ArduinoControls

This ArduinoControls class is used at the Maastricht Institute of Arts exposition during the "Generative Art" semester. Students build their own Arduino remote controller with (at least) 3 potentiometers, 3 pushbuttons and 3 LEDs.

This library simplifies the use for these controls. It adds functionality like:

• executing single commands when (long)pressing pushbuttons;
• multiple pushbuttons being pressed
• smooth analog sensor values, reducing 'jumping' values
• fallback to keyboard and mouse controls when not using arduino
• only write LED once instead of continuously, preventing flickering

Basic usage

Be sure to check the console to find the correct serial port. In this example port 3 (index 2) is used.

// Import the library to your sketch
import nl.genart.VJMotion.arduinocontrols.*;

// Import the arduino and serial libraries
import processing.serial.*;
import cc.arduino.*;

Arduino arduino;
ArduinoControls ac;

void setup() {
  size(500, 500);

  println(Arduino.list());
  arduino = new Arduino(this, Arduino.list()[2], 57600);

  ac = new ArduinoControls(this)
    .addArduino(arduino)
    .addLED(13)
    ;
}

void draw() {
  background(50);

  // if mouse position is to the left, turn LED on, else turn it off
  if (mouseX < width/2) ac.setLED(0, 1);
  else ac.setLED(0, 0);

  text("on", width/4, height/2);
  text("off", width/4*3, height/2);
  stroke(255, 0, 0);
  line(width/2, 0, width/2, height);
}

Setup

You can tweak the behaviour of this library with the following functions (you can also chain them when initializing your arduinocontrols object for clarity):

• .addArduino(arduino) mandatory to add the global arduino object to the class. If you omit it, the keypresses associated with all controls will be enabled.
• .addLED(9) to add an LED to the class at digital port 9.
• .addLED(10, LEDMode.PWM) to add an LED to the class at digital port 10 as a PWM connected LED. The LEDMode argument is optional (default is LEDMode.DIGITAL).
• .addPushButton(7, '1', Arduino.LOW) to add a pushbutton to the class at digital port 7, that is controllable with the keyboard key '1' when not connected and has a value of Arduino.LOW when pressed. All three arguments are mandatory.
• .addPotentiometer(0, 'q') to add a potentiometer to the class at analog port 0, that is controllable with the mouseX position while pressing the keyboard key 'q'. Both arguments are mandatory.
• .addLDR(0, 'w', 20, 370) to add a LDR sensor to the class at analog port 0, that is controllable with the mouseX position while pressing the keyboard key 'w' and has a minimum value of 20 and maximum value of 370. All arguments are mandatory.
• .showInfoPanel() to show the infopanel.
• .setInfoPanelY(n) to offset the starting y-position of the infopanel by n pixels. Useful for when you have multiple infopanels to get them all lined up.
• .setInfoPanelKey('u') to change the hotkey to toggle the infopanel. Useful for when you have multiple infopanels. Defaults to 'i'.
• .disableKeyPress() to disable listening for keypresses. If you don't disable keypresses, then the keys you provided as arguments for pushbuttons and potentiometers will work

Functions

The ArduinoControls class provides the following main functions.

Note that these functions are (zero-)index based. So if you added 3 potentiometers:

void setup(){
  ...
  ac = new ArduinoControls(this)
    .addArduino(arduino)
    .addPotentiometer(0) //port A0
    .addPotentiometer(2) //port A2
    .addPotentiometer(4) //port A4
    ;
  ...
}

the indices would be: 0, 1 and 2. If you would like to get the value of the third added potentiometer, you would use

void draw(){
  ...
  if (ac.getPotentiometer(2) > 0.5) {
    //third potentiometer is turned half way
  }
  ...
}

• LED's:

  • setLEDToOn(0) function that turns on the LED with index 0. If it's an LED that was set up with PWM, it uses 255, else Arduino.High.
  • setLEDToOff(2) function that turns off the LED with index 2.
  • setLED(0,200) function that sets the value of LED with index 0 to 200. All values set to LEDs are only set once in draw() to prevent flickering.

• Pushbuttons:

  • getPushButton(0) function that returns true while the pushbutton with index 0 is being pushed.
  • getPushButtonOnce(0) function that returns true if the pushbutton with index 0 was pushed. Only returns true for the duration of 1 frame.

• Potentiometers:

  • getPotentiometer(0) functon that returns the raw normalized value from potentiometer with index 0, without any smoothing
  • getPotentiometer(0, 0.5) functon that returns the smoothed normalized value from potentiometer with index 0. Smoothness is a value between 0 and 1 which adds a little delay.

• LDR sensors:

  • getLDR(0) functon that returns the raw normalized value from the LDR sensor with index 0, without any smoothing
  • getLDR(0, 0.5) functon that returns the smoothed normalized value from the LDR sensor with index 0. Smoothness is a value between 0 and 1 which adds a little delay.

Examples

You can find all these examples in Processing -> File - Examples - Contributed Libraries - VJMotion - ArduinoControls.

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