Improving the Ebike with Arduino to monitorize battery and add anti-theft alarm 2/2

As discussed in the previous post, my goals to put a microcontroller programmed with Arduino on electric bike they were:

• With an RGB LED display the charge / status of the battery monitoring one of the (weaker if possible) cells, to avoid surprises of not having enough charge for the trip the next day, showing orange when needed recharging (between 20 and 40%).
• With an accelerometer and a powerful piezoelectric speaker  (and a mosfet to activate) we can add an anti-theft alarm, easy disabled with a button hidden from view, which is very handy against foreign's friends.
• And even (this slope time), add light automatic brake  using the accelerometer (which changes from low intensity to high intensity when the accelerometer receives a deceleration in the axis of the fly), to keep usage statistics (number of refills, airtime, or adding small OLED display to show instant consumption in Ah with  a Hall sensor  (such as Allegro ACS75x, etc), battery charging, etc.

So this Christmas I could get down to work, and start to test in a breadboard to get something functional:

Improving cooling a powerful notebook graphics with a transistor and Arduino

Laptops that come with powerful graphics have an usually badly designed thermal control; This is the case of my dear Acer 5930G (already I spoke above ) wearing a removable Geforce graphics card.

Engineers Acer believed it was enough to regulate the fan with the processor temperature, since the sink joins both, but the graphics consume more, which can reach 70 easily while the CPU is 40 and the fan medium gas.

We'll see how we regulate the fan directly 5V , depending on the temperature of the area that interests us, with the advantage of being able to use any fan that can be coupled to our team, plus you can customize the level of cooling in the Arduino code. 

The result : I got him down more than 20 to the graph regarding the regulation of factory, from 70 to about 45 ° C at rest. And in 90 games at maximum 70 ° C. You hear more, because almost constantly is 100% , but if that win in durability, I welcome the resulting hiss. Another advantage is that by taking the power from the USB port, turn it off when no temperature peaks but still cooling off while connected to the grid, until it cools completely and stops. 

Materials Needed:
- Chip ATtiny85 
- Transistor NPN 50V typical and 5Vgs ( 2N4401 I used myself). 
- Capacitor 220uF 6V and min. 
- Diode 5V and minimum hold 200mAh. 
- Tubing.

Improving the Ebike with Arduino to monitorize battery and other info 1/2

It is the second time it happens; I pick up the bike, and after the trip to work, the ebike left me without power in the middle of a slope... with the hassle of having to carry their 30 kgs. on a slopes over 14% (and the damage it does to the battery the depth discharge, fortunately are pretty well LiFePo that support this). 

I have no charging indicator (the handle that provided me is to 48V) to calculate if you have enough power for 4 km I have to do, and also the LiFePo4 have a very small voltage variation between 20% and 80% of capacity (between 3,15V and 3,35V), which is easily neglected. And make it load every day is not practical or the best for the battery (ideally recharge when you reach the 20% to maximize battery life). And the battery charge indicators seem to me too "greedy" energy. So...

A solution for every need ...

01/09/17: In the end I finished using a Nano and MPU-6050 accelerometer for burglar alarm functions and voltage indicator, in the 2/2 post from january 2017 you can see the details.

DIY: Avoid overheating problems on your PS3 with a chip and sensor for 5 bucks

With a small chip Digispark ATtiny85 will see how to regulate the fan of the PS3 (or any PWM-controlled fan) depending on temperature, avoiding wear and tear prematurely. 

Engineers PS3 gave priority to the silence of the PS3 , since it is intended to be a center of games and multimedia, so the processors can reach damaging temperatures for the welds thereof, and within a few years ends up breaking down by poor contact welding (reparable only with reflow or reballing).

The PS3 has a pulse PWM controlled fan, Atmel ATtiny85 and can be easily programmed with the Arduino IDE.

