Retro/Robot/Software/Hardware Things.
I’m currently making a self balancing robot, powered by an Arduino Nano, and decided to use NEMA 17 stepper motors to power it.
The DRV8825 motor drivers are great, but cannot be driven using a PWM signal. Consequently the Arduino code must send a ‘step’ signal to the correct pin many times per second – Easily in the thousands if you require a decent amount of speed, especially if you’re micro-stepping.
Performance is critical…
Continue reading “Arduino Code – Performance”In most of my Arduino projects I find myself in a situation where two things apply:
void loop() function needs to run very quickly.Unfortunately outputting to the serial window can add significant performance problems, so to keep the speed up I choose to only output every n milliseconds.
This requires a timer…
Continue reading “Arduino Code – Timed Events”My current Arduino project is a self-balancing robot, which requires repeatedly reading angle and acceleration values from an MPU-6050 gyro.
These values can be quite ‘noisy’ – fluctuating considerably when vibration is added into the system – so I found myself in need of some simple code that helps smooth out the values…
Continue reading “Arduino Code – Complementary Filter”Needing to write output to the Arduino IDE’s ‘Serial Monitor’ is something you might find yourself doing a lot. It’s one of the easiest ways of giving feedback on variables, and is invaluable when it comes to debugging.
To output content you can use code like this:
Serial.println("Hello world");
All good so far. How about if you want to output a variable? That’s slightly more work…
Continue reading “Arduino Code – Logging”I have been coding for the Arduino for a while now, and over time I have written a small collection of routines that can be reused in different projects.
I will share some of this code in future posts, but I thought it would be useful to show how you can add code to your project without ‘bloating’ the main source file too much. Continue reading “Arduino Code – Header Files”
For anyone planning on making their own ‘Useless Box’, you might find my Arduino Sketch(/code) useful as a starting point. The version I’m using here is not my final version, which adds more ‘character’ at the expense of code readability.
You’ll have to tweak the fingerMin/fingerMax and lidMin/lidMax values to suit your own designs, but hopefully that should be quite straight forward.
If you find the code useful, or develop or further, please let me know! It would be great to see others getting some benefit from it!
Another evening of ‘I Made A Thing’-ing, and I’m happy with the results.
I’ve used a ‘ProtoShield‘ to help tidy up the wiring. I’d recommend anyone to check them out, especially if your soldering skills are a bit rusty.
These slot straight onto the top of your Arduino, but can easily be removed if you need the Arduino later on for other projects – Without you needing to remove all your wires! Very handy.
I’ve popped the lid back on to the top of the box and used my breakout board as a ‘go between’ from the servos and Arduino. It all looks a bit messy at the moment, but this is only temporary.
I’ve been looking for a better ‘finger’ for my useless box. A Halloween-style finger would be great, but trying to find one of a suitable size was proving ‘tricky’.
So, after raiding my kids’ toy boxes I found the perfect thing – A Nerf dart! It’s small and light, and fits over my Lego finger ‘skeleton’ easily.
Bosh.
