Tag Archives: uno

Arduino, Video

Building a 2WD Arduino robotic car

This tutorial will show you how to use an Arduino to build a 2WD robotic car. You can extend this project by using sensors to measure wheel speed (for improved accuracy when steering or maintaining a straight line) or sensors to avoid objects or follow a line.

Parts required

Here is what you will need:

  • Arduino Uno board
  • 2WD robotic car kit (2 wheels, 2 motors, chassis)
  • 4 x AA batteries
  • Motor shield with 6 wires
  • Arduino IDE software (free at http://www.arduino.cc/)
  • USB cable
  • 2 x wheel speed encoders and infrared sensors (optional)

car1 car2 Assembling the robot

robotassembly

 

  1. Assemble all chassis parts and attach the motors to the wheels (if not already assembled).
  2. Connect the red wire from the battery enclosure to VIN on the Motor Shield.
  3. Connect the black wire from the battery enclosure to GND on the Motor Shield.
  4. Connect the red wire from Motor A to A+ on the Motor Shield, and the black wire from Motor A to A- on the Motor Shield.
  5. Connect the red wire from Motor B to B+ on the Motor Shield, and the black wire from Motor B to B- on the Motor Shield.
  6. Attach the Motor Shield to the top of the Arduino Uno board – be careful not to bend or damage any of the pins!
  7. Connect the Arduino Uno board to the computer via the USB cable and upload the code using the Arduino IDE software.
  8. Insert four AA batteries in the battery enclosure.
  9. Test your robot! If your robot goes in the wrong direction or doesn’t move, check that you have the Motor pins in the correct places and make sure no pins are loose.
Extra challenges:
  • Control your robotic car using an Android app on a smartphone via Bluetooth (refer to the Controlling an LED by Bluetooth tutorial for instructions on how to make an app using App Inventor and how to attach a Bluetooth module).
  • Add code that will control the speed of the motors using the encoder discs and infrared sensors.
The code to test your robot

Use this code to test that your wheels spin and that your robot is wired up correctly.

void setup() {
    //Setup Channel A
  pinMode(12, OUTPUT); //Initiates Motor Channel A pin
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //Initiates Brake Channel A pin
  //Setup Channel B
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT); //Initiates Motor Channel B pin
  pinMode(8, OUTPUT);  //Initiates Brake Channel B pin
  }
void loop(){
  //Motor A forward @ full speed
  digitalWrite(12, HIGH); //Establishes forward direction of Channel A
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);   //Disengage the Brake for Channel A
  analogWrite(3, 255);   //Spins the motor on Channel A at full speed
  //Motor B backward @ half speed
  digitalWrite(13, LOW);  //Establishes backward direction of Channel B
  digitalWrite(8, LOW);   //Disengage the Brake for Channel B
  analogWrite(11, 123);    //Spins the motor on Channel B at half speed
  delay(3000);
  digitalWrite(9, HIGH);  //Engage the Brake for Channel A
  digitalWrite(8, HIGH);  //Engage the Brake for Channel B
  delay(1000);
  //Motor A forward @ full speed
  digitalWrite(12, LOW);  //Establishes backward direction of Channel A
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);   //Disengage the Brake for Channel A
  analogWrite(3, 123);    //Spins the motor on Channel A at half speed
  //Motor B forward @ full speed
  digitalWrite(13, HIGH); //Establishes forward direction of Channel B
  digitalWrite(8, LOW);   //Disengage the Brake for Channel B
  analogWrite(11, 255);   //Spins the motor on Channel B at full speed
  delay(3000);
  digitalWrite(9, HIGH);  //Engage the Brake for Channel A
  digitalWrite(8, HIGH);  //Engage the Brake for Channel B
  delay(1000);
}

Click here if you would like a PDF copy of these instructions.

Arduino, Video

Arduino weather station project

This tutorial will show you how to take temperature readings using the Freetronics temperature sensor and an Arduino Uno.

Note that there are two different module types: the temperature sensor module and the humidity & temperature sensor module. If you have the humidity & temperature sensor module you will need to download a library for the Arduino IDE and use different wiring and code – follow the instructions for that module here: http://www.freetronics.com.au/pages/humid-humidity-temperature-sensor-module-quickstart-guide

Parts required

Here is what you will need:

  • Arduino Uno board
  • Temperature Sensor Module
  • Breadboard
  • 3 male-to-male jumper wires
  • Arduino IDE software (free at http://www.arduino.cc/)
  • USB cable

Wire it up!

tempwiring

 

Attach the temperature sensor module to your breadboard. The GND pin should connect the GND pin on the Arduino board, the VCC pin should connect the 5V pin on the Arduino board, and the DATA pin should connect to the digital I/O pin 2 on the Arduino board – all these are connected via the breadboard using male-to-male jumper wires.

The pictures below show how to wire it all up in greater detail.

tempwiring1 tempwiring2 tempwiring3

 

Arduino code

Here is the code for the Arduino sketch (you can also copy it from http://www.freetronics.com.au/pages/temp-temperature-sensor-module-quickstart-guide). Make sure you scroll down to see how to test the sensor.

