Analog line meter

Using Arduino Interfacing w/ Software on the Computer
1

Hi, Im trying to implement and analog line meter that takes a value from an LDR. I have drew the arc but I dont understand how I can get the line to move depending on what value comes from the LDR. a pointer in the right direction to what i should be looking up is appreciated.

2

but I dont understand how I can get the line to move

What line, can you be more descriptive about what hardware you have got or what you want.

3

The arc at the bottom left is where i want my meter, it will take a value from the LDR between 0 - 1023 and the line will move from the left around the arc.

4

Do you want to convert the value (0..1023) to an angle?

assuming you do:

consider 0,0 as the midpoint of the arc, and R its radius,

float alpha = 180 - analogRead(A0) / 5.68333;
int x = R * cos(alpha):
int y = R * sin(alpha);
line 0,0, x, y;

you need to keep the XY value to clear the line before drawing the next;

5

Hi, thanks for the help, Im still having problems

When I use your code i get a cant convert float to int

so I tried after converting value from LDR, float angle = 180 - (LDR / 5.68333);

float x = 90 + 65 * cos(angle);
float y = 490 + 65 * sin(angle);
line (90,490,x,y);

Now I got a perfect line from midpoint of arc to edge of arc, but the angle in the debug output: example 156.732 doesnt match where the needle in the meter is, the needle is shifting all the time even though the LDR is giving a constant value?

6

What is the range of the LDR ? minimum and maximum?
ok from 0-1023

My mistake sin() and cos() needs radians. OK try this:

float angle = 3.14159265 - (LDR / 325,6310);
float x = 90 + 65 * cos(angle);
float y = 490 + 65 * sin(angle);
line (90,490,x,y);

7

Thats worked great, the needle was going around the bottom of the arc so I just done a -325.6310 and that put the needle in the proper position, Im getting data through every 3 seconds so the needle doesn't move in a smooth fashion but the data is being collected long term so that doesn't matter, My trig is so bad I think I'll need to spend some time brushing up on it, thanks for your help.

8

You can do some smoothing like this:

  float newAngle =  3.14159265 - (LDR / 325,6310);

  #define  ALPHA = 0.2;
  static float angle = ALPHA * newAngle + (1-ALPHA ) * angle;  // changes smoothly to new value, speed depends on ALPHA

  int x = 90 + 65 * cos(angle);
  int y = 490 + 65 * sin(angle);
  line (90,490, x, y);

OR average multiple readings (takes more time)

int LDR = 0;

#define NR_LDR_READS  4

for (uint8_t i =0; i< NR_LDR_READS; i++) LDR += analogRead(LDRPIN);
LDR /= NR_LDR_READS;
etc.
9

Played around with the formula a bit, I got some nice smooth motion with alpha set to 0.950, would probably be better to take an average though, Im going to get the arduino system to do a bit more processing, get a background template and just have processing do the data representation.