Tutorials

Serial communication: Dwengo & GNU Octave

Posted Thu, 2012-11-15 17:59 by juanpi
Dwengo & GNU Octave side by side

This tutorial shows several small tricks:

  • How to easily compile from the command line using the project Makefile described in my post about command line compilation (extension of Wim's post).
  • How to send integers (2-bytes long) over the serial port (1-byte messages).
  • How to plot "real-time" the data in the serial port using GNU Octave External link.

In case of questions you can ask them here, or you can contact me in the #dwengo channel at irc.freenode.net using any IRC chat client (e.g. Pidgin External link) or a web based client External link.

5

Unpacking and testing the Dwengo board

Starting the Dwengo board

Not a single Dwengo board goes out the door without being thoroughly tested. If all tests succeeded, a welcoming program is programmed onto the board. After unpacking the Dwengo board, you can immediately try it out by connecting it to your computer through a USB cable. The LEDs on the board will blink and a message appears on the display. Press the reset button to execute the welcoming program again.

Getting acquainted: blinking LEDs

In this tutorial you get acquainted with the Dwengo board. Step by step you'll learn how to install the programming environment and the compiler, how to use the programmer and finally how to install and run your first program on the Dwengo board.

Programming a Knight Rider LED light scanner

In this tutorial we extend the blinking LEDs to create a Knight Rider light scanner. Several concepts of the programming language C are applied in this tutorial. The project also provides the opportunity to review the concepts of the previous tutorial.

Using the LCD: making a news ticker

In this tutorial we explain how text can be shown on the LCD of the Dwengo board and how to operate the backlight of this display. The first result of this tutorial is a program that shows "Dwengo Board" on the first line of the display and on the second line a slowly increasing number. As an extension we show how you can display a text that is longer than 16 characters on one line of the screen by using a news ticker effect (commonly used for displaying stocks).

Playing a game with push buttons: Simon says

In this tutorial we learn how you can implement the game "Simon says" on the Dwengo board. The goal of the game is that the player can reproduce a demonstrated sequence. The sequence will be shown with 3 LEDs, while the player can input the sequence by using the push buttons of the Dwengo board. The different aspects of the previous tutorials come together now in a more complex program. Moreover, you also learn how to use the push buttons of the Dwengo board.

Communication with the computer: a configurable news ticker

In this tutorial we extend the news ticker in such a way that the text can by configured with a computer. We explain step by step how to communicate with the computer using the serial connection of the Dwengo board. This can be applied to computers with a serial connector as well as computers that have only USB ports.

Analog to digital converter: light measurement

In this tutorial we build a tool that enables you the measure the amount of light. For this we use a phototransistor that is connected to the Dwengo board. You learn how to connect analog sensors to the Dwengo board and how to use the built-in ADC module (Analog to Digital Converter).

Interrupts, driving a servo: a light tracker

In this tutorial we explain step by step how to build a small robot that drives in the direction of the light. For this the robot uses a servo and two light sensors. The same principle could be used to always perfectly align solar panels in order to maximize their performance.

Building a light-eating robot

Everyone dreams of building their own robot. With the Dwengo board, some Lego™ and this tutorial, this becomes easy. Step by step we'll show you how to build a robot that can autonomously drive towards the light. Using this tutorial, a basic explanation on some different kinds of sensors and your own imagination, you can extend your robot into a line-follower or even an advanced sumobot.

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