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Teakgate


martinarcher

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martinarcher

Hi. Would you be willing to tell an Aussie how to build the control system. Parts list and how to? Great job on your Teak Gate by the way.

[email protected]

Sorry, I missed you post. I have actually spent a lot of time this winter working on a custom circuit board that can be used to control home built gates. I'm hoping to have some prototype boards this month to assemble if all goes well. I promised a few to members last year and plan on keeping that promise I'd be more than willing to send you one if your interested in building your own gates. It will basically turn that box of electrical spaghetti on page one into a nice clean circuit board in an enclosure with some connectors on it. I added a few other goodies on the board I will be testing this spring. :)

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martinarcher, I too would be interested in on of the control boxes when you get them all assembeled.

Robert

Edited by blk93jeepzj
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Sorry, I missed you post. I have actually spent a lot of time this winter working on a custom circuit board that can be used to control home built gates. I'm hoping to have some prototype boards this month to assemble if all goes well. I promised a few to members last year and plan on keeping that promise I'd be more than willing to send you one if your interested in building your own gates. It will basically turn that box of electrical spaghetti on page one into a nice clean circuit board in an enclosure with some connectors on it. I added a few other goodies on the board I will be testing this spring. :)

Package that with an inexpensive Speedometer readout via GPS and you'd have it nailed!

I know you already made on for yourself, but not all of us are there yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

If anyone is interested just PM me. I kind of built this as a fun project for my boat and others seem to be interested. If I need to order more boards I just want to get an idea of how many.

PM sent, Martin. I'm very interested.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Yo dude, I'm planning my attack for my surf gate mod on the LSV. I just read this whole thread again and have a question. Did you through bolt all your hinge bolts? or are they just screws into the fiberglass?

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Lenco recommends screwing through the fiberglass with their trim tab kits. Even for tabs that are going to be on oceangoing vessels. So while overkill is always fun, not sure that it's required. Plus the screws and some sealant self-seal really well.

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martinarcher

Yep, I just screwed mine in the fiberglass. My transom is 2.5" thick so I used 2.25" stainless screws....10 of them. Those gates aren't going anywhere. :)

Let me know if you want me to put you on the list for a controller? I'm finally getting close to a board I can hold. :yahoo:

Your platform is teak too right? That will be a nice plus. :)

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It amazes me what can be done with an Arduino. I took 3 terms of calculus based physics, & in the last term we had a term-long project involving a greenhouse. Our team (there were 3 of us) was charged with designing an automated environmental control system, & we used an Arduino as the base controller. The scripting wasn't hard, although I wasn't the one that did that. It's a pretty amazing little device. Another controller that we considered was the Raspberry Pi, have you looked at that one? Cool that you're building your own though. The lab for one of my classes is doing that, but I'm not in the lab so I don't get to have that sort of fun. Yet.

I've gotta say M, you've got big brass ones to dive in to the deep end (as Nicky put it) & take on something like that. While I could see myself eventually getting to the point that you're at, I would be very cautious & start with a fully manual system first. Big brass ones dude. :notworthy:

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martinarcher

:lol: Thanks Tracie, I appreciate it. I've always been one that is too bull headed to take no for an answer and will try and try and try until I get something figured out. :) My buddies in high school told me my Ford Escort could never be fast....when I graduated college it had a Focus 2 Liter, a DSM turbo charger and more Greddy parts than you could shake a stick at. :lol: What a fun little car.

The Atmel stuff is fun. We have used a lot of it at work in custom designed controllers. The Arduino's are the coolest thing to happen to the geek community since Mountain Dew and pizza. :) I love them and use them for any little project that I need a controller for. The next thing I want to do it automate our garden watering....it's too easy not to! I have not messed with a Rasberry Pi, but they look very similar and a bit more powerful than the standard issue Uno. I love my Mega since it has so many serial ports. It was handy when testing a bunch of different GPS receivers for output accuracy and and update rates. It allowed me to input two data streams from the GPS receivers that were being compared and output them in csv format via the third and fourth port to my PC for trending. Pretty handy. If anyone is interested here is what two trends (1Hz vs 10Hz GPS receivers) look like in a hard pull to 45-50mph then back to 0 in a diesel truck with 3 shifts. Hard to even see the shifts in the 1Hz data.....

1Hz_zpsf01ba91e.png

10Hz_zps3e6b1a92.png

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:lol: Thanks Tracie, I appreciate it. I've always been one that is too bull headed to take no for an answer and will try and try and try until I get something figured out. :) My buddies in high school told me my Ford Escort could never be fast....when I graduated college it had a Focus 2 Liter, a DSM turbo charger and more Greddy parts than you could shake a stick at. :lol: What a fun little car.

....

That's what makes a good programmer, an unwillingness to let go of the challenge/problem (we look at them as challenges, right?). I think possibly the most impressive part is that you had no tweaks or issues after that initial run. You & I both know it, but it needs to be said for everyone else: THAT'S ALMOST UNHEARD OF. Really, really nice job of design, testing & implementation. When I'm farther along in my edumacation, I'd love to take a look at your code.

Once you do the garden, you'll be looking at automated outdoor lighting, webcams, all kinds of stuff. We came up with some really neat ideas that could pretty easily be implemented using the Arduino. It was a fun project that opened up a new world of programming to me.

