LinkMeter v2 Homebrew BBQ Controller - Part 1

[Jay Bremner]

So...apparently my CDF1 WRT54G router doesn't have a serial connection on the board at all

Only thing I saw was labeled JP2 and was the JTAG connection.

Bummer! Guess I will have to look for a WRT54GS or GL

 

[Jay Bremner]

Got my board all built yesterday and connected the 16 Pin J1 header on the board to the header on the LCD display using an old IDE cable. Am I able to test this without the router if I apply +12v and Ground to J2?

 

[D Peart]

Originally posted by Jay Bremner:
Got my board all built yesterday and connected the 16 Pin J1 header on the board to the header on the LCD display using an old IDE cable. Am I able to test this without the router if I apply +12v and Ground to J2?

Yes the board and LCD will run without a router. With your IDE cable, remember that every other wire is a ground wire and are all connected together. I used an IDE cable, you just have to make sure you use the signal wires, not the ground ones

dave

 

[Jay Bremner]

Oh Crap! Didn't realize that! Thought I was being slick!

Originally posted by D Peart:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jay Bremner:
Got my board all built yesterday and connected the 16 Pin J1 header on the board to the header on the LCD display using an old IDE cable. Am I able to test this without the router if I apply +12v and Ground to J2?

Yes the board and LCD will run without a router. With your IDE cable, remember that every other wire is a ground wire and are all connected together. I used an IDE cable, you just have to make sure you use the signal wires, not the ground ones

dave </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[Jay Bremner]

If anyone has an appropriate router (WRT54G,GS or GL) for sale, please let me know. Coming up empty on Craigslist here and eBay isn't looking good either!

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Originally posted by Kyle Christensen:
Bryan, I've found a bug in the latest iteration of the configuration page. When you've clicked the presets link on a probe, your javascript creates the presets dialog box (via showCoeffPopup()) with the probeId of the probe you just clicked on. The links in that dialog call coeffClick(probeId, idx), but you're not destroying pcplist when you're done with it, so the next time a preset link is clicked, the links are still pointing to the probeId and idx of the previously clicked probe.

Oops yeah, thanks. I apparently broke this when I changed it to not recreate the items every time. I've switched it back because that's needed (unless I wanted to just recreate new click handlers every time, but I think this is more inline).

 

[Kyle Christensen]

Originally posted by Bryan Mayland:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Kyle Christensen:
Bryan, I've found a bug in the latest iteration of the configuration page. When you've clicked the presets link on a probe, your javascript creates the presets dialog box (via showCoeffPopup()) with the probeId of the probe you just clicked on. The links in that dialog call coeffClick(probeId, idx), but you're not destroying pcplist when you're done with it, so the next time a preset link is clicked, the links are still pointing to the probeId and idx of the previously clicked probe.

Oops yeah, thanks. I apparently broke this when I changed it to not recreate the items every time. I've switched it back because that's needed (unless I wanted to just recreate new click handlers every time, but I think this is more inline). </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Personally, I'd have done the presets as a dropdown similar to the wired/wireless/disabled dropdown, and bind an onchange event using jquery's .change(), or set the menus as a hidden div that gets .toggle()'d. You can dynamically bind to dom elements on page load using something like:

$('#container').on('click', '[id^=preset_]', function () { });

With something like that, any page element with an id that begins with preset_ will fire an event when clicked. You can do crafty stuff like put someFunc(this.id.substr(7)); in there to pass a numerical id into a function to get which probe preset was clicked. You can also use .data() to hardcode preset data right into the html too, so all your function would have to do is set the 3 preset val()s to the value of 3 different data objects you bound to the element you clicked on.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Originally posted by Brian J Wilson:
I really like the 4-way switch used to control the interface and I have thought of an upgrade. Sparkfun sells the Nintendo DS touch panel for around 10 bucks and also sells a breakout board for easy connection.

I'm not really a fan of touch controls, and find them incredibly frustrating when the item to be controlled isn't the thing directly under the touch input. There's the problem where your fingers have to be over the proper virtual button you want to press while not looking at it, so you're constantly having to look back and forth between the display of the thing you're controlling and the virtual input pad.

Bryan mentioned an Android app and whether it would be worth while building since the web page performs the same functions that an app can do.

Here is an image of the app layout I have been working on. It uses two tabs which now need to be redesigned using the new ICS style.

I don't see what an app brings to the table though. I mean 5 minutes and 55 lines of html gives me this live view. Of course it could use a little better styling but the whole thing is 97k (83k jQuery) and works on any platform with a web browser and AJAX.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Originally posted by Kyle Christensen:
Personally, I'd have done the presets as a dropdown similar to the wired/wireless/disabled dropdown, and bind an onchange event using jquery's .change()

Eh I suppose it could be a dropdown which includes a "custom" and only display A/B/C when "custom" is selected, but the problem with that is that selecting a preset would only be setting A/B/C and then when the page refreshes, there's no way of knowing which preset you had selected because the configuration only contains the A B C float values. If you try to match up the ABCs back to the preset array then you have to start doing epsilon compares and it is just a mess. I much prefer it the way it is now.

