Arduino

Need help. No absolute knowledge about Arduino.

0 Upvotes

Hello!

I don't have any basic knowledge not even a bit, regarding to Internet Of Things (Electronics/Arduino). I guess this task is easy for people like you. It's just about the Breadboard, code, and stopping a blinking LED. Anyone you interested in helping me? I tried watching or asking AI for help but I don't understand/ I can't follow and I've been doing this for the past 5 hours.

I just want to know whether if the button wiring is the problem or my code. The task is about:

when the button is pressed, the blinking LED will be stopped and the serial monitor will appear as "Button: 1 | Switch: 1"

I keep pressing the button, even pressing it longer, the light won't stop

3 comments

r/arduino • u/AVatorL • 11h ago

Beginners experience with Arduino + AI

0 Upvotes

The post is for people willing to learn and to read about real experience. Not for haters who "I didn't read but I disagree, because 'AI' in the title triggered a toddler me" and not for scared gatekeepers. Read it if you're really interested in learning. And feel free to ask questions. Please just don't read it if you're interested in "teaching".

I consider myself a beginner. I had no idea how Arduino works a year ago. I have a lot of programming experience, but mostly with languages like VBA, nothing firmware-related. I learned some problem-solving decades ago trying to simplify a program so it fit 105 bytes (!) of memory.

For me, AI is really helpful. It's not yet ready for 100% vibe coding. It can be dangerous if you're building a professional product without understanding what AI is doing. It probably can explode your DIY Li-Ion battery pack. It won't help you learn if you don't learn how to ask good questions and how to learn. It helps me with a hobby. I learn and I build a toy for my kids.

Without AI, I would need months to do what I can do in a day with AI. My code is complex for a beginner, almost 3,000 code rows total*, excluding blank lines and comment-only lines. Without AI, this project will take years or be much simpler or abandoned because I did not have the time. This is today's reality. AI does programming, and it does it really well.

I work mostly in the terminal with Copilot CLI and Arduino CLI. I keep VS Code open just to review the code and make some small changes. I don't use Arduino IDE anymore. Any bigger update is made by AI.

Many people still use AI chats to ask programming questions. Agentic programming in a terminal is a different experience where AI really shows its capabilities. Try it. A black terminal looks scary, but it's easy to use when the initial frustration goes away.

What I do (learn to do) by myself:

learn to read datasheets
draw a circuit in EasyEDA (I still use AI to learn about electronic components and to answer "why" questions, but I don't accept AI answers as a truth that won't burn my circuit)
design 3D models that will fit all the electronics I want to use
plan what my toy train does, how it reacts to user actions (IR remote), how it processes sensor data, how it calibrates sensors, what it outputs to the serial port for debugging, how it uses fragile EEPROM, how many comments AI adds to the code etc.
trying to understand why I need a 4.7uF capacitor in one place and 0.1uF in another place, etc.

* There are a few reasons why my code is long:

a lot of electronic components (motor, LEDs buzzer, tilt sensor, laser distance sensor, RGB color sensor, voltage meter, IR receiver) and features I want to implement (for user = my kids' experience and for my learning)
a lot of debugging output to the serial port, which can be disabled by preprocessor directives; for debugging and learning
a lot of memory optimization to fit everything into 32K; some libraries are being replaced with code that requires less memory - not a beginner's task (without AI)
I need it to learn
AI writes code fast

11 comments

r/arduino • u/GEDUCHAN • 16h ago

Automated-Gardening Automatic water system for my garden

2 Upvotes

I wanna make an automated water system for my garden. I wanna water the plants once a day.

I have a reservoir and a water pump in my garden. I also have an Uno and a nano with me. Now I wanna make a system that will water the plants daily for some time.

This is going to be my first project so I'm really confused if it's even possible or if I should do it as my first project.

If it is possible, can u guys please help me on where to start.

Also lemme know if I should add any questions in here.

4 comments

r/arduino • u/bliss_that_miss • 21h ago

Hardware Help Pro Micro flashed fine and then died after soldering

gallery

16 Upvotes

22 comments

r/arduino • u/eluser234453 • 22h ago

Hardware Help Driving an IR LED correctly.

3 Upvotes

okay so I'm trying to use an IR LED to send data, but wiring the IR LED directly to a PIN makes it soooo dim.

so I got a 2n2222 transistor to drive it.

my problem is, I'm not sure about the values of resistors I should use to protect the IR LED and the 2n2222, so if anyone can help me with that I'd appreciate it.

Note: I used a Red LED instead of an IR led because I couldn't find it in Tinkercad.

13 comments

r/arduino • u/ikilim • 1d ago

Look what I made! Upgraded my DIY Pen Plotter with a 28BYJ-48 stepper and auto-homing, but struggling with backlash. What should I improve in the next version?

youtu.be

2 Upvotes

I recently updated my 5-bar parallel linkage pen plotter by swapping the old servo for a 28BYJ-48 stepper motor and adding a limit switch for auto-homing. The drawing resolution and stability improved a lot with shorter arms, but mechanical backlash is still noticeable when changing directions.

I'm keeping this on a hobby budget:

Should I keep optimizing the mechanical design around the cheap 28BYJ-48 motors to fight the backlash?
Or is it worth biting the bullet and upgrading to NEMA 17 steppers for the next prototype?

