The SB-GVS Shield

The Solarbotics Ground/Voltage/Signal shield is a quick way to get each of the analog and digital signals broken out for quicker access. Was a quick solder job, and I'm definitely getting better at soldering.  

Plugged it in and looking forward to trying out a few sensors that we got tearing apart a broken fax/scanner/copier all-in-one machine. 

Why I hate hardware

Soldered the Ardweeny together, and the backpack, and the FTDI-to-USB connector as well. Couldn't even get the blink sketch to work. Wasn't real sure if it was the hardware, the computer settings, or something in the software settings. What I did know was that the blinky light, she no blinky, which it should when you press the reset button. A missing boot loader would cause this (no real way to test), or a bad power circuit (didn't appear to be bad as far as I could tell with a volt meter), or a bad reset button.

So I'm sending this mile long email off to tech support and testing the switch with an ohm meter, and out of blue, it starts working. Come to find out, there was a bad (or missing) solder connection on one (or more) lead to the resonator (basically a 16 mHz clock).  I would have to unsolder all 28 pins from the PCB to the ATmega328 to separate them and get to the underside of the board. After struggling to get just one pin off, I decided to solder the resonator from the top instead :-)  Works like a champ now.

iTunes Interference

Well, evidently iTunes on the PC was causing some interference with the COM3 driver that talks to the Arduino. You could verify and download a program, but it wouldn't run right, and it wouldn't communicate back to the serial monitor either. When you tried to download the program a second time, you would get error messages in red that COM3 was not found. To fix it, we just unplugged the iTouch and everything cleared up.

Anyway, we got the nunchucky test program working, getting values for the Joystick X, Y; Accelerometer X, Y; Buttons C and Z, and seems like there is one other set of values, but I can't recall it right now. Also got the train test program working on a giant oval. Now we just have to merge the two software pieces together, and we'll have a Nunchuck-controlled Arduino-run model train.

Ardweeny

Got the Solarbotics Ardweeny and backpack kits in the mail last night, along with two Nunchuckies. Unfortunately, they are all kits. The nunchucky kit only has two pieces to solder in, but the Ardweeny kits are a little more involved. Maybe we'll put them together tonight...  If you are not familiar with them, the Ardweeny is one of the smallest Arduino clones, only 1.6" by 0.54" with full pin-outs. Forgot to order the USB to TTL FTDI adapter, so back to their website.

Controlling a Model Train

Well, J and I threw together a couple segments of track and pulled out a cheap Santa Fa engine - no sense in blowing up a good loco the first time out of the gate. We did a little bit of coding to control the speed and direction, as well as a couple LEDs and a button to switch direction, and got it to work that very same afternoon. Sorry, we don't have a video, but I'll post a picture of what it all looks like with the Arduino, the motor shield and the proto shield all stacked together.

Now we just need to make a big circle of track instead of a straight line - blasted thing kept running off the end of the track before we could push the button to switch directions. We could probably also use some better inputs, like a Wii Nunchuk controller, which as it happens, I have two on order right now. They are coming from Canada, so it might be a couple days before they get here.

Added a Motor Shield

Added an Arduino Motor Shield from RadioShack. Could have gone with the $8 one off eBay, but am somewhat leery of ordering from China. It would have taken two weeks to get here anyway. This little guy sets right on top of the Arduino Uno and lets you drive motors, steppers, servos, etc. from an external power supply - and I just happened to have a nice 12 volt one sitting on my shelf doing nothing.

Hmm... a model train is just a motor on wheels, and model train sets use lots of sensors and blinky lights, two other things that the Arduino is good at... I wonder...

Arduino Uno Intro

This is an Arduino Uno, J received one from a family friend, and we have been off and running ever since. Check back shortly for pictures, schematics, and code snippets of various projects we build as we "try to take over the world..."