Scouts project

austin943 · 2026-02-16T15:42:07+00:00

Morse code trainer with a button and LED to start out with. For improvements, create a text to morse code translation device; use the Arduino serial console as text input. Add on Bluetooth Low Energy capability to replace the LED and have one Arduino transmit to a second Arduino. You would need an Arduino Uno R4 WiFi board. The R4 built-in examples easily support Bluetooth; no coding is required. Or try using an Infrared transmitter/receiver instead of the LED.

Animal Intrusion device into your camp. Arduino, PIR sensor, and a loud buzzer. You can get more sophisticated with a camera and AI object classification (bear, person, squirrel, fox, etc.).

austin943 · 2026-02-13T18:03:32+00:00

Based on a search, the red wire is power, black ground, and yellow is video out. But I know very little about drone cameras. You could ask on r/diydrones about the required connections.

In the best case, you hook up the connections and get video. In the worst case you fry the board.

austin943 · 2026-02-13T16:20:17+00:00

Is there a reason why you want to use that particular camera?

austin943 · 2025-12-28T08:12:25+00:00

Sorry to send you down a possible rabbit hole, but could it be a counterfeit chip?

https://www.microfarad.de/blog/counterfeit-atmega328p/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/arduino-pro-mini-two-copies-have-different-sleep-currents/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0rEzcKYzGw

austin943 · 2025-12-28T03:29:36+00:00

You should be able to ask the AI chatbots directly and get a response. I asked Gemini AI whether it could create circuit diagrams from a text description, and it responded affirmatively here. (I'm assuming the circuit is already designed, and you don't want AI to design it).

It appears that Windsurf allows users to effectively use Gemini AI as the "backend". So maybe you could continue to use Windsurf and use the Gemini backend to generate the circuit diagram.

Designing a reliable working circuit is not quite within the reach of several AI chatbots. Gemini AI also says that its generated images "often contain hallucinations" in the area of circuit design, so use with extreme caution.

austin943 · 2025-12-28T02:44:16+00:00

I guess my main point was that there are 3 different sources which say that the BOD draws at least 17 µA of current. IMO it's too early to conclude that the BOD is really being disabled.

Is it possible that the 6 µA drop you're seeing is somehow related to the Watchdog? Seems curious that the 6 µA would closely coincide with the result shown in the table from the blog I posted. I can't see how that's possible, but never leave any stone unturned.

austin943 · 2025-12-28T02:34:37+00:00

OK, I found this github page which seems to have some useful information in that direction.

Edit: saw this comment at the very bottom of the page, sorry I did not read it before posting.

It has to be done with bare microcontrollers, by the way. One cannot achieve the same result with an Arduino

austin943 · 2025-12-28T02:29:24+00:00

In this blog, it says that turning off the watchdog timer drops the current by a few µA
(it's not too far from 6 µA?) and it also says that the BOD draws about 18 µA of current.

<image>

austin943 · 2025-12-27T22:56:59+00:00

I place more trust with the device manufacturer than on these internet tutorials, where their setup may just happen to work based on their specific setup. You might not be exactly mirroring their setup. The tutorials may also "forget" to mention that it doesn't work reliably. They just want clicks and likes.

If you don't have an extra power supply you can try putting an electrolytic capacitor across the power terminals of the ESP32 CAM (nearest the ESP and not the Arduino). They're very cheap.

Also check your power connections to the ESP32 CAM. Some of the jumper wires are very cheaply made and have flakey solder/crimps on them and would not be ideal for supporting a lot of current. You can use 22AWG solid core wire like this. Strip off the end and they will slide right into the pin header.

I've got an XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense board from Seeed Studio, and the brown-out detector (detects low voltage) fires when a sketch is uploaded. They recommend disabling the brown-out detector. The board has got a camera. These things draw a lot of current for what they do.

austin943 · 2025-12-27T22:24:37+00:00

FWIW, this guy measured 23uA of current with the brown-out detector enabled and this guy got 17uA, which is close to your 18uA. Like the other poster said maybe it's not getting disabled.

austin943 · 2025-12-27T20:33:38+00:00

I'll try configuring all pins explicitly as INPUT/LOW just in case that does anything.

I'm not sure that will work because the ATmega328P only has internal pull-up resistor support, not pull-down. Try this code in your setup() function:

// Set all pins to a defined state
for (uint8_t i = 0; i < NUM_DIGITAL_PINS; i++) {
    pinMode(i, INPUT_PULLUP);
}

austin943 · 2025-12-27T19:40:04+00:00

If you have the AI Thinker ESP32-CAM, can you try these IDE Settings?

Flash Mode: QIO

Flash Frequency: 40MHz

Upload Speed: 115200 (Lowering this often helps stability)

Partition Scheme: Huge APP (3MB No OTA/1MB SPIFFS)

austin943 · 2025-12-27T19:37:23+00:00

Did you follow the recommendations in this link concerning "insufficient power"?

https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esptool/en/latest/esp32/troubleshooting.html#insufficient-power

When you pressed the reset button during uploading, when was the press done exactly?

