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Thread: GCode: open source paintball gun board/software

  1. #21
    Everyone OK with moving this out to the public open source forum?

  2. #22
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
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    Yup.

    Quote Originally Posted by sumorai View Post
    Yow! That's a pricey book. So far I'm happy with the Grob one, but that's just because I'm familiar with it. It's the one we used in my electronics classes back in high school.
    Yeah, I only mentioned it because it's a lab standard and I forget there are solid alternatives. It's got everything you'd possibly need (probably more) and just enough detail to apply it to anything.

    Do you have any experience with standard microcontrollers or related electronics that aren't arduino? The only thing I've done with this kind of stuff is work on an FPGA from Altera. I only ask because I wonder if sticking to arduino (and their prefab code) is going to be limiting on the "open source" side of things.

  3. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Simon View Post
    Everyone OK with moving this out to the public open source forum?
    It's all good.

    Quote Originally Posted by PBSteve View Post
    Yeah, I only mentioned it because it's a lab standard and I forget there are solid alternatives. It's got everything you'd possibly need (probably more) and just enough detail to apply it to anything.

    Do you have any experience with standard microcontrollers or related electronics that aren't arduino? The only thing I've done with this kind of stuff is work on an FPGA from Altera. I only ask because I wonder if sticking to arduino (and their prefab code) is going to be limiting on the "open source" side of things.
    I have a little experience with the PICmicro stuff, but that was years ago and I've purged all knowledge of it from my noggin.

    I chose Arduino because A) it's free and the boards are cheap, B) it's entirely open source. There are no limitations imposed by Arduino that I am aware of. There's no code from Arduino that I am using other than their APIs. And all of their code is already open source.

    My goal for this is for anyone who is curious about paintball gun circuitry to be able to check out this project, learn from it, and then implement it themselves. Who knows what kind of great ideas might be out there?

  4. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by sumorai View Post
    I'm curious, though. How difficult is it to convert your code from Arduino into PICmicro?
    It depends. If you're using any classes, then it can be a bit time consuming converting it, as none of the C compilers for PICs support classes (they all use straight ANSI C or assembly). In my opinion, the best compiler is HiTech's PICC, but it's also very pricey. It was good enough to supplant Microchip's older compiler offering, but it's $900+ for a license.

    Otherwise it's not too hard, you just to pay attention to the differences in how ports are accessed, and many of the standard functions like analogRead have to be written from scratch.

    Ultimately, though, it's MUCH easier to jump in and mess around with Arduinos when compared to PICs because so much is handled for you, automatically. You don't have to worry about the Config registers, or setting oscillators, dividers, and all that other stuff. Arduino has more than enough speed and flexibility to handle everything on a paintball marker.

    You might ask why I still use PICs?

    1. On large scale production volume, PICs are far cheaper.
    2. The IDEs and compilers are much more advanced, resulting in less program memory space used, and a much better development GUI than the Arduino IDE.
    3. Much wider selection of microcontrollers to choose from, based on needed features. You have to remember that to remain Arduino compatible you're stuck using an atmega168/atmega328p (duemilanove), atmega1280 (mega), atmega32u4 (uno), or sam3x8e (due). The 328p is so basic compared to something like the PIC18F2550 that I use on my USB boards, as it doesn't have USB built into it, far less power management modes, and less timers, interrupt options, and higher power consumption. It's also 1/4 the speed, and costs more in high volume. You wouldn't want to use the atmega1280 or sam3x8e because they're very large microcontrollers and also very expensive. 4-5x as expensive as the 328p or 32u4 (or pic18f2550).

    Anyway, I definitely recommend sticking with Arduino for this.
    President of Tadao Technologies

  5. #25
    Makes sense. Thanks for the input. I was also reading about running Arduinos from 9V batteries, as we almost always do in paintball guns, and the added circuitry really drains batteries fast.

    Got my transistors and diodes in, and that all seemed to work when I set it up with an LED to test it. Then I learned about voltage regulation and the need for that, so I'm now waiting on some 5V LDO voltage regulators and capacitors before I continue further with the hardware side of things.

    Also realized there was a simpler way to hook up the trigger switch than I was doing previously.

    I went by the only actual electronics store I could find in the area, You-Do-It Electronics, this weekend. Picked up a couple things, but honestly, it's only slightly better than RadioShack used to be 15-20 years ago. I won't likely be going there often.

  6. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by sumorai View Post
    Makes sense. Thanks for the input. I was also reading about running Arduinos from 9V batteries, as we almost always do in paintball guns, and the added circuitry really drains batteries fast.

    Got my transistors and diodes in, and that all seemed to work when I set it up with an LED to test it. Then I learned about voltage regulation and the need for that, so I'm now waiting on some 5V LDO voltage regulators and capacitors before I continue further with the hardware side of things.

    Also realized there was a simpler way to hook up the trigger switch than I was doing previously.

    I went by the only actual electronics store I could find in the area, You-Do-It Electronics, this weekend. Picked up a couple things, but honestly, it's only slightly better than RadioShack used to be 15-20 years ago. I won't likely be going there often.
    For the trigger switch just connect it directly to one of the i/o ports, other side to ground. You can use the internal pull ups, but generally for the trigger switch it's a good idea to use an external 10k pull-up resistor on the i/o pin to vdd. In low battery situations the internal pull ups can flutter, and that does all kinds of interesting things when it's the trigger input.
    President of Tadao Technologies

  7. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by FlipFlops View Post
    For the trigger switch just connect it directly to one of the i/o ports, other side to ground. You can use the internal pull ups, but generally for the trigger switch it's a good idea to use an external 10k pull-up resistor on the i/o pin to vdd. In low battery situations the internal pull ups can flutter, and that does all kinds of interesting things when it's the trigger input.
    Yeah. The first tutorials I'd found on connecting switches all required use of all three pins, and I knew that every damn paintball gun got away with using just the two pins. Then I found one for two pin switches and that had you putting a 5V signal into the I/O pin. The tutorial I mentioned in my previous post was like you said, use the internal pull-up and then connect the I/O pin to ground.

    Thanks for the tip on the external resistor. I'll add that in.

  8. #28
    wow... I have a serious problem with this thread. I'm not gonna be able to have a 4 hour 1 on 1 conversation with you at legends about this gun. lol

  9. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by BTAutoMag View Post
    wow... I have a serious problem with this thread. I'm not gonna be able to have a 4 hour 1 on 1 conversation with you at legends about this gun. lol
    I'll be at Living Legends if you want to chat about the board/software. Or did you mean the open source gun project?
    Last edited by sumorai; 05-15-2013 at 02:10 PM.

  10. #30
    i just love talking about this kind of thing. its why I'm a member of AO, so I can be part of marker design

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