SURVIVAL EQUIPMENTS

After getting a LCD TV, we realized our over-sized entertainment cabinet needed to be replaced with a smaller and more contemporary cabinet. We drew the cabinet on Sketchup first, then created the cabinet using a construction technique using lamination.



The sides, top and shelves are 1 1/4 thick and appear to be solid oak. They are actually laminated as follows:

1/4 inch plywood top
3/4 inch filler stock in a frame shape (pine)
1/4 inch plywood bottom
Adhesive backed edge banding (heat applied)

Here's the finished product.

My son Paul and I recently finished a project using the Arduino Diecimila microcontroller in conjunction with the Processing open source programming environment to monitor temperature.

The project contains 3 parts:
1. The Arduino board with sensor circuit.
2. The Arduino program.
3. The Processing program.

The Arduino Board with Sensor Circuit
The Arduino circuit board is connected to the LM35 Celsius Temperature sensor. Here is a picture of the project circuit with illustrated wires connected to the temperature sensor.


We used the on board power source (5v and Gnd) to power the LM35 and analog pin 0 (zero) to read the analog output from the sensor. Here's a picture of the circuit wired on a breadboard.



The LM35 temperature sensor's pin-out and package information is as follows:


The Arduino Program

The open-source Arduino environment allows us to write code and load it onto the Arduino board's memory. The development environment is written in Java and based on Processing, avr-gcc, and other open source software.

The Arduino code loops every second to read output from the LM35, converting the analog output into Celsius and sending the data to the computer via a serial communication connection (USB).

Here's the code used to run the Arduino board:

//declare variables
float tempC;
int tempPin = 0;

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600); //opens serial port, sets data rate to 9600 bps
}

void loop()
{
tempC = analogRead(tempPin);           //read the value from the sensor
tempC = (5.0 * tempC * 100.0)/1024.0;  //convert the analog data to temperature
Serial.print((byte)tempC);             //send the data to the computer
delay(1000);                           //wait one second before sending new data
}

//import Serial communication library
import processing.serial.*;

//init variables
Serial commPort;
float tempC;
float tempF;
int yDist;
PFont font12;
PFont font24;
float[] tempHistory = new float[100];

void setup()
{
  //setup fonts for use throughout the application
  font12 = loadFont("Verdana-12.vlw"); 
  font24 = loadFont("Verdana-24.vlw"); 
  
  //set the size of the window
  size(210, 200);
  
  //init serial communication port
  commPort = new Serial(this, "COM10", 9600);
  
  //fill tempHistory with default temps
  for(int index = 0; index<100; index++)
    tempHistory[index] = 0;
}

void draw()
{
  //get the temp from the serial port
  while (commPort.available() > 0) 
  {
    tempC = commPort.read();
  
    //refresh the background to clear old data
    background(123);

    //draw the temp rectangle
    colorMode(RGB, 160);  //use color mode sized for fading
    stroke (0);
    rect (49,19,22,162);
    //fade red and blue within the rectangle
    for (int colorIndex = 0; colorIndex <= 160; colorIndex++) 
    {
      stroke(160 - colorIndex, 0, colorIndex);
      line(50, colorIndex + 20, 70, colorIndex + 20);
    }
    
    //draw graph
    stroke(0);
    fill(255,255,255);
    rect(90,80,100,100);
    for (int index = 0; index<100; index++)
    {  
      if(index == 99)
        tempHistory[index] = tempC;
      else
        tempHistory[index] = tempHistory[index + 1];
      point(90 + index, 180 - tempHistory[index]); 
    }
  
    //write reference values
    fill(0,0,0);
    textFont(font12); 
    textAlign(RIGHT);
    text("212 F", 45, 25); 
    text("32 F", 45, 187);
  
    //draw triangle pointer
    yDist = int(160 - (160 * (tempC * 0.01)));
    stroke(0);
    triangle(75, yDist + 20, 85, yDist + 15, 85, yDist + 25);
  
    //write the temp in C and F
    fill(0,0,0);
    textFont(font24); 
    textAlign(LEFT);
    text(str(int(tempC)) + " C", 115, 37);
    tempF = ((tempC*9)/5) + 32;
    text(str(int(tempF)) + " F", 115, 65);
  }
}