This is another attempt to build a "Start Here" clone. The photo is a prototype built with a reused mechanical & electrical platform.
I prefer Arduino for the brains because is open-source. Here I use an Arduino Nano for his small footprint but any other board can be used.
This short report is aimed to the most “advanced” users of Arduino boards, especially to the users of the “Mega” flavors of the family, but also users of standard versions of the board, like Arduino UNO and Arduino Duemilanove, can take advantage of the following notes.
The story starts with the TiDiGino, one of the recent projects based on the ATmega2560, a very well performing mcu with 256kByte of flash memory on board, that is also the core of of the Arduino Mega 2560 board.
The TiDiGino project software has been developed under a contest.
Some out of the participants have been developed high level solutions that took advantage of almost all of the many hardware features of the TiDiGino board.
During development tests they had to notice crashes and malfunctioning that appeared mysterious and very tricky to debug and fix.
After a series of further deep tests and investigation on the support site of ATMEL we have discovered that the main source of our problems was the compiler included in the versions 0022/0023 of the IDE as like as in the current version 1.0.
The compiler program, named “avr-gcc-4.3.2.exe” is not able to compile correctly sketches that require data areas larger than 64kWord, i.e. 128kByte of flash memory.
In simple words the reason is related in the wrong translation of jump instructions beyond 64k.
The compiler we are talking on is the one (version 4.3.2) included in WinAVR package dated from 2008, when the ATMEL microcontroller had on board less than 64kB of memory.
The WinAVR project has been updated on January 2010 with the version “WinAVR-20100110” containing a new version of the compiler, named “avr-gcc-4.3.3.exe”; we tried out this new version too, without success.
The major negative outcome of this issue is that it affects also the Arduino Mega boards both 1280 and 2560 versions, with the effect of limiting the use of data areas larger than 64kWord in sketches. In order to get access to data beyond that limit it is necessary to use the functions of the PROGMEM library, that allow the use of 24bit pointers.
The issue affects only the dimension of data areas, one program that occupies 60kB of data end 60kB of program would run without problem also in the current situation.
After many investigations and tries we find out the solution to this issue, that is to integrate the last version of the ATMEL Toolchain into the Arduino IDE package.
The ATMEL Toolchain is a set of software programs and libraries (tools) that transforms a source code into an executable by a sort of “virtual assembly line”; the output processed by one tool is the input for the following tool in the chain, an so on.
Of course the most important tool in the Toolchain is the compiler, whose last version is currently the “avr-gcc-4.5.1.exe”.
This version is an important enhancement in respect of the one included in the Arduino IDE and offers many advantages:
As a completion of this preliminary notes we would focus on the avrdude.exe and avrdude.conf files.
Avrdude.exe is a service program included in the IDE and it is located in the “MyPath\arduino-0022\hardware\tools\avr\bin” folder. The Avrdude.exe version in the Arduino IDE has been modified, respect the AVR original version, in order to support the Arduino bootloaders.
Avrdude.conf is the configuration file that contains the configuration data and settings for each ATMEL microcontroller managed by the IDE, the most advanced users could have been modified this file with the additions of new models of microcontrollers.
Avrdude.conf is located in the “MyPath\arduino-0022\hardware\tools\avr\etc”.
The reason we have mentioned these two files is that they are not involved in the operation of upgrading the Arduino IDE with the compiler in the Toolchain, and have to be carefully saved in a safe place before beginning the upgrading, especially in the step where we will proceed to delete all the contents in the “MyPath\arduino-0022\hardware\tools\avr” folder.
At this point it is possible to describe all the actions needed to execute the upgrading of the IDE.
Our suggestion is to follow the instructions described below, step by step in the provided order and without modification.
The process has been tested many times in order to guarantee the achievement of the result.
Upgrading Arduino IDE process
The process described below is applicable to the Arduino IDE versions 0022, 0023, 1.0, 1.0.1-rc1; the last one listed is the candidate release of IDE 1.0, that is a sort of beta release, still under test; we have processed it too with good results.
Below are the steps to follow:
Copy the whole original IDE folder in a new folder as a backup, in order to maintain the original installation and save the possibility to downgrade the process in case of problem.
The original folder of the IDE and its copy
The “avr” directory that has to be deleted
Download section inside the ATMEL site
The sub-directory “avr32” to be deleted
The “include” sub-directory that has to be deleted and substituted with the one downloaded from our site
One more warning about the last step: the sketch, that is of interest for all the users running Arduino as an ISP Programmer, works correctly at a BAUD rate of 19200 with the IDE version 0022, 0023; at 9600 BAUD with the version 1.0.1-rc1, and doesn’t work at all with the version 1.0.
According to IDE version that you are using could be needed to change the line “Serial.begin(19200);” in “Serial.begin(9600);”.
For the users of version 1.0 of the IDE we have posted in the download section a further version of ArduinoISP, named “ArduinoISP101LM” that is a version of the 1.0.1 patched by two experienced programmers whose names are in the credits list of the sketch.
Be aware that this last version is not an official version and will work with the IDE 1.0 too, at a BAUDRATE of 19200.
In IDE 1.0.1-rc1 environment won’t be mandatory to set the BAUDRATE at 9600 BAUD because the sketch automatically detects the IDE version and sets the port speed accordingly.
