Controlling the WiFly module I: Command mode
So you’ve got a WiFly module and you want to integrate it with your Arduino project to lift it to the next level. But were do you start?
The last couple of months I’ve had a lot of hands on experience working with Roving Networks WiFly and I know it can have a mind of it’s own sometimes. I decided to write this starting guide to share the knowledge I’ve acquired. Because my hardware setup is a bit unique I will focus primarily on controlling the WiFly through Arduino and not how to connect the components to each other.
There are three ways to connect a WiFly module to Arduino: Hardware Serial, Software Serial and SPI. In these examples the WiFly is connceted to Arduino Leonardo’s digital pins 0 (RX, receive) and 1 (TX, transmit); hardware serial.
Node.js communicating with Arduino
This little demo I made shows that you can communicate with Arduino in a browser.
Arduino’s serial port is connected to Node.js trough the SerialPort module. SocketIO sends and recieves receives data from the browser.
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Now I have a Raspberry PI. Ho ho ho.
To bad the stores are closed because I still need a few supplies to make it run. I can’t wait to mess around with it…
Node.js and Socket.IO
Node.js is pretty awesome! I encountered the asynchronous JavaScript based web server platform when working on a specialization about (network) communication. As a demo I wrote a basic web server vote/polling system where people can vote on one page and see the polls rise and fall on another page. Data sending and retrieval was almost on the fly available through the use of Socket.IO’s “websockets”.
Animated Flamingo Part 2.
This post is a follow up to part one.
Step 3. Getting the proportions right.
The main focus of this step was to give the flamingo the right proportions. The proportions are based on the measurements from image 1. The measured parts are made relative to each other. bodyHeight is the only variable that has to be filled in. The calculations of the other variables (legLength,legWidth,feetLength,neckLength etc.) are based on the bodyHeight value. All body parts (Head, Body, Segment) come together in the main class Flamingo.
Animated Flamingo Part 1.
I dedicated a self-study course to get more experience with mathematical principles, which can be pretty useful when programming. Other goals were to learn animation concepts and to get more experienced with ActionScript 3.0 and object oriented programming. My university gives study points for completing the course successfully. The assignment had two parts:
- Read the book ActionScript 3.0 Animation Making Things Move!
- Make something based on a topic from the book