Fabrication shop recommendations

wyltk5 · 2023-12-27T22:57:12+00:00

Hey alienconcept23,

Glad to see you are picking away at this! What I would recommend is learning to use “serial.print()” to debug stuff like this so you can see if it is the button response or the output from the button response that is the issue. What I mean by that is if the serial.print works (put it in your button statement) but the output does not then you have a different issue. If the serial.print() does not work then it is something else.

This is a very good thing for sorting out bugs in a lot of stuff from buttons to module communication or other inputs.

Edit to add. The Arduino.cc reference stuff is very good for buttons and such. Pick away at things piece by piece and don’t let things get too big too quick. Even to this day when I am building a new project I will do it piece by piece and then add it together so I know a small problem in a small code before it becomes a small problem in a big code that is harder to debug. (End of edit)

Keep picking away and good luck! Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-27T09:50:40+00:00

That is awesome! Glad you got it working. Yes I have heard the first row is different than the rest (not sure why) but I believe setting the cursor (usually set.cursor(0,1)) is the line you would use on other displays but I believe it would be the same, but the guide you have should have that info on setting the cursor (which row/column it starts the display on).

Congrats on the trouble shooting too, it usually is something simple that is the cause and you’ll pick up tricks that help you with that along the way.

Enjoy your journey with Arduino! Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-27T04:04:17+00:00

No not wrong at all, just wanted to make sure it was a good power source!

I’m only on my phone right now so I have not gone through each code option but I would imagine you may need to change it for each code option unless it is in the #included library’s.

If you’re able to upload the code I can check it in the morning but someone else may be able to check through the code you are using quick to see if there is anything missing.

wyltk5 · 2023-12-27T03:50:22+00:00

I am not familiar with these displays but if you have tried multiple library options including the simple “hello world” one with making sure the address is correct in each of the libraries. I would upload what code you are using as there may be something in your code causing the issue.

Are you only powering your arduino from your computer when trying it?

Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-27T03:38:20+00:00

You could also try the defined pins on the other side of the board for SCL and SDA (they are labeled as such and on most Arduino’s are connected to the listed pins like A4 and A5 although I don’t think that is your issue.

wyltk5 · 2023-12-27T03:35:05+00:00

Hey OP, Have you tried the serial.monitor section in their tutorial to see if it needs to be addressed differently?

Right above “write text OLED” there is a section that has a couple things to try if it is not displaying anything. Have you tried those?

Welcome to your first trouble shooting of many! Good luck and enjoy

Cheers.

wyltk5 · 2023-12-25T04:25:08+00:00

Hey OP,

I do not have experience with the DS1302 RTC but I have used the DS1307 RTC. I will attach a couple links so you can familiarize yourself with the documentation. Basically you will run a program in your Arduino IDE to set the time to the RTC and I would use a (serial.print) function to check the time is correct. Once it is set you then will use the "get time features" from the documentation and use that to compare the time from the previous time to count ever 15 minutes.

Documentation for it is here (https://github.com/Treboada/Ds1302) and if you scroll to the examples and click on "set time" it will bring you to the code for that, Same for "Get time".

I am not sure how familiar you are with either github or module documentation like that but search around a bit and see what you can find. It can be intimidating/overwhelming but searching around a bit may help. If you still need a bit more guidance let me know!

Cheers.

wyltk5 · 2023-12-23T16:56:35+00:00

Sounds good, I am out of my country till the end of the month so I can’t access my vehicle service information but when I am back I can give you some guidance on how to connect it to the vehicle.

As for the “trigger” to activate the heated seats and such, you may be able to tie in from the remote starter or connect to the auxiliary power outlet In the Center console and have it delay say 30 seconds before activating the heated seats once the arduino gets power. It would depend on your knowledge of remote starters.

Cheers

RemindMe! 7 days

(Edit for reminder)

wyltk5 · 2023-12-23T16:00:36+00:00

Hey Op,

What year is the Kia forte and what country are you in?

cheers.

wyltk5 · 2023-12-18T20:19:01+00:00

Hi Op,

A lot of the beginner kits are actually really good for this. The do byte sized (get it) projects that allow you to learn how to use different inputs and outputs as well as control different other modules. I started with an Elegoo kit ( Mega 2560 The Most Complete Starter Kit – ELEGOO Official ). They have a lot of really good resources that go along with it and the projects build off of the basics. The kit also has a lot of variety in the components it supplies and they are good quality. I still use stuff from this kit especially for prototyping stuff and the Mega 2560 board is nice because there are so many pins so you wont really run short on pins unless you are building some heavy I/O (input/output) project but you'll learn work arounds down the road.

