Thread: My Wooden geared clock

But Dean, Will it be finished before September when you hit the 7 year mark for the project...
You are one very patient bloke to keep at such a project over such a long time and do it right...top marks sir..
Cheers, Peter

PS - Phoney Photos have gone side ways....

Hi everyone. Finally I am embarking on the FINAL stage of the build. I have located some help from some fellow robotics friends to help me ( Well really do it for me )Design, programme assemble and test the components for the motor winding sustem.
The system will feature 2 hall effect sensors; the magnet part attached to the weight boxes and the hall effect switches mounted behind the main mounting board. These will activate the system telling it to start the winding procedure. The winding procedure will first energise the electric clutch then the stepper motor. When the weight boxes reach the right height, the system will stop the stepper motor. Just in case, the design will include 2 micro switches in case the code in the programme gets mixed up. The micro switch will, if the weight boxes are over wound resulting in the weight boxes getting too high, cut power to the clutch resulting in the weights coming to a halt.
I was advised originally to use a Raspberry P1 3+ but due to my programmers not being familiar with python, we have decided to go with an Arduino UNO instead, which also has a wireless add on if i so choose. (KISS)
I was originally going to mount all the control components in a box on the floor but with the addition of 2 hall effect sensors and 2 micro switches resulting in 14! wires having to be routed behind the backboard and down onto the floor.
I think at this stage I have decided to try once again to mount the components in a neat little box just under the coil housing. This will mean that i only have to provide 2 lots of power; 1 lot for the coils and 1 lot for the motor electronics.
Here is an update of what things look like at the moment. Hope to have an update in the next couple of weeks.

cheers

Dean.

cheers

Dean.

A raspberry pi and an arduino are not comparable at all. The pi is a little computer, basically the same as a desktop just in a small form factor. It runs Linux, can do more or less anything, and has no dependency on Python. The arduino is a microcontroller, which is very limited in its capabilities. It is still more than enough to do what you're wanting here though, and also has no dependency on Python.

Originally Posted by Leiothrix

A raspberry pi and an arduino are not comparable at all. The pi is a little computer, basically the same as a desktop just in a small form factor. It runs Linux, can do more or less anything, and has no dependency on Python. The arduino is a microcontroller, which is very limited in its capabilities. It is still more than enough to do what you're wanting here though, and also has no dependency on Python.

Most people I know use Python.
Heres one source that lists the top 10 programming languages for the Raspberry Pi and Linux doesn’t even get a mention - Python is No. 1.

Um, Linux is an operating system, not a programming language.

You can use Python on Linux if you like (or PHP, Ruby, C/C++, Java, FORTRAN or any other programming language you can think of).

You're basically stuck with C/C++ for Arduino/AVR.

Thanks for the correction- me bad. Python however is still the most popular programming language for the Pi. You can also program an Arduino using Python so you are not stuck with C/C++

You can use Python on a Pi, no problem there; it is not in any way required though which was mentioned.

There some half-baked half-done projects to support a subset of Python on an AVR, but an AVR is way too limited for Python to be particularly useful. An Arduino UNO (mentioned above) runs a ATmega328P, which has 32kB of flash/program memory and 2kB of SRAM. It doesn't even have hardware integer divide, or any sort of floating point math.

For an environment that constrained you really want to be running C/C++ rather than trying to cram in something that was never designed for the task.

Even if you can find a compiler (or interpreter, shudder) that targets the AVR you won't be able to use majority of Pythons libraries which is the only reason you'd want to use it in the first place. C/C++ (or asm) are overwhelmingly the most popular languages for the AVR as they are the only ones supported by the vendor, so you're only making your life harder by trying to use something obscure for that platform.

You can of course run Python on a PC/Pi to interface with an AVR; but that's a different proposition again.

Yes thats right. I have no intention to use them at the same time.
The rasberry Pi is in fact a whole computer and while my help could learn to program it but did not have a spare 2 weeks to do so! It is true that the arduino is a basically a device controller rather than a full computer.
There was also a concern that when there is a power out the Arduino would re-boot there was question as whether the same could be said for the Rasberry Pi. The Rasberry pi also has built in wireless which the arduino also has as an add on. I will ask John if the wireless unit can be added on and the coding added if this is not too much trouble.

Dean.

Hi Leithorix...
You sound like my programming mates! After I say hello I dont understand many words after that!! Can you rephrase the following from the first word to you last?
What is your opinion of the Pi versus the Arduino uno platform? My programming guru said go buy the Pi so I did and now he is somewhere in the middle of Australia on a 2 year holiday. My other robotics friends said lets go with the arduino.
I don't really have an opinion yet....

Dean.

Yeah, I do a fair bit of programming at work, and at home for fun too.

Ultimately it depends on who is going to be programming it and what they are comfortable with. A Pi is well and truly overkill, but for your use-case it doesn't matter at all. It's not like you'll be making millions of these things.

You will need some extra hardware to control the steppers and whatnot. That can be custom made, but I'm sure there are shields/hats that have what you need in them.

The Arduino toolchain is probably enough on the AVR side and that's very easy to get up and running. On the other hand the Pi has the flexibility of a full computer running whatever language you want.

I personally would use the AVR, but I'm not the one making this.

So I have the motor controller already as well as 2 hall effect sensors and soon to purchase reed switches to stop the weights in case they get over wound in terms of height to prevent damage.
Whats the AVR?

Dean

AVR is the family of microcontroller that the Arduino uses (usually, they also have STM32s, but let's not confuse the issue further). I'm just using it as a synonym.

Hi all.
Had a great afternoon with my friend John Nichols who helped me test the new electronics. All went well until we discovered the new magnetic clutch turned the wrong way resulting in the weights not winding up as anticipated. This was easily fixed with a phone call to the manufactured who has sent me out a Left handed spring to reverse the action on the clutch. Just finished a housing to contain this set up. Still got to make a cover for it later this week.

Dean