Finally finished my setup, here is a picture. Works pretty well, it is slightly louder than I would have hoped but if you run it at 1/16th microsteps its almost silent. The only issue is that it won't run very fast at 1/16 microsteps.

@ServiceXp said:

Pretty cool, would it be possible to get a video with audio of the final 'product'?

Sure! This is with eighth steps - and it seems to be as fast as the motor will go without reducing the microsteps.

http://youtu.be/imQj-p-GoYQ

Yep, both were 3D printed back then. The Toronto library actually has 3D printers so I built a CAD model and had it printed there. There are also have a lot of web-based companies who will print and ship out parts.

Since then I've built my own 3D printer, it comes in handy and they're getting pretty cheap.

Try out the web-browser interface. I have a 'webapp' at a tile on iOS. Still takes some time to boot, but much faster than the vera app. Slightly laggier but you get more features as well.

I would love to see the code behind this! Very cool

@korttoma said:

Ahh, I see. Maybe it is an option for you to add another (dummy) device of some type just to get more variables.

That's actually not a bad idea. Seems like a pretty simple solution. Thanks!

Hey all,

I"ve got a question about wire wrap, I bought some from a local electronics store but it seems that there isn't traditional insulation on the wire, it seems more like a paint. Is this typical? Or did I buy the wrong thing....

It's 26AWG

@korttoma said:

@naveen said:

I'm moving on to add another stepper and I need a few more custom variables (4) - is there any way to add new variables? Or is he maximum 5?

If you add another stepper to a node you will add another window cover device in Vera right? So shouldn't there be 5 more Variables for this new device right?

I wasn't planning on adding another device. I was planning on implementing the UP/DOWN functionality to control the sliding of the vertical blinds. While the V_DIMMER slider would control the 'tilt'

@hek said:

@naveen

Yes, it is possible! You have a couple of options.

##Poll configuration data from node

• Select one of V_VAR1, V_VAR2, V_VAR3, V_VAR4, V_VAR5 to use for your configuration;
  choose from your root or child nodes. You can use all five parameters per each of your root and child device. It is up to you how to design this;
• Program your sketch to fetch variable from vera using gw.request(). You will have to take care to get reply later by yourself using in your callback method initialized in gw.setup(). See RelayActuator sketch for an example on how to handle incoming messages.
• First run of your modified sketch to request parameters. Be prepared that you will receive an empty string because at this time we have just created empty variables at vera side;
• Refresh your vera and go to particular child into Advanced Tab. You should be able to see your new variables named Variable1...Variable5. Variable1 corresponds to V_VAR1 inside your sketch etc.;
  fill free to change empty field on vera side to the value your needed, Save changes;
• Check with you Arduino, it should receive correct data at this point;
• You free to use whatever design you want. You can pull/request data at each start of you node or you can pull each 30 minutes like many z-wave devices do if they operate from battery. Other example can be if you need for your to nodes to communicate to each other and you need to tell a radio ID to one/both nodes to establish their communication. But for this one you probably want to use Push...

##Push configuration data from Vera to node

Example: You need to push data from vera on event or using schedule and it should be initiated instantly by vera, not by node. For example you want your clock to show external temperature received by vera from the Weather plugin or from other sensor.

• Choose from V_VAR1, V_VAR2, V_VAR3, V_VAR4, V_VAR5 to be used for data push

• Design your sketch to listen for incoming messages with desired variable. See RelayActuator for an example on how to handle incoming data.

• Create a new scene on vera side. The scene should be run according to your goal. For example each 10 minutes;

• Use Lua tab while editing scene to provide data for the push. For example this Lua is taking current temperature from Weather (vera id = 61) plugin and pushing it to the node (vera id for root device = 372) using VAR_5:

  local temp = luup.variable_get("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1","CurrentTemperature", 61)
  temp = temp*10.0
  luup.call_action("urn:upnp-arduino-cc:serviceId:arduino1", "SendCommand", {radioId="4;255", variableId="VAR_5", value=temp}, 372)

SendCommand will push a message to your node. You can also call it with static values (without programming) using the Advanced tab in the scene editor.

(This post was updated to 1.4 from from @axillent old tips page on micasaverde)

I'm moving on to add another stepper and I need a few more custom variables (4) - is there any way to add new variables? Or is he maximum 5?

Cool, thanks for the advice!

I'm looking to get some more solid design for my blind controller, and I was looking into perfboard with wires. It seems like it will be really difficult to get all the connections I need with soldering pads together alone so wire would be needed.

I was wondering what is the best strategy to connect the arduino to other components? Should I first solder the pins onto the arduino, place the arduino in the perfboard and then wrap the wire around the pin at the bottom of the board and solder (with all wires running on the bottom of the perfboard)? Or should I solder the pins to the board itself, connect two pads together, and then run a wire from the connected pad on top of the board to another pad?

Or is there an entirely better way to do this?

Thanks!

@hek

Hmm, yeah that would work. It just seems like overkill for a few extra pins (price and size wise). I didn't realize there were 8 analog pins on the APM, those should actually be enough to drive all the things as long as they work OK as digital outputs.

I figure the shift register will cause problems because I won't be able to build an 'AccelStepper' object since the input for the constructor is a pin number. I assume I'd have to modify the code if I want to put it through the shift register.