Must-haves for EASY DIY controller?

Anyone notice any interference with Hydra (or other Arduino)? I have had mine running for weeks without any issues, and today had it almost touching one of my laptops, but not connected to any computer (bub not plugged in). When I turned the laptop on, the lcd connected to the hydra lost all the characters on it, only showing the blue background. At least part of the Hydra was still functioning OK since it didn't affect the LEDs.

I connected the bub, downloaded my latest sketch, and it is fine now. The laptop is on a UPS, I wouldn't think there would be a voltage spike when turning it on, so I think it must have been some RF interference. Anyone have this happen?
 
Well got a message from digikey that my parts are on the way, with one on backorder till June 25th (U12). Now I get to buy it elsewhere and pay for shipping again.
 
For anyone (like myself) who checked the prices for components around Christmas and noticed that Mouser was cheaper than DigiKey, check again!

For instance:
C23
Mouser: $1.28
DigiKey: $0.30

I'm finding this on about half of the items. Am I reading something wrong?
 
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No you are correct, I saw the same thing that why I placed most of my order with digikey. But then they send a message after I order that some items were out of stock and backordered so now back to mouser.
 
Hydra is a alive :celeb1: Well - almost, and only sometimes.

Only sometimes will it display information on the LCD :mixed:

After finishing the board, I've build a "shrunken" sketch that should be just talking to the clock, and the LCD. Problem is, it only sometimes works. The LCD, for the most part, just stays black. When it is working, there is 1.4v or so on pin 6 of the LCD connector, which is EN, and is what I expect. When it is not working, no voltage there. Also, my clock does not seem to be working.

Been checking voltages, and see 5.0 where I expect, and 3.3 where I expect. Except --- 5v at the I2C connector at the top of the board is only 3.4 ???

Also, see no voltage at pin 3 (or anywhere else) on RV1, which should be controlling the LCD contrast.

Power supply is 11.96 volts, and good ol' U12 gets plenty warm.

If the LCD is not working, it will sometimes start after I turn the board over to try and check some voltages on the back side. So ... I suspect an issue somewhere with my soldering. Also, sometimes it will actually come on when I power up the board, but then goes dark after 5-10 minutes.

Problem is, I just don't know how to track this down.

Any suggestions on where to start ??

Still don't have the FTDI connection working (waiting for a cable), so I pull the chip, program it on my UNO, then reinstall it. I even built a mini-mockup with an MPC23008 and RTC, with the pins matching the Hydra configuration, in order to test the code on the UNO, and it works there.

I know, us amateur builders can be a real PITA.
 
I think we're all amateurs here...

Do you have a 9v supply you can try? Somewhere around 250-500mah or so. Power supplies can do some funky things sometimes, just try to rule that out first.
 
Well my order for the parts for my relay board arrived plus the missing 49.9R from digikey. They do ship fast, now I'm just awaiting U12 to arrive from mouser. hopefully by friday, Maybe then I can say "its alive"
 
Brian,
I would reflow all through-hole points on the board you can get to (should be almost all) just to make sure you don't have a cold point somewhere. Then take a magnifying glass and inspect the board for any apparent trace faults. I had a bridge on one of the very first boards:
bad_trace.jpg


Next, measure the current the board is drawing. It should be less than 500ma with all components in (if I'm not mistaken).

If the above looks all good and doesn't fix the issue take a couple of close up pictures on both sides of the board and post them here.
 
DustinB - LOL - Connected first time with a 9v battery. That lasted about 10 minutes until the battery voltage dropped to 7.5. But ... I'll look for a 9v supply.

terahz -- will do as you suggest.
 
All good ideas for troubleshooting. A little more info: it now seems that when power is plugged in, not much is happening. If I pick up the board, with my fingers on the back, and my thumbs on the front, then do a mini-flex, everthing boots and starts. Almost as if a "magic" reset button has been pressed. I'm displaying the elapsed millis(), and no matter how long the board has been powered up, the count starts at zero as soon as the display starts to work.

And ... no matter how long it has been on and working, if I unplug the power, it won't come back to life until I "flex" it. Obviously some solder joint is not right. I'll keep looking.

terahz -- looks like trying to fill those through board holes would be like trying to gently pour 1/2 inch of sand into an 8-gallon aquarium using a backhoe. My soldering iron and skills don't seem to be a match for the teeny-tiny holes.

