Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

Candition.com

by Dave Johnson

June 11 2011

I built a new Website and launched it two weeks ago, took about a month to build. I built it all in Ruby on Rails. it was my first RoR project. the design started out with square boxes for the rating system and decided to keep the square theme through out the website.

Candition.com

“The Wave”

by Dave Johnson

March 8 2011

Arduino + Winamp charlieplexed 6X5

by Dave Johnson

March 7 2011

Ardor from arduino.cc posted a question about simplifying his charlieplexed code,  and I didn’t have a straight answer for him because I haven’t charlieplexed before.  So in order to solve this I built myself a 6×5 led array using 6 wires.  I pretty much copied Andrew Magill’s design on everything except I’m using an Arduino.

so my answer for simplifying the code was two arrays… one that would store the led location and one that would decide whether to turn it on or off. once i had that figured out then i just mixed in my code for processing the winamp data and that was it. the hardest part was trying to get a 950 micro second delay working.. on all my previous projects this wasn’t hard but for some reason this one put up a fight.

I’ll be working on a detailed tutorial later on this week.

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/*
--- Arduino + Winamp charlieplexed
--- Copyright 2011 - Dave Johnson 
--- Dave@SilverCG.com - www.SilverCG.com
*/
 
 
#include <Charlieplex.h>
 
#define A 0 // index number of pins[] array
#define B 1
#define C 2
#define D 3
#define E 4
#define F 5
 
#define NUMBER_OF_PINS 6
byte pins[] = {5,6,7,8,9,10}; // arduino pins
Charlieplex plex = Charlieplex(pins,NUMBER_OF_PINS);
long previousMillis = 0;        
long interval = 950; //micro second delay
int j = 0;
int i = 0;
int data[10]; 
 
//array of all leds, 
int c[5][6][2] =
{
  { {F, A}, {E, A}, {D, A}, {C, A}, {B, A}, {A, B} },
  { {F, B}, {E, B}, {D, B}, {C, B}, {B, C}, {A, C} },
  { {F, C}, {E, C}, {D, C}, {C, D}, {B, D}, {A, D} },
  { {F, D}, {E, D}, {D, E}, {C, E}, {B, E}, {A, E} },
  { {F, E}, {E, F}, {D, F}, {C, F}, {B, F}, {A, F} },
 
};
 
 
void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(57600);
}
 
 
 
void loop()
{
 
int full[35];
int divide = 2;
float total; 
 
 
if (Serial.available() > 10) {
  byte x = Serial.read();
  if (int(x) == 255) {
    for (int h = 0; h <= 9; h++){
      data[h] = int(Serial.read());
 
    }
  }
}
 
// this is hard for my to explain and it's hard to understand
for (int i = 0; i < 35; i++){ full[i] = 0; }// clears the full[] array 
 
int length = 1; // sets the length of leds in each column
for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++){// for every column
  int maplvls[6];
  int maplvlsM[6];
  maplvls[i] = map(data[i+3], 0, 255, 0, 7);// map to 0-6 and 0 is all off 
 
  if (maplvls[i] > length) {
    maplvlsM[i] = maplvls[i] - length;
  }
  for (int z = maplvlsM[i]; z < maplvls[i]; z++){
    full[z + ((i * 5) - 1)] = 1; //smart math to decide where to put the 1
  }
}
// this is the finshed array of 1's and 0's or on/off    
int list[5][6] =
{
  { full[4], full[9], full[14], full[19], full[24], full[29]},
  { full[3], full[8], full[13], full[18], full[23], full[28]},
  { full[2], full[7], full[12], full[17], full[22], full[27]},
  { full[1], full[6], full[11], full[16], full[21], full[26]},
  { full[0], full[5], full[10], full[15], full[20], full[25]}
};
 
