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Arduino: Nokia LCD & Sensors
PROBLEM: Making my Arduino, a Temperature-Relative Humidity sensor and a Nokia3310LCD screen work together.
Now, I’m a Lazy Old Geek, so what I wanted was an Arduino kit that would take shields. This Freeduino was the cheapest that I could find at the time.
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/freeduino-usb-complete-kit-p-58.html?cPath=79_82
Since I was at Seeedstudio, I also ordered an HSM-20G Temp-RH sensor as it was on closeout and I needed something to try out my Arduino with. Seeedstudio no longer carries these and they’re hard to find. But here’s one site that sells the HSM-20G.
http://www.emartee.com/product/41488/#
My dog, Marcus and I walk every day, so I decided I needed a portable Arduino to display Temp-RH on our walks. My display choice was the Nokia3310LCD shield. Plus it has a cool, little joystick on it.
http://www.nuelectronics.com/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=12
So here’s the problems and processes I went through to make it all work.
Parts:
USB Freeduino kit $22
HSM-20G Temp-RH $9 (Closeout)
Nokia3310LCD $14.99
Prices US dollars August 2010
PROBLEM: Making my Arduino, a Temperature-Relative Humidity sensor and a Nokia3310LCD screen work together.
Now, I’m a Lazy Old Geek, so what I wanted was an Arduino kit that would take shields. This Freeduino was the cheapest that I could find at the time.
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/freeduino-usb-complete-kit-p-58.html?cPath=79_82
Since I was at Seeedstudio, I also ordered an HSM-20G Temp-RH sensor as it was on closeout and I needed something to try out my Arduino with. Seeedstudio no longer carries these and they’re hard to find. But here’s one site that sells the HSM-20G.
http://www.emartee.com/product/41488/#
My dog, Marcus and I walk every day, so I decided I needed a portable Arduino to display Temp-RH on our walks. My display choice was the Nokia3310LCD shield. Plus it has a cool, little joystick on it.
http://www.nuelectronics.com/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=12
So here’s the problems and processes I went through to make it all work.
Parts:
USB Freeduino kit $22
HSM-20G Temp-RH $9 (Closeout)
Nokia3310LCD $14.99
Prices US dollars August 2010
nokia_3310_lcd.zip32 KB
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Signing UpStep 1Connecting the HSM-20G
Here’s the suggested interface circuitry for the HSM-20G. See picture.
Problem 1: The Nokia3310 shield fits on the Freeduino but I didn’t want to connect the HSM-20G to the shield. There’s only three components in the interface but I didn’t have a protoshield or any prototype area on the Nokia3310LCD shield, so I decided to build the interface onto the HSM-20G PCB. This is reasonable as it will always be needed whenever I used the HSM-20G. So I soldered the 10K to the T output and to a ground on the top side of the PCB. See picture.
Caution: This method is not recommended for the inexperienced.
A ground pin can be found by following the Ground (-) on the connector and tracing it on the PCB. The best way to verify that it is ground is to set your DMM to ohms and measure between the (-) pin of the connector and the pin you suspect is ground. It should be shorted (less than an ohm).
Problem 2: Well, I didn’t have a 47uFd capacitor, but I scrounged a 22uFd capacitor from some scrapped printer PCBs. I can tell from the documentation, that all the capacitor does is smooth out the Relative Humidity voltage, so 22uFd should work just fine. So I solder the capacitor to the 100K resistor, then soldered the resistor lead to the H pin on the connector making sure the positive side of the electrolytic capacitor is on this side. Then solder the other side of the resistor to the 10K resistor lead that is soldered to ground. See picture.
Make sure all of the leads aren’t touching other components and there are no solder bridges.
Problem 3: There was no mating connector for the HSM-20G module or a part number. I emailed Seeeduino requesting the brand and part number and of course got no response. But I scrounged through my junk pile and found a connector that worked.
