Curious as to how many of you guys and gals are hacker nerds. I just ordered an Arduino programmable microcontroller for a little project I'm going to fiddle with. Have you used one of these? Programmed it to do something silly/stupid/awesome/fun?
Details here: http://arduino.cc/en/
I am nerdy enough that I ordered my own Solidoodle 3d printer :)
I have nothing useful to add, but do have that bent. It's so far resulted in picking up a couple of O'Reilly books on embedded programming and nearly getting a couple of friends together to have beers and try to do a "Hello L.E.D." type evening with PIC chips...
I know of them, have read lots about them, and am fascinated about the idea of possibly using them in the future.
Never dabbled with it, but there were lots of people at the Orlando Maker Faire who were playing with Arduino. So why don't you tell us about your project?
I used one for a little project once. They are fun and cheap. Lots of projects, ideas, code online to help get you started
Yes. We have a number of Arduinos for projects. We built an optical timer for THESE using one.
And we built a MakerBot (powered by one). Our 'Bot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5xYXddDzIo
I'm planning on being at Maker Faire NYC in Sept (went last year).
I've played with them before, I guess off and on for 7+ years now. I've made an MPGduino, and a datalogger. Both worked pretty well, but are now in a drawer.
I know all about them but haven't had the time or money to mess around with them.
I have one sitting around to make a data acq system with.
Jaynen wrote: I am nerdy enough that I ordered my own Solidoodle 3d printer :)
Let me know how well that works.
We were going to go with an Arduino as a little side-project here, but then someone pointed out that Android cell phones can be USB-hosts and provide a very, very slick UI and WiFi/Cell data service. Perfect for what we are doing.
If you find yourself thinking about adding lots and lots of shields to do things like Bluetooth and Wifi and USB, a newer Android phone might just be what you're looking for...
Arduino as a fuel controller
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1275359057
http://www.miataturbo.net/ecus-tuning-54/arduino-ecu-50695/
http://emoretto.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/projeto-arduino-turbo/
In the back of my mind I have the idea to use an Arduino as an ECU on a two stroke using TPS, MAP and EGT inputs.
The LED fuel gauge and electric/hydraulic power steering assistance in my race car is run on an Arduino.
I run a vehicle dynamics computer in my track car using the mbed system. It is similar to Ardurino.
Mine has GPS, accelerometer, LCD display, and talks to the Megasquirt system to download all of it to an SD card.
Works great. I even set the file format to allow me to import everything but GPS coordinates to Megalogviewer.
In the fantasy version of my life, I'm picking up a Raspberry Pi to make a car-computer with...
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: The LED fuel gauge and electric/hydraulic power steering assistance in my race car is run on an Arduino.
Man that thing's pretty serious isn't it? So did you put a load cell in the steering shaft somewhere and base the pump speed on that?
GameboyRMH wrote:Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: The LED fuel gauge and electric/hydraulic power steering assistance in my race car is run on an Arduino.Man that thing's pretty serious isn't it? So did you put a load cell in the steering shaft somewhere and base the pump speed on that?
Volume knob on the dash (wired to an analog in, PWM out to the controller on the steering) so in the paddock I run full blast, adjust down until it feels good on track. I am expecting at places like Watkins Glen I can run it down near 25%, and at say... Jefferson to want more like 75%.
In reality I could leave it on full blast all the time but that lacks "fiddle-ability" and reduces the cool factor of having a "Steering Assist" knob near the brake bias.
.jpg)
We put a 3 foot tall working digital tach on the roof of our LeMons car with Arduino. I'm going to use one for the MR2 EHPS. I'm putting a V6 in it and will lose the speed-sensitve assist function. I had planned on using a switch to scale the assist between two or more speed profiles, but a linear function with a pot is a simple solution.
It would be nice if there was a pressure function or yaw sensor so that if you need to countersteer, you immediately get full assist. 
Can't say enough good things about Arduino. Tons of power for $30.
edit: heres a picture of the tack, with VTAK light
Tyler H wrote: I'm going to use one for the MR2 EHPS. I'm putting a V6 in it and will lose the speed-sensitve assist function. I had planned on using a switch to scale the assist between two or more speed profiles, but a linear function with a pot is a simple solution.
When you get to this part... the Arduino PWM could not sink the current required to drive the Subaru controller (65ma!) - I needed to make a transistor and opto-isolator circuit up. I'm not familiar with the Toyota but check first- rumor has it that you can smoke the whole AVR processor and have to buy another Arduino because you got the SMD one instead of the DIP package :(
Tyler H wrote: It would be nice if there was a pressure function or yaw sensor so that if you need to countersteer, you immediately get full assist.
That's what a load cell in the steering column does, it can measure the stress in the steering column. You can fab one up or get one from an SW20.
GameboyRMH wrote: That's what a load cell in the steering column does, it can measure the stress in the steering column. You can fab one up or get one from an SW20.
I think it is unnecessary for this application - in reality the assist is pretty powerful and smooth even at really low values. I raced the car in heavy traffic a few weeks ago with it at about 80% and could easily react to either end of the car stepping out. Much more so that without the PS at all (which is how I had been running it). I am positive the knob is completely unnecessary and I could just run it full blast all the time but I went to the trouble of making it adjustable so damn it if I'm not going to adjust it :)
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:Tyler H wrote: I'm going to use one for the MR2 EHPS. I'm putting a V6 in it and will lose the speed-sensitve assist function. I had planned on using a switch to scale the assist between two or more speed profiles, but a linear function with a pot is a simple solution.When you get to this part... the Arduino PWM could not sink the current required to drive the Subaru controller (65ma!) - I needed to make a transistor and opto-isolator circuit up. I'm not familiar with the Toyota but check first- rumor has it that you can smoke the whole AVR processor and have to buy another Arduino because you got the SMD one instead of the DIP package :(
Arduino outputs couldn't even directly handle a HF LED flashlight. They make all kinds of 'shields,' which are plug-in hardware expansions for Arudino, however I used a NPN transistor as a switch -- switching the load of the light to the car's 12V power rail.
GameboyRMH wrote:Tyler H wrote: It would be nice if there was a pressure function or yaw sensor so that if you need to countersteer, you immediately get full assist.That's what a load cell in the steering column does, it can measure the stress in the steering column. You can fab one up or get one from an SW20.
I'm under the impression that the assist on MR2 is speed-sensitive only. I don't think it knows the steering position or load.
Tyler H wrote: Arduino outputs couldn't even directly handle a HF LED flashlight. They make all kinds of 'shields,' which are plug-in hardware expansions for Arudino, however I used a NPN transistor as a switch -- switching the load of the light to the car's 12V power rail.
Yeah, same here - I used an opto isolator and an NPN to amplify the PWM signal to the controller in the same way - except it needed a voltage regulator because it had to be a 0-5v signal.
You'll need to log in to post.
