Experiences with Ardunio?

Great environment for any small-scale microprocessor hardware projects.  Still, you will need to have a thorough knowledge of Electronics 101 and be willing to learn the basics of microprocessor control.  For most "blinking lights" train projects, it's overkill, but it's fun trying to think of new projects using one. My latest was a signal controller which operated an 8 x 8 matrix of signal LEDs and used some manual controls along with inputs from some switch machine relays. Future enhancements could include signals with block occupancy detection logic, etc.

The Ardunio is very easy to get up and running with.  For projects that are a bit above the hard wired logic complexity, it works well.  I have done a couple of things with the Arduino, but I moved on to the Microchip PIC for projects, I can make stuff a lot smaller and cheaper with it.  The PIC is a lot more complicated to deal with, the Ardunio is a "canned" environment, so you can be up and running very quickly.

For either of these options, you'll need to learn programming, most likely C.

I agree with the posts above, having worked with the Arduino environment plus the PIC and ATMEL chips alone. I'm currently working on my own distributed bus layout control system using an Arduino and the JMRI open source software to run a traditional tinplate layout.

The Arduino has a lot of functionality and lots of libraries to get projects running quickly, at a higher cost. Some knowledge of electronics and C programming are a must though.

The Arduino is an excellent tool to use on the layout.  I played with it on and off for 6 months or so.  

IMO its usefulness for model railroading is pretty much limited to your imagination.

i experimented with it to see how well it a actually worked.  It really is useful for many train related tasks.

As for the programming side I found it fairly simple but I have a fair amount of programming experience.

if programming is not you suite then there are numerous books that are great for learning this. Any most of them come with lots of example scripts so you can probably find a script that either does just what you want, or is close enough that you can make minor changes.  I bought the "Arduino Cookbook" and found it terrific. You can also find lots on the internet.

in addition there are a bunch of "shields that you can purchase which add additional functionality such as lan or wi-fi capability, motor shield, etc, etc.  Shields are boards that plug in to the Arduino to provide the additional functionality.

Note I called the programs "scripts" but i think they may be called something else which I cannot remember.

Thanks,

Ed

The call them Sketches, at least currently.  They might have named them differently in the past, I've had the Arduino for a couple of years.

Do a search for Arduino on this forum. There are several threads on this subject. I have found much usefull information here.

Actually, I did do a search on the term prior to posting the question.  Only I hit (a mention of gantry crane by gunrunnerjohn) showed up.

The code snippet I've looked at does look like C.  I haven't done any C programming, but I have written code in a number of other languages (VB.net, VB, Turbo Pascal, Ada, Modula-2, Fortran, various assemblers). 

Thank you all for the info!

George

Gunnerjohn - that's the name.  I would have remembered the name in a month or so of heavy thinking. As they say "getting old is not for the faint of heart"

Ed

Ed, I looked it up by firing up the Arduino IDE.   I thought it was something like scripts, but it seemed that wasn't exactly it.

George, if you've programmed in a bunch of languages, I don't think basic C programming will be that hard for you to pick up.  I recommend the The C Programming Language (Second Ed) by Kernighan and Ritchie, it's a handy reference to standard ANSI C.  I found it invaluable many years back when I was picking up the C language, and it's still a useful reference today.

Gunnerjohn - I met Ritchie back in the early-mid 80's.  I worked for AT&T and was at a Bell Labs computer lab in NJ working on some software.  He was there as well working on who knows what.  He was a very nice guy.  He was in the lab when we got there and he was still there when we left.  I can only imagine the hours he put in.

Ed

He must have been an unusual individual.  Who could have known that "C" would become the standard that it has? 

I worked with Gary Kildall from Digital Research a loooooong time ago.  Those were interesting times.

I did a search for "Arduino" and got 50 hits. I would try again if you only got 1 hit. There is a lot of good information on this forum for the Arduino. Programming is not hard at all if you have coded in other languages

A Google search on Arduino will turn up tons of forums, some dedicated to the Arduino.  There is a wealth of information and code available for free.  eBay has tons of Arduino I/O modules to do just about anything.

Ritchie was certainly at a different level than most.  I did not know it but he passed on 3 years ago at 71 or so.  Those were fun times.  Stressful but fun nonetheless. 

I wonder what he would think of the Arduino and its capabilities today

Ed

I wonder what many of the pioneers would say if they could see us now!

I worked on the first major project that used the Intel 8080 uP, the Univac/Decision Data BC/7 computer.  We spent many hours working with Intel both in Horsham and out in California at Intel's plant.  We programmed the system in PL/M, which was a subset of PL/1 that Gary Kildall had created for Intel working as a consultant.  In 1000 quantity, the first 8080 chips were $310, and remember that was in 1975 dollars!  Now I can buy a 50 cent processor that would eat the 8080 for lunch and not even skip a beat!

We have come a long ways...