Spooky Projects

Introduction to Microcontrollers with Arduino

Class 4

28 Oct 2006 - machineproject - Tod E. Kurt

 What’s For Today
• Switches without Resistors
• All about piezos
• Building a melody player
• Using piezos as pressure & knock sensors
• Using Processing with Arduino
• Stand-alone Arduino
 Recap: Programming
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Like always, just make sure. Make “led_blink” come alive again. Do it. Trust me.
 Switches w/o Resistors
AVR chip has internal “pull-up” resistors

Instead of this: You can just do this:

+5V

10k
to input to input

But how do you turn on these internal pull-ups?

This is sort of an aside, but it saves a lot of wiring.
 Switches w/o Resistors
Answer: use digitalWrite(pin,HIGH) on the input

Arduino
board

pin 7
pin 6
pin 5
gnd

A B C

Seems a little counter-intuitive,

think of it as setting the default value of the input
but note, it doesn’t work the other way: you can’t set it to LOW then wire the switch to +5V.
 Switches w/o Resistors
Can make a button box easily
if no resistors are needed

Plugs right into Arduino board

=
A B C
 Piezoelectrics

• Big word – piezein is greek for “squeeze”

• Some crystals, when squeezed, make a spark
• Turns out the process goes the other way too
• Spark a quartz crystal, and it flexes
• Piezo buzzers use this to make sound
(flex something back and forth, it moves air)

Piezo buzzers don’t have quartz crystals, but instead a kind of ceramic that also exhibits
piezoelectric properties.
I pronounce it “pie-zoh”. Or sometimes “pee-ay-zoh”.
 Piezo Buzzers

• Two wires, red & black.

Polarity matters: black=ground
• Apply an oscillating voltage to
make a noise
• The buzzer case supports the
piezo element and has
resonant cavity for sound

Oscillating voltage alternately squeezes and releases the piezo element.

Must apply flucuating voltage, a steady HIGH or LOW won’t work.

diagrams from: http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/appnote_number/988

 What’s in a Piezo Buzzer?

You can get at the piezo

element pretty easily.

Be careful not to crack

the white disc that is
the actual piezo

Only take it out of its

case to use it as a
sensor

another $1.99 I won’t be getting back from Radio Shack

Of course, you usually destroy the enclosure to get at the element.
And it’s the enclosure that has the proper support and resonant cavity to make a loud sound
 Piezo Buzzer

piezo
Arduino
buzzer
board
+
pin 7
–

gnd

Piezo leads are very thin. The breadboard holes grab them better than the header sockets, which is
why the jumper leads are used.
 Play a Melody
“sound_serial”

Play the piezo beeper

with the Serial Monitor

Type multiple letters

from “cdefgabC” to
make melodies
This sketch is in the handout, and is based on “Examples/pwm_sound/keyboard_serial”
Notice the problem with this sketch?
Different notes play for different amounts of time.
50 cycles of low C isn’t the same amount of time as 50 cycles of high B
 Making it Quieter
Easiest way: add a resistor

Arduino
board
10k
+
pin 7 piezo
(brown, buzzer
–
black,
orange)
gnd

Like most things in electronics, if you want less of something, add a resistor.
A better value would probably be 1k, but we don’t have that on hand.
This may not seem important now, but wait for the next project.
 Play a Stored Melody
“play_melody”

Plays a melody stored

in the Arduino

This is in the handout, but is also in “Examples/pwm_sound/play_melody” (pin changed)

Melody definition is sort of like the old cell ringtone style
Melody playing logic is hard to follow.
 Make a Theremin
“ooo-weee-ooooo”

The original spooky

sound machine

Works by measuring your

body’s electric field

No touching needed!
We’ll use light in lieu of RF Leon Theremin
As heard on Star Trek, Beach Boys, horror movies, Mars Attacks!, and bad New Age songs.
Works sorta like those touch switches, but no touching here.
That is, your body becomes a variable capacitor.
 Make a Theremin
Take photocell circuit from before, bolt it on

piezo
+5V Arduino
buzzer
board
+
pin 7
photocell
analog pin 0 –
10k gnd
(brown,
black,
orange)

This is a light-to-sound converter, if you will.

