General Arduino Discussion

[Yuri_Rage]

Take a look at this forum post: http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12269

Multi-channel 18 bit precision in a single, inexpensive IC.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

If you'd rather have a prototyping board with built-in 12 bit A/D precision, try mbed. I just found the site this morning.

mbed Rapid Prototyping

 

[camiller]

Money is right - load cells aren't cheap. I was looking into doing something like that and the price went right out the window.

Back to the topic of interfacing an Arduino: they have serial I/O and all you have to do is write a little routine to listen to the input and act.

scoates has a pretty good go-by that he discusses in this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/arduino-kegerator-temperature-control-40997/#post531366

hmmm.... Sparkfun used four of these for their tweeting kegerator. Of course they are weighing the whole kegerator not just the keg. At $20 for a sensor I think you could put the CO2 tank on a small platform assembly with the pressure sensor in there such that with a little math you can get a reliable measure of the weight.

 

[md20_20]

hmmm.... Sparkfun used four of these for their tweeting kegerator. Of course they are weighing the whole kegerator not just the keg. At $20 for a sensor I think you could put the CO2 tank on a small platform assembly with the pressure sensor in there such that with a little math you can get a reliable measure of the weight.

I looked at those things too. The application SparkFun shows is a good use but even there he has some trouble with it. (The kegerator on the whole is a tour de force, I love the switches that capture the faucet state.) I was trying to figure out how to get individual weights on the cornies in my keezer and I struggled to imagine a platform that would be able to isolate each keg's weight on its own sensor. Not to mention the environmental operating issues with liquids from spills and condensation. I back-burnered it for now.

If you're doing one relatively static weight though like a CO2 tank I agree this could be a practical solution.

 

[craigd]

I started thinking one through for my own after seeing the keg project at Sparkfun and couldn't get past the idea that I need at least 3 force sensors per item I want to weigh. Otherwise any shift in position at all of what I'm weighing will throw off the weight. $60 per weighed items was more than I'm willing to go... I suppose you could rig a fixture at the base of the tank to make sure it stays in exactly the same place but ultimately that would be a bit "fiddly" for me. I'd love to hear some other ideas on this though because I would LOVE to have a good constant measure of my CO2 tank at least (if not my kegs too.)

 

[Acidjazz54]

Yea, I should have used the term micro-controller, really I was just trying to refer to something like the Arduino.

Reading your setup, very cool BTW, what your doing with the 1-Wire Serial Adaptor is really what I was looking to do with the Arduino. Just some means of connecting external input directly to a computer. I really want to just avoid writing C code on the Arduino and go directly to programming against it using Java, .Net or a more robust programming language than C.

Dozer,

There is a sketch that comes with the Arduino software called Firmata. If you go to http://www.acraigie.com/programming/firmatavb/ there are examples of how to communicate via VB. I have uploaded the sketch and tried each of the functions and it seems pretty fluid. To Yuri's point though, if you lose connection with the Arduino than it will do nothing so in most cases it would be better to make the Arduino the work horse and have the PC be the display (basically).

 

[erock2112]

i've managed to get my Arduino to input values from several temperature sensors into a java program on my computer. The Arduino sketch simply sends the voltage from each analog input once every second. The java code then simply listens for the input and parses it as it comes in. Here's my project thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/temperature-monitoring-control-arduino-155408/

 

[Fingers]

i've managed to get my Arduino to input values from several temperature sensors into a java program on my computer. The Arduino sketch simply sends the voltage from each analog input once every second. The java code then simply listens for the input and parses it as it comes in. Here's my project thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/temperature-monitoring-control-arduino-155408/

I was just looking at that thread and had to laugh because I'm using my son's Electronics Lab set for a breadboard too! I couldn't find the one I have from college but I've ordered a really nice one from the interwebs. I hope it will be here next week.

I had a look at your Java code and had to hang my head a bit. I've been spending the last few days learning to program the Arduino and it's been going well. I had a look at your Java code thinking I'd like to do the same thing, but damn! That's a lot of code for such a simple app. Now I have to learn another language. The text book is going to cost more than my Arduino.

 

[erock2112]

I was just looking at that thread and had to laugh because I'm using my son's Electronics Lab set for a breadboard too! I couldn't find the one I have from college but I've ordered a really nice one from the interwebs. I hope it will be here next week.

I had a look at your Java code and had to hang my head a bit. I've been spending the last few days learning to program the Arduino and it's been going well. I had a look at your Java code thinking I'd like to do the same thing, but damn! That's a lot of code for such a simple app. Now I have to learn another language. The text book is going to cost more than my Arduino.

Haha, excellent. The code could be much more compact; I'm just in the habit of making everything nice and modular so that the simple app can be expanded to do almost anything - side effect of still being a computer science undergrad! :cross: Really all you need is the code to listen for the Arduino output and then process it into useable values as well as any user interface stuff.

 

[camiller]

...Now I have to learn another language. The text book is going to cost more than my Arduino.

Although a bit dated, Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java would make a good starting point and Bruce has made the 3rd edition (as well as several other of his books) available as a download.

http://www.mindviewinc.com/Books/

 

[Fingers]

Although a bit dated, Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java would make a good starting point and Bruce has made the 3rd edition (as well as several other of his books) available as a download.

http://www.mindviewinc.com/Books/

Wow! Thank you VERY much! I've downloaded a few of them for some light reading tonight.

Cheers for the help.

 

[MX1]

Good Morning,

I am starting an intro to robotics class and we will be building using Arduino.
this is our/my starting point https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14265

I have a Mac, PC Laptop, and Chrombook (that I just bought for school) I installed ArduinoDroid on my Chromebook to function as the IDE, does anyone have any experience with this app, or another app that I can run on Chromebook?

PC Laptop is a 17 inch gaming MONSTER and I don't want to carry it around

Thanks