Simulated Integer and Float Values from Arduino

Introduction

Arduino's are very common microcontroller boards used to study and design programmable electronics. It is often used with multiple peripherals such as buttons, sliders, sensors and motors.

Together with a TIMI acting as a small fancy display, Arduino boards become a lot more powerful and interesting to use in prototyping.

Mates Studio widgets are mostly capable of displaying 16-bit integer values. In addition to that, the LedDigits widget can also display 32-bit integers and 32-bit float values.

This project showcases a TIMI-96 module controlled by an Arduino Uno to display simulated integer and float values and display these to LedDigits widgets.

Requirements

To proceed with the project, the following are required.

Hardware

• TIMI-96
• Mates Programmer
• USB Type A to microUSB cable (for the Mates Programmer)
• USB Type A to Type B cable (for the Arduino, replace as necessary)
• Connecting Wires
• Arduino Uno
• Breadboard

Software

• Mates Studio
• Arduino IDE

Graphics Design

Step 1: Open Mates Studio and create a Commander project for TIMI-96 with Reversed Landscape orientation

Step 2: Browse the library for appropriate page designs. For this project, Various Digits page under Miscellaneous category was used.

Step 3: After finalizing the design, connect TIMI-96 to your computer

Step 4: Upload the project to the appropriate COM port

Step 5: When prompted, click Proceed to continue with upload.

Note

It is recommended that the graphics design is finalized before moving to the next steps when working on a project

Programming the Arduino

Step 1: Install the MatesController library using Arduino’s Library Manager.

Step 2: Include MatesController.h to your project.

#include "MatesController.h"

Step 3: Create a MatesController instance named mates.

MatesController mates = MatesController(Serial);

This will initialize the MatesController instance to the default reset pin 4 using a LOW pulse.

Step 4: (Optional) Create a function for toggling the built-in LED of the Arduino board. This can be used for debugging or showing errors if the Serial monitor can’t be used.

int errLedStatus = LOW;
void ErrorLed_Toggle() {
  errLedStatus = ~errLedStatus;
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, errLedStatus);
}

Step 5: (Optional) At the beginning of the setup function, set the built-in LED pin to OUTPUT and set it to LOW.

pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, errLedStatus);

Step 6: To start using the MatesController instance, use the begin function

mates.begin();

This will initialize the Serial UART at the default baudrate of 9600

Step 7: (Optional) The begin function can be enclosed in an if condition to handle initialization errors.

if (!mates.begin()) {
  // Display didn't send ready signal in time
  while (1) {
    ErrorLed_Toggle();
    delay(100);
  }
}

Step 8: Create variables for 16-bit and 32-bit integer, and 32-bit float.

int16_t value = 0;
int32_t longValue = 100000;
float floatValue = 3.1416;

Step 9: In the loop function, the values are simulated and sent to TIMI as necessary.

void loop() {
  // mates.setWidgetValue(MATES_LED_DIGITS, 0, value);
  mates.setLedDigitsValue(0, value);
  mates.setLedDigitsValue(1, longValue);
  mates.setLedDigitsValue(2, floatValue);

  value++;
  longValue += 12345;
  floatValue += 3.1416;
}

As shown, the code simply increments each simulated value a certain amount every iteration and writes it to LedDigits widget.

Running the Project

After designing the user interface for TIMI and writing code for the Arduino and programming them, it is time to connect the devices together. Follow the diagram below for the connection between TIMI and Arduino.

Finally, supply power to the Arduino and observe the behavior of the project.

Downloadable Resources

The Mates Studio – Commander project and Arduino sketch is included in the MatesController library.

The Commander project is available under the extras folder of the library. You can find it in (if the library was installed using Arduino Library Manager):

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\Arduino\libraries\MatesController\extras\Various Digits.mates

Here are the links to the software applications, libraries and completed project files.

• Mates Studio
• Arduino IDE
• Arduino Mates Controller Library
• Project Files