#Arduino

I haven't forgotten about you. Some private stuff kept me from completing this project for a while. To make it up, I have added OpenSCAD files for a 3D printed case.

The controller was a little tricky to complete, mostly because of the very different component heights. I decided to use two circuit boards that are stacked onto each other by headers.

On the upper board, there are only the two buttons and the LCD, as well as the transistor and resistor for the LCD backlight. As I only used one-layer TriPad strip boards, I had to use this one upside down for the male headers to point downward. This rather unconventional use made it a little tricky to solder the buttons and LCD headers on the actual bottom side of the board.

The lower board contains all the other components, as well as the wiring. The rotary encoder also made it to the lower board, because it is much taller than the other buttons. This way, the top of the button caps are almost level and nice to look at.

The result is surprisingly compact for a DIY solution. The button caps and the LCD are just perfectly positioned for a case.

With plastic feet attached, you can use the controller as it is. You can also get a plastic case with transparent top, drill three holes in it for the button caps, and mount the sandwich with spacers. But if you have the chance, you should definitely go for a 3D printed case.

I have set up a project at GitHub. It contains the circuit diagram, the bill of materials, the firmware source code, and OpenSCAD files for a printed case. There is no firmware binary yet, as you need to adapt the source code to the length of your LED strip anyway.

There are bonus OpenSCAD files in the project, for printing a customized case. Due to the absence of properly layouted PCBs, I am aware that each controller is going to look differently when finished. In the parameter.scad file, you can change all kind of parameters, so you should be able to make your individual case in, well, almost any case (silly pun intended). 😄

The SPI flash memory of the Feather M0 Express is not used yet. In a future release, I may add a settings menu for the LED strip size. The controller is also forgetting all its settings when disconnected from the power. This needs to be addressed in a future release as well.

But after all, this is a start for your own DIY wall bias lighting. Feel free to send pull requests for enhancements!

Again, remember that you must remove the jumper before connecting the Feather to an USB port, otherwise your computer will be damaged.

In the first part, I have assembled a working proof-of-concept for my premium wall bias lighting. Thanks to CircuitPython, it just took a couple of minutes to program a light effect once the hardware was working.

Now it's time to extend the hardware to its final stage. I'd like to have a LC display that shows the current settings. A button and a rotary encoder allows to browse through different menus and change the parameters. And finally, the strip shall be switched on and off by an illuminated power button.

Thanks to the bread board, the components were quickly added and connected to the Feather with some wires. Polling the buttons is a basic functionality of CircuitPython. It was also incredibly easy to poll the rotary encoder, because CircuitPython already comes with a library for that.

It took a lot more time to set up the LC display. CircuitPython supports SPI out of the box, but the SSD1803A controller of the display uses a weird protocol. Each command byte must be split up into two nibbles (4 bits), which are packed into bytes again, with the bit order reversed. The SPI library does not offer support for it, so I had to do all this bit mangling in Python, which turned out to become a rather ugly piece of code.

But then, finally, a minimal version of the firmware was working. I could turn the light on and off, select between two light effects, and I could also control the brightness.

However the Feather often took long breaks, where it did not react on key presses for multiple seconds. I guess the reason for that is Python's garbage collector, which stops the world while it is collecting unused objects and freeing some memory. This was actually a pretty annoying behavior that rendered the controller unusable.

After I added a third light effect, I also started to run into frequent out of memory errors. It seems that I have reached the limits of what is technically possible with CircuitPython on a Feather.

Was my approach too ambitious?

Luckily it wasn't. The Feather can also be programmed in C++, using the well known Arduino IDE. It comes with a lot of libraries that are ready to use. It's all very lightweight and is looking very promising. So why did I use Python in first place? Well, it is because I wrote my last lines of C++ code about 20 years ago. 😅

Porting the existing Python code to C++ was easier than I had expected. The SPI library now even supports reversed bit order, so it was much easier to address the LC display. On the down side, I had to test several libraries until I found a reliable one for the rotary encoder.

