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system 4-50

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1 minute ago, system 4-50 said:

I've standardized on Teensy 3.6s.  I would strongly recommend these to anybody doing more than basic stuff. That said, it seems a pity to throw the Ards away, hence the offer.

The Teensy things do look very good, I had a a quick look at the specs, but the current consumption is a bit high. Can you do clever sleep modes to get this under control?

 

...................Dave

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54 minutes ago, dmr said:

The Teensy things do look very good, I had a a quick look at the specs, but the current consumption is a bit high. Can you do clever sleep modes to get this under control?

 

...................Dave

I don't know as my projects have not been subject to this constraint, but the place to find out is the forum run by the guy who designs and gets them manufactured.  It is amazing to be able to talk directly to the head man when the need arises!  He is also responsible for some Arduino code improvements in the past.

Teensy Forum

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12 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

I don't know as my projects have not been subject to this constraint, but the place to find out is the forum run by the guy who designs and gets them manufactured.  It is amazing to be able to talk directly to the head man when the need arises!  He is also responsible for some Arduino code improvements in the past.

Teensy Forum

Its not amazing (or shouldn't be), that's how it used to be, something has gone wrong, we now have marketing men, spokespeople and odd corporate structures that prevent this sot of thing. Back in 1985? I found a bug in a Microsoft compiler, talked to them, and although they didn't want to fix it (it was a feature) they gave me a personal corrected version. A lot of good software and hardware is still created by one man bands. I do question why the big corporates need so many people to create bad stuff ?.

 

...............Dave

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11 hours ago, LadyG said:

mystified, but please don't try to explain

tx

A Teensy is a small microcomputer. You could lay 5 of them on the palm of one hand.  They have 4 times the memory of the first mainframe I worked on which filled a room, and are faster.  The name Teensy reflects the designer's aim to keep it small (and Arduino compatible) and is also useful as it easy to google. 

a teensy Teensy

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11 hours ago, system 4-50 said:

I don't know as my projects have not been subject to this constraint, but the place to find out is the forum run by the guy who designs and gets them manufactured.  It is amazing to be able to talk directly to the head man when the need arises!  He is also responsible for some Arduino code improvements in the past.

Teensy Forum

Thanks for the heads up on this. Most of my projects use the Nano or the Pro mini, but I have also moved onto the ESP. I would be keen to see how the Teensy compares.

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Teensy is a range.  I like the 3.6 because it has a lot of memory, is 32 bit,  with lots of pins and fundamentally 3.3V.  The earlier models are still available but are a bit dated.  The later, more recent, 4.0 and 4.1 are ridiculously fast but have a non-continuous memory structure which I can't be bothered with.

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47 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

May I stick my neck out and bravely ask, ‘what are these things used for?

i guess in simple terms for electronic projects that require an electronic brain.

like a weather station that records from different sensors and then sends or compiles the data, or a security camera, or a remote control car/boat/plane.

 

for clever nerds to make stuff that does stuff.

 

this rules me out, i can make an arcade cab out of a raspberry pi, but anything that requires programming beyond changing values in code is beyond my pea brain :D 

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So far I have built or have been building:

1. An electronic tilt alarm.  It was supposed to detect a 1ft tip in 10 seconds on a 60ft boat, this being my perception of what was needed to give the best chance of saving a boat in a lock.  I gave up recently after a number of years as the sensitivity of the device was too close to the limits of the electronic level detector used.

2. A water tank manager that turns off the filling water just before my tanks are full (as my overflow is inadequate) and shows the fullness of both water tanks, the poo tank, and, almost, the level  in the diesel tank, in a graphical format on a 2.8" screen.

3. A Webasto Manager, to control the webasto, prevent it being turned on and of by ignorant visitors, exercise a thermostat function, and a sensible set of timed on & off functions.  This is far from finished.

4. An Engine Manager, capable of starting & running the engine (a Beta 43)  by itself in response to battery needs, a messaged instruction, or just programed.  This is about 80% done. The bit I like most is trying to detect belt slippage by comparing the rpm of the 2 alternators.

5. A device to report the temp at about 20 spots on my skin tank to detect the heat flow.  My 2 skin tanks are unusual in that the hose connections are both at the bottom.  Built but never used.

 

And a number of projects that are not boat-related.  All are just for fun.

 

Teensy s and their ilk are for people who want the maximum control over what is happening electronically, without the great heap of unknown software in the middle like you would find in a Raspberry Pi.

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6 minutes ago, David Mack said:

You sound like my Dad about 20 years ago asking "But what do I need a computer for?"