There are examples on Youtube and internet people that has regulated the fan fixedlyto go ever faster (with a resistance in the gray wire connected to the 12V, regulating 1V approx., Or with a potentiometer to do it manually) but is not the best solution because it does not consider the processor temperature (which can vary greatly depending on ambient temperature), and although it works, having to cover all cases, there isusually noisier.  and with this solution we have the advantage that if we hear the very loud fan, you will surely have a problem of lack of ventilation dust or other problem.

materials

Centralized control Solar-Biomass mixed system with Arduino and TFT Shield

In this post I will share with you the improvements I've made to our biomass/Solar mixed system , which is basically to change the obsolete control system for thermostats with a centralized system based on Arduino fully customizable, flexible and expandable; we will see the assembly, components and source code.

Applied materials:

   1 - Arduino MEGA 2560 (specifically I used a Funduino clone ), because the TFT shield does not leave me enough inputs / outputs Free UNO R3.

   2 - Touch Screen TFT 2.4 "  McuFriend , which will give us great freedom when it comes to display information on screen libraries that have worked best for me. Are the BUHOSOFT ; here you can download the version I used.

   3 - relays to activate solenoid valves, with a fed to 5V that can handle 230V and 10A worth us to spare.Not to stress regulator Arduino board, the food independently with other L7805 regulator (handles between 7-30V and 1.5A max). Being so low consumption, nor need a heatsink:

   - A speaker-buzzer for alarm warning in case of problems, which operates between 7 and 12V 100dB, enough.

   - A relay SSR DC-DC to activate the buzzer ; only consumes between 3 and 25mA so we can turn directly to the Arduino pin. I used one of solid state more than anything because I had left the other, butsince it is an element that is to be activated soon, you better go to a mechanical more economical and compact:

Save energy with a timed plug: Do it yourself with Arduino

I used this to build a wireless plug socket countdown

I had a Wireless programmable plug Contros of Broadlink with the wifi card damaged:

and I realized that I could come in handy a plug to be activated for a certain time simply by pressing the button, with increments of the same time with each pulse (similar to working electronic microwave, that with each press of the button quick heated adds 30 seconds to the time). A picture is worth a thousand words (explained in spanish, sorry):

Centralized control mixed system Solar-Biomass with Arduino and TFT Shield

In this post I will share with you the improvements I've made ​​to -biomass Solar mixed system , which is basically to change the obsolete control system for thermostats with a centralized system based on Arduino fully customizable, flexible and expandable; We see assembly, components and source code.

Used materials:

   1- Arduino MEGA 2560 (specifically I used one Funduino clone ), because the TFT shield does not leave me enough inputs / outputs Free UNO R3.

   2 Touch Screen TFT 2.4 "  McuFriend , which will give us great freedom when it comes to display information on screen libraries that have worked best for me. Are the BUHOSOFT ; here you can download the version I used.

   3 - relays to activate solenoid valves, with a fed to 5V that can handle 230V and 10A worth us to spare. Not to stress regulator Arduino board, the food independently with other L7805 regulator (handles between 7-30V and 1.5A max). Being so low consumption, nor need a heatsink:

Build your own fully customizable Energy Monitor for 30 bucks

Arduino UNO with a 2.4 "TFT monitor the consumption of a house

The crisis continues, so If you want to know how much electricity do you need every hour of the day, or switch power contract to the TDH or reduce the contracted power, or make estimates, you can install an expensive energy monitor, or, as we will see in this post, we manufacture ourselves .

IMPORTANT : If your supplier has telemetry on your electricity bill, chances are that hourly consumption can be consulted on the website of the supplier.

Version 1.0 of the program and debugged

Making the lights turn on/off with two claps: easy and cheap with Arduino

The box ready with micro in the center

I recently saw how have different modes of intensity in a non-dimmable LED lamp using Arduino,this time we will build a switch operable by two claps followed, very useful to turn off lights, televisions, etc. In our room we stayed switch to desmano bed, so it occurred to me that it would be possible with a micro, build a relay be activating as we had seen so many times on TV, with two claps.

Also it can come in handy for people with disabilities , although in that case it would be better a remote control.

When at last I got with it, it occurred to me that surely someone had done it before, and bingo!one German commented how he had developed on his page , saving me hours of testing with micro.

