ARDUINO I/O card PLUG-IN

[Steve Horn]

I'm curious as to how these card(s) would physically connect to the HB server. Through a serial conn with the HB generic serial device as the HB interface? (Obviously, I don't know anything about the Arduinos, but all I could see on one of the links above was some very basic serial "ports" - I and O bits - that I suppose could emulate an RS232 connection. But nothing that looked like a USB port.)

[Timoh]

The Arduinos are serial native, but most (all?) of them now come with a USB to serial converter on the board. On the PC side, you need to install the virtual comm driver. It's *exactly* the same as an USB to serial cable, but it's built in to the Arduino.

The serial (aka USB) is bit by bit controllable and program-able, but the Arduino comes with a software library (on the arduino side, not the PC side) for handling the serial comms on the board. It makes it easy to send & receive strings on the arduino. In fact there are many libraries for the arduino, motor control, pin control, 3rd party device control, display control, touch screen input, talk to other arduinos, etc + + +.

This is why it'd probably be fairly easy to write a very simple Arduino program that reads a pin value and sends it out to the serial port. The libraries are already available. My previous project on the Arduino involved writing a serial protocol for controlling motors. On that project, I would send a command via serial (read USB) and the motor would respond. Likewise I would write statuses back out to the serial/usb port back to the PC.

Tim

[Steve Horn]

OK, I've read more on the Arduino and liked what I read. I have a planned project (small motor control w/feedback) that this will work great for. I had planned (as far as that went) to use the larger Velleman USB card. But want to go the Arduino route instead, with the intent of actually trying to learn something new. Now I just need the time to devote to it.

[Timoh]

You'll be a million times better off with Arduino.

Make sure you check out Arduino "shields" closely. They come on all sorts of flavours. And the best part is, they come with the libraries to make the shield run!
ie: Arduino + a motor shield=hardware done.
Load library in editor
set variables such as my motor is on pin1, speed=6,
load code into Arduino
=software done... watch it go.

Unplug pc... it's still going!

+being open source there are a ton of resources.

If timing is critical for your project, you would have had problems with the USB connection. USB latency, other things on the USB line, PC issues, USB 1 vs 2, would have all created weirdness on your motor control. With Arduino, the timing is 100% independant of all those things, and completely controlled by Arduino.

Good luck!

[Steve Horn]

Thanks. My app will be HB controlling motor(s) and relying on feedback thru the Arduino. But once I feel comfortable (i.e. know more) with the HB end of the Arduino hardware interface method, the rest shouldn't be too bad. Sounds like fun.

[dominicv]

Steve,

Steve, what is the actual purpose of the shield, that Arduino keeps mentionning in their documentation?

What I liked about the Arduino cards in the first place, is the number of inexpensive sensors, I was blown away by the types, you name them they have, if they don't, then you don't need it.

It just sounds like a nice card to use for automation, because of its numerous sensors.

Dom

[Steve Horn]

As I understand it, shields are daughter boards that interface the Arduino micro controller to the outside world above and beyond the basic I/O bits on the motherboard. For example, they add dedicated purposes (motor control, ethernet interface...) to the basic micro card.

[Timoh]

Yep shields are daughter boards.
The Arduinos come in a standard form factor. The shields typically snap directly over/onto the Arduino. Kind of like... well... A shield.

Steve, depending on your project, be aware how Arduino motor shields and libraries typically handle motor movements. In my application, which was stepper motors, the libraries that came with my motor shield were "blocking". ie, When they were controlling the motor, they Arduino would not be doing anything else. So if you want to drive two stepper motors at the same time, you could not. It'd be stepper A, then stepper B, then stepper A, then stepper B. I used other code that did allow me to drive two stepper motors at the same time, but the code was a lot more complex.

I'm not sure if this also applies to regular DC motors. Just be sure to check how the code that your looking at works.

Let me know when you get a round to it, as I can give you a hand, since Arduino<=>HB has been on my list for a while.

Tim

[Timoh]

Dom, from further up in the post...
I meant my setup is reliable, not my x10 piece.
Since I use an embedded/stripped down version on XP, and there is nothing else running on that PC, it never crashes, HB is fast, never any quirks, etc.

I still use x10, but I have mix of Insteon & x10 devices. Once I hit critical mass of Insteon, I will flip everything over to Insteon. (Actually, more likely it's because I haven't done any shopping as of late, and haven't picked up an Insteon PLM yet.) I'm in no rush through... My house is 99.99% reliable on x10. I guess I have "quiet" powerlines. :)

Tim

[Steve Horn]

Good to know about the "blocking" action. With steppers, I think I can understand why that's the case - lot of stuff going on there unless the low level stepper interface is handed off to a shield or other standalone hardware. But I'm making all this up...
My app will be - if I ever get to it - 5 DC motors (very small) with position feedback provided by reading POTs.

Wandering around the i'net now looking at Arduino resources, hardware (Arduino brand or knock-off), docs, ebay vs. other sources, etc. Basically in learning mode.

Canadians may have cleaner X10 environments. Good - whatever works for you.

[dominicv]

Hey Tim,

Since I don't have a ton of modules I could change over, but the question still is " Insteon or Z-Wave, I keep reading horror stories from both side of the fence.

I liked the Insteon Icon modules because of the price, and since my requirements aren't to agressive I figured they would be ideal, then this afternoon while reading different comments, it was recommend to use Insteon as a choice protocol, but suggested to stay away from the Icon version.

Then while looking at the Z-wave line, an friend told me that he would stay away of Z-Wave because of past contraversy that plague that product.

Then while researching the X-10 product I found 2 modules that provided both ACG and 2 way communication, but have been discountinued, the PAM21 or 22 and the PLM21 or 22.

If I were to build a new house, I would hardware the whole thing, no screwing around.

Dom

[lostdreamer]

Any idea what kind of controversy with z-wave?

I made the step from X10 to zwave a bit more then a year ago and have to say: I cant complain.
Havent had any missed switches
no delay of more then 0.5 seconds (up to 8 seconds with X10 at my home, < .2 seconds with Z-Wave)
the more products I have the more stable the network is....
Not having to check what devices I plug into the powernet (old monitors and some lights gave a lot of trouble with X10 signals)
2 way status for all my lightswitches (when switched locally my PC knows about it within half a second)

pfff. To much pro's to keep going :)

I went from crestron to PC/DIY Home Automation (because of the price and the 'fun factor') and this is the first brand I've seen with stability like my former automation system so I'm pretty curious what the controversy would be....


LostDreamer

[dominicv]

Good afternoon LostDreamer,

From what I understand, something to do with slight exageration of the product feature, not so reliable in the beginning.

Maybe a push for sales from eager sales person.

Either way, I am seriously considering Z-Wave in my choice of product.

When you switched over from X-10 to Z-Wave, what was the minimum requirement in order to use Housebot.

In other words what would I need to switch over to Z-Wave.

Dom

[lostdreamer]

Hey Dominic,

To start with zwave, you only need the aeon labs USB stick http://www.aeon-labs.com/site/products/view/2/
and some device to turn on/off (light switch or plug)

Because the Aeon labs stick also has an include / exclude button you dont have to buy a primary controller just to create your network.
This way you should be able to start for < €100,-

For all my light switches I use the ACT switches, since these are the only ones I found thusfar that are able to associate with my interface in group 1 (which means they will notify my interface when they are operated locally) I tried this with DUWI buttons but they didnt have this feature.


Regards,
LostDreamer

[dominicv]

Good day Lostdreamer,

Any problems matching the Aeon Lab stick to HOUSEBOT.

I assume you are located in Europe, your choice of currency being the Euro.

Dom