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Arduino By Example
Arduino By Example

Arduino By Example: Design and build fantastic projects and devices using the Arduino platform

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Profile Icon Boloor Profile Icon Adith Jagadish Boloor
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Paperback Sep 2015 242 pages 1st Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Boloor Profile Icon Adith Jagadish Boloor
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Paperback Sep 2015 242 pages 1st Edition
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Renews at €18.99p/m
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Arduino By Example

Chapter 2. Digital Ruler

You've made it to chapter 2! Congrats! From now on things are going to get a bit complicated as we try to make the most of the powerful capabilities of the Arduino micro controller. In this chapter we are going to learn how to use a sensor and an LCD board to create a digital LCD ruler.

Put simply, we will use the ultrasound sensor to gauge the distance between the sensor and an object. We will use the Arduino and some math to convert the distance into meaningful data (cm, inches) and finally display this on the LCD.

  • Prerequisites
  • Using an ultrasound sensor
  • Hooking up an LCD to the Arduino
  • Displaying the sensor data on the LCD
  • Summary

Prerequisites

The following is a list of materials that you'll need to start coding on an Arduino; these can be purchased from your favorite electrical hobby store or simply ordered online:

  • 1 x Arduino-compatible board such as the UNO
  • 1 x USB cable A to B 1 x HC—SR04 ultrasound sensor
  • 1 x I2C LCD1602
  • 10 x male to male wires
  • 9V battery with 2.1 mm barrel jack connector (optional)
  • Laser pointer (optional)

Components such as the LCD panel and the ultrasonic sensor can be found in most electronic hobby stores. If they are unavailable in a store near you, you will find online stores that ship worldwide.

A bit about the sensor

The SR04 is a very powerful and commonly used distance/proximity sensor. And that is what we are going to look at first. The SR04 sensor emits ultrasonic waves which are sound waves at such a high frequency (40 kHz) that they are inaudible to humans. When these waves come across an object, some of them get reflected. These reflected waves get picked up by the sensor and it calculates how much time it took for the wave to return. It then converts this time into distance.

We are firstly going to use this sensor to make a simple proximity switch. Basically, when you bring an object closer than the set threshold distance, an LED is going to light up.

This is the circuit that we need to construct. Again, be very careful about where everything goes and make sure there are no mistakes. It is very easy to make a mistake, no matter how much experience you've had with Arduinos.

A bit about the sensor

In reality it is going to look something like this, much messier than the Fritzing circuit depicted...

Hooking up an LCD to the Arduino

The LCD screen that we will be using is an I2C LCD1602.

Hooking up an LCD to the Arduino

This display screen can be programmed to display whatever you want in a 16x2 matrix. This means that the screen (as you will soon find out) has two rows capable of fitting 16 characters in each row.

Before setting up the complete circuit, look at the back of the LCD. Plug in four wires, as follows:

Hooking up an LCD to the Arduino

And then set up the circuit, as follows:

Hooking up an LCD to the Arduino

Now you will have to trust me on this next step. We are going to manually install a library that the LCD requires to run. You will be using this same method in future, so be patient and try to understand what we are doing here.

Download the LiquidCrystal_I2C.zip file from http://www.wentztech.com/filevault/Electronics/Arduino/.

Now, in the Arduino IDE, go to Sketch | Include Library | Add ZIP library and browse to the downloaded ZIP file. You are good to go.

If this doesn't work, you can manually extract the contents to: C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Arduino\libraries...

Best of both worlds

Now comes the part where we combine what we have learnt so far in this chapter into one project. We are going use the sensor to calculate the distance between an object and relay this information to be displayed on the LCD screen in real time.

You are going to combine both the circuits from the previous two sections and create something like this:

Best of both worlds

Note that, at the bottom of the setup, you can see two power VCC/5V/red wires merging into one. We did not use a breadboard because we wanted to save space. A simple way to go about this is to use a male splitter. A crude way is to cut a male to male in two and cut one female to female wire in two, strip off a bit of their plastic insulation and twist the copper ends (two males and one female) together and simply tape the joint.

Open up a new sketch and load the Digital_Ruler.ino file.

Save it as Digital_Ruler.ino in your Chapter 2 directory and upload the code to the Arduino.

The result, if everything has gone right, will be exactly...

Summary

That was fun, right? And a bit challenging, correct? Good! That's when you know you are learning. So let's just summarize what we achieved in this chapter. We first programmed a HC-SR04 Ultrasound sensor and used it to measure a distance which was then displayed on the Arduino UNO Serial Monitor. Next, we played around with the I2C LCD1602 screen, and then, we combined what we learned from the two sections into one project called the Digital Ruler (Scale). You successfully created a digital measuring tape, which made it compact and less cumbersome to use. But since it can measure between 0 to 2 meters, it can only be used indoors. Higher ranges can be achieved using better (and more expensive) sensors.

In the next chapter, we will learn about touch sensors, which will along with a powerful processing software allow us to convert finger gestures to text.

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Description

Arduino an opensource physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board, and a development environment for writing software for the board. The opensource Arduino software (IDE) makes it easy to write code and upload it to the board. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The environment is written in Java and based on Processing and other opensource software. With the growing interest in home-made, weekend projects among students and hobbyists alike, Arduino offers an innovative and feasible platform to create projects that promote creativity and technological tinkering. Arduino by Example is a project-oriented guide to help you fully utilize the power of one of the world's most powerful open source platforms, Arduino. This book demonstrates three projects ranging from a home automation project involving your lighting system to a simple robotic project to a touch sensor project. You will first learn the basic concepts such as how to get started with the Arduino, and as you start building the project, you will develop the practical skills needed to successfully build Arduino powered projects that have real-life implications. The complexity of the book slowly increases as you complete a project and move on to the next. By the end of this book, you will be able to create basic projects and utilize the elements used in the examples to construct your own devices.

Who is this book for?

This book is an ideal choice for hobbyists or professionals who want to create quick and easy projects with Arduino. As a prerequisite, readers must have a working Arduino system and some programming background, ideally in C/C++. Basic knowledge of Arduino is helpful but not required to follow along with this book.

What you will learn

  • Understand and utilize the capabilities of the Arduino
  • Integrate sensors to gather environmental data and display this information in meaningful ways
  • Add modules such as Bluetooth and WiFi that allow the Arduino to communicate and send data between devices
  • Create simple servers to allow communication to occur
  • Build automated projects including robots while learning complex algorithms to mimic biological locomotion
  • Implement error handling to make programs easier to debug and look more professional
  • Integrate powerful programming tools and software such as Python and Processing to broaden the scope of what the Arduino can achieve
  • Practice and learn basic programming etiquette
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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
1. Getting Started with Arduino Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Digital Ruler Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Converting Finger Gestures to Text Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Burglar Alarm – Part 1 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Burglar Alarm – Part 2 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Home Automation – Part 1 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Home Automation – Part 2 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Robot Dog – Part 1 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Robot Dog – Part 2 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Robot Dog – Part 3 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
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