Ring Clock

At end of 2014 I had enough time to finish my Ring Clock project (or at least push some steps forward).

I used a picture frame as casing. The passepartout serves as rack for the led ring. I have put a circle of red carton in the middle of the led ring. The carton masks the display board and contains a hole for the light sensor. Two thin carton frames act as spacer to put some distance between the glas plate and the led ring. A sheet of sandwich paper is used as diffusor.

The electronic part is assembled of a Arduino Pro Mini (Watterott), a DCF77 receiver (Pollin), a DS1307 RTC module (ebay), a DS18B20 temperature sensor (ebay), a light sensor (GL5528), a 8 digit display - using 8 old VQB18C modules and a driver (ebay) - and a 60 RGB led ring (Watterott).

The source code and further information can be found here.

Arduino 1.5 does not start on Java 7

After updating to OSX 10.9.2 Mavericks and also update to Java 7 64 bit the Arduino app does not start any longer.

$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_45"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_45-b18)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.45-b08, mixed mode)

When I try to start it the icon flash up in the dock but nothing else happens. Further on no useful messages appears in log - just:

30.03.14 12:36:48,231 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[279]: (cc.arduino.Arduino.86448[1902]) Exited with code: 1

To solve the problem I have to reinstall Java 1.6. An forum post in the Microchip forum give some further information about the installation.

LED RGB Strip with Web Interface - Update

After some iterations (I hope) I reach a "done" state. The current version contains the following features:

• Web page content depends on current mode - different pages when strip is on or off 
  
• Web page to configure some runtime values (see right screen shot above)
• Fav-Icon(s)

I mounted the LED strip on backsite of a strip of wood and mounted it on the wall with magnets. On the front side I mounted the PIR module.

 

Here you can see the mounted wooden strip in our hallway.

For the electronic part of the project please look at the project site.

LED RGB Strip with Web Interface

Project site

Current issue: As you can see in the video there is a small delay between clicking the button and changing the light. This only appears when using a mobile device, on my mac the delay disappears. Any hint is welcome.

Wattuino - erste Schritte

Bei Watterott gibt es einen kleinen Arduino Clone: Wattuino. (Im Bild schon bestückt mit Stiftleisten.)

Für die Entwicklung/Programmierung mit der Arduino Umgebung wird noch ein Programmieradapter benötigt, z.B. FTDI-Breakout. Beim FTDI-Breakout handelt es sich um einen USB-Seriell Wandler, damit kann der Wattuino (fast) wie ein normaler Arduino in der IDE verwendet werden. Update: Ggf. muss noch ein FTDI Treiber installiert werden.

Die Verwendung in der Arduino Entwicklungsumgebung gestaltet sich mit der genannten Kombination denkbar einfach.

• Board: Arduino Pro or Pro Mini
• Serial Port: /dev/tty.usbserialA1017RLQ (Nummer kann ggf. variieren)

Und das war es auch schon. Die ersten Tests mit den Arduino Beispielen "Blink" und "ReadASCIIString" liefen bei mir dann auf Anhieb.

LED Matrix - Part 2

Es hat mehr als 4 Jahre gedauert, bis die LED Matrix wieder zum Leben erweckt wurde (vgl. LED Matrix - Erste Versuche). Angestachelt durch weitere Versuche mit Kollegen, konnte ich die Matrix jetzt von Processing aus ansteuern.

Zum Aufbau

• LED Matrix TLMM501B
• angeschlossen an einem AVR Net-IO Board von Pollin
• AVR Net-IO Board "bestückt" mit Arduino Clone avr-netio
• Clone von avr-netio für Arduino 1.5
• AVR Net-IO über serielle Schnittstelle + Seriell-USB Adapter (DIGITUS)
• Processing (unter OSX)

Der Code

Arduino/Avr-Net-Io Code

Processing Code

Ergebnis

AVR NET-IO: Receive UDP packets

Some month ago I post an article about sending UDP - now it's time to write about receiving UDP.

Again my equipment is:

• Pollin AVR NETIO Board
• Arduino 1.0.3
• avr-netino (Project)

Patch tcpip.cpp

To enable UDP receiving a patch of the tcpip.cpp file is needed. The patched file can be found here. You need to overwrite the original file libraries/EtherCard/tcpip.cpp with the patched one.

Arduino program

Arduino program to receive UDP packets:

Example script to send UDP

Here is a small example how to send UDP packets to avr-netio board: