By Miosz Orze 16.

September 2014 00:41

<< How fast i s .NET Garbage Col l ector? Part 2. | [OoB] Sonar wi th Ardui no, C#, JavaScri pt and HTML5 (Part 2) >>
[ OoB] Sonar with Arduino, C#, JavaScript and HTML5
Thi s post marks the begi nni ng of "Out of Boredom" s eri es. I t wi l l be about creati ng s tuff wi th my recentl y purchas ed Arduino
Uno. Let's have a break from chores of professi onal programmi ng and create somethi ng just for fun :)
My fi rst Ardui no based project i s Sonar. I t uti l i zes ul trasoni c range sens or, servo, Si gnal R and canvas to create s onar i mage:
I am spl i tti ng the des cri pti on i nto two pos ts . Fi rs t post wi l l focus on hardware components and Ardui no s ketch and the
second wi l l be about .NET and JavaScript appl i cati ons. You can get compl ete code i n thi s GitHub repository. You can al so cl i ck
here to s ee short video of the whol e thi ng worki ng.
Here are hardware elements used:
Element Role
Ardui no Uno R3 Handl i ng HC-SR04, control l i ng s ervo and communi cati ng wi th PC
HC-SR04 Ul trasoni c Rangi ng Modul e Measuri ng ti me i t takes sound to bounce back from objects
9g Tower Pro Mi cro Servo Movi ng sens or to get 180 degree vi ew
Red LED Si gnal l i ng ready s tate
330 Ohm resi stor Li mi ti ng current goi ng through di ode
Breadboard and few jumper wi res Connecti ng components wi thout s ol deri ng
That's i t, jus t a few cheap components! Vi rtual l y no el ectroni cs ski l l s are requi red to compl ete thi s project. I ass ume,
however, that you have basi c Ardui no knowl edge and you know a bi t about C# and JavaScri pt.
Here i s the software stack:
Element Role
Ardui no s ketch (fi rmware) Measuri ng di stance, movi ng servo and sendi ng data to PC over s eri al port
.NET/C# 4.5 consol e appl i cati on wi th
Si gnal R l i brary
Recei vi ng data from Ardui no us i ng SerialPort cl ass and broadcasti ng angl e and
di stance i nformati on to cl i ents
HTML5 page wi th JavaScri pt Si gnal R
l i brary
Recei ves data from server and creates sonar i mage us i ng canvas el ement
Above mi ght sound a bi t overwhel mi ng but I ass ure you that the code i s short and not that compl i cated.
The basic idea goes like this: HC-SR04 sensor measures ti me i t takes an ul trasoni c s i gnal to bounce from obstacl es and thi s
gi ves as a chance to cal cul ate di s tance to these obstacl es . Posi ti on of the s ensor i s control l ed by servo. I nformati on about
di stance to objects and di recti on i n whi ch the s ensor i s poi nti ng i s sent to PC that i s runni ng cons ol e appl i cati on wi th
SignalR sever. PC recei ves the data and sends i t to JavaScri pt cl i ents that are capabl e of presenti ng sonar data i n ni ce vi s ual
way us i ng HTML5 canvas el ement...
More details!
The mai n component (except for the Ardui no of cours e) i s the HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Ranging Module. Thi s sensor works by
sendi ng sound si gnal at 40 kHz (s o above human percepti on l i mi ts ) and detecti ng the echo. That's why thi s project i s cal l ed
"Sonar" and not "Radar" - i t uses sound waves (not radi o waves ) do detect objects. The sens or shoul d work i n ranges from
2cm up to 400cm at accuracy of few mi l l i metres. But keep i n mi nd that the shape an materi al of objects mi ght affect
performance. I tes ted i t at maxi mum di s tance of about 2 meters and was happy wi th the resul ts. You can us e thi s s ensor
wi thout any l i brari es . That requi res doi ng thi ngs l i ke putti ng HIGH val ue on Trig pi n for 10uS to emi t ul tras oni c si gnal ,
meas uri ng durati on of HIGH pul se on Echo pi n and cal cul ati ng di stance knowi ng that speed of s ound i n the ai r i s around
340m/s... But there's a better way: you can use NewPing l i b (l i nk) to get the di s tance. I f you don't know how to i ncl ude new
l i brary i n your Ardui no sketch cl i ck here .
The second i mportant component i s the servo. HC-SR04 sensor has measuri ng angl e of about 15 degrees. But i f we move i t
around by attachi ng i t to s ervo's arm we can eas i l y get 180 degree vi ew. I won't get i nto detai l s on how s ervo works and
how i t i s control l ed i n thi s post. I pl an to make another post about shooti ng pai ntbal l marker wi th Ardui no+l aptop and I
wi l l des cri be i t then. For now al l you need to know i s that Ardui no comes wi th Servo l i brary whi ch makes i t very easy to
move servo i nto desi red posi ti on (angl e)... I uti l i zed 9g Tower Pro Micro Servo i n thi s project. I t's powerful enough to move
the s ensor yet can be powered di rectl y from Ardui no's +5V pi n.
Last physi cal components are LED used to si gnal the ready s tate (that i s when setup functi on had compl eted) wi th i ts
accompanyi ng resi stor. Maki ng a di ode s hi ne i s el ectroni cs equi val ent of "Hel l o Worl d!" s o I 'm s ure you know how to
handl e LED. Even i f not, you can al ways use the ti ny bui l t-i n LED connected to pi n 13 of Ardui no Uno...
Thi s di agram shows how hardware components s houl d be connected:
- about me
What for ?
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peopl e "wasti ng" thei r free ti me s hare
what they managed to fi nd out. Therefore
I wi l l try to add a bi t of useful i nformati on
to the webs res ources mysel f...
Also on CodePr oject !
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Here's the whole code that should be uploaded to Arduino:
As stated before, I assume that you know somethi ng about Ardui no programmi ng and thi ngs l i ke const, pinMode, delay, setup
and loop don't requi re expl anati on...
Fi rst l i nes whi ch s houl d capture your attenti on are:
Above l i nes l et us us e NewPing and Servo cl asses to measure di stance and move the sensor. Noti ce al so that setup functi on
has such l i nes:
Thes e exi st to s et the pi n used to control the servo and to move the servo i nto i ni ti al posi ti on at 0 degrees.
Thi s l i ne:
al l owes Ardui no to tal k to PC (i n my case a l aptop wi th Wi ndows 7) over serial port. That's ri ght, even though Ardui no Uno i s
connected to computer vi a USB cabl e i t actual l y us es COM port to communi cate. On my machi ne i ts cal l ed "COM3" (screen
shown bel ow comes from Devi ce Manager - my Wi ndows i s i n Pol i sh):
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#include <NewPing.h>
#include <Servo.h>

const byte setupReadyLedPin = 8;
const byte triggerPin = 10;
const byte echoPin = 11;
const byte servoPin = 12;

const byte maxDistanceInCm = 100;

byte angle;
byte angleStep;
byte angleStepDelayInMs = 50;

NewPing sonar(triggerPin, echoPin, maxDistanceInCm);
Servo servo;

void setup() {
pinMode(setupReadyLedPin, OUTPUT);

angle = 0;
angleStep = 1;

servo.attach(servoPin);
servo.write(angle);

Serial.begin(9600); // Open connection with PC

digitalWrite(setupReadyLedPin, HIGH);
}

void loop() {
alterServoMoveDirection();

measureAndSendDistance();

angle += angleStep;
servo.write(angle); // Move servo

delay(angleStepDelayInMs);
}

void alterServoMoveDirection() {
if (angle == 180) {
angleStep = -1;
} else if (angle == 0) {
angleStep = 1;
}
}

void measureAndSendDistance() {
byte distanceInCm = sonar.ping_cm(); // Use ultrasound to measure distance

byte sonarData[] = {255, angle, distanceInCm};
Serial.write(sonarData, 3); // Send data to PC
}
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#include <NewPing.h>
#include <Servo.h>

NewPing sonar(triggerPin, echoPin, maxDistanceInCm);
Servo servo;
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servo.attach(servoPin);
servo.write(angle);
1 Serial.begin(9600);
Submi t to DotNetKi cks...
Tags: Si gnal R, JavaScri pt, HTML5, canvas , C#, .NET, Ardui no, HC-SR04, servo
.NET Framework/C# | CodeProject | HTML5 | JavaScri pt | Out of Boredom | Ardui no
E-mai l *
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Name*
The val ue passed to begi n method determi nates baud rate (communi cati on s peed). I t's i mportant to have the s ame val ue
used i n software that communi cats wi th Ardui no.
The loop functi on moves s ervo and i nvokes measureAndSendDistance functi on whi ch uses NewPing to cal cul ate di s tance and
Serial to send data to PC. Thi s i s how eas y i t i s to get di s tance i n cm thanks to NewPing l i b:
I f meas ured di stance exceeds the maxi mum val ue speci fi ed as l as t parameter to NewPing cons tructor the val ue of 0 i s
returned. Check NewPing docs to s ee other us eful functi ons of thi s l i b.
And fi nal l y thi s i s how Ardui no sends data to PC:
The fi rs t array el ement (255) i s us ed as a marker/separator to easi l y di sti ngui s h pairs of angle-distance values. I ts rol e wi l l
become cl ear i n the s econd post whi ch wi l l des cri be Si gnal R server and cl i ents... I as sume that maxDistanceInCm cons t wi l l
never be s et above 200 so distanceInCm wi l l never have val ue of 255. 255 wi l l never be sent as an angle too becaus e our
servo moves i n 0..180 degrees range. Sure i t mi ght be a good i dea to create const and avoi d 255 magi c number. Some
val i dati on woul d be useful too... But s crew i t, thi s project i s just for fun! :)
Ok, you s urvi ved to the end of the fi rst pos t about Ardui no/.NET/JS/HTML s onar. The second pos t shoul d be ready i n about a
week.
Update 2014-09-29: Here's the Part 2 .
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1 byte distanceInCm = sonar.ping_cm()
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byte sonarData[] = {255, angle, distanceInCm};
Serial.write(sonarData, 3); // Send data to PC
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