Hi, I am new to the whole Arduino thing...
I am wanting advise as to what to Purchase for two different projects I would like to undertake,
This is what I need it to do...
I wish to set up an automated motorhome, read sensors , levels in tanks, put awning in /out (in if the wind speed or maybe barometric pressure changes) level the motor home with four hydraulic jacks (I have 8 individual buttons at the moment to raise/lower 4 independent rams), open doors, put slide outs in/out, tell me if doors are open/closed (raise satellite dish and rotate automatically to pre set elevations and set NSEW values based on a GPS location in the country , to point to a certain satellite) But mostly I would like this to be able to be controlled via touch on an iPad (I understand that I will have to create an app or something to do this but I presume that if I can connect to it via Bluetooth LE then I can work from there.)
here is a basic rundown on what I was thinking.
Read a number of Push Button Switches x12.
Control Relays on/off x16.
Read Digital signal from Fluid depth gauge x5.
Read Analogue signal from Fluid depth gauges x3.
Control electric motor Step type.
Control electric motor Servo Type.
7a) Read temperature values x2.
7b) Read temperature values from existing probes x2.
Work out if something is moving up and down in the wind.
Work out if sensor is LEVEL (left/right and front/back)
Be able to be controlled via iOS via BluetoothLE.
The Second one is a lot easier.
This is a Automatic/Programable watering system for a farm where we already have 2 separate watering control boxes servicing around 16-20 24v solenoids. At the moment there are 9 wires coming from each of the two controllers each wire goes to a single solenoid and terminates while the remaining wires continue to the next one along the chain.. (the common of course loops to each one, and I think that they may have continued the wired of two together to have them controlled at the same time, since they ran out of wires. (so if there was someway to have a breakout box to allow the addition of extra solenoids to the chain then this could be good as well. This way even though there is nine wires- 1xCommon,8xControl, I could maybe control 12xSolenoids instead)
Control 16-20 relays on/off relays must be able to switch 24v 2A All need to be able to be programmed to turn on/off for various lengths of time and repeated on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, This information needs to be stored locally.
Be edited/maintained by a windows phone or ipad etc.
Hope someone with knowledge can help.
If someone is wanting to find out more information to help with the decision please contact me, and I will arrange to get you the answers ASAP.
Thank you so Much
Haydn
Work out if something is moving up and down in the wind.
Using what kind of sensor?
I was thinking of some sort of tilt sensor that once the awning goes out the angle is measured, then if the wind causes it to raise or lower greater than a specified % it will cause the 110v awning motor to retract. I have a wind speed sensor from a wether station that I thought I might be able to use to also measure the wind speed and if it is too fast then again get it to retract the sensor, The tilt angle sensor could also be used if it is raining heaps and the awning begins to sag, it would again cause the awning to retract.
Maybe a board like this one? http://www.geeetech.com/adxl345triple-axis-accelerometer-breakout-p-384.html
or http://www.sainsmart.com/sensors/motion/sainsmart-mma7455-accelerometer-sensor-module-avr-arm-mcu.html
PaulS:
Work out if sensor is LEVEL (left/right and front/back)
Again, using what kind of sensor? This is not nearly as easy as you might think.
Ok for this one I was also just thinking of two tilt sensors 1 = Left/Right, 1= Front/Back.
Maybe a 2axis or 3axis sensor might do the trick?
like..
or
At the moment I was thinking of using the Arduino DUE as the controller board. If not then Maybe even the new Arduino Tre when it is released.
Thanks
Haydn
I haven't looked into that list of projects in detail but just based on the scope of the requirements I suggest you separate them out into independent projects as far as possible rather than try to integrate them into a single solution.
OK, you have variously cited two triple-axis accelerometers, what I suspect may be a single axis accelerometer, as it is badly described, and a triple axis gyroscope.
Now the gyro is only really necessary if you require fine detail of rotation - as you do for flying models - so you do not really need that but if the "six degrees of freedom" (6DOF) modules are not significantly more expensive you might consider using them anyway. At minimum, you would be using the three-axis accelerometers and detect tilt in both or all directions. You need to make sure you are only looking at modules with a digital (I2C) interface, analog is pretty useless as you cannot share interface lines.
One problem here is that mounting the sensor on the awning involves significant lead lengths, raising problems of propagation time and in this case, susceptibility to ESD and lightning!
If you are also new to computer programming this will be an extraordinarily difficult project.
Pick the simplest part of the project and build a small test project that behaves the way you want but is not actually connected to the motor home. Something to read temperatures would be simple and cheap. When it works you could modify it to work with the temperature sensors that are in the motor home.
Move on to more complex parts as you gain experience. Don't move past a sub-project until it works on its own.
As you work on each sub project design in from the very start arrangements to help you find bugs in the software and hardware.
No professional would treat a complex project like this as a single "lump".
If you need advice from this forum you will get best results if you ask "small" questions at any one time.
Thank you all for your replies..
I understand that I should start small..
You are right that the Motor home is 40' (12m) in length so long runs of cables would be needed.
I will look into RS-485...
So is there a way to join multiple controllers together and have like a MASTER and multiple Slaves?
If this is the case then I will create small projects and then connect them like legs on a star fish back to the main controller, this way I can control it al via the iPad, like I want to.
If this is possible then this is how I will proceed.
Thank you all again for your inputs.
Haydn
(new to Arduino, been in computers and networking for 20 years, did some Basic programming, but not a lot)
You should be able to organize things so the longest cable run is about 20 ft.
You could use two or more Arduinos and have them talk to each other by wireless.
However I suggest you start with one Arduino and whatever wire lengths are needed and only make the project more complex (and more expensive) if it is actually necessary.
After you have a little experience you may find that it makes sense to build some activities into a single Arduino project, completely (or nearly so) from others. That might inadvertently solve the wiring question.
I have an Arduino controlling a fridge. It is much much better than the previous arrangement with an op-amp comparator. I had planned several extra features for it. But it "just works" so I have never bothered with the extra features.