Spoke Too Soon

Well all is not as it seems.

Though the Arduino software installed easier than I thought, it turns out a few more extra steps are needed to get to work.

At first I couldn't select any of the serial ports. After giving up for a while, I came across this webpage on the arch wiki. I'm pretty sure I looked before and couldn't find it, oh well.

Turns out it was a permission issue, but giving the user the correct permissions didn't seem to help either.

So what I did was create a launcher that runs the command sudo arduino from the terminal. I have it set to keep the terminal open while the program runs so I can see what TX and RX versions are uploaded. It sometimes comes in handy.

Now there's just one issue I can't seem to get across.

When I upload the program to the board, it blinks as usual, but it doesn't loop for some weird reason.

Well even though I couldn't correctly upload the program, I did finish the program needed for the solar tracker. It's surprisingly easier than I had anticipated.

And here it is.

Note it is copyrighted.


/*
Solar Tracker
This program controls a servo to allow solar cells to always face the source of light
Created 1/18/11
Ian Bohannon
Copyright 2011
*/

#include <*servo.h>

int ServoOut = 9;
int photoPinLeft = 0;
int photoPinRight = 1;
int LeftReading;
int RightReading;
int pos;

Servo myservo;

void setup()
{
myservo.attach(ServoOut);
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
LeftReading = analogRead(photoPinLeft);
RightReading = analogRead(photoPinRight);

Serial.print("Left Reading = ");
Serial.println(LeftReading);
Serial.print("Right Reading = ");
Serial.println(RightReading);

if(LeftReading > RightReading)
{
pos = 65;
}
else if(LeftReading < RightReading)
{
pos = 45;
}
else
{
pos = 55;
}

myservo.write(pos);
delay(120);
}"

What it does is compare the light shining on each sensor, then through the If statement, adjusts the servo speed and direction accordingly. Through experimenting I know the servo sits still at position 55, spins one direction when higher than 55, and the other when lower than 55.

Because I can't upload it from this computer yet, I haven't gotten around to testing it and debugging it. The values may need to change a tad bit.