One more question -- RV1 -- supposed to power the contrast on the LCD. Looking a the board in Eagle, I seen no way for +5v to get to RV1. And, there is no voltage there. I've also looked at my spare board, and see no traces leading to RV1. Just see the trace that goes to the pin for contrast control on the LCD, and a connection to ground. What am I missing ??????

No more time to work on it tonight. Back at it tomorrow.

Using my trusty laser thermometer, the temp of U12 is running about 185 degrees F. Is that normal? Looking to see if I can measure the current too.

The adventure continues .........
 
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Hydra is sorta working now. I really botched the RTC installation, but finally have it working correctly. Installed the socket poorly, removed it, installed second socket, was not making all the connections, tried and tried to get it to work, finally pulled it, and directly solderer the RTC chip to the board, but it looks really ugly by the time I could get all the connections working.

Still having issues with initial startup. Sometimes it works just fine. Sometimes, I need to remove and reconnect power very quickly to get it to boot. Once running, it works like a Timex. Just keeps running ... and running ... and running. (Or is that the Energizer bunny)

Created the CA42 cable hack to connect to FTDI2 for the main AVR. TX, RX, and GND. The serial connection works just fine. Can monitor those Serial.print() debug commands all day long. BUT --- cannot download my compiled sketch to the Hydra. Is anyone doing this with just a serial cable? If so, which setting are you using in the Arduino software.

Or ... do I just need to spend the extra $15 + S&H for an "approved" option.

I'm getting tired of pulling and reinstalling the chip (twice) every time I want to make a code change.

So close ... So far away !!!
 
For anyone who is using the firmware here:
http://svn.geodar.com/hydra/branches/prod/
I've made a few changes in the last couple of days:
- Detect if RTC is enabled, if not start it so that LCD can operate
- Split code with defines so that it is easy to enable/disable features like LED, IR remote, keypad etc (if anyone is using a keypad on hydra let me know)
- Fix clock setup menu option
- Implement the rest of the menu handling for the various LED options (start, stop duration etc)

Todo:
- fix the code that detects a "front button" - a pin on the MCP that can trigger setup mode (for IR learning) on startup.
- Add the TimeAlarms library and add menus for setting up alarms/events.

for :
http://svn.geodar.com/hydra/branches/Slave/

- Implement basic HTML status page that looks something like this (I had the temp sensors disconnected when I made the snapshot):
hydra.slave.png
 
Well the hydra is assembled, I've connected by a breakout board via usb to computer, led diode is lit but thats where I've stopped. what would be the next step? I 've downloaded ardunio-0022 from their site and am ready to upload, under tools tab which board would I use? I just want to be sure on everything. Any help please for a beginner. Thanks
 
kctango said:
Well the hydra is assembled, I've connected by a breakout board via usb to computer, led diode is lit but thats where I've stopped. what would be the next step? I 've downloaded ardunio-0022 from their site and am ready to upload, under tools tab which board would I use? I just want to be sure on everything. Any help please for a beginner. Thanks
Click to expand...
Download these tree files in one directory called 'hydra_test':
http://hydra-reef.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/software/sketches/hydra_test/hydra_test.pde
http://hydra-reef.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/software/libraries/lcdtest/LCDi2c4bit.cpp
http://hydra-reef.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/software/libraries/lcdtest/LCDi2c4bit.h

Open the .pde with Arduino. For Board, select 'Arduino Duemilanove or Nano w/ ATmega328'. Under Serial Port, select the FTDI port that shows up when you plugin your arduino. Hit upload and enjoy :)
 
Terhz - have you gotten around the bug in arduino-0022 that prevents your code from compiling? I had to use an older version, arduino-0021, in order to get your code to compile.
 
so the 0022 has a problem and I was thinking I did something wrong. I must have tried everything but use a older version.
 
Greg,
I haven't really tried since I have 21 on all my macs so doesn't really bother me :). I will check if there is a workaround tonight, but it looks like their regex parser was "upgraded" in .22 so might be too much of a trouble.

kctango,
The problem Greg is talking about is about HydraProd and the following message:
PHP: 
HydraProd:-1: error: expected ',' or '...' before '&' token
HydraProd:-1: error: ISO C++ forbids declaration of 'T' with no type
HydraProd:-1: error: 'T' has not been declared

For anyone getting the above message, downgrade to arduino 0021.
 
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