IPC Class Notes, Serial Communication P2 - Oct 21, 2009

Today’s class focused on expanding our understanding of serial communications and holding brief discussions regarding our media controller projects.

Media Controller Discussion – Specific Guidance
For our project one of the main areas that we have not yet solved is how to play and modulate the sound. In response to our request for input we briefly discussed the three sound libraries available in Processing:

• Minim – sound generation and audio playback support with limited in functionality.
• ESS – more functionality then Minim but still very basic set of features.
• Sonia – most powerful, flexible and complex of the bunch.

(Since we originally held this discussion we have figured out a solution for our needs. I will post more information about it in the next two days.)

Media Controller Discussion – General Guidance
Tom provided the class with an overview of a helpful process for building prototypes. Here is a description of it, along with some additional thoughts of my own. Once you’ve decided on the idea for your project and are ready to start building mental, virtual and physical prototypes it is useful to break down the idea into sensing, data processing and response activities.

When building out the sensing portion of your project, (1) if you have any doubts regarding whether your plan will work then you should create simple models to test your strategy. At this stage the simpler the better, though some times there is only so much simplification you can add.

Once you know that your overall sensing strategy is sound, (2) work on getting your sensors physically set-up and connected properly to the circuit. Test the circuit to ensure it works properly and confirm the range of the sensor.

(3) Only after confirming that the sensors are working properly should you move on to setting up communication between the Arduino and the computer (in our case, processing). There is nothing wrong with working on this section of the code simultaneously but just don’t try to debug your sensors from across the serial connection.

When working on the data processing part of your project, (1) start by focusing on developing a sketch that is able to process fake data before trying to connect the application to handle live sensor readings. (2) It can be helpful to develop a virtual version of your physical interface. It enables you to test code before the physical prototype is done, and can serve as a debugging tool. (3) Once the data processing is working, set-up and test the connection between the sensor, data processing, and response elements.

Follow a similar process for setting up the response mechanism. (1) Make sure that you can get it working on its own, (2) then connect it to the data processing hub (or directly to the Arduino) and test the two together.

Serial Communication - Part 2
To communicate multiple messages at once via the serial port requires use of one of the following strategies: (1) delimitation method; (2) handshaking.

(1) Delimitation (or Punctuation)
A communication protocol that leverages punctuation characters to demarcate where one piece of data begins and another one ends. Here is an overview of the Processing functions that you will need to use to decode the readings from the Arduino:

• PortName.bufferUntil() – sets on which character the serialEvent callback function is called by the serial buffer.
• String.Trim() – get rid of any blank space in the beginning and end of the string. Does not impact the middle of the string.
• Split(string, split character) – enables splitting the string at where ever the split character is found.

(2) Handshaking
This protocol determines that the Arduino will not send any messages unless it receives a request from the computer. In order to make this protocol work you need to set-up the following logic to govern the communication cadence:

• On the Arduino sketch you need to integrate an if statement that confirms that data has been received via the serial port before it sends out any of its own data via the serial port (Serial.available() > 0). Make sure to clear the buffer every time by using the Serial.read() function. This if statement could also check for specific characters being received through the serial port.
• On the Processing side you need add code that sends out a message to the Arduino every time that Processing is ready to receive a new communication. This can be triggered anytime that Processing is done reading the current serial data buffer (or using counters and event-based triggers).

Often it may be necessary to create a simple function on the Arduino and Processing side to establish the initial communication. Here is an example of how these types of functions may work together: On the Arduino side a function would be added to the setup()that loops repeatedly sending one-character messages to Processing until it receives back a response, which confirms a connection has been established. On the Processing side, whenever a serial communication is received a simple function would check whether communications had previously been established. If it had not, then the communication state would be changed and the current communication discarted. If communication had been established then the data would be processed.

Miscellaneous Notes
Every time the serial port is opened the Arduino re-initiates the sketch that it is running.

• \n = new line
• \r = carriage return (goes back to the beginning of the line)

Paradigms for Programming Languages

• Loop-based – processing and arduino are loop-based languages because at their core that organizes the code to run in a repetitive loop.
• Callback-based (event-based) – javascript on the other hand is a callback-based language that organizes codes to run based on events.

IR cameras are a great way to use a camera in a way that helps it identify the object we need to locate.

Things to Check Out

• Check out Dan’s site about the “rest of you” for information about bio-feedback.
• Look at Aaron’s theses on cats.