Week Fifteen: Communication

The assignment for this week is to design a system that can communicate. My idea is simple. I always want to learn how to connect the behavior of a cell phone to an electronic module. I think one of the fastest way of doing so is to use the bluetooth. I use Arduino Uno to help me to realize my idea. There is no difficulty in setting up bluetooth on an Arduino Uno and connecting it to a motor. I played with function of bluetooth for several times. I interchange the signal from bluetooth with phrases to test whether the bluetooth functions properly. Then I build a communication system based on bluetooth and motor. I have attached my code with documentation.

I think this course of communication is important for me see the true beauty of setting up a system. I can make different electronic sector talk to each other so as to perform some complex actions. I think this lesson serves as an important milestone for me to see what digital fabrication can accomplish.

Files

There are several central steps and essences that are worth mentioning here. AT command is one essential part. It is a configuration command that helps to configure the three roles, Master, Slave and Loopback. This configuration is a prerequisite part before transfering my real data to the bluetooth. After the configuration, the second following step is to make my board communicate to the bluetooth. I need to calculate the exact data and make it compatible with the info being programmed. I see the unit "1" input is equivalent to 10 degrees of movement in motor, so I make the delay 3 times in order to match my "1" unit with 30 degrees. I set the whole program within a loop so that the bluetooth can keep detecting. The major problem for me during this week is to understand the principle for AT Command. Brother Yu spent quite a lot of efforts in helping me understand this part.