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Introduce Yourself
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Topic starter
2022-09-04 5:30 pm
My name is Barrie and I can't help thinking this forum is too good to be true. Bill has created something very special with his magnificent video tutorials, documentation of his tutorials, access to his sketches and this Forum. Either Bill or a clever robot suggested I introduce myself (what a great idea!) so here goes.
Long time retired from Micro Electronics industry with lots of hobbies:- Woodwork, Electronics, 3D design and printing, CNC wood carving and art. Built a painting machine from scratch many years ago. Let me know if you want to see what can be done with 3 Stepper motors and custom oil paint. Currently making a unique desktop kinetic art display that will be activated and controlled by the observer via the magic of Arduino. Currently I have only 1 week of experience with Arduino but learned that the Arduino controller will not be as complex as I thought..... However I am struggling with the syntax. I am using an ultrasonic range finder to control speed and direction of two mini stepper motors. My approach is to cut and paste from Bill’s tutorials. Curly brackets and syntax errors are quite a challenge so I am hoping I will get some help from the friendly people this forum.
ron bentley and DroneBot Workshop reacted
2022-09-04 5:36 pm
Welcome aboard @barrie with your background you will pick up the basic syntax pretty quick.
Arduino says and I agree, in general, the const keyword is preferred for defining constants and should be used instead of #define
"Never wrestle with a pig....the pig loves it and you end up covered in mud..." anon
My experience hours are >75,000 and I stopped counting in 2004.
Major Languages - 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PLI/1, Pascal, C plus numerous job control and scripting
2022-09-04 6:09 pm
Built a painting machine from scratch many years ago. Let me know if you want to see what can be done with 3 Stepper motors and custom oil paint.
Sounds interesting. Do you ever show your work online? It is hard to know what "a painting machine" might be without details. Does it paint pictures (art works)? Same with "using an ultrasonic range finder to control speed and direction of two mini stepper motors" leaves you wondering what that might involve and for what purpose.
Topic starter
2022-09-04 7:11 pm
Hello robotBuilder. You pose 2 interesting questions. Thank you.
1) Until recently I never went public about my paint machine because I was afraid real talented artists would think I was cheating. I did start to display some of my art on deviantart but never maintained it. Also, I never sold any. I'm useless at marketing and I was always too interested in my next project. Here is some of my work: https://www.deviantart.com/barriem/gallery
2) If you are familiar with traditional Kinetic art you will have seen large wood rotating displays on walls powered by a spring. Mine is similar but much smaller and activated when someone gets close. I have to keep the power consumption down because I want to run it on rechargeable batteries. I have made all the 3D printed components and just need to perfect the sketch to test the prototype. I made an animation of the concept I will dig it up if you want to see it. Here is what I want to accomplish with Arduino. It uses two stepper motors (28BYJ-48) and one Ultrasonic module (HC-SR04). I will also use a PIR sensor (uses about 40microAmp) not connected to Arduino but will switch it on when someone gets close. The HC-SR04 will measure distance. I am currently trying "switch case" to selectively control the steppers speed and direction based on the observers distance from the device.
2022-09-04 11:41 pm
Let me know if you want to see what can be done with 3 Stepper motors and custom oil paint.
Heck yes... I'm intrigued!
Oh! and welcome to the forum. 😉
3 lines of code = InqPortal = Complete IoT, App, Web Server w/ GUI Admin Client, Access Point Manager, Drag & Drop File Manager, OTA, Performance Metrics, Web Socket Comms, Easy App API, All running on ESP8266...
Even usable on ESP-01S - Quickest Start Guide
Topic starter
2022-09-04 11:49 pm
Hello Inq. Thanks for your interest and curiosity. You should find some of my paintings here:
https://www.deviantart.com/barriem/gallery
Most were done with my dream machine. Hope they are still there.
This post was modified 7 months ago 3 times by barrie
codecage reacted
2022-09-05 5:40 pm
Hi Barrie, nice to see a fellow Ottawan!
2022-09-08 9:18 am
Hello and welcome to the forum, a great place to share and learn.
Your ventures in Arduino and programming may seem a bit of a steep hill at the moment but do stick at it, you will find it very rewarding.
If you have queries or issues coding or with syntax then post away, there is always someone here to offer sage advice.
Ron B
Ron Bentley
Creativity is an input to innovation and change is the output from innovation. Braden Kelley
A computer is a machine for constructing mappings from input to output. Michael Kirby
Through great input you get great output. RZA
Gauss is great but Euler rocks!!
Topic starter
2022-09-08 10:05 am
@yurkshirelad If Yurkshire is is located North of Derbyshire this is a remarkable coincidence. My last abode was Withernsea.
2022-09-09 12:08 am
I’m from further up the coast than you, now I’m in Ottawa.