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martinarcher

:lol: Isn't that the truth...challenges is right. :) At work we like to call bugs, unintended features. :)

My boss caught me headed down to the test panel my second year on the job with my laptop at 4 o'clock on a Friday afternoon. He asked what I was doing and I told him I was ready to try the first revision of software for a new feature I had been working on. He smiled and said, "Go home or you'll be here until after dark." He knows me too well....I had dinner in the lab that night. :)

You are right about that! I was amazed I even got to surf that night let alone surf all night and enjoy it! I figured I would spend the evening either tweaking mechanical issues, electrical issue, or re-flashing the controller. I guess we all get lucky every once in a while. Sure thing...let me know.

I know it....it's a slippery slope. I have done some side projects for a buddy. We have a couple controllers based on the Netduino platform that are running LED signs. We chose it since it is Ethernet enabled and with an access point, allowed me to write a full control interface on the Android platform that allows the sign to be controlled wirelessly via a tablet or phone. Both the controller and handheld parts were fun, but each had their....challenges. :biggrin:

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Yep, I just screwed mine in the fiberglass. My transom is 2.5" thick so I used 2.25" stainless screws....10 of them. Those gates aren't going anywhere. :)

Let me know if you want me to put you on the list for a controller? I'm finally getting close to a board I can hold. :yahoo:

Your platform is teak too right? That will be a nice plus. :)

Cool man, I'll plan on just screwing them to the transom.

And, yes for sure I am in on the controler. I'm thinking this is going to be an off season project, but I want it for sure.

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:lol: Isn't that the truth...challenges is right. :) At work we like to call bugs, unintended features. :)

FOr all the control systems I work on we call them undocumented features!!

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At work we like to call bugs, unintended features. :)

FOr all the control systems I work on we call them undocumented features!!

That feature? Oh that's custom. Normally we charge extra for that. :whistle:

I don't work with control systems but if you modify enough things you will eventually contend with extra custom features.

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martinarcher

Here's one of our favorites at work.....

Top 20 replies by Programmers to Testers when their programs don't work

20. "That's weird..."
19. "It's never done that before."
18. "It worked yesterday."
17. "How is that possible?"
16. "It must be a hardware problem."
15. "What did you type in wrong to get it to crash?"
14. "There is something funky in your data."
13. "I haven't touched that module in weeks!"
12. "You must have the wrong version."
11. "It's just some unlucky coincidence."
10. "I can't test everything!"
9. "THIS can't be the source of THAT."
8. "It works, but it hasn't been tested."
7. "Somebody must have changed my code."
6. "Did you check for a virus on your system?"
5. "Even though it doesn't work, how does it feel?
4. "You can't use that version on your system."
3. "Why do you want to do it that way?"
2. "Where were you when the program blew up?"
1. "It works on my machine"

:lol:

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:lol: Thanks Tracie, I appreciate it. I've always been one that is too bull headed to take no for an answer and will try and try and try until I get something figured out. :) My buddies in high school told me my Ford Escort could never be fast....when I graduated college it had a Focus 2 Liter, a DSM turbo charger and more Greddy parts than you could shake a stick at. :lol: What a fun little car.

The Atmel stuff is fun. We have used a lot of it at work in custom designed controllers. The Arduino's are the coolest thing to happen to the geek community since Mountain Dew and pizza. :) I love them and use them for any little project that I need a controller for. The next thing I want to do it automate our garden watering....it's too easy not to! I have not messed with a Rasberry Pi, but they look very similar and a bit more powerful than the standard issue Uno. I love my Mega since it has so many serial ports. It was handy when testing a bunch of different GPS receivers for output accuracy and and update rates. It allowed me to input two data streams from the GPS receivers that were being compared and output them in csv format via the third and fourth port to my PC for trending. Pretty handy. If anyone is interested here is what two trends (1Hz vs 10Hz GPS receivers) look like in a hard pull to 45-50mph then back to 0 in a diesel truck with 3 shifts. Hard to even see the shifts in the 1Hz data.....

1Hz_zpsf01ba91e.png

10Hz_zps3e6b1a92.png

Martin can I ask you witch GPS module you did use with your Arduino? Because the one I'm using is not really good and get some difficulty to hold a good signal... Did you use one with an external antenna?

Thanks for your help.

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martinarcher

I'll have to look up the name of the GPS's I've tested. There have been so many it is hard to keep track. I have yet to find a "bad" one. They all lock on quickly and seem to update as advertised (1Hz, 5Hz, 10Hz). Which one are you having trouble with? Maybe I can help. I know things to not....

GPS voltage - 3.3V units will need a voltage conversion circuit to allow the GPS to talk with a 5V based controller.

GPS Config - before talking the GPS you should send it a proper config telling it what rate you would like it to update and also what NEMA strings you would like to receive, along with the baud rate. If the baud rate is too slow and your update rate is very high, you will get erratic performance since the serial line will over run with data.

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I've never heard of an Arduino but they look pretty interesting. How hard would it be for a noob to learn to program one ?

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martinarcher

It really depends on what you want to do. Grab one and hop onto their website and walk through some of their tutorials. You will be blinking LEDs and smiling in no time. :)

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