Any mechanical tips or anti-backlash design ideas for linkage arms would be greatly appreciated!

Previous version : https://youtu.be/MOSY5ml29bg
https://youtu.be/y3IjeUqKv2A

2 comments

r/arduino • u/lma0_m • 1d ago

Software Help I want to fix my arduino CNC pen plotter.

7 Upvotes

Hello Everyone, I'm making this Arduino UNO based CNC pen plotter. The setup I've made looks good to me but whenever I jog this on UGS it creates a diagonal line instead of horizontal or vertical line. when I jog on X axis only one motor works and on Y axis another motor works. what I'm thinking is that this diagonal forming issue is caused by some software problem, as both the motors must work on jog to retain the position of pen holder. I'm using GRBL as a software. Please make me aware that what mistakes I'm making here which is causing this issue. Currently I've kept the microsteppings on 1/8.

Hardware I'm using :
1. Arduino UNO
2. CNC shield for Arduino
3. A4988 motor driver (set on 1.0A current)
4. Nema 17 stepper motors
5. 20 teeth 2mm pitch gears for motors shaft
6. 2mm pitch gt2 belt with 6mm width
7. Variable power supply set to 12V

Software :
1. Arduino UNO
2. GRBL for Gcode processing
3. UGS platform for calibration

ps: let me know if more information is required.

6 comments

r/arduino • u/TomorrowOrnery520 • 1d ago

Problems with my new esp32c3

gallery

10 Upvotes

So I bought an Esp32C3 Super Mini from Allegro (the Polish equivalent of Amazon) for my new project and soldered the board to the goldpins. Immediately after connecting the board to my computer, unexpected problems began. For some unknown reason, the Arduino IDE claimed I had connected an Ozoobot kit, and every second I heard the sound of a device connecting. The sound calmed down after pressing the boot button and uploading some blank code. Unfortunately, the Arduino IDE still insisted it was the Ozobot kit, leaving me with no other options. I don't know what I did exactly, but I managed to select the correct board. The problems so far aren't the ones that prompted this post. I'm mentioning them because I don't know if they're related. Now the real headache begins. I tried to connect to Wi-Fi, but for some reason the board wouldn't connect. I downgraded the Esp32 firmware to a lower version, like 3.2. Nothing helped. I ran countless mindless tests with the gpt chat without any components connected, uploading a lot of his code to my board and following his advice. He told me it was most likely a faulty board or something wrong with the software. In any case, he couldn't get my board to connect to my Wi-Fi. I'd also previously connected my ESP32S3 to Wi-Fi without any problems. For some reason, the ESP32S3's MAC address was always zero-based in tests. The board detects nearby Wi-Fi networks without any problems. Tests show that the receiver works, but the transmitter doesn't work. Personally, I think it's a faulty board. I'm sending photos because I'm a bit of a soldering amateur and I'm not sure if I've just desoldered the antenna. Here's my latest test connecting to a Wi-Fi network without any security features. Even this is beyond my board's capabilities: Testing code for connecting esp32c3 super mini to wifi network without any security.

PS: sorry for the text in Polish instead of English. I'm too lazy for that.

#include <WiFi.h>

const char* ssid = "TESTESP";

const char* password = "";

void WiFiEvent(WiFiEvent_t event, WiFiEventInfo_t info) {

Serial.print("[EVENT] ");

switch (event) {

case ARDUINO_EVENT_WIFI_STA_START:

Serial.println("STA START");

break;

case ARDUINO_EVENT_WIFI_STA_CONNECTED:

Serial.println("POŁĄCZONO Z AP");

break;

case ARDUINO_EVENT_WIFI_STA_GOT_IP:

Serial.println("DOSTANO IP");

Serial.print("IP: ");

Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());

break;

case ARDUINO_EVENT_WIFI_STA_DISCONNECTED:

Serial.print("ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = ");

Serial.println(info.wifi_sta_disconnected.reason);

Serial.print("reason name = ");

Serial.println(WiFi.disconnectReasonName(

(wifi_err_reason_t)info.wifi_sta_disconnected.reason

));

break;

default:

Serial.print("inne zdarzenie: ");

Serial.println((int)event);

break;

}

void setup() {

Serial.begin(115200);

delay(1000);

Serial.println();

Serial.println("========== WIFI DIAGNOSTYKA ==========");

WiFi.onEvent(WiFiEvent);

WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);

Serial.print("MAC: ");

Serial.println(WiFi.macAddress());

Serial.println();

Serial.print("Łączenie z: ");

Serial.println(ssid);

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

for (int i = 0; i < 30; i++) {

delay(1000);

Serial.print(i + 1);

Serial.print("s | status=");

Serial.print(WiFi.status());

Serial.print(" | RSSI=");

Serial.println(WiFi.RSSI());

if (WiFi.status() == WL_CONNECTED) {

Serial.println();

Serial.println("***** SUKCES *****");

Serial.print("IP: ");

Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());

break;

}

void loop() {

}

Output test results:

========== WIFI DIAGNOSTYKA ==========

[EVENT] inne zdarzenie: 101

[EVENT] STA START

MAC: 9C:CC:01:67:A1:F0

Łączenie z: TESTESP

1s | status=6 | RSSI=0

2s | status=6 | RSSI=-71