Meepduino: 2.0 RELEASED!

[Reefed419]

hey Meep, I am in the process of building my controller now, wanting to shrink wrap what i can to prevent bad things. just wondering if I can shrink wrap my resistors? that run from my controller to the LDD drivers? Thanks in advance for the help.

[MeepNand]

hey Meep, I am in the process of building my controller now, wanting to shrink wrap what i can to prevent bad things. just wondering if I can shrink wrap my resistors? that run from my controller to the LDD drivers? Thanks in advance for the help.

Pretty sure you can. Haven't used shrink wrap before, but I'm making an order now.

 

On the plus side, the new DS1302 arrived! However, I need to pick up a new set of batteries.

[Reefed419]

thanks meep I guess time will tell. I will let you know if it melts the shrink wrap or not.

[disaster999]

To stop the whine you can use either a solid-state relay or put a capacitor across the collector and emitter (I think. It might be base and emitter. Try it both ways).

 

And as of now, you have to deal with the ramp. I am adding a "test" screen, so you should be able to see what the cutoff PWM value is for the transistor and start from there on the ramp.

 

EDIT: You are using a resistor to limit current, right? 2k should work for the transistor. Also, I used PWM to control the transistor for the longest time, and it still works fine.

yeah im using a resistor to just like your diagram shows, i think i used a 10k instead i thought since this is a PWM single and not the analog. The circuit still worked tho.

 

Im not worried about blowing the transistor with the PWM signal, im worried my fan wont last very long with it driven with PWM. I was using one fan and i can feel the the center hub getting warm. did some research on arduino fan control and most people advice against PWM controlled fans. ill try adding a cap to see if this helps.

[MeepNand]

thanks meep I guess time will tell. I will let you know if it melts the shrink wrap or not.

It definitely won't melt it. The resistor only has about 0.5ma running through it, or 0.0025 watts.

 

yeah im using a resistor to just like your diagram shows, i think i used a 10k instead i thought since this is a PWM single and not the analog. The circuit still worked tho.

 

Im not worried about blowing the transistor with the PWM signal, im worried my fan wont last very long with it driven with PWM. I was using one fan and i can feel the the center hub getting warm. did some research on arduino fan control and most people advice against PWM controlled fans. ill try adding a cap to see if this helps.

Really? Adding the cap should stop the PWM, as it will smooth the voltage. Use a 10uf capacitor. That way, you end up with an analog signal, and the transistor is either fully on or off.

I suggested a 2k because 10k didn't work for me. I depends on the transistor.

[disaster999]

Thanks meep, ill go give a 10uf cap a try. im adding a cap between the positive and negative on the fan right?

 

i actually dont remember how i have the resistor hooked up. but at the end everything worked haha. Ill go back and check which resister went where

[MeepNand]

Thanks meep, ill go give a 10uf cap a try. im adding a cap between the positive and negative on the fan right?

 

i actually dont remember how i have the resistor hooked up. but at the end everything worked haha. Ill go back and check which resister went where

You put the capacitor between the base and emitter of the transistor. If that doesn't work, try collector and emitter.

[disaster999]

gotcha. time to look for some caps after work

 

the cap seem to do the job of removing 99% of the whine. i will have to monitor the longevity of the fan being controlled this way. might need a small heat sink for the transistor as it got a bit toasty.

 

i also messed with the programming a bit =P

[MeepNand]

I like what you did. Although, I'm keeping the original code in the .ino because people might want to put different things on different channels.

 

Also, adding the cap will essentially make the fan an on/off system, instead of the PWM is was before. So the fan should be more than fine.

[disaster999]

Maybe I added the cap on the wrong pin, I added one across the base and emmitter and that took cared of the whine, but the fan was still controllable. I'll try to bridge it across the collector and emmitter and see if this makes it act more like an on off switch.

 

Yeah I understand how you might want to keep the original code. This was just to personalize my controller. Can't remember how many times I flashed the code to it. Lots of trial and error haha

[MeepNand]

Yeah I understand how you might want to keep the original code. This was just to personalize my controller. Can't remember how many times I flashed the code to it. Lots of trial and error haha

It's not a pride thing, just convenience. So that if you want to run 3 different blue channels, you can.

