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    Jumper: Arduino controlled animation Reviewed by Unknown on 23:25 Rating: 4.5

    Jumper: Arduino controlled animation

    Oleh Unknown
    In this project, I have connected an Arduino to my computer and used a photoresistor to control an animation on the screen. Other sensors could have been used, but I chose a photoresistor because it feels like magic!!

    The photoresistor responds to changes in ambient light as my hand moves up and down. The Arduino sends the reading to a Processing sketch on the computer via a Serial command (through the USB cable). The processing sketch interprets the signal from the Arduino and selects the appropriate picture to display.

    I took a series of screenshots from the following YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6nE8m74kDg  And after borrowing a bit of code from these sites (1,2), the project was born.
    This idea is not new, nor my own. There are many people who have done this project before, but I thought to blog about how I have done it, just for fun.

    The Project Movie




    Components Required


    • Arduino Uno (and associated software), and USB cable
    • Photoresistor or Photocell
    • 10K resistor
    • Wires to put it all together
    • Processing IDE from http://processing.org
    • Computer/laptop


    The Arduino Sketch






    The Arduino Code:

    You can download the Arduino IDE from this site.
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    /* Jumper: Using an Arduino to animate:
       Written by ScottC on 02/06/2012 */

    int photoRPin = 0; 
    int minLight;
    int maxLight;
    int lightLevel;
    int adjustedLightLevel;
    int oldLightLevel;

    void setup() {
      Serial.begin(9600);
      
      //Setup the starting light level limits
      lightLevel=analogRead(photoRPin);
      minLight=lightLevel-10;
      maxLight=lightLevel;
      oldLightLevel=lightLevel;
    }

    void loop(){
       lightLevel=analogRead(photoRPin);
       delay(10);
      
      //auto-adjust the minimum and maximum limits in real time   
       if(minLight>lightLevel){
         minLight=lightLevel;
       }
       if(maxLight<lightLevel){
         maxLight=lightLevel;
       }
       
       //Map the light level to produce a result between 1 and 28.
       adjustedLightLevel = map(lightLevel, (minLight+20), (maxLight-20), 1, 28); 
       adjustedLightLevel = constrain (adjustedLightLevel, 1,28);
       
       /*Only send a new value to the Serial Port if the 
         adjustedLightLevel value changes.*/
       if(oldLightLevel==adjustedLightLevel){
         //do nothing if the old value and the new value are the same.
       }else{
         //Update the oldLightLevel value for the next round
         oldLightLevel=adjustedLightLevel;
         
         /*Send the adjusted Light level result 
           to Serial port (processing)*/
         Serial.println(adjustedLightLevel);
       } 
    }

    The code above was formatted using this site.



    The Processing Code:

    You can download the Processing IDE from this site.

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    /* Jumper: Using an Arduino to animate
       Written by ScottC on 02/06/2012

    Source code derived from : 
      http://processing.org/learning/topics/sequential.html
      http://processing.org/discourse/beta/num_1267080062.html

    Pictures captured from:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6nE8m74kDg      
      
    ======================================================= */

    import processing.serial.*;
    Serial myPort;
    String sensorReading="";

    // Create the array that will hold the images
    PImage[] movieImage = new PImage[29];

    /* The frame variable is  used to control which 
       image is displayed */
    int frame = 1;



    /* Setup the size of the window. Initialise serial communication with Arduino
       and pre-load the images to be displayed later on. This is done only once.
       I am using COM6 on my computer, you may need replace this value with your
       active COM port being used by the Arduino.*/

    void setup(){
      size(700,600);
      
      myPort = new Serial(this, "COM6", 9600);
      myPort.bufferUntil('\n');
      
      for(int i=0;i<28;i++){
        movieImage[i] = loadImage("Jumper" + (i+1) + ".jpg");
      }
    }




    // The draw function controls the animation sequence.

    void draw(){
      
      //this draws the relevant image to the window  
      image(movieImage[frame-1],0,0,width,height);
    }

    void serialEvent (Serial myPort){
     sensorReading = myPort.readStringUntil('\n');
      if(sensorReading != null){
        sensorReading=trim(sensorReading);
        if (sensorReading.length()<2){
          frame = integerFromChar(sensorReading.charAt(0));
        }else{
          frame = integerFromChar(sensorReading.charAt(0))*10;
          frame += integerFromChar(sensorReading.charAt(1));
        }
      }
    }



    /* This function used to convert the character received from the
       serial port (Arduino), and converts it to a number */
       
    int integerFromChar(char myChar) {
      if (myChar < '0' || myChar > '9') {
        return -1;
      }else{
      return myChar - '0';
      }
    }

    The code above was formatted using this site.


    The pictures 

    Captured from this YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6nE8m74kDg






























    Description: Jumper: Arduino controlled animation Rating: 3.5 Reviewer: Unknown ItemReviewed: Jumper: Arduino controlled animation
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    Poor Man's Colour Detector (Part 2) - The project Reviewed by Unknown on 21:11 Rating: 4.5

    Poor Man's Colour Detector (Part 2) - The project

    Oleh Unknown
    In this project we will be detecting the colour of 3 different Mega Blok colours (Red, Yellow and Green). We will be using an Arduino UNO connected to  2 LEDs (one Yellow and one Red LED) as light detectors, and an RGB LED to illuminate the subject. We will use a Photocell to account for varying ambient light levels. 

    The signals from the LED light sensors will be sent to a Processing.org program via a Serial command. The computer program will make use of my Neural Network to classify the pattern of results and hopefully provide the correct colour "answer". The program should change the colour of the computer screen background to coincide with the colour of the Mega Blok.

    The Video




    We now have the power to control which LED we want to light up. This would look very nice with different coloured LEDs, but unfortunately I am stuck with the Yellow and Red ones from the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit.

    Fritzing Sketch


        Image created using Fritzing : http://fritzing.com
    


    Arduino Code


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    /* ========================================================
        Project : Photo resistor (Light dependent resistor) and LEDs
         Author : ScottC
        Created : 23rd May 2011
    Description : Use a photo resistor to create an LED animation.
    ============================================================
    */

    //Define the analog pin the photo resistor is connected to (A0)
    int photoRPin = 0;   

    void setup() {
        //initialise the LED Pins as OUTPUTS
        for (int i=4; i<14; i++){
          pinMode (i, OUTPUT);
        }
    }

    void loop(){
        //Turn off all the LEDs before continuing
        for (int i=4; i<14; i++){
          digitalWrite(i, LOW);
        }
        
     /* Read the light level:
         Adjust the analog reading values ranging from 120 to 600
         to span a range of 4 to 13. The analog reading of 120
         is when there is maximum resistance, and the value of 600
         is when there is minimum resistance. These analog readings
         may vary from photo resistor to photo resistor, and therefor
         you may need to adjust these values to suit your particular
         LDR. */
        int photoRead = map(analogRead(photoRPin), 120, 600, 4, 13);
        
        /* Make sure the value of photoRead does not go beyond the values
          of 4 and 13 */
        int ledPin = constrain(photoRead, 4, 13);
        
        /* Turn the LED on for a fraction of a second */
        digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
        delay(10);
        digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
    }
        



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    Description: Photo Resistor and LEDs Rating: 3.5 Reviewer: Unknown ItemReviewed: Photo Resistor and LEDs
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