Feasibility with Arduino

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Software Syntax & Programs
1

Hello everybody!
I have a work to do involving a sperimental project, and I'd like to use Arduino, but i don't know if it's possible.
Well I have to point a intrument to the Sun, but the instrument is in a distant place, so I thought to use Arduino to elaborate the Sun position and send the coordinates to the axis controller.

  1. May I use Arduino to make calculations?
  2. The software for the calculus of Sun position is quite big, does the software on the Arduino site (arduino 0018) have an alarm of software oversize of RAM?
  3. Is there a arduino emulator?
    Best regards
    Max
2
  1. May I use Arduino to make calculations?

Yes.

  1. The software for the calculus of Sun position is quite big, does the software on the Arduino site (arduino 0018) have an alarm of software oversize of RAM?

No.

  1. Is there a arduino emulator?

No.

3

Is your memory problem RAM or FLASH memory ?

RAM is for variables and data, FLASH memory is for the program.

You can make rather big programs on the Arduino Mega.

4

There are published functions for measuring the amount of remaining memory (stack and heap). Amount of Flash memory and EEPROM is fixed depending on the Atmega chip used (Atmega168 vs Atmega328).

Look here

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1213583720/19

5

Does your instrument have to point directly at the "center" of the sun, or does it just have to be close?

If you can get away with "close", then you could build a positioner using a "cross-shadow" sensor (four photoresistors with a crossed shadow block in between) to align the pan/tilt head until all four values from the sensors are equal (within a certain percentage window).

Such a sensor, while not highly accurate, is fairly easy to implement; you typically see them used for solar panel tracking...