WIKIPEDIA FOR COMMON ARDUINO PROBLEMS

[oric_dan]

This is a follow on to my post on problems with installation of the Mega R3 board.

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,135878.0.html

There are many other problems that pop up daily on the forum, and end up
being endlessly regurgitated on the forums. The issue of people having trouble
getting their XBee shields to work is one of them. Another one is voltage regulator
and board powering problems. There are many common software issues. On and on.

So responders end up going through the same list of suggestions time after time
after time.

It seems to be difficult to get actual changes put onto the main Arduino site, so
maybe there should be a WIKIPEDIA FOR COMMON ARDUINO PROBLEMS. Then, the
same people who are daily responding to the same old problems could post a list of
suggestions in an easily found place. Maybe it could even be a section of this
Forum, placed ahead of this topic area.

The Playground is helpful, but doesn't specifically address the same problems people
are having time after time. Nick Gammon and others have really good info on their
own personal websites, but of course people have to be specifically directed to those
pages. So .....

[retrolefty]

Yes, it could be a useful resource. However to turn an idea into a useful reality takes a lot or work and time for someone to take ownership over it. There is also the problem of wrong information given out by some that can bring on even bigger problems for some seekers of solutions, so vetting of information should also be part of the solution.

It kind of reminds me of the 'group' project some of us took on a long while back to publish a detailed step by step testing procedure to check out the USB serial connection link between a PC and a users arduino board, called the loop-back test. We must have worked on the wording and steps needed and not needed for over a month and I'm still not sure it is 100% beginner's proof. These kinds of things always take more time and effort then they seem they should. And now that the Arduino product line as gotten so large and diverse it's hard to generalize on solutions unless the person with the problem is very aware of the differences between all the products and what he/she may be working with.

Lefty

[oric_dan]

someone to take ownership over it

It would best work like the original Wikipedia. Someone could build a page on a
specific topic, and that page could be edited and expanded over time. So no
one person is doing everything, just like on Wikipedia. Also, Wikipedia is open
to editing suggestions from other people - that could be handled via 1-on-1
communications.

Certainly, this would be preferable to our answering the same old questions day
after day for every noobee who comes down the pike.

[westfw]

The content is more important than the presentation.  Some forum topics have "sticky" posts containing FAQs and suggestions.  It's not clear that the newbies ever look there :-(

[oric_dan]

An Arduino Wikipedia would want to be far more extensive than sticky posts to be
effective at cutting down on repetitive same-old responses. Given how often the same-old
people make the same-old responses, I should think they alone would volunteer to write
relevant Wikipedia pages. Write it once, instead of 100X.

[westfw]

There seems to be a big gap between writing a quick response to particular question, and writing the sort of general tutorial one would like for a good wiki page.  And it doesn't stop the questions anyway; there are a bunch of pages describing how to burn bootloaders (for example), and people still show up with "I've read ALL the tutorials and I can't get them to work.  Don't point me at another page; tell me what to do!"

[WizenedEE]

If the playground, a community-edited resource, isn't updated enough, why would another wiki? The playground is a wiki

wi·ki 
/?wik?/
Noun
A Web site developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content.

.. which the playground is.

By the way, Wikipedia is a website/specific project; you can't have "a" wikipedia. A wiki is the word you are looking for (it's like the difference between a planet and Mars)

[oric_dan]

By the way, Wikipedia is a website/specific project; you can't have "a" wikipedia. A wiki is the word you are looking for (it's like the difference between a planet and Mars)

1. from first post - "The Playground is helpful, but doesn't specifically address the same problems
    people are having time after time". What I'm talking about isn't about people's projects, but
    to help cut down on endless repetitions of the same posts.

2. Playground is more about posting links than providing information.

3. also, the Playground itself needs to be better organized in a more hierarchical fashion, as
   there is about 100X too much stuff for one page. Eg,
   http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/SimilarBoards

4. I mentioned Wikipedia because it is organized light-years better than most wikis, blogs,
    githubs, and everything else in the universe.

