A little (Lot) of help with the data logger please

[musher]

First off I know very little about electronics and Arduino and today was the first time I had picked up an iron in 20 years.

I have managed to solder the data logging shield (with out burning myself or starting a fire), install the Arduino IDE and upload the example sketches, all seems good so far.

Now what I want to do is have 2 buttons as inputs (one for 'machine up' and one for 'machine down') and log the time each was pressed, now I thought yeah thats not to hard - but well it is (for me anyway) if someone could explain or even point me in the right direction I would be most greatfull.

Ewan

[adafruit_support_bill]

The Arduino Tutorials are a great place to start. They will walk you through the basics, including how to connect your pushbuttons. From there, it should be a short step to combine that with the logging examples to accomplish what you want.

[musher]

Thanks I'm working my way through them, I have to say I'm looking up a wall and it's rather daunting, but I will give myself these sort of challenges.

Others at my work could do it in a few hours ( i take care of the website, trade accounts, editing the video blogs etc), but I want to see what is possible with no previous knowledge like many of our customers. All they have is the Internet and a need to learn - I'm thinking about blogging it, just to show what is possible.

Ewan

[adafruit_support_bill]

Good luck, and feel free to post your progress, and/or ask any questions.

[musher]

Right,

As I have previously said I want to use the data logger to log the time a button is pressed and now also light an led to show that its been pressed.

But im getting an error writing to the card, all I have done is copy and paste from the various examples out their into a sketch which I thought should work, I have wired green LED to pin 9 and the green button to pin six but I get 'error: file.create'

any help on why its not working would be great, even better if you could explain my stupidity

anyhow here's the code:

Code: Select all

#include "SdFat.h"
#include <Wire.h>
#include "RTClib.h"

// A simple data logger for the Arduino analog pins
#define ECHO_TO_SERIAL   1 // echo data to serial port
#define WAIT_TO_START    0 // Wait for serial input in setup()

// the digital pins that connect to the LEDs
#define redLEDpin 8
#define greenLEDpin 9

// The analog pins that connect to the sensors
const int GreenButton = 6;               // dig 6
int buttonState = 0;

RTC_DS1307 RTC; // define the Real Time Clock object

// The objects to talk to the SD card
Sd2Card card;
SdVolume volume;
SdFile root;
SdFile file;

void error(char *str)
{
  Serial.print("error: ");
  Serial.println(str);
  while(1);
}

void setup(void)
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println();
  
#if WAIT_TO_START
  Serial.println("Type any character to start");
  while (!Serial.available());
#endif //WAIT_TO_START
 // initialize the SD card
  if (!card.init()) error("card.init");
  
  // initialize a FAT volume
  if (!volume.init(card)) error("volume.init");
  
  // open root directory
  if (!root.openRoot(volume)) error("openRoot");
  
  // create a new file
  char name[] = "TEST00.CSV";
  for (uint8_t i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
    name[6] = i/10 + '0';
    name[7] = i%10 + '0';
    if (file.open(root, name, O_CREAT | O_EXCL | O_WRITE)) break;
  }
  if (!file.isOpen()) error ("file.create");
  Serial.print("Logging to: ");
  Serial.println(name);

  // write header
  file.writeError = 0;
  
    
Wire.begin();  
  if (!RTC.begin()) {
    file.println("RTC failed");
#if ECHO_TO_SERIAL
    Serial.println("RTC failed");
#endif  //ECHO_TO_SERIAL
  }
  

  file.println("Rig,time,Up/Down");    
#if ECHO_TO_SERIAL
  Serial.println("Rig,time,Up/Down");
#if ECHO_TO_SERIAL// attempt to write out the header to the file
  if (file.writeError || !file.sync()) {
    error("write header");
  }
  
  pinMode(redLEDpin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(greenLEDpin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(GreenButton, INPUT);
 
   // If you want to set the aref to something other than 5v
  //analogReference(EXTERNAL);
}
void loop(void){
  // read the state of the pushbutton value:
  buttonState = digitalRead(GreenButton);

  // check if the pushbutton is pressed.
  // if it is, the buttonState is HIGH:
  if (buttonState == HIGH) {     
    // turn LED on:    
    digitalWrite(greenLEDpin, HIGH);  
  } 
  else {
    // turn LED off:
    digitalWrite(greenLEDpin, LOW); 
  }
//{
  DateTime now;
  
  // clear print error
  file.writeError = 0;

  
//  digitalWrite(greenLEDpin, HIGH);

  // log milliseconds since starting
  uint32_t m = millis();
  file.print(m);           // milliseconds since start
  file.print(", ");    
//#if ECHO_TO_SERIAL
  Serial.print(m);         // milliseconds since start
  Serial.print(", ");  
#endif

  // fetch the time
  now = RTC.now();
  // log time
 // file.print(now.get()); // seconds since 2000
 // file.print(", ");
  file.print(now.year(), DEC);
  file.print("/");
  file.print(now.month(), DEC);
  file.print("/");
  file.print(now.day(), DEC);
  file.print(" ");
  file.print(now.hour(), DEC);
  file.print(":");
  file.print(now.minute(), DEC);
  file.print(":");
  file.print(now.second(), DEC);
//#if ECHO_TO_SERIAL
 // Serial.print(now.get()); // seconds since 2000
  Serial.print(", ");
  Serial.print(now.year(), DEC);
  Serial.print("/");
  Serial.print(now.month(), DEC);
  Serial.print("/");
  Serial.print(now.day(), DEC);
  Serial.print(" ");
  Serial.print(now.hour(), DEC);
  Serial.print(":");
  Serial.print(now.minute(), DEC);
  Serial.print(":");
  Serial.print(now.second(), DEC);
#endif //ECHO_TO_SERIAL


 /* if (file.writeError) error("write data");
  
  digitalWrite(redLEDpin, LOW);

  //don't sync too often - requires 2048 bytes of I/O to SD card
 // if ((millis() - syncTime) <  SYNC_INTERVAL) return;
 // syncTime = millis();
  
  // blink LED to show we are syncing data to the card & updating FAT!
  digitalWrite(greenLEDpin, HIGH);
  //if (!file.sync()) error("sync");
  digitalWrite(greenLEDpin, LOW); */
}

Thanks in advance


ewan

[adafruit_support_bill]

Can you post the whole output of the Serial Monitor? And are there any files on the card?