Not all rotary encoders are created equal...

I had a hell of a time getting the (F)Light Suit remote control to work with the Modern Device LCD117 backpack and inexpensive BI EN11-HSM1AF15 rotary encoders. It turned out that I was having two issues:

1. The LCD117 was getting its updating commands too quickly, so chose to reset instead of display, and
2. the rotary encoders make contact so quickly when stepping up or down, my debounced code for bigger rotary encoders with more even click timing wasn't working.

Preventing the LCD117 from updating too quickly solved the first problem, and redoing the rotary encoder code from scratch solved the second problem. I'll post code later when the project is complete, but I based it on Max Wolf's very simple first example from the Arduino Playground rotary encoder page. The interrupt-based examples are too cryptic and (I think) unnecessary in a sketch that loops at a few KHz, which all of my sketches run at.

Paperduino, Hifiduino

Love the *duino naming scheme people are putting on their projects! Fun+easy to create a buzzword that conveys the function of an Arduino-based project. Two projects that have popped up on the internets in the last week that I thought were very cool:

Hifiduino: project blog by The Lazy Engineer chronicling his work to build a very slick Arduino-based hi-fi remote control. I especially like the casing work-- nicely assembled wooden box with its top made from an aluminum hard drive housing; one of the best uses of scrounged hardware I've seen. He has also chosen a lot of technologies I've been exploring in terms of (1) making an elegant interface with a single rotary encoder and display, and (2) using I2C chips for easy interfacing. The blog "extras" on the right are an excellent example of sharing, too, with links to code, examples, references, etc.

Paperduino: an Arduino circuit design by Guilherme Martins for introducing Arduino to neophytes in a workshop setting by having them build one from raw components on a 2-sided color printout. Beyond looking cool, it helps to get over the "soldering is hard" issue (pssst-- it's easy and fun!) and to understand the minimal necessary components to make a working Arduino circuit. Flickr set from the workshop, Paperduino PDF patterns.