Hi,

I'm putting together a machine based on a mega board.Everything is on the cheap with bits that I have lying around here, and the occasional piece from company scrap.. In addition, the machine's home location isn't somewhere where I would safely leave a PC.
I have had to work out some way of interfacing with the machine without using anything extravagant, nor without relying on a laptop.

To the effect, I have added the capability for 2 buttons, and 2 LED's (or one bi-colour).. Pin allocation is per the below constants.

The buttons are: Set Home, and Execute from SD (reads comm.txt command list)
The LEDs are Ready and Busy.

You will need to update the set home command to be suited to your own machine, or perhaps I will be more motivated and calculate it!

If anyone wants it, feel free.

Michael_Mod.ino

const int pinSetHome = 22;
const int pinExecFromSD = 24;
const int pinStatusReady = 23;
const int pinStatusBusy = 25;

int currentPSHState;
int currentPEFSDState;

void Michael_Init()
{
  pinMode( pinSetHome, INPUT );
  pinMode( pinExecFromSD, INPUT );
  pinMode( pinStatusReady, OUTPUT );
  pinMode( pinStatusBusy, OUTPUT );
  
  currentPSHState = 0;
  currentPEFSDState = 0;
}

void Michael_SetStatusBusy( int CurrentState )
{
  if( CurrentState == 1 )
  {
    Serial.println( "MI - BUSY" );
    digitalWrite( pinStatusBusy, HIGH );
    digitalWrite( pinStatusReady, LOW );
  }
  else
  {
    Serial.println( "MI - READY" );
    digitalWrite( pinStatusBusy, LOW );
    digitalWrite( pinStatusReady, HIGH );
  }
}

String Michael_Execute( String input )
{
      
    // Execute command from SD = 
    // C34,comm.txt,END
    
    int ButtonState = 0;
    ButtonState = digitalRead( pinSetHome );
    if ( ButtonState == HIGH )
    {
      currentPSHState = 1;
    }
    else
    {
      if ( currentPSHState == 1 )
      {
        Serial.println( "MI - PinSetHome released" );
        currentPSHState = 0;
        return "C09,3920,3920,END";  // Replace with the SetHome command parameters from controller app
      }
    }
    
    ButtonState = 0;
    ButtonState = digitalRead( pinExecFromSD );
    if ( ButtonState == HIGH )
    {
      currentPEFSDState = 1;
    }
    else
    {
      if ( currentPEFSDState == 1 )
      {
        Serial.println( "MI - PinExecuteFromSD released" );
        currentPEFSDState = 0;
        return "C34,comm.txt,END"; // Requires comm.txt
      }
    }
        
    return input;
}

comms.ino comms_waitForNextCommand

    // and now read the command if one exists
    // this also sets usingCrc AND commandConfirmed
    // to true or false
    inS = comms_readCommand();

    
    inS = Michael_Execute( inS );  // Check button status
    
  }

impl_mega.ino

void impl_executeCommand(String &com)
{
  Michael_SetStatusBusy( 1 ); // Now busy

........ Original code!


  else
  {
    comms_unrecognisedCommand(com);
    comms_ready();
  }
  Michael_SetStatusBusy( 0 ); // Now Free
}

And of course the init code

void setup() 
{
  Michael_SetStatusBusy( 1 );   // Set bust light on - busy booting!
  Serial.begin(57600);           // set up Serial library at 57600 bps
  Serial.print(F("POLARGRAPH ON!"));
  Serial.println();
  configuration_motorSetup();
  eeprom_loadMachineSpecFromEeprom();
  configuration_setup();
  Michael_Init(); // Initialise button variables

  ..... original code here 

  delay(500);
  outputAvailableMemory();
  Michael_SetStatusBusy( 0 ); // Ready
}

Hi Sandy,

I've not really played with git, other than to pull sources for various things. I set up a svn server at work about a month back, but my job scope has changed, and therefore won't be needing it anymore! This sounds like another opportunity to look into source management.

There is possibly a better way to handle the machine config though - maybe through the use of a config file on the SD card... Read the SD, find the machine init commands tailored to the specific machine, then run it.

i.e.

  return "C34,init.txt,END"

Michael

Hi Sandy,

I modified the source to include initialisation from an init.txt file.

Also, I modified the communications so that it can optionally output / input from 2 serial ports... The theory being that I want to use a bluetooth module for communications with the controller (when not using SD card) as my casing doesn't have a clean USB port, and BT is just so uber. However I still want to use USB serial in the event of some real diagnostics, and also to configure the BT module.
This mod is much more extensive (and unclean) as you can imagine.

If I could be bothered, I'd solder some expansion pins on the motor controller so that I could use the standard serial interface without any software mods. Anyway, when I suss out GIT, I'll set it up as a fork.

But in the mean time, I need to suss out some alignment / calibration issues I have