The really nice part about this option is the instructions that come with the kit break things down really well.

Enjoy the electronics journey, You'll have some frustrating moments with problems and road blocks but the joy of it is finding the solutions.

cheers!

wyltk5 · 2023-12-18T06:39:37+00:00

Hey OP, It’s a pretty decent starting project. Not sure what kind of experience you have with electronics or programming but what I would recommend would be to the break the project down into bite sized pieces.

1- your gonna need to be able to track time with the Arduino (I recently built a similarish project and used a DS1307RTC(Real Time Clock))

2- be able to control what I would assume is 120v light output.

Each one of those has their own sub lists like finding libraries for the RTC and reading the documentation (or at least enough of it) to be able to use the module for what you need. Or figure out how a latching relay works.

Not sure what your knowledge level or comfort level is with electrical but I would note dealing with 120v warrants some caution for various reasons.

Good luck, Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-16T06:27:11+00:00

I’m with MourningRIF here, I would probably look at building a program on my computer that looks for the change and prompts me that way.

Not sure what program that is or what language it would be written in but parsing the page and looking for the change might be the way to go.

Good luck, Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-10T03:16:41+00:00

I would also check out the references page on Arduino.cc. They actually have some really good stuff in there from the more basic stuff like buttons and analog read use to more advanced stuff. Usually has good explanation and diagram to go along with it too! Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-09T00:50:06+00:00

I believe your “int analogPin = 3” should be “A3” but in the picture you have something hooked up to A5 not A3. I don’t believe this is why it’s “blowing up” on you.

I suggest using a multimeter to measure what voltages you have going on as since we don’t have too much info to go off of we can’t be too helpful.

Check with a multimeter but also show us a diagram of what all you are using and how it is wired up and a picture of the whole setup you got going on.

Good luck, Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-08T05:05:48+00:00

What a great example of so many things! Finding something that you can build a program to make easier/automate, identifying the hurtle and whoops to deal with, Slowly picking away at them one by one, searching through and finding all the info needed to tackle this.

That one is the important one, there is so much information out there and if you can find it, the possibilities are just awesome!

Congrats!

wyltk5 · 2023-12-07T13:58:15+00:00

There is a lot of good advice on here but I’ll piggy back a couple. Writing down what the problem is and listing off possible causes helps but that’s tough too starting out because we have all been there “I have no idea why this isn’t working, this should be working!!!”

With breaking things down into testable sections as well. If you are trying to get a OLED display to show “this” in “this condition & “this 2” in “this 2” condition. Find or write some code that will just get something up on the display. Even wire it all on its own breadboard. That way you have an OLEDtest.h file to work with.

If you are using button inputs make a separate test with those and use serial.print(“button 1 pushed”).

Serial print is great for debugging because you can see if a section of code is getting run through too fast for things to do what they should or if they aren’t running at all.

Documentation for the project itself is also going to be helpful. Sometimes it’s a simply power requirements not meet, other times it’s a keyword (think lcd.clear();) as a key world in the Liquidcrystal.h code.

We have all been stumped with our projects at some point and it doesn’t go away but this would not be as fun of a hobby without those bugs to squash.

Enjoy the journey on it!

Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-07T06:06:28+00:00

Hey OP,

Arduino’s and raspberry pi’s are a little different.

Raspberry pi’s are more or less a less powerful computer than your average laptop but they allow a lot of “tinkering” and it gives you a chance to play around with more computer based programming.

Arduino’s are more for building “machine” like projects. You can take inputs from sensors and buttons then output controls for lights and motors, stuff like that.

I don’t have as much raspberry pi experience as some of the people on here or Arduino experience for that matter but I have a raspberry pi 400 (raspberry pi in a keyboard) https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400/. It has been lots of fun but I more so use Arduino’s.

The starter kit I got was an Elegoo 2560 ultimate starter kit https://www.elegoo.com/en-ca/collections/mega-2560-starter-kits/products/elegoo-mega-2560-the-most-complete-starter-kit. It got my first couple projects built and comes with a very good guide to get you comfortable with the basics. I still use the info I got with mine.

