whatever the foundation thinks is the right answer.
Edit:
And I keep coming up with advantages to the Arduino. The arduino has on board analog to digital converters. That is a huge advantage with many sensors.
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Outlander
Well-known member
gte718p - while I agonize over what I need for my first Ardunio project, do you have a favorite source?
tjdux
Well-known member
You can buy them streight from the arduino store to help support their original mission of helping the normal guy learn computer engineering. Or really any major retailer, amazon, ebay, adafruit...
Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703
If I need something to work the first time, I buy from the directly from the Arduino foundation. They are expensive, but I have never had a bad board from them. It also supports a good cause.
Normally for toys and my little projects I buy from Amazon. Because the boards are open source and the foundation encourages people to make boards there are a lot of clones. The clones vary in quality a good bit. I've had the best luck with SainSmart. They generally run 1/2 to 1/3 of what a genuine Arduino.cc board costs. 90-95% of their boards have been good and Amazon has been very helpful in replacing the ones that were DOA.
I have also bought a good number on eBay. I had a project I needed a bunch on Nanos for. I ended up buying 20 for the price of one genuine. Unfortunately 20% were DOA. The company was really good about replacing them, but the broken English emails were frustrating, and both the originals and the replacements took 20+ day in shipping.
The one thing to look out for in clones is to ensure they have a genuine FTDI chip. The FTDI chip converts the USB signal into the serial signal the the arduino needs. On amazon check the comments to see if people are having problems programming the chips. If they don't have the chips or they have fake ones, you either have to build a programming cable or use a sketchy Chinese driver to program the chips.
This one would be my recommendation on a first one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E5WJSHK/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Don't buy SainSmart.... POSs over priced, PITA in getting support or document from them unless you buy it from their website.... I got their LCD module from Microcenter, thinking it would be a better document support than fleabay, it was just a piece of paper to go to a website, when you get to the website, everything is password protected for online purchase user only.... WTF emailed them and that was a PITA experience.. Later found the same LCD in different packaging from Ebay for 1/3 of the cost and gets a pinout....
If you have a Microcenter near you, they sell the Arduino for about $5 sometimes when it is on sale.
If you have a Microcenter near you, they sell the Arduino for about $5 sometimes when it is on sale.
Sounds like you had one bad experience with them and are swearing them off. I probably have a 100 sainsmart products and like them.
You do have to understand what they are. They are a Chinese board fab, that copies open source (and sometimes less then open source) hardware. You generally need to look at the documentation for the origional product.
It is a balance of price vs reliability. It is like buying at HF, you don't expect 100% out of the box. However they are one of the more reliable board fab shops out of China. Always do check reviews though. Occasionally a product just bombs. However, for me they have been pretty reliable. I always pay a liittle more and buy through Amazon, because Amazon is really good to deal with if things are not right.
tjdux
Well-known member
+1 on amazon having great customer support.
+1 for Chinese made stuff may not all have great quality control and documentation but 90 times out of 100 it's fine. Especially if you know what you're doing and don't need the instructions much
Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703
+1 for Chinese made stuff may not all have great quality control and documentation but 90 times out of 100 it's fine. Especially if you know what you're doing and don't need the instructions much
Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703
Yup I know what they are.... yes bad experience.... one of those deals, I don't mind paying full price for the extra documentation or samples , from sparkfun / adafruit stuff or even sainsmar or SEEED .... but when you bought something ask for documentation about their products.... (actually there is a piece of paper telling you to download from their webstie) I would expect not to get dickaround because I bought their product from their vendor Microcenter, instead of from their website ..... and besides their price is not that great..... I rather have SEEED stuff sparkfun or adafruit....... if that is the case.
Outlander
Well-known member
Wanting to keep my first Arduino experience as simple as possible and minimize risk, I went with this ==> https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B018Y127LG/?tag=atomicindus04-20
Hopefully, this will pin any issues on human error (me).
Keep the thread going with project ideas - eventually the learning will result in something useful, right?
Hopefully, this will pin any issues on human error (me).
Keep the thread going with project ideas - eventually the learning will result in something useful, right?
It is a clone, but should be fine. Have you decided on your first project?
Guster
Well-known member
Same as most on here:
1. Motion control for driving my rotary indexing head on my milling machine by adding a keypad, LCD and stepper driver. Replaces the need and fuss of dividing plates.
2. TouchDRO... but decided to use the TI MSP340 with a voltage divider circuit to read quadrature(needs 16bit IO) scales for my lathe.
3. CNC Motion control using a RAMPS shield for 3D printing
4. Ditto in planning stages to run a 3D Router table using more powerful stepper drivers.
5. Light driver for a string of RGB LEDs. Then purchased some Nano boards, 3 axis accelerometers, sound drivers and need to get some more RGB LED strips to start building an Arduino based lightsabre for a bit of fun.
There are tons of ideas out there: home automation, security, sensor feeds and controllers. Heck, I've got a colleague who's building his 3rd electric bike using a LattePanda as the main controller with some Arduinos on the business end for speed, revs, battery condition and motor temperature... just to rattle off a few. Another has just hacked an Ardiuno feed to his re-purposed internet router as a web based weather station. Planning to replace the router with an R-Pi so he can add a webcam to the feed.
1. Motion control for driving my rotary indexing head on my milling machine by adding a keypad, LCD and stepper driver. Replaces the need and fuss of dividing plates.
2. TouchDRO... but decided to use the TI MSP340 with a voltage divider circuit to read quadrature(needs 16bit IO) scales for my lathe.
3. CNC Motion control using a RAMPS shield for 3D printing
4. Ditto in planning stages to run a 3D Router table using more powerful stepper drivers.
5. Light driver for a string of RGB LEDs. Then purchased some Nano boards, 3 axis accelerometers, sound drivers and need to get some more RGB LED strips to start building an Arduino based lightsabre for a bit of fun.
There are tons of ideas out there: home automation, security, sensor feeds and controllers. Heck, I've got a colleague who's building his 3rd electric bike using a LattePanda as the main controller with some Arduinos on the business end for speed, revs, battery condition and motor temperature... just to rattle off a few. Another has just hacked an Ardiuno feed to his re-purposed internet router as a web based weather station. Planning to replace the router with an R-Pi so he can add a webcam to the feed.