//test code to check setup... 
//  int list[5][6] =
//{
//  { 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,1},
//  { 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1},
//  { 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1},
//  { 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1},
//  { 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}
//};
 
if (j >= 6){
    j=0;
}
  charliePin LED0 = {c[0][j][0], c[0][j][1]};
  charliePin LED1 = {c[1][j][0], c[1][j][1]};
  charliePin LED2 = {c[2][j][0], c[2][j][1]};
  charliePin LED3 = {c[3][j][0], c[3][j][1]};
  charliePin LED4 = {c[4][j][0], c[4][j][1]};    
 
  unsigned long currentMillis = micros();
  int count = 0;
    if (list[0][j] == 1){ //checks to see if it's on or off
    plex.charlieWrite(LED0,HIGH);
    }
    if (list[1][j] == 1){
    plex.charlieWrite(LED1,HIGH);
    }
    if (list[2][j] == 1){
    plex.charlieWrite(LED2,HIGH);
    }
    if (list[3][j] == 1){
    plex.charlieWrite(LED3,HIGH);
    }
    if (list[4][j] == 1){
    plex.charlieWrite(LED4,HIGH);
    }
    plex.clear();
 
  if(currentMillis - previousMillis > interval) {
    previousMillis = currentMillis;
    j+=1;
  }
}

Arduino + Winamp vu meter

by Dave Johnson

February 9 2011

This is one of the pieces of code that I’ve delayed posting for a long time. For those that wanted it I’m deeply sorry that it has taken me this long.

This is a Script that really only works is you have all the pieces.

So first you need the plugin for winamp that Maceger provided to me.

http://www.macetech.com/wa502_sdk.zip

also my version is available on my download page

** for this to work you need to download and open the project in visual studio and do a search for “COM” and change it to your COM port of your computer. Then compile the dll, and put it into the  C:\Program Files\Winamp\Plugins folder ***

second you need softPWM (optional)

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,19451.0.html

if you chose not to use it you will need to change SoftPWMSet to digitalWrite, and remove all SoftPWM code.

support topics on my project can be found at the fallowing links.

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,40078.msg293360.html#msg293360

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,27482.msg203610.html#msg203610

UPDATE:: source code.zip

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 /*#################################################
 ### --- Winamp + arduio vu meter ---- ###
 ### --- Copyright 2010 - Dave Johnson --- ###
 ###--- Dave@SilverCG.com - www.SilverCG.com --- ###
 ###_____________________________________________###
 ### --- this code includes a vu meter based off ###
 ### data from winamp and converts it to 3 rows ###
 ### of multiplexed leds. ---- ###
 #################################################*/
#include <SoftPWM.h>
 
#define DELAY 80
 
int colpins[] = {2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10};
 int rowpins[] = {11,12,13};
 int power = 1;
 //---------------------------------------------
 long timer;
 const long muxInterval = 10;
 int mux = 0;
 int full[27];
 float lvl;
 
void setup() {
 Serial.begin(57600);
// for (int pin=0; pin<9; pin++) {
// pinMode( colpins[pin], OUTPUT );
// }
 for (int pin=0; pin<3; pin++) {
 pinMode( rowpins[pin], OUTPUT );
 }
 timer = millis();
 
SoftPWMBegin();
 
  for (int i = 0; i < 9; i++){
    SoftPWMSet(colpins[i], 0);
  }
}
void loop(){
 
int divide = 5;
 //------------------------------------------------------------
 float total; // for calculations below. <>
 int data[9]; // raw serial data <>
 
if (Serial.available() >10) {
 byte i = Serial.read();
 if (int(i) == 255) {
 for (int c = 0; c < 9; c++){
 data[c] = int(Serial.read());
 
}
 }
 }
 // some math -------------
 
lvl = (data[0] + data[1] + data[2] + data[3] + data[4] + data[5] + data[6] + data[7] + data[8]) / 9;
 //lvl = (data[1] + data[2] + data[3]) / divide;
 //lvl2 = (data[0] + data[7] + data[8]) / divide;
 //lvl3 = (data[4] + data[5] + data[6]) / divide;
 // math end -----------------
 
// reset leds ---------------
 for (int i = 0; i < 27; i++){ full[i] = 0; } 
 
 int length = 5; // sets how long the tail is, so as the meter goes up there is 9 or less leds on at a times... 
 // feel free to change this to what you like. 
 // ------------------------------- 
 int mapvalue2; 
 int mapvalue = map(lvl, 0, 255, 0, 27); 
 if (mapvalue >= length){
 mapvalue2 = mapvalue - length + 1;
 }
 if (mapvalue < length) {
 mapvalue2 = 0;
 }
 for (int x = mapvalue2; x <= mapvalue; x++){
 full[x] = 1;
 }
 // set leds end--------------
 
// patterns feel free to change these to what ever you want the posiblities are endless. 0 - 26 is equel to 27 leds..
 