The C++ code consumes a fraction of the Python code's memory, so there is a lot left for extensions. The garbage collection breaks are also gone now, so the controller instantly responds to key presses. And I haven't even used the Feather's SPI flash memory yet. 😀

I have added some more light effects, and menus for adjusting brightness, saturation, and color temperature. Everything is working as expected now. It's time to finish the prototype phase and draw a circuit diagram.

R2 is the series resistor for the power button LED. A green LED would need an 68 Ω resistor at 3.3 V. However the LED is directly connected to the Feather, so the current should not exceed 7 mA (maximum rating is 10 mA). A 500 Ω resistor limits the current to a safe value. If you need more current for a fancy power LED, you can use one of the three 74HCT125 drivers left, or add a transistor.

R3 is the series resistor for the LCD backlight. The manufacturer specifies a 27 Ω resistor when the backlight LEDs are connected in series and powered with 5 V. If you use a different backlight, change the resistor accordingly. The BC 548 transistor permits up to 100 mA in this configuration.

Remember: You must remove the jumper JP1 before connecting the Feather to an USB port, or your computer will be damaged.

In the next part, I'm going to grab my soldering iron and build a final version. It's high time. The many wires on the breadboard prototype are annoying when operating the rotary encoder. Also its pins are too short and are often disconnecting from the breadboard when I use it.

A simple method to keep burglars away from your home is a TV simulator. It's basically a device with some bright RGB LEDs showing color patterns that resemble those of a telly turned on. They are sold at many electronic retailers. However, some customer reviews say that the color patterns do not look very realistic, with some distinctive flashes and colors that are usually not to be seen on a regular movie. Besides that, the color patterns often repeat after about half an hour.

Actually, distinctive color patterns that repeat after a short time, are a major disadvantage. Experienced burglars might recognize the color patterns and figure out it's a TV simulator. This would rather be an invitation than a deterrent.

So, let's build a better TV simulator ourselves. It's also more fun than buying something ready.

Die Arduino-Plattform ist eine offene Entwicklungsplattform für kleine Hardwareprojekte, inklusive einer Entwicklungsumgebung und verschiedener günstiger Boards wie dem Arduino Uno. Wegen verschiedener Bugs ist die Installation der Entwicklungsumgebung auf einem System mit Fedora 15 leider nicht ganz trivial.

Die notwendigen Pakete befinden sich im Fedora-Repository. Zuerst installieren wir also die Arduino-IDE und stellen die Gruppenrechte her, die zum Zugriff auf die USB-Schnittstelle benötigt werden:

sudo yum install 'arduino*'
sudo usermod -a -G uucp,dialout,lock $USER

Neben der IDE werden der C-Compiler avr-gcc in Version 4.6.1-2 und die avr-libc in Version 1.7.0 installiert. Diese Version des Compilers wirft allerdings nur Fehlermeldungen. Ein Update steht schon bereit, liegt derzeit aber noch in fedora-testing und muss deshalb explizit installiert werden:

sudo yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update 'avr-*'

Danach ist der avr-gcc in Version 4.6.1-3 und die avr-libc in Version 1.7.1 installiert. Die IDE kann nun gestartet und die Sketches können kompiliert werden.

Allerdings bleibt noch ein Problem: durch eine zu aggressive Compiler-Optimierung funktioniert die delay()-Funktion unter Umständen nicht. So leuchtet bei dem Beispiel Blink die Test-LED dauerhaft, statt zu blinken. Die Ursache dafür lässt sich zum Beispiel durch einen Eingriff in eine Datei beheben. Folgender Patch führt diese Änderung aus:

sudo patch -d /usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino wiring.c << __END__
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> #include <avr/delay.h>
106c107
< {
---
> {/*
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> */ _delay_ms(ms);
__END__

Danach steht der Experimentierfreude nichts mehr im Wege!