Arduino Novice

[armysaxman]

I’m an arduino programming infant!  I built a bulbdial clock a few months ago and would like to use the autodim sketch from the forum archives to turn the clock off between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m.  Between those times the clock is at work and I’m NOT, so why have it on?

I’ve done some research but have only become more confused.  I do have the arduino sketch environment downloaded and have the FTDI USB-TTL cable.  I’m using a MacBook if that makes any difference.  Is there an “Arduino For Dummies” out there?  Or some kind of tutorial that will get me “up to speed”?

Thanks!

[Windell Oskay]

There’s an incredible wealth of information at http://arduino.cc/ .

[armysaxman]

Thanks!  I’ll check it out!

[protheus]

I haven’t ever seen the code that runs the clock,though I’ve considered getting one at some point.  Are you decent with programming in general?  I ask because I personally don’t find programming an arduino to be much different than programming anything else.  Especially if you do c or c++ sometimes, you’ll be right at home.

Anyway, off the cuff I wonder whether you could take the ground connection — or depending on the circuit, the positive lead, whichever is shared — from the LEDs and hook it into an arduino pin.  Setting that pin high or low would then make it possible or impossible the diodes to light.  Might be able to do this in conjunction with some simple checks of the time to easily flip your display on and off.

Chris

[Windell Oskay]

The Bulbdial clock has a number of brightness options, including a “sleep” mode where the LEDs are fully off– usually managed by the ‘z’ button.  You should be able to add a feature that turns off the LEDs at night without too much trouble.

[Author]

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