Problem 4: How do I connect it to the Arduino? The preferred way would be to get one of those stackable protoshields and connect the HSM-20G to it. You could also put the interface circuitry on the protoshield. But I didn’t have one.
NOT RECOMMENDED: So I soldered the connector directly to my Freeduino. The (+) goes to a 5V connection. The (-) goes to a ground. The ‘H’ connects to Analog 1 and the ‘T’ to Analog 2.
Caution: When connecting two different sensors or shields, you have to be careful about not overlapping Analog and Digital pins. I started an Excel spreadsheet that has all of my shields and the pins they use. The Nokia3310 shield uses Analog 0 for the joystick so Analog 1 and 2 are available for the HSM-20G.
Here is the site where I found the sample HSM-20G sketch. This person really seems to know what he’s talking about. I verified the formulas with the HSM-20G data sheet. They are very accurate. There are other sensor interfaces on this page, also.
http://sites.google.com/site/measuringstuff/more-sensor-examples#TOC-HSM-20G-Humidity-and-Temperature-Mi
So I was able to run this sample HSM-20G sketch and display temperature and humidity on the PC monitor.
Problem 1: The Nokia3310 shield fits on the Freeduino but I didn’t want to connect the HSM-20G to the shield. There’s only three components in the interface but I didn’t have a protoshield or any prototype area on the Nokia3310LCD shield, so I decided to build the interface onto the HSM-20G PCB. This is reasonable as it will always be needed whenever I used the HSM-20G. So I soldered the 10K to the T output and to a ground on the top side of the PCB. See picture.
Caution: This method is not recommended for the inexperienced.
A ground pin can be found by following the Ground (-) on the connector and tracing it on the PCB. The best way to verify that it is ground is to set your DMM to ohms and measure between the (-) pin of the connector and the pin you suspect is ground. It should be shorted (less than an ohm).
Problem 2: Well, I didn’t have a 47uFd capacitor, but I scrounged a 22uFd capacitor from some scrapped printer PCBs. I can tell from the documentation, that all the capacitor does is smooth out the Relative Humidity voltage, so 22uFd should work just fine. So I solder the capacitor to the 100K resistor, then soldered the resistor lead to the H pin on the connector making sure the positive side of the electrolytic capacitor is on this side. Then solder the other side of the resistor to the 10K resistor lead that is soldered to ground. See picture.
Make sure all of the leads aren’t touching other components and there are no solder bridges.
Problem 3: There was no mating connector for the HSM-20G module or a part number. I emailed Seeeduino requesting the brand and part number and of course got no response. But I scrounged through my junk pile and found a connector that worked.
Problem 4: How do I connect it to the Arduino? The preferred way would be to get one of those stackable protoshields and connect the HSM-20G to it. You could also put the interface circuitry on the protoshield. But I didn’t have one.
NOT RECOMMENDED: So I soldered the connector directly to my Freeduino. The (+) goes to a 5V connection. The (-) goes to a ground. The ‘H’ connects to Analog 1 and the ‘T’ to Analog 2.
Caution: When connecting two different sensors or shields, you have to be careful about not overlapping Analog and Digital pins. I started an Excel spreadsheet that has all of my shields and the pins they use. The Nokia3310 shield uses Analog 0 for the joystick so Analog 1 and 2 are available for the HSM-20G.
Here is the site where I found the sample HSM-20G sketch. This person really seems to know what he’s talking about. I verified the formulas with the HSM-20G data sheet. They are very accurate. There are other sensor interfaces on this page, also.
http://sites.google.com/site/measuringstuff/more-sensor-examples#TOC-HSM-20G-Humidity-and-Temperature-Mi
So I was able to run this sample HSM-20G sketch and display temperature and humidity on the PC monitor.
