Thanks for that... 

Looks very interesting!!!

Do you have a link to the Arduino IDE code? I would not mind taking it apart... The IDE is just a simple wrapper so it might not be that hard.

Your second option sounds a lot like dependency injection where you need to inject all your data/settings/object into the constructor/Initializing function. (That will be a lot of work cause I have hundreds of settings.)

thinking of it, I could use a define statement that specifies the board type and configures the config file based on that. Might be the best option as the user starting out with the library will then not see the hundreds of settings and get confused by it.

Hi.

I am trying to turn a non-arduino application into an Arduino Library.

It has the following structure:

• main.ino
  config.h
  utils.h
  utils.cpp

It works fine if all of it is in the same folder.

As soon as I create a library with the utils.h/cpp and add an example folder with the main.ino and config.h it returns the following error:

In file included from main.ino:30:
C:\arduino-1.0.3\libraries\test/utils.h:28:20: error: config.h: No such file or directory

How would I get around this?

The reason I have the config in the example folder is because I want to create one example for each Arduino Board with config specific to that board.

I hope it would be useful because I'm spending a lot of time (re)inventing this particular wheel

If you are not in a huge hurry (and I assume not as you are considering designing your own system) you may be interested in this

http://www.ardweenet.com/

Hi Rob,

Very interesting+complicated project you are working on. Interesting how total strangers can come up with
very similar thoughts. My thought was also to send the power over the the connection like power over Ethernet.

Makes it so much cleaner if you can send data and power over one physical cable.

Not sure if you have seen this post before:
http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/?id=11428

Very clean and informative description of making it work. Will definitally be using it as an example with
my testing I will be doing shortly.

The first option is the one I use. Do not forget that the 485 is a description of physical, electrical, NOT transmission protocol.

Yes.... It sit on the physical layer of the stack. I have ordered a few RS485 chips and will start playing around with them shortly.
I think I will end up going with a custom design in the end. All of my sensors will have an ATTiny84 to process sensor data and
transmit it on request. The ATTiny84's are cheap,has plenty of pins and can do Software-Serial.

Half-Duplex is fine as it will keep the costs down and the Master can be a bit more powerful MCU. The Master will upload data
to an internet hosted database and will receive commands from a web-api.

Hi everyone...

I am working on a bunch of projects using Arduino's to collect environmental data and controlling it.

My biggest problem is connectivity at this stage. The distances between sensors and output devices
range from between 1 meter(3 feet) to +50 meters (+160 feet.). Number of devices also range from
5-20 per project.(Cost and electrically noisy environments(Factory Machines) are also factors)

My questions are:

• Am I in the right direction looking at RS485 for connectivity?
• What affordable and easy to implement options are available?
• Should I consider designing an easy/affordable solution? Would this be useful to other people or am I reinventing the wheel?

I have looked a the following options:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10124? - Good option but it does not offer termination options. (Can only link 2 nodes.)
http://arduino-direct.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=323 - Very cheap,little documentation and not sure about number of nodes.
http://www.emartee.com/product/42231/RS485%20Module%20%20Make%20Your%20Arduino%20Talk%20With%20Each%20Other - Best option I could find. Has termination options,code. Using RJ45 connectors like the Sparkfun option would have been better,because finding twisted-pare network cables are easier to find.

I have looked at wireless options but as the sensors all need continuous power they will all need some kind of wire to power. Interference is also going to be an issue and because these projects will end-up as production systems it will need to be very robust.

Any help/input will be appreciated.

Hi Nick,

I found the above page you wrote about a week ago and its one of the best descriptions of implementing RS485 that I could find online.
Just want to thank you for the effort you have put into it, It is inspirational.