Meters for Arduino
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Meters for Arduino brings back vintage memories of old VU Meters! Before LEDs were used to display volume units they used a magnoelectric meter that would move a pin around. You could measure the value using a scale that is painted on the back plate. VU Meters were originally quite slow to display the data. The delay is one aspect that Meters for Arduino does not try to mimic- we communicate at 115200 baud to display the analog pin data!
New! In Meters for Arduino (Mac) version 1.1, we introduced Wijourno, the ability to connect your Mac with multiple iOS devices that are running Meters for Arduino (iOS)! Finally, you can have Meters in the palm of your hand.
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Screenshots
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DownloadYou can download the sketch for your Arduino here: MeterSketch.pde!--- Meters for Arduino (Mac) can be purchased at the Mac App Store. We prefer the Mac App Store method because it allows us to keep the development going. :) However, you can get Meters for Arduino as Tweetware. This means you will have to perform one (or more) of the following micro-actions:
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How to use it
Step 1: Download the software
Download the Arduino IDE and download Meters for Arduino software from above (make sure you do a micro-action!).Step 2: Connect your sensors
In order for the meters to display readings that mean something, you will have to attach some sensors to your analog pins! We used two light dependent resistors (photocells) for this example.
If you want to learn more about sensors that you can use with your Arduino, this sensors tutorial is definitely worth looking at.
We will be able to check if everything is working after the next step!
Step 3: Upload the sketch
Download MeterSketch.pde
Download MeterSketch.pde and upload to your Arduino. You do not need to modify anything here for it to work, even if you don't have sensors on some of the analog inputs.
Step 4: Press GO!
Plug in your Arduino (if it isn't plugged in already), and open Meters for Arduino.There is a pull-down menu with all the ports connected to your computer. Choose the one that works for your Arduino. This is the same one that you use when you upload code.
Choose which pins you want to monitor (usually just the ones that you have a sensor connected to), and press the GO! button.
If it works, you should see a meter windows with the title of what pins you are monitoring appear! Play with the sensor and see how the meter reacts.
If it did not work, here are some things to check:
- Is the Arduino connected? Try disconnecting and connecting it again.
- Did you select the right serial port? It should be the same port that you use to upload code.
- Did you upload the right sketch? Meters for Arduino needs that particular sketch to be uploaded to work
- If there are any other weird behaviours, tell us about it and we will be in touch!
Step 5: Launch Meters for Arduino on iOS!
Step 6: Tinker
You can learn how Meters for Arduino (Mac) works by looking at the code on GitHub, and Meters for Arduino (iOS) on GitHub. We encourage you to contribute, redistribute, and improve it! :)Contribute
Meters for Arduino (Mac and iOS) is Open Source under the BSD 3-Clause license! Fork the repository, and modify it all you want. We encourage you to redistribute your code. If you do create something cool or improve upon this, please let us know!Here are some features we would love to see:
- Name on backplate: The "name" of the MeterWindowController (currently used for adjusting the name of the NSWindow) could also be used to write a label (NSTextField) on the backplate of the meter nib. The font has to look vintage though, so you'll probably need to use a custom font
- Pin animations: Make the movement of the pin smoother by iterating from the previous value to the current value. This will probably only work good if previous is much greater or less than the current value. There are two example cases when this happens: on connect and disconnect
- Resizable pin maths: In Lion we can resize windows from any side, which means that the window may not always be proportional. We tried to figure out a way to scale the pin so that it would always have the end points (0 and 1023) somewhat touching the edges, and the midpoint (512) touching the top. No dice yet, but there is probably a scale factor that can be deduced from some trig and geometry
- Fullscreen mode: Transform the desktop into a steampunk-esque analog pin monitoring station would be just EPIC!
- Sound effects: When pressing GO!/Stop there could be cool power up/power down sound effects. Also perhaps some light scratching noises or electronic sounds when the values change a lot...
- Blocks & threads: We probably aren't updating the display in the best way, so creating threads and using some blocks to update each meter would make it zippier
Legal
Arduino (http://arduino.cc)"Arduino" is a trademark of Arduino team.
AMSerialPort (http://sourceforge.net/projects/amserial/)
Copyright (c) 2001 Andreas Mayer. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
xcode-arduino-serial-communication (http://code.google.com/p/xcode-arduino-serial-communication/)
Copyright 2009 POP - Pat OKeefe Productions. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Sparkle (http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/)
Copyright (c) 2006 Andy Matuschak
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Matatino (http://appsforarduino.com/matatino)
Copyright (c) 2011, RobotGrrl.com. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the RobotGrrl.com nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Wijourno (http://appsforarduino.com/wijourno)
Copyright © 2011, RobotGrrl.com. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the RobotGrrl.com nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Meters for Arduino (http://appsforarduino.com/meters)
Copyright © 2011, RobotGrrl.com. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the RobotGrrl.com nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Resources
Steampunk desktop: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robkleeman/3524695815/ Scratch texture: http://markopolio-stock.deviantart.com/art/Scratch-Texture-104718122
Wood texture: http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/free-hi-resolution-wood-textures
iPhone Picture: http://psd.tutsplus.com/freebies/psd/freebie-vector-iphone-4-psd-file/
iPad Picture: http://maxdicapua.tumblr.com/post/3619140813/ipad-2-psd
Button sound: http://www.freesound.org/people/StevenBrown/sounds/128434/
