I need to control a device to come on and off a couple of times a day, the problem is it's got a momentary switch, that you push down to turn on/off, so a conventional plug in timer won't work. I can open up the cover and attach a couple of wires onto the momentary switch terminals that i can connect to a relay output. My question is can i use Arduino to create something like this? I'm interested in learning how to program in Arduino as I can see a few uses for it in the future so any beginners guides etc you could point me to would be great. Also what sort of kit would i need?
I've found this project which looks similar i guess I could adapt it to use seconds instead of hours and just pulse it for 1 second to turn on and then again for 1 second to turn off. Any thoughts?
I've got a good understanding of Basic and Qbasic and I've also done a bit of C++ and Visual basic and HTML, but that was all long time ago.
Thanks for the reply Pylon. I've already opened the cover and put a couple of wires onto the momentary switch. when i touch the wires together for a second and release it turns on and then again to turn off. Don't panic I checked the voltage at the switch and its only at 12V and a few mA so no danger of death!
With regards to a starter kit can anybody recommend one that contains the bits i need or i might juts go onto eBay and order the bits form the indestructibles project i linked in my previous post
Consider building a multiple alarm using an Arduino. Depending on accuracy you can add a RTC clock chip or just in software. There are libraries that will do most of the work for you. You could use a relay output to trigger your device.
Good Luck & Have Fun!
Gil
This device, for long duration counting, Amazon.com does a pretty good job at delivering a trigger one every x moments of time.
The device does need a re-trigger to start its count down all over again. I use a mini-pro to detect the trigger, set outputs, and re-trigger for another count.