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Thread: Do I want an Arduino?

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    MCRN Tachi Ttaskmaster's Avatar
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    Do I want an Arduino?

    Heya,

    As always, I'm looking to invent and install even more funky electronic aesthetic enhancements into my projects.
    I'm looking primarily at LED circuits, but also considering a small screen (perhaps even a touch interface). Ideally, I'd be looking at a screen that will either display a preset sequence of movies/animations from initial power-on and/or will run a system information display program like AIDA64 or similar.

    I've browsed several starter guides, but found little beyond the basic how to turn the PCB LED on and off - I wonder if someone here could answer the following:


    1/. Is this something I could achieve with a Arduino/Adafruit/Whatever and, if so, which ones are best for complete electronics noobs?

    2/. Do I program the Arduino PLC chip-thing and then transfer that to a PCB, or do I have to keep the Arduino permanently connected?

    3/. Can the Arduino run a screen and several other circuits at the same time, or do I need a new Arduino for each separate circuit?


    Thanks,
    Tasky.

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    DDY
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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    1. You could achieve that with an Arduino. For a complete noob, I would suggest an Arduino starter kit that includes an Arduino UNO, for example: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNO-R3-Sta...-/201077088258

    That should give you most of the components you'll need to complete basic tutorials which you can find online.

    2. This will be made clear once you start the above. Generally, you'll program the Arduino while it's in circuit, simply disconnect the USB cable once you're done programming - or keep it in to power small low-powered projects.

    3. You can connect what you want to the Arduino until you run out of I/O or reach some other limit on the Arduino.

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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Quote Originally Posted by DDY View Post
    2. This will be made clear once you start the above. Generally, you'll program the Arduino while it's in circuit, simply disconnect the USB cable once you're done programming - or keep it in to power small low-powered projects.
    But I still have to keep the whole UNO board (or whichever one I choose) connected up to the displays and stuff, rather than unplugging the IC/chip-thing and putting that into my circuit, right?

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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ttaskmaster View Post
    But I still have to keep the whole UNO board (or whichever one I choose) connected up to the displays and stuff, rather than unplugging the IC/chip-thing and putting that into my circuit, right?
    Keep everything plugged in, i.e. the board with the IC on it becomes part of your circuit. The board itself is one of the things that make the Arduino really easy to work with, it has all the physical connections, power supply, serial comms etc on board. That's opposed to connecting the IC and associated components yourself, which you could do if you really wanted http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone .

    For more permanent installations, there are Arduinos that have (roughly) the same capabilities as the UNO but in a much smaller package http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardProMini, these take a bit more work since they lack the preinstalled physical connections and USB port, hence for a beginner I want to stress the UNO would still be the way to go.

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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    I can buy pre-made circuits that have all the neccesary components, plus an IC that controls them. The particular one I'm thinking of has a 555 chip, IIRC...
    It's circuits like these I was looking to construct myself.

    So... How is it those ICs have control programs on them? How do people program those up?
    There are several projects I have in mind, but I don't want to have to buy a stonking great, expensive Arduino board each time I put a new project together... and it wouldn't even fit in some cases!

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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    IC stands for integrated circuit, a circuit that has been squished on to a chip is called an IC. ICs typically require a few other components to do anything useful.

    There are countless number of ICs out there which do very different things, the 555 for example is commonly used as a timer and oscillator, which alone is no good for driving an LCD display.

    You cannot 'program' ICs like the 555, an IC that is programmable is called a PIC, an example would be the ATmega chip that the Arduino platform is centred around. Like the IC, there are many different PICs that fulfil many different functions. The ATmega is a microcontroller, is has a processor, memory, I/O controllers, amongst many other things squished on to a chip, you then upload code to tell it what to do. If all you want is to flash an LED, you tell it to flash that LED! The whole appeal of the Arduino platform is it makes programming and building around the ATmega PIC extremely easy.

