I have multiple sensors spread out by the chicken coops. They use motion detectors to watch for foxes, coyotes, etc. All in sealed weather proof boxes with battery power. Radio communication between them and my "main station" in the house. Each box has a "tail" (a USB cable) hanging out side and sealed against weather, the other end hooked to he Uno inside the box. This "tail" is for updating he Uno in the box. The setup works very well and I am happy with it.
Every so often I want to add an enhancement or fix a bug I found. In the summer it is no problem: bring the laptop outside and up load. In the winter there is snow / rain / etc and my lap top gets messed up.
I was wondering if there was a way to make a "pocket uploader" so I can walk up to one of the boxes, pull the cap off the USB cable, plug in the "pocket uploader" and be done with it, much like I do in the house.
A while back I made one of those "boot loader" things but this is different: what I am asking is to be able to upload the sketch from a small dedicated device to the box outside.
SamBrownADK:
I was wondering if there was a way to make a "pocket uploader" so I can walk up to one of the boxes, pull the cap off the USB cable, plug in the "pocket uploader" and be done with it, much like I do in the house.
A while back I made one of those "boot loader" things but this is different: what I am asking is to be able to upload the sketch from a small dedicated device to the box outside.
Don't know about pocket uploaders, but the ESP8266 and ESP32 can be updated "over the air" (OTA) and are programmable with the Arduino IDE, so if your devices are within range of your router (or router extender), then you can update them from the comfort of your house. And ditch the radios. Yes, it would be a pain to replace the UNOs with an ESP, but hey, progress sometimes comes at a price. (I think there are other Arduino wifi-enabled products that can do OTA updates, but I'm not familiar with them.)
Also, if you have an Android phone, you can use an app called ArduinoDroid to compile and upload sketches via a USB cable between your phone and UNO. Not quite a "pocket uploader," but close enough? (And yes, the USB cable must be "OTG" type.)
DaveEvans:
Also, if you have an Android phone, you can use an app called ArduinoDroid to compile and upload sketches via a USB cable between your phone and UNO. Not quite a "pocket uploader," but close enough?
I was thinking about that.
If you have a USB cable hanging out, you need a USB host to connect to it. That's a big ask for an Arduino, but most mobile phones and tablets now have USB OTG which is a host, so if the phone has the software, it could be used.