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#ifdef PB1
#define LCD_RST PB1
#define SPI_CS PB2
#define SPI_MOSI PB3
#define SPI_SCK PB5
#define LCD_DC PB0
#define LCD_BL PD7
#else
#define LCD_RST PORTB1
#define SPI_CS PORTB2
#define SPI_MOSI PORTB3
#define SPI_SCK PORTB5
#define LCD_DC PORTB0
#define LCD_BL PORTD7
#endif
which when translated for the arduino pins this is how I believe it should be set
LCD_RST digital pin 1
SPI_CS digital pin 2
SPI_MOSI digital pin 3
SPI_SCK digital pin B5
LCD_DC digital pin 0
LCD_BL Pdigital pin 7
am I missing something?
I tried to design my own interface to a Nokia LCD but couldn't figure it out so that's why I bought one with software. So I can't really help with the code. I don't see anything obviously wrong with your code but don't know.
One thing I do remember was that the LCDs were not 5Vdc so a lot of the hacks had ways to convert the signals. I think the LCD expects 3Vdc signals.
Good luck.
Lazy Old Geek
-- Mitch
LOG
To add furthermore on to your very eloquent and detailed instructable that you have created I would also like to add one small tidbit to your comment on discarding the first reading from the modified AnalogReference() id.
Your tip that explains not to include the first reading ( and I am speculating, I have never used an arduino or any of the devices listed here ) most likely is due to two consequences. Firstly, when you plug a device into any battery or power source, there will be an initial "pulse" high energy output that comes from the power source. One can interpret this as the phenomenon of kinetic energy from physics, i.e. - there are two different equations for the initial (or static) state of energy and when the energy is in motion. Molecules are put into a state of havoc then ultimately into a more steady state of flow, thus explaining the two different equations. Different batteries and alternative power sources that I know of have different "pulse" currents that initially "pulse" out, just like the Silver Surfer character in the second "Fantastic 4" comic movie. Secondly, the initial reading would be tossed out ( again here, speculating ) because the unit, when modified, might not use the same algorithm as the normal, debugged input. It might not be compensating for the initial "bounce effect", i.e. basketball effect of when a button is pushed. Digitally speaking, this means that whenever you are typing on your keyboard or pushing a button, there is a microcircuit with an algorithm automatically compensating for the impossibly small bounce that sends multiple "1's" to your next device. To fix this, the algorithm simply is written to ignore the initial bounce gap interval of "1's" and set the gap interval of "1's" to just plain and simply "1". That's it, and everything runs smoothly.
Did my comment overcompensate the "geek" effect in this article? ;)
I hope someone here understands it and appreciates it.
-Keith
I find your comments interesting. I do not fully understand them but definitely see and engineering background and probably highly educated.
Some of the initial power states, I am aware of as are most designers. I don't know how familiar you are with microcontrollers but at least in the earlier ones I used to work with there was always a resistor and capacitor attached to the the reset pin so there was always a delay that held the microcontroller idle until power was stable. As for the ATmega chip, apparently, there is a watchdog circuit that keeps the microcontroller idle until power is stable. I am not sure if this is what you were referring to or not.
Here is the data sheet for this microcontroller all 448 pages of it.
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc8161.pdf
My suggestion to discard the first sample only refers to conditions where the Analog Reference type is changed and not to initial power up conditions.
From the datasheet:
'The first ADC conversion result after switching reference voltage source may
be inaccurate, and the user is advised to discard this result.'
Now, i am not sure but I believe it is using the same algorithm but the hardware comparator reference is changing. Perhaps the reference has residuals of the old reference until after the first conversion?
I am also familiar with the 'bounce effect' and there are hardware circuits to 'debounce' switches. In the Arduino world, though mostly what you see are little tiny buttons connected to an ATmega digital pin with a pullup resistor. So 'debounce' is usually done in software, if at all. If you do an internet search for Arduino debounce, you will find lots of suggestions and software that didn't work and fixes but it is very hard to find any information on theory and how to make it work if it doesn't.
