2009 Fall: COLA 3950/5950 Make Anything Talk to Anything

Hey Ali,

The vernier techs came through for me again and I was able to access the wiring inside the grips, but I bungled the repair job.

I used too much heat when soldering and burned off the eyelet plates where the wires attach.

You wouldn't happen to have any tricks up your sleeve for this problem, or a $2000 eyelet repair kit like the ones I saw online?

Assuming all is lost, would I be able to use rest of my course money for a new pair of grips?

Thanks
Drew

Hi Ali,
I have been thinking about a few things regarding my project, the arduino, and just the kind of lights to use.  It would be ideal to use actual light bulbs with my project but finding them ( 27 of them) is quite hard.  So I was thinking that perhaps I could use LED lights instead, maybe the more powerful LEDs.  Working with LEDs would be a better route for me to take if they can be controlled.  Can the intensity of the LEDs be voltage adjustable or do they just have an on or off state?  

Thanks,
Lee

I know I am probably the only one without a macbook in this class and it's probably not as important for anyone else.  But today I was trying to check out a laptop from the cla checkout and apparently I don't have computers in my folder as a checkout-able item...so I couldn't.  Are we able to check out laptops for this class?  ...just curious.  It would be really nice to use the bluetooth capability from the laptop to communicate with a wii remote.  ...

See the dedicated blog for playing with XBees here:

Hi Ali,
After an hour of going back and forth searching for the post button, I finally made it to the log in page and now I am here.

I'd like to ask you about the relay board you hooked up the light bulbs with and what type it was.  I was searching for ...similar ones on sparkfun and also on ebay but they were giving me some pretty weird combinations. 
If i need to turn on 27 light bulbs...i'd need about 4 relay boards?  is there a more inexpensive way to go around this? 
Thanks,
Lee

Never mind all the drunk German bros who seem to be having such a good time with it.

Hey Ali,

Thanks for the files

Unfortunately, I've run into the same problem. The data receive LED lights up when I start the patch, but my selfish arduino won't send anything back. The potentiometer works fine, but no values show up in max.

Maybe the arduino code needs to be altered so that it sends?
Or maybe the board is bad?

Drew

Thanks for the help with arduino/max, I am getting the following message as I attempt to upload the arduino patch

34: error: SimpleMessageSystem.h: No such file or directory In function 'void loop()':
 In function 'void readpins()':
 In function 'void writepin()':

Am I putting the folder in the wrong location or is there something else wrong? thanks, Teroy

hello all,
since many of you are looking into the arduino/max communication, i check it out and found a working solution. 

it's a patch i made a  while back to be able to send MIDI to the real-world using an arduino.
if you look inside the patch you'll see how to communicate with the ardunio; it doesn't have to come from MIDI, of course; you can just make your own max patch to turn the output pins of the arduino on/off, or go read values form the anlog inputs.

this video shows how to work with it:


steps:

1.  install this arduino code on the microcontroller: "SimpleMessageSystem_example_1.pde"
2.  open this patch: "ali.midi-arduino.maxpat"
3.  use drop down menu to choose serial port (don't have Arduino IDE open!)
4.  use the keyaboard to turn pins on/off
5.  analog data flows in.

all are attached:
arduino-max.zip

let me know how it goes!

a