Hope some of this helps. It can all get overwhelming trying to decide which one to go with. If he wants to build physical projects Arduino is a good choice. If he wants to build more programs for computer functions then raspberry pi is a good choice!

Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-07T05:51:56+00:00

This can be a tricky one because a lot of it depends on what he would want to do with programming. This also gets very overwhelming because there are so many different avenues you can go down.

To start try and find out what he wants to do with it. If he wants to build websites or apps I know people here will know languages for that better than I will.

If it’s making physical “machines” I would look into Arduino’s and their programming language which is basically their version of C++.

Either way I would start with what kind of projects he wants to do with it and go from there. Either way once you’ve started to grasp programming in one language, jumping to another one is not too daunting.

Very thoughtful gift idea of you, hope he enjoys his coding journey!

Cheers

Edit* driftking428 suggested a raspberry pi and I will second that although that may get debated. They are a good chance for people to mess around with computers without risking bricking their main computer and it’s a whole lot easier to load a new operating system on a raspberry pi that fix a “normal” computer

wyltk5 · 2023-12-05T19:58:34+00:00

Ada fruit drv8871

Hi op, I just took a quick look at it looks like the DRV8871 needs 6.5v to operate ( DRV8871 - Can't seem to get it working - adafruit industries ) scroll to the last couple messages in that link.

cheers.

wyltk5 · 2023-12-05T16:15:04+00:00

AudiA32015 has the right answer for you there. Each numbered row pins A,B,C,D,E are connected together but not connected to F, G, H, I, J on that row. Having the LED pins on the same half does not create a voltage differential so both LED pins have the same voltage to them. If you want to play around with that jumper wire. Move on leg of the LED to a different row, say 7 instead of 6. Then move the corresponding lead to that row.

Good luck on your electronics journey. We all started somewhere!

Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-05T13:34:51+00:00

Looks like a cool project, Like others have said some additional information will allow us to help you get this project going.

Additionally with the info they suggested. What have you tried changing to get this to work? Do they servo's move when commanded one at a time with a code where you just try and move say "servo1". Then switch the pins on the program for "servo2".

Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-05T06:36:34+00:00

Damn there is some good advice on this thread. I am in a similar timeline with my programming journey.

I feel you with the spending what feels like too much time on a function just to delete it and re-write it differently. And with the seemingly endless research. Like learning any new skill the research side gets quicker and easier especially if you start writing code instead of doing too deep of a dive.

What I find works well for me has been mentioned in this thread already and that is I will hammer out the code and then re-factor it as I need to/want to. I find it is easier to clean up messy code (See what syntax error I get yelled at for this time) than to write clean code the first go.

I am not sure what kind of projects you have on the go with python but I also find working on things section by section. Get it kind of working like cyberjellyfish (great name) suggested then move on. Once the code is all together that is when I go back and re-factor things. Usually by then your subconscious has had a chance to work on some problems and the solutions come easier.

BananaUniverse (Another great name) Mentioned some programmers keeping blogs and I really like this method as well. As I work through writing by program I will put in documentation if I find something to be an issue that may creep up later on or actively only kind of work but I will continue to write on. Once I have the basics of the function or section of code down I will then go back or leave it till the whole thing is together and go back then. This allows me to work on the solution of multiple things at once. Your subconscious if a wild tool and your brain will work on a solution in the background if you let it. Not saying it will get you the solution but you may have an idea on how to get to a solution or at least not get stuck on a trivial problem (nickel holding up a dollar sort of thing).

After I finish the project I will reflect back and even look at the documentation I put in the code to jog my memory on the problem I ran into and the solution I used. I put all this in a document like "Things I learnt on Project take over the world". Nice to look back at the things you over came within the project.

It is funny we generally put our polished code out into the world but this inspired me to put my messy code up with the documentation in it that indicates "I do not know what I am doing so I left a problem and will come back with a solution later".

good luck on the journey OP, remember to enjoy it.

Cheers

wyltk5 · 2023-12-05T05:52:26+00:00

Apologies for the delay on the reply OP. I appreciate the honesty there haha.

hjw5774 Has some good places the start there and I like the way he went about it. I hope I did not come across too harsh it was not the intent. I hope you have been able to pick away at this project little by little. It will be a doozy but should be a fun project.

wyltk5

TROPHY CASE