I have been using Arduino for about 6 months or so now and have managed to do lots of things that i want to just by surfing, cutting and pasting. I use my Arduino to make lighting effects for model kits and the next model i want to make pretty complicated, just to see if i can. Here's what i want to do:
Use aduino for the LED lighting effects, blinking at various speeds etc, i have this for my current model so now i could manage this (Hopefully)
Add switches for sets of lights,i can manage this also. These would be toggle switches as opposed to surface mounted ones. Can they still be used using high and low commands?
Add an LCD screen that displays the types of lights that are currently on, as well as some additional info.
The question is, how do i get it wired up so that when i flick a switch the LCD screen displays the info i need and the respective light sets switch on.
I also want to do this using shift registers and ATTiny85s if possible as i have a few of each lying around.
Can anyone point me in the right direction please? Thank you.
jimpeachey:
These would be toggle switches as opposed to surface mounted ones. Can they still be used using high and low commands?
Note sure what you mean by high and low commands. You would use digitalRead() command for toggle switches in just the same way as pushbutton switches (I assume you mean pushbutton when you say surface mount).
jimpeachey:
Add an LCD screen that displays the types of lights that are currently on, as well as some additional info.
Most basic LCD screens have a either 16x2 or 40x4 character size, and 20-pin connectors, but through use of "4-bit" mode, need only 6 Arduino outputs to operate them. There is a library called "LiquidCrystal" that makes this easy. You can reduce the number of outputs still further by using a shift register between the Arduino and the LCD.
jimpeachey:
The question is, how do i get it wired up so that when i flick a switch the LCD screen displays the info i need and the respective light sets switch on.
There are tutorials in the Playground section of the Arduino website that describe how to use LCD screens and how to wire up shift registers. Have a look at that and come back if you have more specific questions.
jimpeachey:
I also want to do this using ATTiny85s if possible.
This is possible but more advanced. You might be better sticking to shift registers and using Arduino outputs directly for now. There are various ways to use ATtiny chips, but they need to be programmed with their own sketch first. You can use another Arduino such as an Uno to do this. The ATtiny can then run this sketch independently of the main Arduino, but communicate with it by various means such as an i2c bus.
Thank you for all of the very useful information and i have had a look around already at all of the separate elements i need. I suppose my worry is getting all of the elements to work together for the effect i am after. Thanks for the switches info,i was referring to the high and low 'commands' to indicate whether the switch is on or off, i believe i can mange that. I have used ATTiny85s before that's why i was asking about using them in this context and i have the shield to program them with. I think i need to go and have a play with all of the elements separately and then see how i might tag all of the commands together, i'm hoping it isn't as hard as i think but then i guess the fun is in learning it as well as getting the effect.