That part made me LOL!
Must-haves for EASY DIY controller?
- Thread starter der_wille_zur_macht
- Start date
That part made me LOL!
Obi-dad
Active member
So is the design fixed? I looked at the BOM on google code, and it has some items that I can't seem to find on Mouser or Digi-Key, like the ATMEGA8 chip (AT90S4433P), and M08, M18, etc. Do you have a source for those parts?
I already have the squirrel and bat, and have hired someone to open and close switch real fast.
I already have the squirrel and bat, and have hired someone to open and close switch real fast.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Greg, lemme update that BOM. It's vastly incorrect. Many of the part numbers are incorrect for what is listed there. That was a first draft, I have an updated copy locally (on a different PC). Didn't think anyone was paying attention that closely. 
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Updated. Though, of course, this isn't tested or ready for release yet, so proceed with caution!
Some notes on the BOM:
1) The two processors should be PDIP ATMega328p's purchased from an Arduino-friendly vendor (seeedstudio, moderndevice, sparkfun, adafruit, etc.) with an Arduino-compatible bootloader already burned on them. Otherwise, you're going to have to burn the bootloader yourself, which is more trouble than it's worth, and won't save you any money unless you're doing a few dozen chips. The EAGLE project files call this part "ATMEGA8" but you want 328's - the 8 and 328 (and 168) are pin compatible.
2) I didn't put part numbers for any of the pin headers. People can choose if they want males or females, and get them from any hobby electronics vendor. They're all just common .1" break-away headers. Most of the vendors listed above for the AVR also sell these.
3) Two important parts aren't available from Mouser, so I put Digikey numbers for those. Everything else is cheaper at Mouser. Even though you're paying shipping for two orders, it's cheaper than getting everything at Digikey.
4) The jack for the Ethernet connection is turning out to be elusive. I designed for the HR911105A from HanRun since that's what many of the commercially-available Ethernet interfaces for Arduinos based on the ENC28J60 use, and two of the popular vendors (Sparkfun and Seeed) carry (-ied) it. I made that choice maybe 6 or 8 weeks ago when we were still deep in design. When I went to order the parts recently, NO ONE had this jack. I ended up getting two on eBay. The problem is, there's no industry standard pinout for these jacks, so you have to proceed with caution. I would suggest searching eBay for this exact part number (HR911105A) if none of the vendors mentioned above have them in stock. Perhaps in rev 2 we should pick a more generic part, or just provide a header for the jack and people can panel-mount it and run a cable to it, which would reduce the importance of pin locations.
Otherwise, I ordered the exact P/Ns listed on this version of the BOM about two weeks ago and everything was in stock in high volumes so there shouldn't be any issues. I'm expecting the first order of boards to arrive some time this week. I'll have a small number of extras, if anyone is interested in participating in the development effort. These are NOT finished products and might not even work so please don't ask for one unless you really want to be involved in development!
Some notes on the BOM:
1) The two processors should be PDIP ATMega328p's purchased from an Arduino-friendly vendor (seeedstudio, moderndevice, sparkfun, adafruit, etc.) with an Arduino-compatible bootloader already burned on them. Otherwise, you're going to have to burn the bootloader yourself, which is more trouble than it's worth, and won't save you any money unless you're doing a few dozen chips. The EAGLE project files call this part "ATMEGA8" but you want 328's - the 8 and 328 (and 168) are pin compatible.
2) I didn't put part numbers for any of the pin headers. People can choose if they want males or females, and get them from any hobby electronics vendor. They're all just common .1" break-away headers. Most of the vendors listed above for the AVR also sell these.
3) Two important parts aren't available from Mouser, so I put Digikey numbers for those. Everything else is cheaper at Mouser. Even though you're paying shipping for two orders, it's cheaper than getting everything at Digikey.
4) The jack for the Ethernet connection is turning out to be elusive. I designed for the HR911105A from HanRun since that's what many of the commercially-available Ethernet interfaces for Arduinos based on the ENC28J60 use, and two of the popular vendors (Sparkfun and Seeed) carry (-ied) it. I made that choice maybe 6 or 8 weeks ago when we were still deep in design. When I went to order the parts recently, NO ONE had this jack. I ended up getting two on eBay. The problem is, there's no industry standard pinout for these jacks, so you have to proceed with caution. I would suggest searching eBay for this exact part number (HR911105A) if none of the vendors mentioned above have them in stock. Perhaps in rev 2 we should pick a more generic part, or just provide a header for the jack and people can panel-mount it and run a cable to it, which would reduce the importance of pin locations.
Otherwise, I ordered the exact P/Ns listed on this version of the BOM about two weeks ago and everything was in stock in high volumes so there shouldn't be any issues. I'm expecting the first order of boards to arrive some time this week. I'll have a small number of extras, if anyone is interested in participating in the development effort. These are NOT finished products and might not even work so please don't ask for one unless you really want to be involved in development!
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
It's HERE!
As excited as I am, I have a big deliverable for work on Wednesday, so might not assemble until later in the week. I'll be sure to post plenty of photos and updates.
TheFishMan65
New member
Yea, next he will probably put it off because he will be too busy putting glass in his tank
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Oh great. I've had people following my tank build thread complain that I'm spending too much time tinkering with electronics and I need to go finish the tank instead. Now the opposite, too? :lol:
TheFishMan65
New member
What do you expect - we are never happy I don't know where you find the time to do it all!
I don't know where you find the time to do it all!
