arduino | Embedded Lab

Tag Archives: arduino

Constructing an external serial monitor

Posted on March 28, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

The Serial Monitor application embedded into the Arduino IDE is a very useful tool in developing Arduino applications. In addition to its normal use for sending/receiving data bytes over the Arduino serial link, the Serial Monitor tool is extensively used for diagnostic or debugging purpose by serially printing out the intermediate values of the program variables during various steps of execution. The drawback of this debugging approach is you need access to computer for using the Arduino Serial Monitor or any other serial terminal program. ARPix has posted this instructable on constructing an external serial monitor device using the Atmega328 MCU and a graphic LCD. It allows a user interface to set the serial baud rate and start/stop functions using tact switches.

External serial monitor for testing/debugging

Playing WAV sound files with Arduino

Posted on March 7, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

This instructable illustrates a simple circuit to play wav sound files stored in an SD card using arduino Nano V3.0.

Playing WAV file with Arduino

nrf24l01+ RF module and ATtiny85

Posted on February 17, 2014 by R-B One comment

Ralph Doncaster writes,

Nrf24l01+ modules are a cheap and low-power option for MCU wireless communication. Libraries are available for Arduino, and for arduino compatible MCUs like the ATTiny85. Controlling the nrf modules usually requires power plus 5 pins – CE, CSN, SCK, MOSI, & MISO. With pin-limited MCUs like the ATtiny85, 5 pins is a lot to tie up. On something like the Digispark, with PB3 and PB4 hard-wired to USB+ and USB-, using the nrf24l01+ modules might seem impossible. Another issue is that although the nrf inputs are 5v tolerant, Vcc must be between 1.9 and 3.6V. I’ve designed a simple solution to provide 3V power as well as control the modules with just 3 of the pins on the ATtiny85.

Controlling Nrf24l01+ RF module with 3 I/O pins

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Tutorial on Advanced Arduino Sound Synthesis

Posted on November 14, 2013 by R-B Leave a comment

The easiest way of producing a sound using an Arduino board is by bit-banging its I/O pin driving a buzzer or speaker. However, if you want to go beyond simple beeps and synthesis complex and more interesting sounds, you need a better understanding of the Arduino hardware as well as the theory behind wave synthesis. Here’s a wonderful tutorial from Makezine that describes the fundamental concept of synthesizing waveform and how to manipulate it in real time.

Arduino sound synthesis

Automatic re-filler for your pet’s water bowl

Posted on October 21, 2013 by R-B Leave a comment

This Arduino-based Pet Water Warden helps your pets to get enough water supply when you are gone. It uses two homemade dip probes to sense the water level in a pet’s drinking bowl and automatically activate a pump to refill it from a reservoir when it gets low. The project also incorporates an Arduino Ethernet shield to send a tweet when the reservoir runs out.

Pet water warden using Arduino

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