'AutoFlat Controller' for SGPro

Hi there,

i’ve made a small computer-controlled dimmer that mimics the ‘Alnitak FlatMan’. The PCB is self-made utilizing UV lithography. The circuit is based on an Atmega328P-AU, therefore it is flashable using the Arduino IDE. The Sketch I used is based on Jared’s ArduinoLightbox code, extended to drive the OLED display. The control circuid is optically isolated from the LED circuid.

I’ve also made a video to show the controller in action: https://youtu.be/vnmD9czXb9s

Unfortunatly, SGPRo does not seem to analyze the capabilities of the FlatBox. Althought it has the correct deviceID set, SGPro does not gray-out the Shutter Open/Close buttons, but FlatMan devices have no shutter. Instead, I’d wish to be able to manually toggle the Light ON/OFF status.

Thanks, Robert

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Not a single thought on that. Bummer.

Sorry, sometime things get lost in the clutter.

First, really nice looking pcb! I never tend to get my designs off of the breadboard or end up using a permaproto.

I’ll double check the alnitak implementation. As long as you’re sending the correct type it should honor it.

If you can send a SGP log after connecting your device it would help.

Thanks,
Jared

Jared,

thanks for your answer. Here is a snippet from the log:

[06.12.17 10:37:36.672][DEBUG] [Main Thread] Connecting to Alnitak Flat Box
[06.12.17 10:37:36.827][DEBUG] [Main Thread] Alnitak Flat Box - Updating Device Variables - Model: 19 Motor Status: 0 Light Status: 0
[06.12.17 10:37:36.828][DEBUG] [Main Thread] Alnitak Flat Box - Successfully connected

According to the serial command list, 19 stands for FlatMan, so shutter open/closed should be disabled, but isn’t.

Additionally, when connecting the device to SGPro, I sometimes run into serial timeout errors. This is because my device as well as original Arduino has its FTDI-DTR connected to RST* on the Atmega. Interestingly, the DTR is only toggled on FIRST connect. When I click disconnect and connect again, the device does not restart.

Maybe, the DTR toggle could be fully disabled also for the first connect in SGPro in order to prevent device restart that interferes data transfer. Or I have to rework my PCB in order to remove the 100nF capacitor in between DTR and RST*. But that might not be a solution for users utilizing Arduino.

Robert

Ahh, I saw now that since February the DTR should be disabled. Well, I work with the latest SGPro version and see the DTR toggle on first and only on first connect.