Ethernet Shield Test

It's time for the second experiment.
The Ethernet Shield test with Arduino Uno Rev 3.

We will put the shield on the local network and create a simple web server which will reply to http request and will drive two led.

There is a useful library which will help to develop the Ethernet Shield software. With some line of code the device will be on the LAN using DHCP protocol or by setting manual configuration (ip, dns, gateway ...)

The shield will be directly linked to Arduino. Pin 10, 11, 12, 13 are used by the shield and so they cannot be used by developers.

For our purpose, we will link digital output 2 and 8 to two led. Arduino will drive them, receiving http requests. A tablet will be used as client.

Our Arduino will listen on port 80 and will drive the led, managing http requests.

Here is the demo:

First experiment: a simple gas detector

Let's begin assembling some stuff from starter kit...as first example we will try to build a simple "gas detector" using MQ-4 sensor.

Here is the datasheet

The sensor has 3 pins:

- Vcc: 5V supply voltage, Arduino friendly;
- GND: ground connection;
- AD: analog output; provides a value congruent with the gas concentration in the air;
- D0: triggered digital output; provides an HIGH signal when the gas concentration exceeds a limit; you can set this limit through the trigger;

We will use only the analog output, which will be linked to an Arduino's analog input pin.

The sensor needs a pre-heating time.

In our prototype, just for example, we will use also:

- a temp sensor: LM 35
- an LCD display 16X2 backlighted with Hitachi HD44780 driver
- a Buzzer
- a led
- a pot

On the display we will show datas provided by the sensors; led and buzzer will be used to signal warnings and alerts and the pot controls the LCD display dimmer.

Here is the demonstration video:

Arduino Uno Rev 3 Starter Kit

After many research over the internet, we decided to buy on ebay the Arduino Uno Starter Kit.

We got it in a few days.

It contains:

• 1 Arduino UNO R3 Board, made in Italy
• 1 USB Cable 50cm
• 1 Breadboard 830 points
• 1 Display LCD 16X2 backlighted, Hitachi HD44780 driver
• 2 Linear Pots 10Kohm
• 2 Knobs
• 1 9V Battery connector
• 65 Jumpers
• 10 Buttons
• 1 Buzzer
• 1 relay 5V 10A 250VA
• 1 Temp Sensor LM35
• 2 Transistor BC547
• 1 Light Sensor
• 10 Red LED
• 10 Yellow LED
• 10 Blue LED
• 10 Green LED
• 10 White LED
• 1 RGB LED
• 2 capacitors 4,7uF 100V
• 5 Diode 1N4007
• 10 Resistor 1Kohm
• 10 Resistor 10Kohm
• 10 Resistor 4,7Kohm
• 20 Resistor 470ohm

I think we have enough things to begin experiments...

In the same shipping we received also:

RF 433 Mhz Transmitter and receiver modules

Ethernet shield based on W5100 chip with an sd card reader on board

an MQ-4 gas sensor

some RGB LED

Ok, don't waste our time...we are ready to begin some real experiments...

A new adventure...

Welcome everybody in this new adventure related to eletric / electronic and computer world...

Finally, after a lot of time spent on thoughts and searches over the internet, I decided to enter in the world of Arduino boards...

Electronic and computer things always involved me a lot...and thanks to Piero's suggestions, I filled my electronic gaps and so now I'm able to design and build something useful.

Who already follows me, knows that I'm involved, always with the help of Piero, in another ambitious and exciting project: the building of a flight simulator cockpit (details on www.mylearjet45.net)

Instead, in this blog, I would like to write about my attempts to design and build something related to domotics (home automation)...mainly using Arduino and Raspberry PI boards, with related extensions...

What are Arduino and Raspberry PI?

Arduino

www.arduino.cc

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for anyone making interactive projects. There is a wide range of products, based on technical characteristics and dimensions...

The Starter Kits (Arduino board plus a good range of useful accessories) are very useful for the beginners.

Through input/output pins and software programming, you can interface sensors and actuators in the real world...

There are a lot of expansion cards (called shield) as Wifi/Ethernet connectivity, Infrared/Bluetooth transceiver, Sd Card Reader and so on...

The programming language is based on C language and you can find a lot of examples over the internet.

References and official website www.arduino.cc

Raspberry PI

www.raspberrypi.org:

Unlike Arduino, Raspberry PI is a real, small (credit card size) and low power consumption PC, and is able to run many Linux Distros. It has many USB ports, HDMI Output, 3.5mm A/V Jack, CPU and Ram...

Link Arduino it has many GPIO (General Purpouse Input Output) pins to interface real world sensors and actuators.

There is a wide range of models...the last one (February 2015) is Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. These are its technical characteristics:

• A 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU
• 1GB RAM
• 4 USB ports
• 40 GPIO pins
• Full HDMI port
• Ethernet port
• Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video
• Camera interface (CSI)
• Display interface (DSI)
• Micro SD card slot
• VideoCore IV 3D graphics core

References and official website www.raspberrypi.org

Both boards, used together, could be used to design infinite projects...fantasy is the only limit...

Now it's time to begin...with Arduino...

...we are waiting for the Starter Kit Arduno Uno Rev 3...

Stay tuned