Arduino Stack Exchange
Arduino Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [system-design]

This tag should be used for questions regarding the selection of components, deciding functionality, and other issues that may come up during the early stages of a project.

61 questions
48
votes
17 answers

How to trigger an alarm when toilet paper is low?

Anyone with kids knows they never help with the toilet paper. Anyone know how to track when it's low or out and sound an audible alarm? I just don't know what sensor to use that may help. Some that came to mind are: by weight, by reflection (the…
Jose Leon
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29
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8 answers

How can I get a unique ID for all my Arduino boards?

Once you have uploaded a sketch to one of your Arduino boards, it is hard to know exactly what source code led to that sketch. Indeed, you may change the source code of your sketch on your PC without updating it (in binary format) to your board. I…
jfpoilpret
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21
votes
7 answers

Loading local libraries

I'm new to Arduino/C development (coming from a JavaScript/Ruby environment), but I was wondering if it was possible to include a library from a custom folder within a sketch? So this is my situation; project.ino libs/ MyNewLib/ MyNewLib.h …
Stefan
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14
votes
5 answers

How to connect two Arduino without shields?

I'm planning an Arduino system that consists of several Arduino boards. The maximum distance between the boards is about 50 meters. I want to send basic data between these, like short strings or integers. I know I could send data through ethernet…
totymedli
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12
votes
3 answers

ATMega328P-PU and 328P-AU

im planing to make my very own arduino design based on the Arduino PRO mini. I picked this board instead of the UNO mostly because it's way more simpler compared with the UNO since the USB-to-Serial part is missing. As many of you know the MINI uses…
Meletis Flevarakis
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11
votes
4 answers

How do I know if a board fits my requirements?

I'm new to Arduino and I saw on their website that there are many different kinds of boards. What are the differences, or to be more specific, how would I know which board meets my requirements? I understand that the shields can be connected to the…
Elior
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9
votes
9 answers

Best way to determine if a 5 gallon water jug is getting empty

I have an espresso machine that gets its water from one of those 5 gallon blue water bottles (I would plumb it, but our water here is WAAAAY too hard). If I ever accidentally let the bottle run out of water, the rotary pump in the espresso machine…
synic
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9
votes
7 answers

How to remember variable values after rebooting an Arduino Uno R3 board?

Is there any way to store the values of necessary variables somewhere (may be in a file that gets updated by the program at various events), which can be read back when program starts after rebooting the Arduino board? I am trying to control my AC…
Samik Chattopadhyay
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7
votes
2 answers

Most power efficient way to constantly save 2 kilobytes of data per second

I would like to constantly save data coming from sensors (for an activity tracker) while consuming as less battery as possible (I'd like to have a 4/5 days autonomy on a 3000 mAh battery) but I can't find the best way to save about 2 kBytes/s on a…
Pop Flamingo
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7
votes
1 answer

From transfer function to arduino

This question might seem stupid, but I have been curious about it for a long time. So I am a new engineering student, and we learned a lot about "designing a controller". For example, design controller for a car steering system and so on. All the…
MechAvia
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6
votes
1 answer

Streaming audio from PC to Arduino over WiFi

Say I wanted to, purely hypothetically, set up a pirate radio station by connecting an Arduino to a WiFi network away from home, streaming music to the Arduino, decoding it, and broadcasting it with an FM transmitter. Given an Arduino (Genuino)…
Joris
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6
votes
5 answers

Is it possible to transmit using an NRF24L01+ without an Arduino?

I have two NRF24L01+ modules which are transceivers, but for my project I would like to send a very simple signal from one of these modules to the be read by the other. That would've been very simple if I had an Arduino on each side but due to power…
Ceottaki
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5
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1 answer

How do I manipulate a large number of moving platforms?

I am trying to build a device that will allow me to control at least a couple hundred raising platforms. The goal of this is to create a real time editor for board games (Dungeons and Dragons). Ideally: All the platforms would move simultaneously…
user591
5
votes
1 answer

Replacement crystal on Uno for cold temperatures

I want to run an arduino out in the cold (-40), and use the serial communication - I believe that the crystal is the weakest link (the one for the serial chip) - however I don't see any drop-in (through-hole) replacement crystals that would work in…
user2813274
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4
votes
5 answers

How can I run multiple programs on an Arduino?

I'm trying to get students to experiment with Arduino. However, due to a lack of boards, two teams of students will collaborate on each board. They will push their own code (independent from each other) and use half the pins. The "hardware" part…
Giulio Muscarello
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