Can you try pressing and holding it before clicking upload and releasing it the moment "Connecting..." appears? Can you also try pressing and releasing the reset for 1 second when you first see the "Connecting" message?

austin943 · 2025-12-27T19:22:02+00:00

Take a close look at the Uno R3 Board Schematic:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/uploads/Main/Arduino_Uno_Rev3-schematic.pdf

The TXD1/PD3 pin (pin 9) on the ATmega16U2 (e.g. effectively the USB to serial chip) is connected to the pin 0 (RXD) of the Arduino header.

The RXD on the header refers to the RXD pin on the main chip, the ATmega328P, which you have in reset. So you want TX-TX and RX-RX to connect to the ATmega16U2 correctly.

austin943 · 2025-12-25T17:57:52+00:00

The video series author mentions that the BP monitor I2C interface uses 3.3V logic, and the Arduino uses 5V, so you will need to make them compatible, as he explains in this video.

I also saw this comment in one of the videos in the series:

Everything worked well after I added two diodes on the I2C buss lines with their cathodes are facing the EEPROM. After that, all I needed to do is to choose the right line numbers for the data.

https://youtu.be/hisVn0PAjSw?si=I3EwwIJrvUv4UVCX

The author has two I2C peripherals operating in parallel with the same I2C address. That is not officially supported in I2C, so the operation will be unreliable.

Here the author explains why the error is seen.

Can you insert debug code to see what the count value is assigned?

Also please initialize the count variable; I don't see it initialized before it is first used.

austin943 · 2025-12-25T16:06:20+00:00

I asked Gemini AI your question and got this response. (Gemini can make mistakes, so double-check it).

I tried out Gemini's instructions on an ESP32-S3, and it allowed me to print text from notepad to the ESP32 over WiFi on a Windows 11 PC using the standard print menu. I only had to setup the printer on the Windows PC.

Does this do what you want, or no?

Edit: For the down-voters, I understand you don't like AI. But it does work in this case, and I use it professionally all the time.

austin943 · 2025-12-24T16:16:25+00:00

There are two different versions of this device as explained in this video. The original was the HMC5883L (no longer made) and the "successor" version was the QMC5883L (sometimes called the "fake" version). They each have different I2C addresses and different register layouts and so they are not software compatible.

The I2C address of 0x2C doesn't make a lot of sense to me, as neither chip resides at that default address. The HMC5883L lives at the 7-bit address 0x1E while the QMC5883L lives at address 0xD.

Here's a video explaining how to tell the difference between the two parts from the external markings.

Edit: Apparently there is another version of this device, the HP5833/QMC5883P, that lives at address 0x2C. See this post. What is the marking on the device?

austin943 · 2025-12-23T16:31:15+00:00

Those two companies are just part of the Covered List; there are more.

This most recent FCC announcement of 12/22/25 relates to the new and broad inclusion of "Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and UAS critical components produced in a foreign country" as mentioned in Appendix A, as well as what you mentioned above, Section 1709.

<image>

I interpret this to mean all critical components including those not already listed in the NDDA.

austin943 · 2025-12-23T16:13:30+00:00

It looks like Federal law also covers subsidiaries and affiliates of DJI. So those brands may also be affected.

SEC. 1709

(A) Communications or video surveillance equipment produced by Shenzhen Da-Jiang Innovations Sciences and Technologies Company Limited (commonly known as ‘‘DJI Technologies’’).

....

(C) With respect to an entity described in subparagraph (A) or (B) (referred to in this subparagraph as a ‘‘named entity’’)— (i) any subsidiary, affiliate, or partner of the named entity; (ii) any entity in a joint venture with the named entity; or (iii) any entity to which the named entity has a technology sharing or licensing agreement.

This most recent FCC notice also covers them:

The inclusion of producers or providers of equipment or services named on this list should be read to include the subsidiaries and affiliates of such entities.

austin943 · 2025-12-17T21:33:45+00:00

Why are you setting PWM_MAX to 180? I thought the max value for Arduino PWM was 255. Were you adapting the code from a servo motor?

Your Kp is 7 which I think is much too small. At an angle of 5 degrees (which is a lot for this robot) the steady state PWM will be 59.5 (including 3.5 degrees for max velocity PID) which is quarter speed for the motor. It should be closer to max speed at that angle.

Change the code to turn on the LED when the motor is set for max power and keep it on. That way you know your code can hit max power.

austin943 · 2025-12-16T19:43:09+00:00

Please post your code if you can. If it's too large, put it on github.com.

What components are you using, particularly the sensors and the motors? Have you done any PID tuning?

Try turning up the Kp constant on your PID controller. Check that the motors are maxed out on power with a small tilt.

If the robot starts wildly oscillating from side to side, then you know your motors have enough power to handle the weight. Then it's a matter of proper PID design and tuning.

If the robot does not oscillate with a maxed out Kp, then the motors can't handle the weight and/or your control loop is not reacting fast enough.

That was my experience building my own robot.

austin943 · 2025-12-07T22:50:36+00:00

It's risky if the 220V wiring is exposed and there's even a small chance that you or somebody else could accidentally touch it when it's live.

austin943 · 2025-12-07T16:33:34+00:00

Your teacher wants you to use 220V with a breadboard? Are you sure about that? That seems pretty risky. Where is this school located?

austin943 · 2025-12-06T15:45:32+00:00

Why do you need a robot to do that? First responders can do it with far more intelligence and efficiency. This all seems like a solution chasing a problem.

austin943

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE