AquaticTechTank.net

This project is in the inception phase right now. It's in my head but hopefully and slowly will take form overtime. I've read up on the jarduino, an arduino controller project. While very cool and took a lot of work, I see issues with it. It's not very flexible or easy to use.


The dream

I want to creat a controller using the arduino and a wi-fi shield where you will interface with the arduino via an iPad app or your computer. Another key point is that this is a plug and play. You can plug devices into to this chain and start playing right away; no adding more code and recompiling to the arduino. The goal is user friendly. You can be a complete novice and make it work. You just need some soldering skills.

Are you set on using Arduino? When I first started thinking about building an aquarium controller Arduino was the first thought in my head as well. I have a raspberry pi that's looking for a nail though and I've been debating trying to use it instead. Wireless isn't a concern for me at the moment, but with a cheap USB wireless stick it can do that if needed.

Pros:
It's cheaper then an Arduino + wifi sheild, especially if wifi isn't a concern
It's quite a bit more powerful and flexible
Software can be written in whatever language you like
Code is more portable

Cons:
Setup is potentially more complex
Interfacing with some hardware might not be as straightforward

Yeah, I'll stick with the arduino for now. Development is pretty easy for it. The complexity of plug and play will need some complicated object oriented programming like c++.


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Oh! I just realized that this plan of mine is exactly like the Lego mindstorm.
http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/history/default.aspx

I actually have a mindstorm set I can use for reference. I'll plan on using cad5 connectors for easy connections as well.


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I'm going to use the MVC, model-view-controller, model when making this: meaning that the view or the interface is separated the logic and the data. So theoretically, the interface can work with any microprocessor.


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Here's a quick sketch what I'm thinking

I've been reading on the Arduino WiFi. It's a recent product with some bugs. I think they're fixing the firmware problems now.
The wifi shield is $85, pricey.
The ethernet shield is $45. I wonder is it's cheaper to use this with a ethernet wireless bridge thing.

A wifi-usb dongle won't work. It has no logic. I basically will need to turn the Arduino into a web server.

I was going to make an iPad app as the view for this and thought better. It would be better if the arduino server would serve up HTML pages for devices to view. That way, any device can interact with it; android, pc, Mac, etc...


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