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What stops your Arduino project?

cstanton

Say you want to create a solution to a problem you have, like automating the door on a chicken coop with the time of day...

What tends to stop you from developing it? Do you find that you encounter a problem part way through the project? Is it some knowledge you're lacking or is it the software?

Would you benefit from help with circuit design? Or is it something else?

We're looking at expanding our introduction videos and guidance on using Arduino products, and I'm interested in what you need help with, so reply and let us know, regardless of knowledge level.

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  • A simple debugger. Step, breakpoint and watching variables is a good start. A debugger is available for some boards now as a separate kit.' I've missed IDE debugger integration since day 1. 

    Low power designs. Most Arduino Classic designs run the controller in high power mode, and converting those to low power is not straightforward. Improved with the MKRxxxx family.

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    I agree with you, the debugger is something that you'll miss if you were already used to working that way.

    But code debugging in embedded systems is quite complicated. I have seen bad code many times that when you compiled the code without the debug lines the program stopped meeting the timing specifications. Especially in communication problems with many protocols.

    "Step, breakpoint, and watch variables are a good start" to a big mess ;)  I remember that a few years ago when I was debugging a program for a card payment countertop POS in that way, I stopped the program to see some variables of a GPRS communications task that was running in the background when printing the purchase receipt. I was not very lucky I stopped the program when the thermal head of the thermal printer was on... me looking at the debugger on my computer screen while the POS caught fire.

  • in reply to javagoza

    OUCH! 

    I chuckled at the predicament you described. I had a similar experience with a maker project containing a  28BYJ48. I stopped the program to work on some code not realizing 5V was applied to all coil windings. I scorched my fingers when I tried to remove the motor it was so hot.

    Programs are the majordomo of the system. Interrupt them from the task, have insufficient safety protocols or none at all and bad things can happen.

    In the eighties, I maintained a dish tracking system for weather balloons. The electronics were tubes. The servo's in that beast could whip the disk antenna around in less than seconds. The safety protocols recommended insertion of the 2inch diameter steel pins in the gear mechanism when performing any maintenance. The pins prevented movement. I respected that recommendation after seeing the mangled trash can the instructor displayed that tried stopping the beast. My spindly legs and arms would be no match for it.

  • in reply to colporteur

    I hear both of you :) - but can also compare with dev kits from TI, ST, Renesas, NXP, Silicon Labs, Infineon, ... that have a debugger, on board and in the IDE.

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  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    A debugger in the Arduino IDE is long overdue. They have had a debugger in their Beta IDE for some time now - don’t know why it is takng so long to get it stable. I recently tested the Würth Sensor FeatherWing which uses Visual Studio Code and Arduino libraries. It has a debugger and worked well in my limited testing.