Stigern.Netmy little blog

Important bugfix! If you downloaded 0.4 please download 0.41 to get the customs buttons working!

Due to a user one the forums asking me to add some keys I decided to make it a release.
And add some more features!

Current & new Features:

NEW, F Key, +, -, Scroll Lock, Num Lock, Space, Print Screen
NEW,  More delays, 5 to 60 minutes!
BUG, Customs keys fixed! 0.4 to 0.41

Backspace & Arrows up down etc. Also Alt + F4.
Option menu.
Click sound (can be turned on/off)
You can now hide it from taskbar.
Many different intervals for buttons to be clicked.
Custom buttons, lets you write you’re own button combination to be pressed.
Default buttons, like enter, page up etc.
Minimize to tray, hides it while running if you want.
Also logs how many key presses made.
Delayed start.
F1-F12 and more predefined buttons.

Of course it’s freeware, and you might download and share it as much as you want.

Download KeyPresser 0.41

I’ve just recently discovered this awesome game. It’s a combination of Garrysmod/Cortex Command/Dwarf Fortress/Clonk, and Blockland.

To keep it short, you mine blocks to get different materials or building blocks. Then you can farm, hunt, craft etc. That is if you bought the game and get to test out the indev version. If you haven’t bought it, you can try out the survival mode. Or the sandbox single-player or multi-player where it’s all about building and digging. Which is also very fun, especially in multi-player mode. Read more about the game here.

To keep it short, you need to give it a try!

A few screens:

Overview of my farm, on the walls are torches to light it up when night time comes sneaking.

The “inventory” where you can see my armor, and all my slots for weapons etc.

I’ve just set up the stigern.net/forums again, mostly for discussion around some of my guides and projects. But feel free to post and discuss other stuff.

http://stigern.net/forum/index.php

Got my Serial 16×2 LCD today, I’m still quite noob when it comes to serial. But I’m gonna put out some simple and easy to follow tutorials for stuff when I get the hang of it

Anyhow, here’s just a little youtube clip showing some of my projects today!

My new project, is a simple led-strip which shows CPU load. 9 led’s are used for this, could have used more but my tiny breadboard couldn’t hold more. Anyhow, it uses serial communication to receive how much the totalcpu usage is. For this you need a C# program running on your computer, it just sends a value from 0-100. And the Arduino reacts and lights up leds accordingly to how much load your CPU got.

I will not go into how you make the program in C#, therefore I’m uploading the .exe here for you to download. I’ll also include the source-code for it.

What you need?

1x Arduino
9x LEDs
Some wires

1. Wire it all up like in this Fritzing picture.

2. Load up the Arduino with the following program.

3. Download the C# program here.

When you start the .exe file, you only need to select which Com port the Arduino is using. And the click connect, and then it should start communicating with the Arduino. And show cpu load.

PS. If you got any questions etc, please take it in my forums post here.

Look at it?!

I just fell in love with it Also, 24$ isn’t bad. So if you’re considering the Arduino Nano, why not try this one instead?

Features:

ATmega328 running at 16MHz with external resonator (0.5% tolerance)
On-board FTDI232 USB to Serial Connection
Supports auto-reset (choose Duemilanove w/ ATmega328 in the Arduino™ software)
Operating voltage of 2.7 – 5.5 VDC
Schottky diode reverse polarity protection
Auto-sense power input between USB and external source
Resettable 500 mA fuse for overcurrent protection
On-board pin 13 and communication LEDs

Go check it out =)

http://www.modifiedelectronics.com/mp-01.php

Made a followup to my light tracker, except this one can go up and down. So it follows light in more directions than the other ones.

Made of some cheap plastic-foam, wont last forever but long enough for me to test it.

Program Code!

PS. If you got any questions etc, please take it in my forums post here.

This is how to make a simple light tracker/follower with the Arduino. The components you need apart from the Arduino is:

2x Photoresistors: “PHOTOCELL2 Miniature Photocell”.
2x 470 Ohms resistors.
1x Servo.

And of course some wires, and a breadboard or two . Next step is to wire it all up, I’ve made a drawing in Fritzing that you can follow. Basically each photoresistor is wired likes this:

PhotoR       470Ohms
+5    o—/\/\/–.–/\/\/—o GND
|
Pin 0 & 1 o——-

Program Code:

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;

int pos = 0;  // Variable to store the servo position.
int inputPhotoLeft = 1; // Easier to read, instead of just 1 or 0.
int inputPhotoRight = 0;

int Left = 0; // Store readings from the photoresistors.
int Right = 0; // Store readings from the photoresistors.

void setup()
{
myservo.attach(9); // Attach servo to pin 9.
}

void loop()
{
// Reads the values from the photoresistors to the Left and Right variables.
Left = analogRead(inputPhotoLeft);
Right = analogRead(inputPhotoRight);

// Checks if right is greater than left, if so move to right.
if (Left > (Right +20))
// +20 is the deadzone, so it wont jiggle back and forth.
{
if (pos < 179)
pos++;
myservo.write(pos);
}

// Checks if left is greater than right, if so move to left.
if (Right > (Left +20))
// +20 is the deadzone, so it wont jiggle back and forth.
{
if (pos > 1)
pos -= 1;
myservo.write(pos);
}

// Added some delay, increase or decrease if you want less or more speed.
delay(10);
}

PS. If you got any questions etc, please take it in my forums post here.

This is a beast compared to the old Diecimila, well I’ll let the specs speak for themself. Diecimila specs in parentheses.

Arduino Mega specifications:

Microcontroller: ATmega1280 (ATmega168)
Operating Voltage: 5V
Input Voltage (recommended): 7-12V
Input Voltage (limits) : 6-20V
Digital I/O Pins: 54, of which 14 provide PWM output (14, of which 6 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins: 16
DC Current per I/O Pin: 40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 50 mA
Flash Memory: 128 KB of which 4 KB used by bootloader (16 KB (of which 2 KB used by bootloader)
SRAM 8 KB: (1 KB)
EEPROM 4 KB (512 bytes)
Clock Speed 16 MHz

Yepp, pretty much outclasses the old arduino

Well, some months ago I bough a Arduino Diecimila. To put it simple it’s a little programmable electronic board, which has some inputs and outputs. Or to be more specific:

The Arduino Diecimila is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega168. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button.

Anyhow, I started with some basic led stuff, like blinking leds etc. And after fooling around with that for some time, I decided to make a “landingstrip” of leds. The final outcome of that was the 8 mode selectable 10x leds strip.

Video:

Well you get the idea.

After that I made one ledstrip using almost all outputs for leds. The 12x led strip with six modes, and a potmeter to adjust speed. Also the potmeter is used to select modes when holding down the button.

Video: