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Arduino Essentials

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Arduino Essentials

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Arduino Essentials
Feb, 2015 | 206 pages
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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Arduino Essentials
Arduino Essentials
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewer
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Meeting the Arduino Family
Meeting the Arduino Family
A game changer
Common features
Just one to rule them all
Users teaching users
Summary
2
The Arduino Development Environment
The Arduino Development Environment
A multiplatform tool
Downloading the package
Installing the software
Installing the drivers
Running the Arduino development environment for the first time
Preflight checks
Uploading our first sketch
Main menus and commands
The Arduino language
Summary
3
Interacting with the Environment the Digital Way
Interacting with the Environment the Digital Way
Digital versus analog signals
Our first circuit
Summary
4
Controlling Outputs Softly with Analog Outputs
Controlling Outputs Softly with Analog Outputs
Dealing with analog signals
The analog output circuit
Connections diagram
Analog control through code
Motor control with a transistor
Summary
5
Sensing the Real World through Digital Inputs
Sensing the Real World through Digital Inputs
Sensing by using inputs
Connecting a button as a digital input
The momentary push button
Complete circuit schematic
Breadboard connections diagram
Writing code to react to a press
Timing and debouncing
Other types of digital sensors
Using an optocoupler as a coin detector
The schematic of the coin detector
The breadboard connections diagram
The complete example code
A real working project
Summary
6
Analog Inputs to Feel Between All and Nothing
Analog Inputs to Feel Between All and Nothing
Sensing analog values
The Arduino map function
An ambient light meter
An ambient light meter circuit
DC motor speed control revisited
Summary
7
Managing the Time Domain
Managing the Time Domain
Time control functions
Making some noise
A bigger project – a metronome
Summary
8
Communicating with Others
Communicating with Others
Serial communications concepts
Other types of serial communication
Calibrating sensors serially
Sending data to Arduino
A computer connected dial thermometer
Summary
9
Dealing with Interrupts
Dealing with Interrupts
The concept of an interruption
The tachograph project
A dial tachograph
Summary
10
Arduino in a Real Case – Greenhouse Control
Arduino in a Real Case – Greenhouse Control
A greenhouse controller
The greenhouse controller code
Summary
Index
Index

Analog control through code

The most valuable part of this example is not its physical part but its logical one, and I'll show you the associated functions to deal with analog outputs and a very important control structure in any programming language called a for loop in the code we will be using for this circuit.

The analogWrite() function

Dealing with analog outputs from the programming side is just a matter of using the analogWrite() function, which, as its name implies, writes an analog value through a pin.

It takes two parameters, similar to the digitalWrite() function:

  • The first one is the pin on which we want to operate (remember that it has to be one marked as PWM) on

  • The second parameter is the value we want to output, and that, as I told you previously, can take any value in the range of 0 to 255, 0 meaning 0V and 255 meaning 5V

The for loop

The other important concept we will come across in this example is a for loop, which is a very important control structure present in almost every...

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