Archive for the ‘Arduino’ Category

Arduino 1.0 is out.


05 Dec

Finally after long years of wating 1.0 is out
Download

Arduino will go ARM by the end of the year


20 Sep

Good news to Arduino fans.
Arduino announced  3 new products Leonardo, Due and WiFi shield.
The biggest news probably is Arduino Due which will use SAM3U processor from Atmel.
Also Arduino 1.0 is on the way.
More details here.

LED stair lighting based on Arduino, Part 7


12 Jun

I’m closing of this project as I think that with the current configuration I will not be able to achieve what I want.
By closing this project I will kick of a new one(Version 2) which would be a bit more complicated from the hardware and programming point but at least it will give me more freedom. The new version of arduino automatic stairs is already being developed and I will post a new post soon(watch this space). For those of you who are still interested in this project here is a draft code: (more…)

Arduino controlled dishwasher


26 May

Another good application of Arduino. Arduino controlled dishwasher

LED stair lighting based on Arduino, Part 6


01 May

This project has been frozen for some time but I’ve picked it up again, not much progress has been done mainly because I don’t have the electronic components. Buying them in Ireland is a bit expensive so I mainly use Ebay to get them form UK or Asia. The problem with Ebay is that it takes time for the components to arrive.
Anyway I’ve been playing around with shift register 74HC595 as I’ve ran out of digital PWM pins on my arduino. By using only 3 digital pins and 74HC595 I can control 8 LEDs but it is also possible to add more 74HC595 and that means more LEDs without using more digital outputs.
The problem is that  for my application 74HC595 is not suitable as it does not support PWM. It is possible to make LEDs fade using code but I did not like the results that I was getting.

The solution is to use TLC5940 which supports PWM. So back to the drawing board

LED stair lighting based on Arduino, Part 5


03 Jan

Well the testing did not went according to plan but I was expecting that. The main problem is because I was planning to use LEDs for lighting up the stairs, but because of festive season they have not arrived yet. So instead of 1W LEDs I got stuck with 10W halogens. 10W might not look alot but the current it needs is ~0.8Amps where as LED would be 0.08Amps. The maximum that ULN2803A can handle on collector is 0.5Amps. So when I’ve got everything connected the lights worked half way and then the chips went dead 🙁
The solution would be to replace ULN2803A with 2x ULN2064 quad Darlington arrays as they can handle much higher currents.
I’m putting this project on hold until I get the LEDs. Hopefully it won’t be long.

LED stair lighting based on Arduino, Part 4


26 Dec

Step by step I’m getting closer to setting the lights up. I’ve went to person who will be  having these setup, to check the situation with cables and how to proceed further. Everything is looking OK and we did some testing. The only problem we had is that the current setup is using AC 12V voltage source and for arduino I need DC voltage. In order to get DC voltage from AC voltage I will add diode bridge to my project.
To make things easier and nicer I’ve deciced to make a shield for my arduino. I needed to add diode bridge and Darlington Transistor Array to arduino and I did not want it to be hanging just on wires. (more…)

LED stair lighting based on Arduino, Part 3


18 Dec

Here is part 3. No video this time as there is not much to show.
I’ve done some coding to add some new features but nothing major. On a hardware side I was looking how to power up 12V LED or whatever the 12V light will be used to light up the stairs as there will not be enough power to drive those 12V lamps from arduino board itself. After reading through couple forums I’ve came to conclusion that I should used ULN2803A which is Darlingon Transistor Array:
It has eight npn Darlington pairs (I need to control eight LEDs)
Output voltage upto 50V (I need 12V)
500mA Collector current (is enough for LEDs as the power of them are low but might be not enough for Halogen lights)
More information about ULN2803A

I’ve tested ULN2803A with couple 12V LEDs and it seems to work fine. Now I need to move from my ‘lab’ to the site where it will be installed and see what is needed over there and try to implement it in real environment. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that this year. 🙂

LED stair lighting based on Arduino, Part 2


02 Dec

In this part I’ve connected the second IR sensor and Light sensor.
As you can see in the video when the light sensor is covered Arduino gives my a sign that it is night time by running Leds from one end and back.
At the moment there is a delay until the lights  starts switching off if during the delay any of the IR sensors are crossed the delay starts counting from the beginning.

While testing I’ve noticed that some Leds instead of dimming just switch off. Reading through Arduino forum I’ve found that apparently Arduino can only to analogWrite() on digital pins 3, 5, 4, 9, 10 and 11. This is what I most liekely will have to live with or maybe get myself  Arduino with ATmega.

LED stair lighting based on Arduino, Part 1


01 Dec

Hi Everyone,
This post will be something different compared to the posts on this blog but it is still ralated to IT.

About a year ago I’ve found out about Arduino and really liked what can be done with it and how easy it is to use. So I’ve bought it…. Well needles to say I played around with for day or 2 and forgot about it.
Couple months ago I saw Automatic LED stair lighting posted on YouTube see the video bellow:

(more…)

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