After perusing the Arduino forum and playground areas for analog reference information, I was totally frustrated by the lack of understandable information that I could trust. It was probably there, but I have no good way of finding it.
That is one of the reasons why I chose Instructables to write about what I know, explain some of the theory and put the theory to work.
So, yes, I really appreciate your comments. It's good to know that someone is actually paying attention.
LOG
I took 4 years of physics and 2 1/2 of electrical engineering, along with another 2 1/2 of advanced math and statistics/finance/economics courses. Let's just say I wanted to get the most for my money out of college ^^ :).
As far as the "not understanding" part, I was merely referring to patterns I saw while reading your statements in this instructable. There are many equations and laws of physics which can be referenced and applied to the problems that you were having, and apparently already knew of. I just found it fascinating that someone would actually put in as much work as you did in writing an article - and yes, I do appreciate it very much! I learned a lot from your article and it brought back memories from when I used microcontrollers and programs to implement circuit functions (and the headaches!!). But as you say, it is very hard work. I certainly wish I had you as my teacher instead of foreigners with thick accents that I could not even understand!
The capacitors are there to compensate for delay like you said and to provide open/close switch circuit operations for different "states" of digital electrical "time frames" - so to speak. For any given output at any given time, there must be a programmed circuit (both hardware and software) to fulfill all of the different combinatorial digital circuit logic functions that one may want, therefor, one must acquire capacitors and transistors to provide for those exact functional outputs. It is indeed very complicated and I did not want to pursue that stressful environment. The capacitors are almost always coupled with transistors in any circuit due to our "digital age".
ON....OFF....ON....OFF....etc...
The capacitor takes care of one part and the transistor takes care of the other. They pretty much work hand in hand, different properties and such with AC and DC current. I'm a sucker when it comes to "why" these things work the way they do. Technology is unbelievably mind boggling, it is very cool to see how you "hacked" the device to work for you and the very hard work you put into it to make it precisely the way you wanted it to be. I still could look at a circuit diagram drawing now and get lost in less than a second, and I'm only 26!! lol.
I make LED toys now ;). I've been working on new designs for over a year now and I am trying to start up a small business. I'm a geek too :).
Do you have any other instructables online?
My education was mostly practical, starting with training in the USAF. It was a rather ominous start. I was taking classes during the graveyard shift and all I remember was sitting around playing Battleships. They did get rid of that instructor. Like you I was a sucker for the ‘why’, so when I wasn’t drunk or sleeping (graveyard shift again) I probably applied my training better than most.
After getting out, I later took a correspondence course in microcomputers. Most of my experience came from working in electronics test and measurement for over 20 years. The Internet became such a significant factor in my life, instructor, reference, guru.
In some ways doing this project wasn’t that hard for me. It was mostly just applying some theory and a lot of experience. Probably the harder part was formatting the Instructable, trying to keep it interesting but informative and complete. I don’t think I’m ever satisfied with them but just decided to publish and hope I didn’t make any major mistakes.
This is actually my fifth:
Making a bedframe with lots of storage
Easy Laptop stand
Arduino-No Blinky
A 67 cent postal scale
You might like Arduino-No Blinky more than most. I don’t think it went over that well.
I actually was working on one called Arduino Basic Electronics but decided it was too theoretical for the more practical Instructable audience. I incorporated some of the material in the two Arduino Instructables.
I am currently working on one about GPS. Like you, I want to know how it works.
So good luck in your business. Let me know if I can help. I guess you can send me a Private Message.
LOG
Especially, in the Arduino Instructables, I notice a lot of authors, doing incredible, amazing projects with them and many seem to have a limited understanding of electronics and programming. Those are the ones who inspired me to do some of my Instructables. I hope to return the favor by helping them in future projects and giving them a better understanding of how it works.
Yes, these do take a while. But teaching is a learning experience. I'm always learning new stuff when I write one of these. It's good to keep the OLD brain cells active.
LOG
LOG