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Topic starter
2022-12-18 7:23 am
I have an electric vehicle fitted with a radiator shutter which opens and closes according to various parameters. I want to log opening and closing events during vehicle journeys in various circumstances, and whilst resting. Time span: say, up to 12 hours per monitoring period.
I have made a simple monitoring device comprising a 12 volt LED activated by a microswitch which in turn is switched by movements of the radiator shutter actuator; however, it lacks he ability to record the duration of opening and closing sequences over time.
I am an electronics novice and my local electronics store has sold me a basic kit, including an Arduino Uno and a Micro SD Card Shield. They also sold me a basic programming guide, but for a novice such as me, to assemble the relevant componentry correctly and program it successfully is a tall order.
I hope someone on this Forum may be able to help. Perhaps I can adapt a device which someone has already built, together with an appropriate operating program?
Newtonmk reacted
2022-12-18 4:04 pm
@shutter-log It sounds like all you need is to connect the micro switch to a digital pin on the arduino, then simple programming does the counting and duration. Be aware that the microSD(TF) cards literally wear out so get what is called a High Endurance micro SD like this https://amz.run/6Esu NOTE that is a Canadian link, change to .com for US. This is literally a couple lines of code for the basics, one to add to a count, one to start a timer, one to end a timer, one to store elapsed time on the card. The setup and management code will be more and likely the challenge for a novice. Break the project down into small pieces and search google, arduino project hub, instructables for similar concepts as in 'howto read the state of a microswitch'. Good luck.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
Sure you can learn to be a programmer, it will take the same amount of time for me to learn to be a Doctor.