    The Arduino UNO is a big board but like I said before, there are smaller Arduinos like the Mini which are better suited for permanent installation, the Mini has the same IC as the UNO but it's certainly not as noob friendly as the UNO.

    On cost, the Mini is one of the cheaper, if not the cheapest Arduino available, they're practically disposable with clones each available for around £2 delivered from the Far East. I use these in permanent projects myself but I always prototype using the UNO first.

    Once again, I would recommend starting with the UNO. Once you're familiar with how the thing works, then consider using smaller or even bigger, more capable and faster boards for your future projects.

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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Arduinos are great! Most of the basics have been covered, but the Arduino boards contain a microcontroller and the support devices for them. To be honest, there isn't a lot of support needed - the USB interface and the time base oscillator are the main ones. You can develop the code on an Arduino board and then transfer it to a controller in an embedded project, but it really isn't worth the hassle - you'd need to create a circuit board for a start, so unless you are planning on going into production, just use the Arduino board as a building block, or heart of a project.

    The Uno or Leonardo are great starting points - if you get a plugboard and a few components you can practice your circuit and programming techniques quite happily.

    The Arduino programming environment runs on both Mac and Windows so no problem there.

    There is a good range of components here

    http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/arduino

    Very helpful and outstanding customer service.

    (As an aside, I sent something to my daughter, reusing bag that had come from Hobbytronics. It couldn't be delivered but RM returned it to Hobbytronics - they missed the changed sender details. HT got in touch with me, and returned it (shrink wrapped!!!) with another order I had placed with them - now thats what I call good customer care)

    Back on topic - there are a number of guides around - you might want to look at this one that takes you through the basic tutorials

    http://www.ucontrolit.tv

    As another aside, I know of someone who has a cluster of Arduino boards controlling energy consumption in his house to maximise use of the energy generated by his solar PV array. Their use is really only limited by your imagination.
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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Thanks guys!

    As mentioned, I'm a complete noob at all things electronic right now. I've just about managed to solder some LEDs onto a board and wire in a few voltmeters so far, with only the faintest grasp of what the components are (thanks to Electronics For Dummies).
    I'm in the annoying position of having loads of ideas and plans for what I want and no idea where to even start making them happen.

    But there seems to be plenty of Getting Started info around and I just wanted to check that Arduino would do what I wanted before I began investing loads of money in everything!!

    Cheers again.
    I'll be sure to document things once I start making progress on the projects!

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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    You could also look into the Raspberry Pi, as they have a great user community.

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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Quote Originally Posted by wwinter86 View Post
    You could also look into the Raspberry Pi, as they have a great user community.
    Thanks, but I'm trying to avoid having big boxes everywhere. I'm looking more to create small, standalone boards with microcontrollers integrated, rather than connected up to something else. If I were going down that route, I already have a PC I could run them off.

    I'm looking instead at a PICadillo, I think.
    That looks to have all the bits I need, at least for the first project.

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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Really depends what you are doing!

    How complex the thing is and so forth. Myself I like Microchip PIC assmembly, it's simple, I find easy to read, debug etc. They've got a lot of hardware for doing say USART stuff, which when in software is horrible, as you find timing issues with interrupts and the like.

    Plus each one is like £1, hell PIC very kindly send you all sorts. They even sold me at a stupidly low price, pretty much postage and packing an In Circuit Debugger, because I was a poor student. The smaller 12 series are very useful too. The power consumption is something else.

    I have a dislike for the Pi, I've ranted too many times before, but in a nutshell, it doesn't solve any problem. It's too crappy to be a PC, too complex to learn about electronics / programming on (rather than you would on any PC!). It draws shedloads of power compared to a micro controller. It's just all round pants. It's also damned expensive.