As previously described the sketch folder should be placed in the “MyPath\arduino-0022-tcnew\examples\” folder.
Although the sketch is not an official release we can assure that it works quite better than the 101 original, especially in the case you should program MCUs with large memories.
For a better explanation give a glance at the contents of the Table:
Comparison table of the two version of ArduinoISP
As a final note we would warn all the users of the ATtiny family of microcontrollers with the IDE versions 1.0 or 1.0.1 that in same conditions our upgrade could fault the compiling task.
The solution, quite simple, is to add the line “#include <math.h>” as the first instruction in the wiring.h file of the tiny “core”
This solve the problem of the correct priority in the loading of the library chain because math.h has to be loaded as the first library of the chain and not as a dependence of other libraries.
It is time to test this upgrade; if you don’t have at hand one sketch bigger enough to overcame the memory limits described in this article, ever in the download section of our site you could download the sketch “test_80k” that will provide to you the opportunity to proof that the Arduino Mega is now able to run correctly sketches with data areas bigger than 64kB.
The story ends with the test of the software on our TiDiGino project than now run happily.
We will keep you up to date with further news about our tests and investigations on the topic.
Download
[Thanks to Prof. Michele Menniti & Ing. Marco d’Ambrosio]
This mini bot features an Arduino Pro Mini, a L293D dual H-bridge motor driver chip, and a IR proximity sensor. The bot rolls with the help of two servo-controlled wheels with a ball bearing roller on one side to keep it balanced.
Micro Robot, via GRobot.gr (Google translated!)
For the crazy music makes, who keep searching to give new effects to music, we have a new Arduino based guitar pedal by Kyle McDonald and modified by Randfo.
The complete instructions with part list can be got from here.
[Via: Instructables]
In the new edition of the Arduino Cookbook, Michael Margolis gives a great step-by-step explanation of how to read a schematic and build a breadboard prototype from it. The following excerpt is adapted from Appendix B of the Cookbook.
A schematic diagram, also called a circuit diagram, is the standard way of describing the components and connections in an electronic circuit. It uses iconic symbols to represent components, with lines representing the connections between the components.
A circuit diagram represents the connections of a circuit, but it is not a drawing of the actual physical layout. Although you may initially find that drawings and photos of the physical wiring can be easier to understand than a schematic, in a complicated circuit it can be difficult to clearly see where each wire gets connected.
Circuit diagrams are like maps. They have conventions that help you to orient yourself once you become familiar with their style and symbols. For example, inputs are usually to the left, outputs to the right; 0V or ground connections are usually shown at the bottom of simple circuits, the power at the top.
Here are some of the most common components, and the symbols used for them in circuit diagrams:
Here is a schematic diagram that illustrates the symbols used in a typical diagram:
Components such as the resistor and capacitor used here are not polarized—they can be connected either way around. Transistors, diodes, and integrated circuits are polarized, so it is important that you identify each lead and connect it according to the diagram.
This drawing shows how the wiring could look when connected using a breadboard:
The finished breadboard illustrations were produced using a tool called Fritzing that enables the drawing of electronic circuits.
Wiring a working breadboard from a circuit diagram is easy if you break the task into individual steps. The next illustration shows how each step of breadboard construction is related to the circuit diagram.
The finished circuit is from Recipe 1.6 in the Cookbook, which produces a sound that is controlled by a light dependent resistor.
More:
The Maker Shed, in conjunction with Adafruit Industries, is proud to present you with the latest in the Mintronics line of products, the Menta. The Menta is an Arduino compatible microcontroller that is specifically designed to use the included mint tin as an enclosure. It features a handy, on-board prototyping space which conveniently fits one of our mini-breadboards (not included) making it the perfect pocket Arduino! The Menta can also be used with all Arduino shields, so it can expand along with your projects. Pick up your Menta in the Maker Shed today to find out why it’s the freshest thing in Arduino!
Features
- ATmega 328 processor
- Handy prototyping space
- Onboard voltage regulation
- Arduino shield compatible
- Specifically designed to use the included tin as an enclosure
- Easy assembly (requires soldering)
- Requires FTDI Breakout Board
office door hack from Valentin Heun on Vimeo.
MIT Researcher Valentin Heun created the RFID door opener as he was annoyed that he needed both his MIT ID card and a key to gain access to the MIT Media Lab. With this system his RFID-embedded ID card is read by an RFID evaluation shield connected to an Arduino Uno board. His RFID code is approved and a servo opens the door. A laser cut mounting board allows the servo and RFID evaluation shield to be attached to the door’s handle and deadbolt.
The code can be taken from here.
[Via: Lifehacker and colorsaregood.com]
It is a noisy, yet a novel idea. Extremely useful to talk to your near and dear ones while moving around the house doing chores. The arduino controlled two 5V relays with 12 V 40A car relays prove as the base hardware. The control system however, consists of a simple html page with ajax calls to php scripts that sends serial commands to Arduino using this.
The complete know-how along with code can be found here.
[Via: Hackaday]
G'day everyone. I am not a professional programmer, I have not had any training in C language. Previously I had a lot of support from LMR and learned to write an Arduino Library. Now I am trying to compile a bootloader and need help again. I've installed WinAVR and AVR studio and have been trying to find out how to use them. It seems I need to learn to use a "make" file but I cannot find any good information on how to do this. Most information on the net assumes I am a programmer.
