The AS5147 magnetic absolute rotation sensor is perfect for measuring robot joint angles. The key here is absolute! A relative rotation sensor like an encoder is very cheap but when you need to always totally unquestionably need to know where your thing is at then you need absolute sensing. In this post I’m going to show you my test setup, wiring, and code so you can get started easy peasy.
I’ve shown you how to use shift registers to drive an LED grid, including how to draw pictures on the screen from memory. Now we’re going to use those tools to make a game similar to the classic Tetris. I’ll show you the circuit, how to draw pieces, how to create animations, respond to user input, and more. Learning how to build complex behavior from simple parts is a great start to thinking about how robots behave. https://www.instagram.com/p/BRMLTCeAd7y
In previous tutorials I showed how to use seven segment displays, how to use shift registers and how to daisy chain shift registers, and talked a bit about persistence of vision. In this tutorial we’re going to combine shift registers and seven segment displays to make an Arduino control two four-character seven-segment displays, a task that (at first glance) might not seem possible.
The first time using a new microcontroller is what I call funstrating, especially if you don’t have clear instructions. We’ve done the hard work of figuring out the NodeMCU drivers and NodeMCU Arduino IDE setup for you. Read on for the two steps that have to be done only once. More helpful info at the end, too.(more…)
Shared anodes and cathodes are a common technique used to control lots of LEDs with a small number of microcontroller pins. I’m going to talk about why share anodes and/or cathodes. Then I’ll show an example of shared anodes, an example of shared cathodes, and finally combine the two for some more impressive results.