If the playground, a community-edited resource, isn't updated enough, why would another wiki?

5. The material on an Arduino Wikipedia wouldn't need to be updated very often. Most of the
    repetitive responses given day after day cover the same-old material over and over. I would
    think people would be happy to cut down on this.

[westfw]

The material on an Arduino Wikipedia wouldn't need to be updated very often.

Well, it would probably need to be updated at least as often as the things on the playground now.  Many of which refer to Duemilanove hardware, pre-1.0 IDE features (shift-upload for debug, for example) and have code that no longer even compiles.

[oric_dan]

there are a bunch of pages describing how to burn bootloaders (for example), and people still show up with "I've read ALL the tutorials and I can't get them to work.

This is true to some extent, but there are at least as many cases where the questions are exactly
the same and the answers are simply canned answers. Eg, "if I connect a 12V, 5A power supply
to my Arduino board, will it drive 5A into the board and damage it?", "I connected a 12V supply
to my Arduino board, why is the voltage regulator too hot to touch?", "what does 'stk500_getsync():
not in sync' mean?". These questions come up about 10X or more every week.

Shoot, I just bought a Mega 2560 R3 board, and I couldn't even get the board to install.
It doesn't actually tell you how on the main Arduino page. I had to search all over heck to
find the solution, and finally found it in a forum thread.

I don't especially like the indexing or organization of piclist, but the owner cut and pasted huge
amounts of quoted info from online discussions.

http://www.piclist.com/techref/index.htm

[WizenedEE]

By the way, Wikipedia is a website/specific project; you can't have "a" wikipedia. A wiki is the word you are looking for (it's like the difference between a planet and Mars)

1. from first post - "The Playground is helpful, but doesn't specifically address the same problems
    people are having time after time". What I'm talking about isn't about people's projects, but
    to help cut down on endless repetitions of the same posts.

Are you volunteering to specifically address the same problems people are having time after time on the playground?

Please stop saying "a wikipedia;" it's terrible grammar.

[SurferTim]

Given how often the same-old people make the same-old responses, I should think they alone would volunteer to write relevant Wikipedia pages. Write it once, instead of 100X.

I don't know about the rest of the same-old people, but I got tired of posting the same-old ethernet stuff over and over, so I added the code to the playground (wiki).
http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/WebClient
http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/WebServerST
http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/FTP
If my experience is any indication of the effectiveness, the ethernet questions posted in the networking section has dropped way off. Maybe that is just coincidence?

[pico]

Shoot, I just bought a Mega 2560 R3 board, and I couldn't even get the board to install.
It doesn't actually tell you how on the main Arduino page. I had to search all over heck to
find the solution, and finally found it in a forum thread.

Don't feel bad, I just bought a Leonardo today, after installing the innumerable drivers, tried to upload "Blink", but it failed at the last stage saying couldn't find the serial port. All those drivers wasted. I have got it sorted yet, because it arrived the same day as my new AVR Dragon. No chance with that sort of competition for my attention! 

Maybe Team Arduino should just release better designed and tested hardware and software products in the first place. Now there's a radical thought.

Someone once asked me what I thought of Arduino quality control. I said it would be a very good idea...

By the way, anyone know how to upload "Blink" to a Leonardo?

[oric_dan]

Are you volunteering to specifically address the same problems people are having time after time on the playground?

Please stop saying "a wikipedia;" it's terrible grammar.

Obviously, it would be to the advantage of the people making the same-old posts repeatly
to write the material.

I'm just using Wikipedia as an example of something good to emulate. Got a name?

[retrolefty]

Are you volunteering to specifically address the same problems people are having time after time on the playground?

Please stop saying "a wikipedia;" it's terrible grammar.

Obviously, it would be to the advantage of the people making the same-old posts repeatly
to write the material.

I'm just using Wikipedia as an example of something good to emulate. Got a name?

WikiArduinopedia, rolls right off the old tongue don't it?