From the mailbox

AlexP managed to port the Wise Clock 4 code to Arduino Mega2560 (shared here, thanks Alex!). He made this video demonstrating it in action:

Today I had a great day! I did it! I soldered a development board for my Mega2560. A little corrected code and ... voila!  Wiring diagram:

• rtc sqw (1hz) - pin 2
• menu key - pin 3
• set key - pin 4
• plus key - pin 5
• speaker - pin 6
• speaker - pin 7
• HT1632_WRCLK - pin 10
• HT1632_CS - pin 11
• HT1632_DATA - pin 12
• HT1632_CLK - pin 13
• rtc sda - pin 20
• rtc scl - pin 21

(SD while not tested, but I think it works)

• sd miso - pin 50
• sd mosi - pin 51
• sd sck - pin 52
• sd cs - pin 53

NelsonC built his own hand-wired version of WiFiChron and it looks awesome:

MikeM sent in (thanks Mike!) his latest WiFiChron code (available here).

The enclosed zip file compiles under Arduino 1.6.8, though it generates a warning I haven't figured out how to eliminate.
Ray ran into a problem with data overruns. When data in an RSS feed was split between multiple packets, sometimes the last few bytes of a packet were dropped from the RSS buffer. I didn't see that problem with my clock when I was developing the code, nor did I see it on the WiseClock4. I've re-built the RSS state machine to be more CPU efficient, and now the packets are processed without drops. We probably don't need to change the RSS code on the WiseClock4 as it runs at 16 MHz and not 8 MHz like the WiFiChron.
I also changed the PROGMEM statements to fit the 1.6.8 standard.

And finally, I got the PCBs for the 1284-equipped versions of WiFiChron and bGeigie nano.

For both I relied on internal (software-driven) pull-ups (basically I eliminated the pull-up resistors), without checking first if that would work. Unfortunately, the current sanguino library does not implement correctly the function pinMode(x,INPUT_PULLUP). So I had to resort to resistors soldered on the back of the board. That, plus missing a necessary decoupling capacitor, plus also missing some connections on the bGeigie board, made for a "fun-filled", but in the end successful, testing. More on these in a future post.

Wise Clock 4 software for Arduino 1.6.8

Scott H. put the time and the effort to port the Wise Clock 4 code (also the HDSP-Proverb and WiFiChron code) to Arduino 1.6.8 (the latest, but maybe not the greatest). This is a big endeavor, which I did not plan to pursue any time soon. Now, thanks to Scott, here we have it. I compiled it and uploaded it myself, on Windows (he did it on Mac).

The Wise Clock 4 files are all in the same "TheClock" folder, directly under "libraries", as shown in the following screenshot.

But before uploading to ATmega1284, this section needs to be inserted in boards.txt (*):

##############################################
atmega1284.name=Sanguino W/ ATmega1284p 16mhz
atmega1284.upload.tool=avrdude
atmega1284.upload.protocol=stk500v1
atmega1284.upload.maximum_size=129024
atmega1284.upload.speed=57600
atmega1284.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
atmega1284.bootloader.high_fuses=0x98
atmega1284.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFD
atmega1284.bootloader.path=atmega
atmega1284.bootloader.file=atmega1284p_16MHz.hex
atmega1284.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
atmega1284.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F
atmega1284.build.mcu=atmega1284p
atmega1284.build.f_cpu=16000000L
atmega1284.build.core=sanguino
atmega1284.build.board=AVR_ATMEGA1284

##############################################

The two highlighted lines are new for 1.6.8: "upload.tool" and "build.board" (which has a default value though).

Next, as specified in the line "atmega1284.build.core=sanguino", we need to create the folder "sanguino", containing the core files. Folder structure should look like this:

Note that a few sanguino core files that worked in Arduino 1.0.6 need to be modified to compile on 1.6.8. Like the Wise Clock 4 code itself, most of these changes are related to the PROGMEM definition, which now requires every progmem variable to be constant. The modified files are WString.* and Print.*, copies of the arduino core files.

Talking about sanguino core files, which served pretty well so far, it is worth mentioning that the current implementation for pinMode(pin, INPUT_PULLUP) (in file wiring_digital.c) is not working. Until I find a software solution, I will still need to use pull up resistors.

(*) There is a more "user friendly" way to add a new board, that involves downloading packages from a specified URL, but I found the learning curve for this method too steep (or, to say it differently, I was too lazy).