    If I find I need processing power in my micros, something I can't do on say a 48mhz PIC (12mhz instruction cycle) then I'll probably want a high level language, I've some love for the Netduino, as I like C#, I also really like the .Net Fez Spider I've got. The power consumption of these is quite good compared to Pi. I often find either going for a fairly heavy weight ARM based system, that I can write in a high level langauge, which is truely portable (ie not some vague version of C) or just doing it in one or more simple low cost micros. The joys of hobbies, not having to worry about that extra 50p cost eh!
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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    Really depends what you are doing!
    Right now, it depends more on how much of the jargon posts like yours I actually undestand, heh heh!!

    For now, just looking for basic starter-level stuff that I can achieve my basic results with and not have to learn too much just to get there.
    I want to make LEDs flash in the sequences I want.
    I'm also looking at adding in a touchscreen-controlled UI to change the LED sequencing and a few other features.

    The PICadillo, by accounts, will work for the screen and can also control several LED boards as well, eliminating the need for something like a Pi taking up more space than I have available.
    It uses UECIDE, which is supposed to be almost noob-proof once the basics are learned and the UI design suite has several modes, including a noob-friendly drag & drop that does all the background coding for you.

    But if there's a cheaper, easier way I can get into this, I'm all ears...!!

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Well, if you just want to make LEDs flash, then hell yes, there are much cheaper ways.

    Touchscreen controlled. I take it you mean some form of LCD/TFT display? Colours? How many! or Monochrome?

    If it's just flashing LEDs from buttons, then you could easily get up and running for a few quid.

    I've not used this one myself http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-PIC-Au...item43af7c0a02 but it gives you an idea of how cheap a PIC programmer is.

    Then you just need a few PICs, and some fun LEDs. For PICs I like the PIC16F88, they are cheap, and have internal oscilators, so you really just need to add power and you are away. An old mobile phone USB charger is often a good bet. Then just some prototype board (breadboard) and some connector wires and you are away.

    These guys have some cool LEDs https://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/opto/leds?p=2

    But you will need to at least learn fundamental electronics to do it this way. Simple things like choosing the right value for a resistor limiting an LED.

    So this way you could easily get started for say £20.
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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    Well, if you just want to make LEDs flash, then hell yes, there are much cheaper ways.
    That's what I'm hoping to get into once I find time to sit down with my beginners electronics books.

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    Touchscreen controlled. I take it you mean some form of LCD/TFT display? Colours? How many! or Monochrome?
    Well, initially it was intended to be just any old screen that could display custom animated graphics, preferably ones I could design/make myself without too much trouble. The LED boards were supposed to be standalone, with controls for each one in a separate panel.

    Then it transpired that there's this PICadillo-35T, a 3.5” 320x480 resolution (Half VGA) Embedded LCD-TFT Display Module, that apparently can independently control several linked/chained LED boards, as well as displaying data, animations and so on. The software (UECIDE and 4D Workshop) is supposed to be quite good for Newbies. It even has LED boards with "chips that are a 'constant current sink' which is pre-set to 20mA", supposedly meaning I wouldn't need to worry about resistors for the LEDs?

    I was thinking of trying that, although the main issue will be that I don't know any programming languages... It also isn't THAT cheap, overall. About £80 for two LED boards and the PICadillo, plus LEDs and bits.


    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    Then just some prototype board (breadboard) and some connector wires and you are away.
    This is the second part where I might stumble - I'd need to put the PICs and LEDs onto a PCB of some kind and install it into the project. That requires learning more about electronics and getting much better at soldering, heh heh!!

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    Well you wouldn't need to solder it, you could always just use prototyping board. I mean there is plenty of selection http://www.maplin.co.uk/c/components...rd-prototyping

    The thing is, if you are coming at this knowing no programming language, no electronics, you are going to need some dedication to say the least.

    Many people often have software experience first, or logic gates, or more recently lego mindstorms.

    If you really want to learn a lot of this stuff, you might find something like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/PIC-Microcon...IC+programming helpful.
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    Re: Do I want an Arduino?

    I will want to put it into the project at the end of the day, though and a massive great breadboard just won't fit.

    I know it will tale a while before I know how to program stuff in, but I was hoping the noob-friendly stuff from 4D would suffice?

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