[disaster999]

oh yeah i understand, im not saying its a pride thing, people might want to run a different color at a different channel and its best not to label the color of the channel.

[Reefed419]

Hey Meep, or any other electrical geniuses out there. I am wiring my LDD drivers to my power supply, and am wondering if I can COnnect all 6 drivers to one point on the wire, or do I need to use 6 different spots?

[MeepNand]

Hey Meep, or any other electrical geniuses out there. I am wiring my LDD drivers to my power supply, and am wondering if I can COnnect all 6 drivers to one point on the wire, or do I need to use 6 different spots?

You can connect all the drivers to a single point. You are running 6 LDD drivers on a single PWM port though? Or are you just connecting the grounds? Either way, you can connect them any way you want.

[Reefed419]

You can connect all the drivers to a single point. You are running 6 LDD drivers on a single PWM port though? Or are you just connecting the grounds? Either way, you can connect them any way you want.

Ok thanks, I am running 6 LDD to 6 PWM ports. So I am just connecting all the +'s at one point and all the -'s at another. How many LDD drivers do you think a single PWM port could handle? I am trying to control to different tank's lighting with one controller (Why I voted for more channels as I would love to add 2-3 more channels for violets and complete control over individual colors in each tank) Thanks for your help.

[disaster999]

Ok thanks, I am running 6 LDD to 6 PWM ports. So I am just connecting all the +'s at one point and all the -'s at another. How many LDD drivers do you think a single PWM port could handle? I am trying to control to different tank's lighting with one controller (Why I voted for more channels as I would love to add 2-3 more channels for violets and complete control over individual colors in each tank) Thanks for your help.

i asked this question before and meep said you can connect a bunch of them into one port. i guess unless your trying to control 20 drivers with one port, you should be fine

[MeepNand]

Ok thanks, I am running 6 LDD to 6 PWM ports. So I am just connecting all the +'s at one point and all the -'s at another. How many LDD drivers do you think a single PWM port could handle? I am trying to control to different tank's lighting with one controller (Why I voted for more channels as I would love to add 2-3 more channels for violets and complete control over individual colors in each tank) Thanks for your help.

You can't connect all the PWM ports, or you're going to get some seriously random shit. You can connect all the -'s, and in fact you have to connect all of them, but the PWM ports cannot be connected at any point.

However, each PWM port individually can handle a bunch of drivers. I don't know how many, as it doesn't list them on the datasheet, but for anything more than 4 or 5 use 2k resistors on the PWM ports instead of 10k resistors.

[MeepNand]

I just received my new DS1302. Hooked it up, and there is still the problem of every other second being off. Plus, the year, hour, and minute can't be changed.

Ugh.

[MeepNand]

UPDATE:

 

The library itself is broken, not the clock. I will be making some sweeping changes to the button code as a result to utilize Henning Karlson's DS1302 library.

After that, I will also be adding the second temperature probe and basic pump control before releasing V1.6

[MeepNand]

My friend came over to help out. And we found something strange.

So it turns out that the libraries, both Karlson's and Dave's, are reading perfect data from THREE DIFFERENT CLOCKS.

There is only one chip connected. All three of the clocks are perfect in their individual timekeeping capabilites, but only clock #1 can be set.

clock # 1 is read every other second, and clock #2 and clock #3 are randomly chosen from in the second that clock #1 is not read.

Attached is a file that shows what I'm talking about. Readings were taken every 500 milliseconds, or twice each second, using the delay() function.

 

Any ideas on how to fix it?

Running three clocks.txt

[Reefed419]

What?

[MeepNand]

What?

Basically, it's like the Arduino is reading three clocks from one chip. I don't even know how to begin to fix it.

[Reefed419]

ohhh

[Horerczy]

An exorcism may be necessary. Sound like it's haunted by burned out clocks.

[MeepNand]

An exorcism may be necessary. Sound like it's haunted by burned out clocks.

I called the ghostbusters, but only got a dial tone.