 Make a Theremin
“theremin”

Move hand over

photocell to
change pitch

Play with val processing & cycles count

to alter sensitivity, pitch and timbre

This is frequency modulation,

since you’re changing the frequency

Okay so maybe it sounds more like a bad video game than a spooky movie
The glitchy sound is cause because of the time it takes to read the sensor
There are ways around such stuff, but requires more complex programming using timers &
interrupts
The sound can get annoying quick
 Piezo Buzzer as Sensor
• Piezo buzzers exhibit the reverse piezoelectric
effect.
• The normal piezoelectric effect is generating
electricity from squeezing a crystal.
• Can get several thousand volts, makes a spark
• You probably have seen a big example of this
already:
fireplace lighter

I have a demo piezo igniter from one of these lighters. It’s fun to shock yourself.
Puts out several thousand volts. (ionization voltage of air =~ 30kV/cm)
 Piezo Read
• To read a piezo you can
just hook it into an
analog input, but:
Arduino

• You need to drain off

piezo
buzzer
board

any voltage with a +

analog pin 0
resistor, or it just builds – 5.1v
zener 1M
gnd

up (brown,
black,

•
green)
You should have a
protection diode to
limit big voltages, else piezo input schematic
fry your inputs

Note polarity of piezo still matters.

The protection diode is a special kind of diode called a “zener diode”. It acts invisible until the
voltage gets over its designed value (5.1 volts in this case), then it acts like a short circuit.
 Piezo Read

Arduino
piezo board
buzzer

+
analog pin 0
– 5.1v
gnd
zener 1M
(brown,
black,
green)

Create two little busses for GND and A0, and hook components across it.
Black bar on diode indicates “bar” of diode.
 Piezo Read
“piezo_read”

Whack the piezo to

generate a number
based on force of
whack

Waits for input to go over threshold,

then to drop below threshold

Number is “t”, the number of times it looped waiting for the value to drop below THRESHOLD/2.
 How Does that Work?
• When a piezo is struck, it “rings” like a bell
• But instead of sound, it outputs voltage
• The sketch measures time above a certain
voltage, hoping to catch largest ring
volts

piezo output voltage

threshold

time
t
whack!

Depending on how fast you can watch the input, this technique works either really well or not that
well. There are much faster ways of watching inputs that loops with analogRead()
But for now it works okay
Custom Piezo Sensors
Can mount the element on anything
(floor mat, door, your body, etc.)

Here’s one glued to a larger brass disc for a drum trigger

Take a Break
(see Craft magazine!)
 Processing

• Processing makes Java programming

as fun & easy as Arduino makes AVR
programming

• Started as a tool to make generative

art

• Is also often used to interface to

devices like Arduino

And it’s totally open source like Arduino.

Processing GUI and Arduino GUI are from the same code, which is why it looks & acts similar.
 Using Processing
• First, install
Processing
• Load up
“Sketchbook »
Examples »
Motion » Bounce”

• Press “Run”
button

• You just made a

Java applet

The Processing application folders are in the handout, no installation is needed.

Also try Examples » Motion » Collision. It’s a lot of fun.
Notice how “Run” launches a new window containing the sketch.
The black area at the bottom is a status window, just like in Arduino.
 About Processing

• Processing sketches have very similar structure

to Arduino sketches
• setup() – set up sketch, like size, framerate
• draw() – like loop(), called repeatedly
• Other functions can exist when using libraries
 Processing & Arduino
serial communications

• Processing and Arduino both talk to “serial”

devices like the Arduino board
• Only one program per serial port
• So turn off Arduino’s Serial Monitor when connecting
via Processing and vice-versa.

• Processing has a “Serial” library to talk to

Arduino. E.g.:
port = new Serial(..,“my_port_name”,9600)
port.read(), port.write(), etc.
serialEvent() { }
Using the serial library adds a new function you can use to your sketch: serialEvent()
The serialEvent() function will get called whenever serial data is available.
 Processing Serial
common Processing serial use

four steps
1.
1. load library
2. set portname be sure to set to
2. the same as
3. open port
4. read/write port “Serial Port” in
3. Arduino GUI

4.