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
I decided to build section-by-section instead of just throwing the whole thing together at once, so I could test each chunk of circuit with no chance of interference from anything else.
First, the +5v power supply:
Next, the "main" AVR, caps, FTDI header. At this point, it's essentially a fully functional but stripped-down Arduino clone. I was too lazy to find an LED to hook up for the traditional "blink sketch test" so I put a sketch on it that writes "I blinked" back to the serial console every second:
It works!
Later in the week I'll solder up additional segments of the circuit and test each one. Stand by for more updates.
First, the +5v power supply:
Next, the "main" AVR, caps, FTDI header. At this point, it's essentially a fully functional but stripped-down Arduino clone. I was too lazy to find an LED to hook up for the traditional "blink sketch test" so I put a sketch on it that writes "I blinked" back to the serial console every second:
It works!
Later in the week I'll solder up additional segments of the circuit and test each one. Stand by for more updates.
TheFishMan65
New member
Yeah, we shamed in to doing something
Great work, I know you will keep us posted.
Great work, I know you will keep us posted.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Now, new and improved, with RTC!
TheFishMan65
New member
Looking great
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Oh, and I think it was a bit of a mistake to run the LCD backlight to a plain old digital pin. For this LCD, when the backlight is full on, it's VERY bright. I'm going to need to put a resistor inline with it.
terahz
1x10^12 Hz
ludnix
New member
Put it on a PWM pin and dim it
This is what I did for my arduino controller (WIP). I have it set to automatically dim to 10% at night, I'm sick of all my electronics having ridiculously bright lcds at night so I thought I'd end that trend with mine. If only I could make my printer and stereo do the same thing...
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Put it on a PWM pin and dim it
Yeah, in rev 2. It's hardwired to pin 8 on the PCB, so doing that would involve cutting a trace. For now, on the prototype, I might just put a resistor inline.
Other notes for the other hardware prototypers - if you haven't ordered yet, might want to look for different caps. I know the 47uFs were out of stock recently, so maybe the problem is solved in whatever you guys got instead, but the caps I spec'd are really tall, to the point that they'd probably interfere with shields.
Also, the placement of the battery for the RTC really sucks. One of the pins is right under the current limit resistor for the power LED. It would pay to think through the order you solder those components in, since leads are blocked on both sides of the board.
Otherwise, proceeding nicely. I found some cool code for the ethernet interface so I'm excited to try that soon.
ZenMastr1968
New member
I just found this thread today and read all the way through it.... Very nice work all!
I've been kicking around the WRT54G/WRRC project for years, but was hung up on the fact that I didn't want to try to mod the WTG54GS I had at the time to add the serial interface (for x10 connectivity). I kept following it and a few months ago got my hands on a new Cisco branded Linksys with built-in USB and reloaded it with a Linux based firmware (DD-WRT) which looks like it would still run some of the older WRRC software packages and allow for mega onboard storage, services, etc... but still had no way of controlling anything without adding something like a USB x-10 interface.
I've been doing a lot of reading these last couple of weeks on LED lighting (thinking about retrofitting my existing fixture) and in those threads many were talking about Arduinos as controllers - especially with MeanWell drivers and PWM control signals. It sounded like even if I went with off the shelf units - there is some modifications you would still have to do, so I've been reading up on making my own controller.
That's how I found this thread and I think you guys have hit the nail on the head with what I'm looking for and will be watching (and maybe trying now that the BOM is up) closely since my primary interests are in real sunrise to sunset lighting (gradual increases in intensity), temp and PH monitoring, network connectivity, and may pump/wave controller functionality.
I've been kicking around the WRT54G/WRRC project for years, but was hung up on the fact that I didn't want to try to mod the WTG54GS I had at the time to add the serial interface (for x10 connectivity). I kept following it and a few months ago got my hands on a new Cisco branded Linksys with built-in USB and reloaded it with a Linux based firmware (DD-WRT) which looks like it would still run some of the older WRRC software packages and allow for mega onboard storage, services, etc... but still had no way of controlling anything without adding something like a USB x-10 interface.
I've been doing a lot of reading these last couple of weeks on LED lighting (thinking about retrofitting my existing fixture) and in those threads many were talking about Arduinos as controllers - especially with MeanWell drivers and PWM control signals. It sounded like even if I went with off the shelf units - there is some modifications you would still have to do, so I've been reading up on making my own controller.
That's how I found this thread and I think you guys have hit the nail on the head with what I'm looking for and will be watching (and maybe trying now that the BOM is up) closely since my primary interests are in real sunrise to sunset lighting (gradual increases in intensity), temp and PH monitoring, network connectivity, and may pump/wave controller functionality.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Zen,
What a coincidence, I have a DD-WRT router, too.
You can definitely do simple LED driver dimming with mostly off the shelf stuff. You could get a cheap Arduino clone, an RTC module, and a perfboarded circuit to translate the signal to 10v and be ready to go. If you do want to go that route, lemme know - I designed a shield that converts the PWM signal to 10v for ELN drivers. I have a bunch of the PCBs leftover that I have no use for.
And/or join us for this Hydra project.
What a coincidence, I have a DD-WRT router, too.
You can definitely do simple LED driver dimming with mostly off the shelf stuff. You could get a cheap Arduino clone, an RTC module, and a perfboarded circuit to translate the signal to 10v and be ready to go. If you do want to go that route, lemme know - I designed a shield that converts the PWM signal to 10v for ELN drivers. I have a bunch of the PCBs leftover that I have no use for.
And/or join us for this Hydra project.
