This week the exercise was about Input devices; measure something by adding a sensor to a microcontroller board that we have designed and read it. so for this exercise i have decided to use the same board which i have made for the Electronic Design week, which was with RGBled and Button. Here is the link to see the details
As i said, i am using the same HELLOboard, here button is the input device in this board. By using a serial communication, i have tried to connect my HELLOboard with arduino and processing to see how they are communicate with each other. when you press the button you see whether the button is pressed or not by looking at the colour in the processing file. Here is the link to download Arduino code and Processing codeNOTE:One thing i have learnt is that i can’t read the massages in both processing and arduino serial monitor at the same time.
In the beginning, i have been trying to communicate the serial monitor but somehow i wasn’t getting any massages in the serial monitor so i had to take help from Guillem Comprador the expert in electronics in our FabLab Barcelona.
He started checking the board step by step and he realised that the problem was that of the FTDI connection. He said, i have connected RESET to the micro controller and so we have to remove one of the header pin which was connected to the RESET pin from the FTDI header and after that it started communicating with the serial monitor. So according to him, when the RESET pin is connected every time when you send the massages it resets and because of that its not displaying any massages..and finally now i understand the serial communication and how it communicates with input devices.
First of all you need to find out that what is the pinout for REGled and Button, for that i have checked the schematic layout of ATtiny44 microcontroller to refer the pin numbers which are being used in my HELLOboard.
Simple serial communication Test: To test if my board is perfectly soldered and is working the simple way is upload an led blink script example on Arduino IDE but for that you have to make sure that FabISP and HELLObboard are connected to the computer. 3. Go to Files > Examples > SoftwareSerial and select SoftwareSerialExample 4. Change the Rx and tx pins;value to corresponding pin number Rx=0 and Tx=1; 5. Upload your code with the upload button. (top-left corner on the IDE, side of check button)NOTE: After doing this exercise, i have started working on my project to create FabIMU board to understabd the MPU6000 (Gyroscope and Accelerometer sensor) as input device, to understand how all the 6 axis of Gyroscope and Accelerometer will stabilise the flight of the drone and how it will controll all four motors individually to controll PITCH and ROLL movemnet of flight. Gyroscopes and Accelerometers calibration: To calibrate the neutral of gyroscope and accelerometer sensors, you must tilt the yaw stick left, tilt the pitch stick back while having the throttle stick in minimal position. The Quadcopter should not move during this stage. However its inclination has no influence. The status LED will blink to confirm this step.