// int meterlist[9]= {full[0], full[1], full[2], full[13], full[14], full[15], full[16], full[17], full[26]};
// int meterlist2[9] = {full[5], full[4], full[3], full[12], full[11], full[20], full[19], full[18], full[25]};
// int meterlist3[9] = {full[6], full[7], full[8], full[9], full[10], full[21], full[22], full[23], full[24]};
//
//int meterlist[9]= {full[0], full[1], full[2], full[3], full[4], full[5], full[6], full[7], full[8]};
//int meterlist2[9] = {full[17], full[16], full[15], full[14], full[13], full[12], full[11], full[10], full[9]};
//int meterlist3[9] = {full[18], full[19], full[20], full[21], full[22], full[23], full[24], full[25], full[26]};
 
 
int meterlist[9]= {full[2], full[3], full[8], full[9], full[14], full[15], full[20], full[21], full[26]};
int meterlist2[9] = {full[1], full[4], full[7], full[10], full[13], full[16], full[19], full[22], full[25]};
int meterlist3[9] = {full[0], full[5], full[6], full[11], full[12], full[17], full[18], full[23], full[24]};
 
//int meterlist[9]= {full[0], full[6], full[12], full[18], full[5], full[11], full[17], full[23], full[26]};
//int meterlist2[9] = {full[1], full[7], full[13], full[19], full[4], full[10], full[16], full[22], full[26]};
//int meterlist3[9] = {full[2], full[8], full[14], full[20], full[3], full[9], full[15], full[21], full[26]};
 
//map to 9
//int meterlist[9]= {full[0], full[1], full[2], full[3], full[4], full[5], full[6], full[7], full[8]};
//int meterlist2[9]= {full[0], full[1], full[2], full[3], full[4], full[5], full[6], full[7], full[8]};
//int meterlist3[9]= {full[0], full[1], full[2], full[3], full[4], full[5], full[6], full[7], full[8]};
 
//int meterlist[9]= {full[26], full[16], full[14], full[4], full[2], full[8], full[10], full[20], full[22]};
//int meterlist2[9] = {full[24], full[18], full[12], full[6], full[0], full[6], full[12], full[18], full[24]};
//int meterlist3[9] = {full[22], full[20], full[10], full[8], full[2], full[4], full[14], full[16], full[26]};
 
//multiplex drawing.
 if (millis() - timer < muxInterval) { timer = millis(); mux++; if (mux > 2){
 mux = 0;
 }
 for (int i = 0; i <=8; i++){ 
 SoftPWMSet(colpins[i], 0);
 } digitalWrite(rowpins[0], LOW); 
 digitalWrite(rowpins[1], LOW); 
 digitalWrite(rowpins[2], LOW); 
 if (mux == 0) { for (int i = 8; i >= 0; i--) {
 if (meterlist[i] == 1){
 SoftPWMSet(colpins[i], power, true);
 digitalWrite(rowpins[0], HIGH);
 }
 
}
 }
 if (mux == 1) {
 
for (int i = 8; i >= 0; i--) {
 if (meterlist2[i] == 1){
 SoftPWMSet(colpins[i], power, true);
 digitalWrite(rowpins[1], HIGH);
 }
 
}
 }
 if (mux == 2) {
 
for (int i = 8; i >= 0; i--) {
 if (meterlist3[i] == 1){
 SoftPWMSet(colpins[i], power, true);
 digitalWrite(rowpins[2], HIGH);
 }
 
}
 }
 
}
 
}

Adjusting Your Mouse Sensitivity

by Dave Johnson

March 11 2009

Before we get started, it’s a good idea to backup your Windows registry. To do this click Start >> Run. Enter “regedit” without quotes into the box and select ok. When the Registry Editor Window opens, make sure “My Computer” is selected and click File >> Export. Name and save the file in case you have to restore it.
Now let’s edit the Sensitivity of your mouse.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Find the values DragHeight and DragWidth. If they are not there then go ahead and create them as a “New String Value” (REG_SZ). The default values should be set to 4. To reduce the sensitivity, change the number to a higher value like 10. To increase sensitivity, change the number to a smaller value like 1.