All you need to do talk to Arduino in Processing.

The import statement says you want to do serial stuff.
The “new Serial” creates a serial port object within Processing
Then you can that object (or used the passed in one) to read from in the “serialEvent()” function
 Processing & Arduino
“arduino_ball”

Every time a number

is received via the
serial port, it draws a
ball that size.

Use “piezo_read”
Arduino sketch from
before

This sketch is in the handout.

Uses “serialEvent()” and “read()” to build up a string and then parse it into a number with “int()”
 Spookier, Please
“arduino_
spookysounds”

Every time the

piezo is knocked...
a scary eye opens
and a spooky
sound plays

piezo val is printed, but not

used: just its existance is

This sketch is in the handout.

You can add your own sounds (must be 16-bit WAV or AIFF).
Hook a piezo up to your front door, and plug your computer into your stereo.
Every time someone knocks on your door, a scary sound is played
 Processing to Arduino
real quick
“http_rgb_led”

Fetch a web page,

get a color value from
it, send the color to
Arduino with RGB LED

This is not to build, just quickly cover. It’s not in the handout, but,
full details at: http://todbot.com/blog/2006/10/23/diy-ambient-orb-with-arduino-update/
Fun Uses
 External Power
Arduino can run off USB power or external power
External power connector USB connector

voltage
regulator

jumper switch to choose power source

 External Power
You can use an AC adpater

Connector is
standard barrel
connector

Make sure it’s

“center positive”

Voltage can be
9-15 V DC center
positive
Amps is > 200mA
Actually input voltage can be from like 7.5V to 35V, but don’t go over 15V so the voltage regulator
doesn’t have to work so hard.
 External Power
Or you can use a battery

Be careful about polarity! And shorts!

On the prototyping shield you plug in on top, the “9V” socket is called “raw”
 External Power
An easier way to connect a battery

also solves polarity concerns

Power connector input has protection diode.
Also it’s easier with the connector
 External Power
Battery life
How long does Arduino last on 9V battery?

• Arduino board draws about 40 mA by itself

• Each LED adds about 20mA when on
• Each servo maybe 100 mA when running
• Switches, pots, etc. are effectively zero

• Battery capacity rated in milliamp-hours (mAh)

• 9V batteries have about 400 mAh capacity

Thus, Arduino by itself lasts 400/40 = 10 hours

Take all your power, add it up, divide it into your battery capacity to get time in hours.
There are techniques to make an AVR chip go into sleep mode, and draw microamps (1/1000 mA),
but those techniques don’t have nice Arduino-style wrappers yet.
For more on batteries and their capacities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes
 Summary
You’ve learned many different physical building blocks

resistive sensors
switches/buttons

LEDs

piezos
fast
prototyping
servos
 Summary
And you’ve learned many software building blocks

serial
communication
pulse width
modulation
analog I/O
digital I/O

data driven frequency

code modulation
multiple tasks
 Summary
Some things we didn’t cover, like:

+5V +5V
1N4004 1N4004
DC motor M 5V relay
Arduino Arduino
board board
1k 1k
pin 7 pin 7 to load

TIP120 TIP120
gnd gnd

motors relays

But they use concepts you know

 Summary

Hope you had fun and learned something

Feel free to contact me to chat about this stuff

 END Class 4

http://todbot.com/blog/spookyarduino

Tod E. Kurt
[email protected]
A little extra: MIDI
Combine everything, add a MIDI jack

Arduino
board
piezo pin 7
buzzer pin 6
pin 5
+ analog 0
pin 1
– 5.1v gnd
zener 1M A B C

MIDI jack
+5V
3 1
5 4 220
2
A little extra: MIDI
 A little extra: MIDI

sends MIDI note-on & note-off messages

MIDI is just serial at 31250 baud

buttons are drum triggers
end