Problem with Arduino UNO

Hi Frank,  As I look at your photos, I do not see a connection to analog in 2 but instead to digital pin 2.

Best Regards,

Lee

Hi Lee,

the sensor is supposed to be attached to a digital pin.

Best,

Frank

Hi Frank,

I have no clue how I thought that an analog pin was involved, tired perhaps.

Debug time –

• Does another Uno show the same erratic response?
• Does moving the input to another pin make a difference?
• Do you have another way of monitoring the PIR signal, scope or meter ?
• If you connect both the Uno and Duemilanove to receive the PIR signal do they show the same response – insure that both are powered by the same supply so supply current from one is not flowing into the other.

Since I don't know the actual behavior, the following may work but doesn't isolate the fault.  We use the following to eliminate responding to relay chatter.  At each change of state of the PIR wait a fixed delay and check the state again, if it is the same state assume it is stable and use that value.  If not delay again until you get the same states.

This delay and check could be extended to a fixed number of samples with delays between and only when all samples come back with the same state do you assume it is stable.

Best regards,

Lee

Hi Frank,

I have no clue how I thought that an analog pin was involved, tired perhaps.

Debug time –

• Does another Uno show the same erratic response?
• Does moving the input to another pin make a difference?
• Do you have another way of monitoring the PIR signal, scope or meter ?
• If you connect both the Uno and Duemilanove to receive the PIR signal do they show the same response – insure that both are powered by the same supply so supply current from one is not flowing into the other.

Since I don't know the actual behavior, the following may work but doesn't isolate the fault.  We use the following to eliminate responding to relay chatter.  At each change of state of the PIR wait a fixed delay and check the state again, if it is the same state assume it is stable and use that value.  If not delay again until you get the same states.

This delay and check could be extended to a fixed number of samples with delays between and only when all samples come back with the same state do you assume it is stable.

Best regards,

Lee

Hi Lee,

thanks for your response, I bought 3 Unos and all respond in the same way.

Being rather a newbie to Arduino and Processing I understand what you mean

re. delay but have no idea how to write that into my code. Could you do a

sample for me to follow?

Many thanks,

Frank

Hi Frank,

Since you already have a delay of 100 milliseconds,  I added two variables and then an if statement after the readDigital statement.  After a change in PIR value the loop will run one additional time to  verify that the same PIR value has been seen twice.  I don't like not knowing what the cause of the erratic response is but this may help.  Question for the group: has anyone seen different pin charactistics between the Uno and Duemilanove?

Regards,

Lee

/*
* PIR sensor tester
*/
int ledPin = 13;                // choose the pin for the LED
int inputPin = 2;               // choose the input pin (for PIR sensor)
int pirState = LOW;             // we start, assuming no motion detected
int val = LOW;   // variable for reading the pin status
int waitDelay = 10;  // delay, milliseconds, modify as necessary
int lastVal = LOW;  // for comparison
int setVal = LOW; // changes only when val and lastVal match twice
float startms = millis();

void setup() {
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);      // declare LED as output
  pinMode(inputPin, INPUT);     // declare sensor as input
  Serial.begin(9600);
  digitalWrite(ledPin, 0);
}
void loopTEST(){
float currentms = millis() - startms;
if (currentms > 500){

  val = !val;
  digitalWrite(ledPin, val);
  startms = millis();
}
}
void loop(){
  delay(100);
  val = digitalRead(inputPin);  // read input value
  /* If val and lastVal match, fall through the if statement.
     If not, set the lastVal to this changed value but put val
     back to previous state before 'chatter' started and go though
     loop until val and lastVal match.
   */
  if( val != lastVal )
  {
    lastVal = val;
    val = setVal
  }
  setVal = val;  // this is set each time which is redundant if
  //  the PIR did not change.
  digitalWrite(ledPin, val);  // turn LED ON or OFF

  // Serial.print(val) BUT SEE BELOW. DON'T UNCOMMENT!!!!
    if (val == 1){
  

   Serial.print(1, BYTE); // There is a potential reason for this verbose version:--
 
 
    }else{
     Serial.print(0, BYTE);
    }
}

Hi Lee,

thanks for this I'll have a go in the morning when I'm back in my studio.

I'll let you know how it goes, and I'm interested to hear the response  from

any others  who may have had similar issues.

Best,

Frank

Hi Lee,

Frank here again,

I'm glad to say that using your advice and spending hours altering the delay

in both Arduino and Processing and changing the Baud rate I hit on the right

combination and all of my boards now work in the way I need them to.

Many thanks for your help and suggestions. I can post my codes here if you

like.

With best wishes,

Frank

Hi Frank,  It's great that you have everything working as you want.  I am interested in what you discovered in finding the solution.  Others may be converting from Duemilanove to Uno based projects and what you found may help them as well.

Best regards,

Lee