Arduino newbie

[Richard (OldStager)]

After a chat with an old friend who had been playing with these he suggested getting the simple starter kit which was ordered today, so I have this arriving soon

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Project-Starter-Tutorial-Prototype-Expansion/dp/B01D8KOZF4/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3N585QH7IDA98&keywords=arduino&qid=1649331501&sprefix=ard%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-1-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFESlVWMzFWNlpCQ0kmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAyMjY3NDQyM1M3SURMS0hOOVhKJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAwNTgyNDczQUdZUjFYMEpSOUNZJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

 

As a complete and utter newbie to these is this indeed suitable for me to have a play around with, I am aware you need a new main board for each project you want to build but hoping this will teach me the basics and then I can start making stuff for car, house and garden.

 

Any newbie tips before I start or best place to acquire sketches? ( as I believe them to be called) .

Still sticking with the model making but thought at least with this hobby the end result is something you can use not just look at ( as nice as that is mind )

[Kit Car Electronics]

Perfect place to start! If you get very bored, there's a long thread here on my Arduino traction control that might give you ideas... 

 

[Richard (OldStager)]

9 minutes ago, Kit Car Electronics said:

Perfect place to start! If you get very bored, there's a long thread here on my Arduino traction control that might give you ideas... 

 

Thanks, glad the recommendation given was correct.  I have read the first few pages of that and will finish it after tea, but it sounds like the sort of stuff I would like to make for mine, maybe not TC but other things. I used to buy those Velleman kits from Maplins ( remember them) and get those soldered up and I made all sorts of silly things for another car, actually I still use the timers on the westy for the indicator relays so can't wqait to actually make the 21st century version of those kits.

[Richard (OldStager)]

This just arrived, so please be prepared for loads of newbie questions 😀

 

 

[Richard (OldStager)]

oh this is fun

 

[Richard (OldStager)]

next step output that to a stand alone display - homework required

[Richard (OldStager)]

Well I have got this far, thanks to some YT videos, more to do - I will call that a small victory after an evenings work, yes all simple stuff for the experts out there but this is all brand new to me 😬 and its bedtime now.

 

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

You're doing great @Richard (OldStager) I built my own dash controller using a Mega 2560 circa 6 years ago and it's still going strong. I'd planned to improve the design over the first winter but just kept on driving and it kept on working! I had help from @Kit Car Electronics to use one of his excelent Freewheel units on my wheel to communicate with it post IVA.

 

You can see more of it here- 

 

You can find example sketches in the Arduino tool, under the file, example sketches menu

 

I prefer to use https://uecide.org/download to edit/upload to my device

 

I also like https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ as my editor as it's search functions are more powerful and it lays out the code in an easier to view format

 

e.g.

 

 

 

The colours are automatically assigned by notepad++ e,g, Green denotes my comments 

 

Just ask if you need any help and I'll look forward to seeing what you implement with it.

 

 

 

[Richard (OldStager)]

Thank you Ian, my goal for last night was to output what I saw on the monitor to the LCD, however half the coding was a default pre-written one (that was on the CD that came with the kit) and the other half was written by me following a guy on YT, I followed his code perfect line by line, but there was a conflict between the two types of coding I now had when I tried to complile it. I got as far as the Hello World, but trying to then add the readings from the DHT it crashed out. Will give it another go tonight.

 

Not keen on these wires that come with the kit, they seem quite poorly made to me, and dont fit into the breadboard at all well ( loose) , I am used to working with veroboard and that perhaps is the way I go once I prove the coding, and this is the bit that's all new to me ( the componant side isn't an issue) so I will try and take it line by line as to what it is trying to do and hopefully help me understand how coding works as it were.

 

I was still pleased to get far last night though, I was put off this coding lark many years ago after another freind attempted to teach me assembley langauge for pic chips, I still have all the software and programmer but got lost with it all at quite an early stage.

So hoping the Ardunio stuff is a bit more to my level of understanding and one day perhaps I try assembley again - who knows 🤨

[Richard (OldStager)]

Well an attempt to work on the car has been postponed till the weather warms up, so back inside for a while. Back to this coding then 😬

[Richard (OldStager)]

OK, I now know what happened last night, being a newbie I didn't realise that the library the chap on YT was talking about isn't added to my includes, so a search for that and install has the monitor side back working again so just the LCD to go then...

Only posting this as it may just help other first timers with some really basic mistakes..

[Richard (OldStager)]

Phew, at least it's an improvement.

 

I will now look at each line and work out for myself what its doing - all I did there ( once the correct library was installed) was to copy/paste someone else's code.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

9 minutes ago, Richard (OldStager) said:

I will now look at each line and work out for myself what its doing - all I did there ( once the correct library was installed) was to copy/paste someone else's code.

 

That's a great way to learn though; just pick coding appropriate for your level - as you are doing, then as you progress look at, try and understand, and build up with trickier code and concepts.

[Richard (OldStager)]

Ok well now that project is done, what I want to do now is make this again but on veroboard and housed in a box, also I will need another ardunio ( the YT chap used a Nano rather than the Uno) as I will keep the one in the kit for dev work.

So my question is where do you get the stuff from, is Amazon the only place?, I don't use Ebay anymore and really don't wish to so that is out for me. Back in the day it was companies like RS or Farnell all my bits came from, not sure if they sell these boards ( without looking...)

[Richard (OldStager)]

@Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO

 

Had to page through your build thread before I came to the Ardunio parts, and that video is what I am after in that self cancel for indicators (and I love the brake release bit too ) , however I would need to complely rip out my current setup, as I made all my stuff from old velleman boards ( about 12 years ago) which I cobbled together with various diodes to stop back feeding things and that works just fine, this may sound odd (and it may well be) but the main (velleman) flasher basically provides a constant flash rate and the switch on the car just selects which side of the car that flash rate gets fed to, the common of the switch being the positive from the flasher.

 

So without ripping out my old setup ( but I might have to), I have had a thought to just get an ardunio to switch off the output from which ever side of the car is active after a certain time , which for me means two ardunios, which seems overkill ( thinking out loud here by the way) do  you think I can use just one ardunio for this or the two I think I may need?.

 

Failing that I rip my old stuff out and build what you have done ?.