$('#container').on('click', '[id^=preset_]', function () { });

It could do a lot of things. The page was originally written without jQuery though so doing anything too fancypants was out. If I were to rewrite it, I'd just use knockout to bind the controls directly to the json configuration object. Now it is one of those "I can't think of any way it could functionally be better" so until there is, it will just stay the way it is.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Originally posted by Brandon Sungur:
I got the power run to the heatermeter still getting crashes on the web interface. I tried without the heatermeter connected and got same results. SSH and TFTP still connect; just web interface is down. I was able to reflash the router this time over ssh with the trx file. Same results after reflash.

Connect up over SSH and run this:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">
uci set lucid.main.daemonize=0
uci set lucid.main.debug=1
/etc/init.d/lucid restart
</pre>
And the console will tell you what it is doing. Then you can see why it is crashing (I assume when you hit a web page?)

 

[Kyle Christensen]

Originally posted by Bryan Mayland:
It could do a lot of things. The page was originally written without jQuery though so doing anything too fancypants was out. If I were to rewrite it, I'd just use knockout to bind the controls directly to the json configuration object. Now it is one of those "I can't think of any way it could functionally be better" so until there is, it will just stay the way it is.

I've heard good things about knockout, but haven't fiddled with it yet. When I was looking at the code I could tell you started it without jQuery and considered giving a rewrite a shot... but like you said if it's working why bother.

 

[Brian J Wilson]

Originally posted by Bryan Mayland:

I'm not really a fan of touch controls, and find them incredibly frustrating when the item to be controlled isn't the thing directly under the touch input. There's the problem where your fingers have to be over the proper virtual button you want to press while not looking at it, so you're constantly having to look back and forth between the display of the thing you're controlling and the virtual input pad.

This is why I think it will be more of a "Look what I can do" addition as opposed to an actual functional improvement.

Seems only a few people have posted pictures of their build. Has anyone chosen to ditch the linksys case and make a custom enclosure?

 

[James G.]

Originally posted by James G.:
Made some progress. Finally got my 328 chip programmed so my linkmeter board is complete. Powered up the router and it recognizes the heatermeter. My problem now is my display only shows blocks on the top row of the display. Anyone have any ideas what might be going on with my board?

I'm at a loss here. Web page displays everything ok but just blocks on the lcd display. My display appears to be wired properly. Looking for any troubleshooting advice. Does this sound like an issue with a component wired wrong? Display wiring? Operator error?

 

[E. Fox]

Anyone happen to have an extra button board PCB lying around and willing to sell?

 

[Kyle Christensen]

Originally posted by E. Fox:
Anyone happen to have an extra button board PCB lying around and willing to sell?

I just ordered one of these to make my button board on. It has cuttable traces on it, so it should be simple.

I'm not sure I'm going to even use a button on my build though, especially if we have a way to toggle the lid open mode via a mobile device. I don't see myself having the need to tweak settings in the backyard when I can just walk back inside and do it.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Originally posted by Brian J Wilson:
This is why I think it will be more of a "Look what I can do" addition as opposed to an actual functional improvement.

You're right, it is pretty cool the amount of cheap technology we have at our disposal these days. I didn't mean to poopoo your idea, I just find it personally impractical. Probably because I miss physical buttons on things. I just hope laptop keyboards don't change to capacitive buttons!

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Originally posted by James G.:
I'm at a loss here. Web page displays everything ok but just blocks on the lcd display. My display appears to be wired properly. Looking for any troubleshooting advice. Does this sound like an issue with a component wired wrong? Display wiring? Operator error?

Have you adjusted the contrast potentiometer R6? If the contrast is set too high you get one line of full blocks.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Originally posted by Kyle Christensen:
I just ordered one of these to make my button board on. It has cuttable traces on it, so it should be simple.

This might work for 4 individual switches but watch out because the ALPS 4-way switch has a different pin arrangement which isn't 0.1" spacing.

 

[Kyle Christensen]

Originally posted by Bryan Mayland:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Kyle Christensen:
I just ordered one of these to make my button board on. It has cuttable traces on it, so it should be simple.

This might work for 4 individual switches but watch out because the ALPS 4-way switch has a different pin arrangement which isn't 0.1" spacing. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[Brian J Wilson]

I was able to use my 4 way switch on 0.1 inch spaced perf board. It just took some careful persuasion. You may be able to do the same thing with your protoboards.