Adding some error checking

-
I figured that it would be nice for the Arduino to be able to indicate that there was a problem without having to have it connected to a PC. I added a single LED to an unused pin and created a routine to blink it on and off based on an error condition. Works pretty well.

Well enough to tell me that for some reason the Arduino w/ Ethernet shield doesn't like to work without being plugged into USB as well as the external power. It could be that my power supply isn't clean enough or enough voltage to operate everything at once. More investigation is needed. I was hoping to only have a single power cord for this clock.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

V-22 Osprey Project - Design Changes for v3

-
Image
It's been a busy end of 2021, and as we start 2022 I'm getting closer to building version 3 of the Osprey wing.  The single biggest problem I've faced is the amount of backlash in the direct spur gear drive of the tilt mechanism.  It introduces some nasty instability that, left unchecked, would likely destroy the model in flight. I've investigated other tilt mechanisms, but the one I keep coming back to is the rack and pinion design that Tom Mast uses in his model at Rotormast.  His design uses a high-torque digital servo with a small pinion gear driving a rack attached to the rotor nacelle.  The servo has been modified with an external potentiometer that's driven by a gear on the translation tube to give positional feedback to the servo.  I like this design a lot because 1) It works, and his model is proof, and 2) it requires less torque from the servo and has less backlash. I ordered the pair of modified servos, potentiometer, and rack from Tom's site and star...
Read more

Whereabouts Clock Update

-
Image
After a few months, Life360 has gone the way of Apple and locked down the API I used to get location data from the phones.  This is disappointing, but inevitable. I found on a forum for Home Assistant that the app OwnTracks might be a suitable alternative. It's a neat little app that will trigger the phone to send its location data via MQTT to a server that you specify. I had to rework the code a bit, but the new operation is as follows: OwnTracks on the phone will push location data per its configuration to the MQTT server (Docker container) The Mosquitto (MQTT Broker) container will receive the data and forward the data to its subscribers The MQTTWarn container is a subscriber and translates the received data and adds it to the MariaDB database The Apache web server hosts a Python CGI script that is checked each minute by the Arduino microcontroller.  If the data has changed, the hands are moved to the new location. The only exposed port to the Internet is TCP 1883 for...
Read more

Whereabouts Clock: New Clock Mechanism

-
Image
 When I made the first mechanism of the Whereabouts Clock I utilized sail winch servos to get a motion that was at least 360 degrees.  Most RC servos are limited to about 180 degrees before they hit a physical limit.  I always wanted to create a clock with motors that weren't limited in the number of rotations, such as a stepper motor. However, stepper motors don't retain positional accuracy after a power loss.  The motor drivers only know "left" or "right" and a number of steps.  If the motor is moved, or power is lost, it has no idea where the motors are any longer.  In most control systems using stepper motors there are limit switches that are triggered to "home" the motors to a known position. Also, the Arduino Uno is limited in the number of IO pins.  Most stepper motor control requires at least 4 pins and additional lines for motor enable, micro switches for positioning, etc. A while back I purchased an Arduino Mega and a six-pack of 28BYJ48 ...
Read more