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I have not been using this to record the many things which have been happening.
The main one is the coming of the VLCB (Versatile Layout Control Bus) with associated libraries.
I am working on some of these in separate repositories.
I have been able to get the CBUS long message codes running and exchanging text messages. I now need also to update my codes to keep up with some changes in the Arduino CBUS libraries, affecting also the DUE codes.
I have been making some new examples in the StateMachine folder
There are now a lot of examples as I am comparing using the StateMachine library with IoAbstraction, TaskManagerIO and KeyboardManager.
I have also begun experiments with macros to define things and allow configuration as used in DCC++EX (with the help of Chris Harlow).
I have added a set of analog buttons to the TOTEM equipment and modified the CBUS CANTOTEM code to read them.
I have been mainly working with CANCMDDC2 in its separate repository. I want now to use the cbus_codes branch here to develop some of the things which I want to put into the new version of CANCMDDC and some other CBUS codes.
I need keypad and encoder for CANCMDDC and it is also useful to have IR detection, servo and stepper motor codes. I have had stand alone codes for a lot of these working in the past. I had put them aside and could not remember the details. As this was before I was using GitHub the codes are not as well documented. I am now sorting that out.
I have now found matrixKeyboard2 which is useful as it uses the KeyboardListener provided by IoAbstraction and should work in well in CANCMDDC2. I will adapt that as a CBUS module on its own as well.
I now need to do the same for the other hardware.
I have been bringing in some more of the Arduino CBUS codes and also making use of PROGMEM to reduce the use of memory.
I think that I had an example somewhere of a stepper motor code and at the moment I cannot find it. I bought some stepper motors in March 2021 and it is unlike me not to have tried one out.
I now have some more of the DFRobot expansion boards and plan to fit them to a number of UNO, MEGA and DUE boards where I need the extra earth and power pins.
I have begun to look at some of the DUE code examples.
There are a number of different scheduler libraries I had not found before. Some work only on DUE and some not on it at all. These are listed on Arduino RTOS Index on my ConnectedText wiki. This is getting quite complicated as there are a number of similar ones.
After Mark Riddoch's talk to the Arduino SIG I have been looking at his code for CANINLK. I have been wanting to look at this for a long time.
This uses mcp_CAN, an alternative CBUS library which I have not used before. At the moment it does not compile as Mark has added something to the library.
Also the code uses an SD card and I don't have that hardware at the moment.
The code has its own hard coded event handling.
So, I don't have the hardware and it needs a special library. I just want to note this information here for the moment.
I am testing some new ideas for critical event sending in CANTOTEM for possible use in CANmINnOUT. A first test has now been successful.
I have been developing some new coding ideas for the DUE which unfortunately will not work on ordinary Arduinos.
I have added two small examples for ArduinoSTL which is a library available in the Arduino IDE. There is one problem which is that the library works with Version 1.8.2 of the Arduino AVR boards and not the latest 1.8.3 which is loaded by Arduino IDE 1.8.13. If you use the latest version the code will not compile.
There are a lot of developments on the due_cbus branch, including getting my FC++ code working for both DUE and AVR environments.
I now have a copy of Boost 1.51.0 available as a library. I need to post an example of how to use it. At the moment all the examples are on the due_cbus branch. There are now some examples on the master thread.
I now also have a copy of Boost 1.66.0 which has a lot more libraries. I have only been able to get this working with an Arduino DUE.
I have been doing a lot on the hardware side, looking at Arduino shields which have a 16 by 2 display and buttons. These are used in Ezybus and also by Tony Clulow in his work with similar hardware and different code.
There are some examples here of codes which test the buttons and report on the display. I have expanded the original codes to use task management in the same way as I have done with other devices. The examples are here.
I want to expand this work to include a version which works with CBUS. This puts extra demands on the pins and can be done in two ways.
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Using the DFRobot version of the shield I can use pins 11 12 and 13 for the SCI interface and pin 15 for the CS. Pin 10 is not available as it is used for the display backlight.
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Use a backpack to convert the display to I2C, when the SCI pins are free anyway. I plan to use a D1Robot shield to test this.
I think I have now resolved all the configuration problems with Arduino usage.
Made a serious start on CANCMDDC2 codes.
Sorted out a problem for Martin on CBUS_DC_Throttle_exp
Expand use of the avr-gcc compiler on avr-gcc branches, see VS CODE learning. I have had no problems with this. I can merge the branches in while keeping the avr-gcc branch for more experiments.
I have updated VSCODE.md to reflect the learning about VS Code and the solution of a number of problems.
I have merged some changes Martin had made to the CBUS codes and set up pull requests for my .vscode configuration changes.
I am still investigating how to solve the issue of the register names.
I raised the avr32/io.h issue with the Arduino Extension. I have added the SPI example DigitalPotControl as an example of the error. There is activity on the issue.
I have started to use subfiles to slim down README.
I have learned how to send a pull requests to Martin on his two repositories. These have now been merged in.
I am continuing to work on the problem of Arduino configuration with VS Code. I have made some progress sorting out some errors I had made through not understanding some configuration options.
I have added .gitignore to the CBUSmINnOUT repository to ignore the .vscode files.
I have forked Martin Da Costa's code for CBUSmINnOUT in order to use it for a prototype panel on the Totem Mini Lab.
I needed the updates to the CBUS libraries which are not yet in the Arduino system. I have upgraded them by hand.
I am thinking about what to do with the CANCMDDC2 codes of which there are a lot of versions as a result of the work done last year without version control.
The latest version CANCMDDC_V2_9 is the first to have Task Scheduling which should have been in the previous versions and so is a base from which to work.
There is an earlier version CANCMDDC_V3_0 where I had started to add RS485 code to an earlier version.
Things are complicated as the name from the point of view of MERG FCU will be CANCMDDC as the previous version of CANCMDDC does not support CBUS events.
I am going to make a version of this with the H bridge controllers although it will need to evolve a version which will support the DC controllers when those become available for CBUS.
I think this means that the repository should be named CANCMDDC rather than CANCMDDC2. Holding it with the other CANCMDDC can if neeed be handled using branches.
So I need that repository.
Starting work on the arduino code for the DC Controler from John Purbrick. I have a copy of the hardware put together for me by Robert Thomas. I am exploring using this with the software called arduino_throttle.
I am restarting this work as a result of Sven Rosvall's Zoom talk to the Arduino SIG. After some discussion with him I am going to have a series of different repositories for different pieces of software. I have set up a project in my ConnectedText wiki where I can document the repositories and their relationships. To start with the work in progress will remain on the local computer and not be moved to the public site on GitHub.
Overall documentation of what is going on can be done here.
I have added in Visual Micro to the installation of Visual Studio Code which I am using for text editing. https://www.visualmicro.com/.
I added a VSC option for C++ which it seemed to be needing and then the Arduino IDE. This added some configuration files to the current repository. One of these files recorded the board I have specified and also indentified the *.ino file in the repository.
NOTE: This will make it difficult to have files for two different boards in the same repository.
I do now understand the configuration I have to do. It does allow me to verify the code. There is an option to choose a serial port. It also wants an output path to be specified.
It has detected an Octave based C++ compiler.
I have added pwmtest as an experiment to see what would happen. It is a test for the addresses of I2C devices.
Created Arduino-IR-Task repository
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