A micro with an activatable certain volume output greatly simplifies things, so the theory is that the Arduino program simply be listening, and produced two (only two) high hits in less than 0.4 seconds , is likely they are two slaps.

3 component dupont few cables and the USB connector is all we need to prove

3D printing: Closer to the general public

Font

Since companies like Shapeways that can mail you printed the piece that your imagination is capable of creating up, like design your own jewelry in precious metals or plastics , 3D printing is becoming closer to being the next fashion, displacing the "smartphones" in sales.

Picture

Get visual output from your Arduino with only 2 resistors (and a screen with Video-in)

We just need a TV-Out cable and a pair of resistors (1K and 470 Ohms) and use the library ofmdmetzle@gmail.com to show the output we want through video on any screen. 

Quite simply, no added circuitry.

Is not this just great? The simplicity to power ...

The timing and signal connections to Arduino

This video explains in detail:

How to use a thermistor or temperature sensor with Arduino: Code for the NTC/PTC types

Checking the operation of the program

One of the most common applications of Arduino is an electronic temperature control via a simple thermistor (temperature sensor), for example if we want to activate a fan when the temperature rises to a certain value in a computer / engine, or activated by an relay a circulator motor in a boiler when we detect that the temperature is rising (and thus the fire is on), as we did in home boiler with AKO or Keld thermostats, only with Arduino will not only allow us to activate a device, but allowing us much more play, controlling and managing other parameters for our stove, such as temperature of the fumes, or air injected into the combustion chamber, etc, as already explained us Oscar Gonzalez in BricoGeek from a project from Xoel (from Asturias).

A thermistor (thermistor) is simply a resistor whose resistance varies as its temperature varies (though non-linearly); there are many kinds, but in this post talk about one NTC (Negative, whose resistance value decreases as the temperature increases), and measure different temperature ranges of -50 to + 99 ° C in this case.If we measure a higher temperature, we would need a thermocouple type K or J, but we'll see later.  

But to use a thermistor whatever we can get, is not enough to measure the value of resistance and apply a rule of three, because as we said, is not a linear (but curved) value, with the biggest differences resistance with increasing temperature so hyperbolic.

To use a thermistor, or know their values ​​(datasheet), or we have to approach them; according to the formula Steinhart-Hart, we have to find a value, called β (Beta) (so-called value of characteristic temperature of the material), and use it along with your formula to get the C to a given value. Here is very well explained , and this explained the Steinhart-Hart formula .

Although it seems difficult to understand for those who give them bad math (like me), but do not worry, in the end you have a program that you can use and just change the header data (values ​​of two points, the resistance of your thermistor 25 and the actual value of your Arduino 5Vdc and little else) will be able to use it in your project without having to understand the formulas involved, but I prefer to go into detail for those who like it as much as me "why of things. "

But how do we calculate the β value? 

To obtain the value of β, using the Steinhart-Hart formula, give the values ​​of resistance and temperature at two different points, as far as possible from each other, for greater accuracy. The formula tells us that β is equal to:

Obtaining resistance values ​​of 25 and 100 (for example), we get β  

Installing the USB driver for Arduino Leonardo in Windows 7 32-bit

The open source electronic board Arduino Leonardo

Yesterday I could try an electronic board that will accompany me for a long time in all my projects; the open source electronic board Arduino (Leonardo model with more inputs / outputs). 
This plate, if you like the "Do It Yourself" is impressive: 

• Cheap (from 20 €)
• Modern, comprehensive and flexible, with 20-pin I / O for highly complex projects
• Open Hardware and Software (no secrets, you can make yourself the pieces)
• Easy to program (using high-level language based on Processing )
• With many examples and an ever larger community
• Very economical and complete, Have I said it yet? XD

If you want to know more about how was this wonder of electronics, nothing better than "Arduino The Documentary" . A demonstration of the power of open source and collaborative altruism: 



Let's go to the topic ... It cost me a lot to find how to install the USB driver for Windows 7 32-bit; I could'nt get it to work, did not find it, despite following the official guide .