Hello guys.
I am working in an installation in witch I want to control 93 bolbs array.
For that I have a simulation running in Flash and a string of chars is coming into arduino trough the serial.
The strings is something like this "fnfffnfnnffnfnf".
The "f" is for "off" and the "n" for "on".
Everything is all right till this point.
To control the lamps I am going to use a series of shift registers.
At the moment I am just testing with a 8 char length string, and just one register.
But i am not been able to make it work.
Any help?
The debug leds are working properly and everything seems connected right.
////////////////////////////////
char serInString[8];
int latchPin = 8;
int clockPin = 3;
int dataPin = 4;
int debugPin1 = 5;
int debugPin2 = 6;
int debugPin3 = 7;
Ok I think the problem is your sending individual bits. The shift registers want bytes.
Basically you need to add in a array to store the status of 8 leds and then output it in one go.
Either that or learn boolean logic to do it more efficiently.
That page has more detailed information with examples.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
int tested = 0;
char serInString[8];
void setup() {
Serial.begin(57600); //setup serial conversation at 19200 bauds
for (int i=2; i<=8; i++) {
pinMode(i, OUTPUT); // sets the digital pins 2-9 as output
}
}
void loop () {
if( !tested ){
//testing
for( int i= 0 ; i < 8 ; i ++ ){
digitalWrite(i+2,LOW);
}
for( int i= 0 ; i < 8 ; i ++ ){
digitalWrite(i+2,HIGH);
delay( 200 );
digitalWrite(i+2,LOW);
}
tested = 1;
}
readSerialString(serInString);
//recived a string
for( int i= 0 ; i < 8 ; i ++ ){
if( serInString[ i ] == 'f' ){
digitalWrite(i+2,LOW);
}
if( serInString[ i ] == 'n' ){
digitalWrite(i+2,HIGH);
}
}
delay( 100 );
}
void blinkDebug( int times , int pin ){
int t;
for( t = 0 ; t < times ; t++ ){
digitalWrite(pin, HIGH );
delay( 100 );
digitalWrite(pin, LOW );
delay( 100 );
}
}
I´ve seen the shiftOut function, but i need to shift out a long string ( 93 values ) , and i don't want to break the string into 8 bit chunks.
I made some corrections in the code and now works, but the re is some delay.
Any suggestions?
Again , if someone is reeeeeeeeally interested in helping, please , mail me to juliolucio@yahoo.com , and i will send u the files to test it.
Cheers
Here is the code for arduino.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
int stringSize = 8;
char serInString[ 8 ];
int latchPin = 2;
int clockPin = 3;
int dataPin = 4;
int debugPin1 = 5;
boolean dataReady = false;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(57600); //setup serial conversation at 19200 bauds
pinMode(latchPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(debugPin1, OUTPUT);
void blinkDebug( int times , int pin ){
int t;
for( t = 0 ; t < times ; t++ ){
digitalWrite(pin, HIGH );
delay( 100 );
digitalWrite(pin, LOW );
delay( 100 );
}
}
You have two delay(10) in the loop of shiftout(), so if you have 93 characters it's going to take 93102 = 1860ms just to finish the loop, and then there's 60ms delay after the loop. So your shiftout function takes almost 2 seconds, but wait, there's more: a 100ms delay in your main loop.
Do you really need all those delays?
Also, if you are just transfering on/off information, in the time it takes for the serial port to transfer one "n" or "f" character, you can transfer 8 bits if you used bytes instead.
