Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

OK, so I've built a bow thruster for the pontoon.
Being the electronic hobbyist that I am (now that I am no longer an electronic engineer), it just makes sense that I would build a microcontroller-based control box for it.

It's mostly complete!

Uh-oh..... man, I don't want to "one up" you, Bob, but I'm not sure about that micro-controller. I would have gone macro.... but that's just me. 220/221, whatever it takes.

Seriously, this is really cool. I look forward to seeing how this works out and seeing the "business end" of what it is powering. Keep the photos and info coming and thanks for sharing!

Let's see if I can post the business end again...

So it works. I just used a bunch of relays to control it last season, and a 200 pound actuator - which I had some issues with burning out actuators. Now, with a microcontroller monitoring the progress of the actuator, and the current it's drawing (and an upgrade to a 1,000 pound actuator), I don't expect to have any more issues with THAT!

Awesome! Keep us posted on your progress!!!

Ur my hero Bob. I've been reading into Arduino etc...trying to squish the techonology into a remote water-cannon controller. My poor old head is starting to swim. Maybe when I was young and mentally flexible

The PicAxe microcontrollers are super simple to work with. It's really weird to be programming in BASIC, but one language is as good as the next, as far as I'm concerned. Talk about dichotomy - I program in C#.NET at work. While I've never programmed in BASIC for a living, it's the first language I learned, back in 1973 or so.

It doesn't LOOK like the BASIC I learned 42 years ago!

if ArmDownSwitchIn = 1 then
; Lower the arm
if ArmStatus != StatusDown then
ArmDirection = DirectionDown
DesiredPulseCount = 0
Gosub MoveArm
endif
else
; Raise the arm
if ArmStatus != StatusUp then
ArmDirection = DirectionUp
DesiredPulseCount = 0
Gosub MoveArm
endif
endif

BobG wrote:The PicAxe microcontrollers are super simple to work with. It's really weird to be programming in BASIC, but one language is as good as the next, as far as I'm concerned. Talk about dichotomy - I program in C#.NET at work. While I've never programmed in BASIC for a living, it's the first language I learned, back in 1973 or so.

It doesn't LOOK like the BASIC I learned 42 years ago!

if ArmDownSwitchIn = 1 then
; Lower the arm
if ArmStatus != StatusDown then
ArmDirection = DirectionDown
DesiredPulseCount = 0
Gosub MoveArm
endif
else
; Raise the arm
if ArmStatus != StatusUp then
ArmDirection = DirectionUp
DesiredPulseCount = 0
Gosub MoveArm
endif
endif

Thx Bob. I looked up PicAxe and it does look marginally easier to muddle through. It also looks like the chip could be flashed via USB, which would simplfy things greatly. I remember (vaguely) working with BASIC in the dark ages as well (along with playing Oregon Trail on the phone modem. My family always starved in the mountains). It looks like it has been modified a bit for PicAxe but nothing too brutal. Thank god no C+ for me
I've got a friend fresh from the service with a bunch of drone/robotics programming in him. He may be able to shed some light on my options as well.

tuned wrote:I looked up PicAxe and it does look marginally easier to muddle through. It also looks like the chip could be flashed via USB, which would simplfy things greatly.

Exactly. I tweak the code, and write it back to the chip, which immediately starts executing it. Makes for very easy debugging and incremental development. Very cool that you have direct control of the input and output pins from BASIC (and analog to digital conversion as well!)

BobG wrote:
Exactly. I tweak the code, and write it back to the chip, which immediately starts executing it. Makes for very easy debugging and incremental development. Very cool that you have direct control of the input and output pins from BASIC (and analog to digital conversion as well!)

And they say that all libs are brain-dead

Where is the button to switch the thread language back to English?

woolznaz wrote:Where is the button to switch the thread language back to English?

Press 1

margaritaman wrote:

woolznaz wrote:Where is the button to switch the thread language back to English?

Press 1

or "marque uno"

woolznaz wrote:Where is the button to switch the thread language back to English?

For C# (C sharp) SetLanguage(string langval);
For FORTRAN, call SetLanguage(1)
For Pascal, throw out your shift key and enter some curly braces...or something like that.
For COBOL multiply your age by your weight returning gibberish.

BobG wrote:

woolznaz wrote:Where is the button to switch the thread language back to English?

For C# (C sharp) SetLanguage(string langval);
For FORTRAN, call SetLanguage(1)
For Pascal, throw out your shift key and enter some curly braces...or something like that.
For COBOL multiply your age by your weight returning gibberish.

I thought you were leading me down the wrong path there for a minute, BobG, but then I realized that was all in Kelvin and I was using Celsius, which was further complicated by not correcting for time zones. Silly me! Oh, and when I multiplied my age by my weight my computer started smoking. Is that a bad sign?

Now, carry on you mad scientists. I'm sorry for dumbing down your thread.

I love your project, by the way. I'm sure some windy day on the water while docking in front of a crowd in tight quarters I'm going to wish I had the brains to duplicate it!