Didn't stop him owning and using a few laptops in his later years.

Thanks for that!! I just haven’t heard of them before. At my ripe old age I’m still learning.

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I've finally had a look and I must admit it's quite clever, I didn't really know what to expect and it actually surprised me, the basic tool is a board that you plug stuff into what happens depends on what you plug into the board.

The software seems really simple at first glance, switch socket on and read and react to the input from the socket.

I am absolutely sure my brief and simplistic review is massively underplaying what is possible and available but I admit it's clever, shame I have no real need for it, it's the sort of thing I would have loved in my teens 

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  • 1 month later...

Hello,

sorry to hi jack your thread, but I thought it might get attention from some - one who could help.

I have programmed an Arduino UNO to control a farm outhouse boiler via relays ( which need to be set to LOW to energise) and it is working well apart from a problem with the alarm cancel button which has absolutely no effect. Can anyone  here help me solve it it please, there is probably a simple answer and it will stop me going round in in circles like this code seems to be doing. I Have got a pull-down resistor on the button which solved an intermittent print problem on the serial monitor.  The alarm lamp is outside to signal when the boiler needs more logs, and the button is to press when the first person gets to it so that the furnace door isn't opened unneccessarily.

 

thanks, David

 

 

if (readStoke == 0){                    
  Serial.println("Boiler Requires Stoking");
  Serial.println(     );
 
    digitalWrite(alarm,LOW);            //  turns alarm light on
     
     digitalWrite(ledPin,HIGH);   // turns built-in LED on
     delay(dt*3);                
  digitalWrite(ledPin,LOW);      // alarms off and will now flash repeatedly
  digitalWrite(alarm,HIGH);
  delay(dt*8);              
}
else{
  digitalWrite(ledPin,LOW);digitalWrite(alarm,HIGH);  //alarm off
}

 buttonNew = digitalRead(readBut);        // these button new and buttonOld variables are my ongoing attempts to sort it and should

 if (buttonOld ==0 && buttonNew==1);             //           probably ne in the setup loop
 if (readStoke ==00){
  digitalWrite (alarm, HIGH);
 }

if (readBut == 1){
  Serial.println("button pressed");

 
  delay(dt*2);
  digitalWrite(alarm,HIGH);       // Turns alarm relay off pin 7
  delay(dt*10);
  }
if (readBut == 0){
  digitalWrite(alarm,HIGH);      // keeps alarm Relay off
  }

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I would first look at how the readBut reset button pin is defined in the setup. Is it actually on the pin you've programmed? Has pinmode been defined as an INPUT? Has it been defined as INPUT_PULLUP, which would cause unexpected effects if there is a pull down resistor too, depending on the pull down resistors value. Are you willing to post the whole sketch?

Jen

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I programme in C, not in Arduino-speak which is effectively C++, however:

 

This line doesn’t seem to do anything: if (buttonOld ==0 && buttonNew==1);

 

if you put a breakpoint after this line, does the variable reflect the state of the button? buttonNew = digitalRead(readBut)

 

You have quite a few delays in the code, don’t forget the code reading the button only takes the instantaneous value, you have to be pressing and holding down the button at the same time as your code is actually reading the button.

 

You talk about a pull-down resistor, so just to check that the button pulls the input line up to supply voltage?

 

 

 

55 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

I would first look at how the readBut reset button pin is defined in the setup. Is it actually on the pin you've programmed? Has pinmode been defined as an INPUT? Has it been defined as INPUT_PULLUP, which would cause unexpected effects if there is a pull down resistor too, depending on the pull down resistors value. Are you willing to post the whole sketch?

Jen

Yes I think as a general point, pull-up resistors are normally used, with the button pulling down to 0v, so the OP is doing things in the non-normal sense. But assuming no internal pull-ups are selected I suppose it should work.

Edited by nicknorman
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6 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

You have quite a few delays in the code, don’t forget the code reading the button only takes the instantaneous value, you have to be pressing and holding down the button at the same time as your code is actually reading the button.

In general, delays are not good practice for anything other than the very simplest sketches as the Arduino is just sitting there, not reading inputs, or doing anything else much till it times out. Better to do things with timers. What value is dt set to?

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1 minute ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

In general, delays are not good practice for anything other than the very simplest sketches as the Arduino is just sitting there, not reading inputs, or doing anything else much till it times out. Better to do things with timers. What value is dt set to?

 

And better to do asynchronous inputs such as button presses, by means of interrupts. I just checked and the Arduino Nano does support interrupts.

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