#define REF_PIN 2
void getCurrentTemp( int *sign, int *whole, int *fract);
char temp_string[10];
void setup(){
  Serial.begin(9600);
  // initialize DS18B20 datapin
  digitalWrite(REF_PIN, LOW);
  pinMode(REF_PIN, INPUT);      // sets the digital pin as input (logic 1)
  pinMode(15, INPUT);
}
void loop(){
  getCurrentTemp(temp_string);
  Serial.println(temp_string);
  delay(1000);
}
void OneWireReset (int Pin) // reset.  Should improve to act as a presence pulse
{
  digitalWrite (Pin, LOW);
  pinMode (Pin, OUTPUT);        // bring low for 500 us
  delayMicroseconds (500);
  pinMode (Pin, INPUT);
  delayMicroseconds (500);
}
void OneWireOutByte (int Pin, byte d) // output byte d (least sig bit first).
{
  byte n;
 
  for (n=8; n!=0; n--)
  {
    if ((d & 0x01) == 1)  // test least sig bit
    {
      digitalWrite (Pin, LOW);
      pinMode (Pin, OUTPUT);
      delayMicroseconds (5);
      pinMode (Pin, INPUT);
      delayMicroseconds (60);
    }
    else
    {
      digitalWrite (Pin, LOW);
      pinMode (Pin, OUTPUT);
      delayMicroseconds (60);
      pinMode (Pin, INPUT);
    }
    d = d>>1; // now the next bit is in the least sig bit position.
  }
}
byte OneWireInByte (int Pin) // read byte, least sig byte first
{
  byte d, n, b;
 
  for (n=0; n<8; n++)   {     digitalWrite (Pin, LOW);     pinMode (Pin, OUTPUT);     delayMicroseconds (5);     pinMode (Pin, INPUT);     delayMicroseconds (5);     b = digitalRead (Pin);     delayMicroseconds (50);     d = (d >> 1) | (b<<7); // shift d to right and insert b in most sig bit position
  }
  return (d);
}
void getCurrentTemp (char *temp)
{
  int HighByte, LowByte, TReading, Tc_100, sign, whole, fract;
  OneWireReset (REF_PIN);
  OneWireOutByte (REF_PIN, 0xcc);
  OneWireOutByte (REF_PIN, 0x44); // perform temperature conversion, strong pullup for one sec
  OneWireReset (REF_PIN);
  OneWireOutByte (REF_PIN, 0xcc);
  OneWireOutByte (REF_PIN, 0xbe);
  LowByte = OneWireInByte (REF_PIN);
  HighByte = OneWireInByte (REF_PIN);
  TReading = (HighByte << 8) + LowByte;
  sign = TReading & 0x8000;  // test most sig bit
  if (sign) // negative
  {
    TReading = (TReading ^ 0xffff) + 1; // 2's comp
  }
  Tc_100 = (6 * TReading) + TReading / 4;    // multiply by (100 * 0.0625) or 6.25
 
  whole = Tc_100 / 100;  // separate off the whole and fractional portions
  fract = Tc_100 % 100;
 
  if (sign) {
    temp[0] = '-';
  } else {
    temp[0] = '+';
  }
 
  if (whole/100 == 0) {
    temp[1] = ' ';
  } else {
    temp[1] = whole/100+'0';
  }
  temp[2] = (whole-(whole/100)*100)/10 +'0' ;
  temp[3] = whole-(whole/10)*10 +'0';
  temp[4] = '.';
  temp[5] = fract/10 +'0';
  temp[6] = fract-(fract/10)*10 +'0';
  temp[7] = '\0';
}
Testing

Upload the code once you connect the Arduino to the computer with a USB cable. In the Arduino IDE, click on Tools > Serial Monitor. Make sure you change the baud rate to 9600 baud. The temperature sensor should have a constant blue light and the Serial Monitor should display the temperature readings every second.

temptesting temptesting2

Think about how you could use the temperature sensor. You can connect the Arduino to a dot-matrix or LCD display to display the temperature. It could also be used for climate control inside a room. How else could you use it?

Click here if you would like to download a PDF copy of these instructions.

Arduino, Video

Making an LED Sensor Light with Arduino

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This video tutorial explains how to use an Arduino Uno to make an LED light. A light sensor will detect low-light conditions to turn on an LED and also turn off an LED when light is present.

The project involves an Arduino Uno board, an LED, a light sensor which can detect different levels of light and return a value, and a breadboard with jumper wires.

The way the project works is as follows. Use the light sensor to get light readings constantly. You can specify a value which, when the light is less than this value an LED light will be turned on, and when the light is greater than this value the LED light will be turned off.

This project allows you to work with getting readings from a sensor (input), use if statements to test conditions, and use an LED to produce some form of output.

Click Tools > Serial Monitor and set to 9600 baud to view the light sensor readings received from the Arduino when it is connected via USB to the computer.

Watch the video below or click here to view it on YouTube.

Downloads:

The source code is also available here:

int led = 13;
int lightReading = 0;

void setup () {
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop () {
  lightReading = analogRead(A2);
  Serial.println(lightReading, DEC);
  if (lightReading < 50) // change this value to suit light conditions. Ranges from 0 (very dark) to 1023 (very bright).
  {
    digitalWrite(led, HIGH); // turns the light on
    Serial.println("light on");
  } 
  else
  {
    digitalWrite(led, LOW); // turns the light off
    Serial.println("light off");
  }
  // Delay of 1000ms before checking light level again
  delay(1000);
  
}

Diagram and photos

ArduinoLDR

The photos below show the same layout although a 470 Ohm resistor is also being used.

1

2 3

Light sensor readings
Light sensor readings