Introduction
Arduinos are very common microcontroller boards used to study and design programmable electronics. It is often used with multiple peripherals such as buttons, sliders, sensors and motors.
Together with a TIMI acting as a small fancy display, Arduino boards become a lot more powerful and interesting to use in prototyping.
This project showcases a TIMI-96 module controlled by an Arduino Uno to turn multiple onscreen LEDs ON and OFF based on button press.
Requirements
To proceed with the project, the following are required.
Hardware
- TIMI-96
- BBM Programmer
- USB Type A to microUSB cable (for the BBM Programmer)
- USB Type A to Type B cable (for the Arduino, replace as necessary)
- Connecting Wires
- Arduino Uno
- Breadboard
- Tact Switch
Software
Graphics Design
Step 1: Open Mates Studio and create a Commander project for TIMI-96 with Reversed Landscape orientation
Step 2: Browse the library for appropriate page designs. For this project, 8 x Flat Round Led page under Notifications category was used.
Step 3: After finalizing the design, connect TIMI-96 to your computer
Step 4: Upload the project to the appropriate COM port
Step 5: When prompted, click Proceed to continue with upload.
Note: It is recommended that the graphics design is finalized before moving to the next steps when working on a project.
Programming the Arduino
Step 1: Install the MatesController library using Arduino’s Library Manager.
Step 2: Include MatesController.h to your project.
Step 3: Create a MatesController instance named mates.
This will initialize the MatesController instance to the default reset pin 4 using a LOW pulse.
Step 4: (Optional) Create a function for toggling the built-in LED of the Arduino board. This can be used for debugging or showing errors if the Serial monitor can’t be used.
Step 5: (Optional) At the beginning of the setup function, set the built-in LED pin to OUTPUT and set it to LOW.
Step 6: To start using the MatesController instance, use the begin function
This will initialize the Serial UART at the default baudrate of 9600
Step 7: (Optional) The begin function can be enclosed in an if condition to handle initialization errors.
Step 8: Declare the pins used for the tact switch and the debounce delay
Step 9: Set the pin to input pullup mode
Step 10: In the loop function, the values are updated and sent to TIMI as necessary.
As shown, the code checks for a valid button press. If a press is detected, the next LED is turned ON and the previous LED is turned OFF.
Step 11: Lastly, ensure that the an LED is initially turned ON at the end of the setup function.
Running the Project
After designing the user interface for TIMI and writing code for the Arduino and programming them, it is time to connect the devices together. Follow the diagram below for the connection between TIMI and Arduino.
Finally, supply power to the Arduino and observe the behavior of the project.
Downloadable Resources
Here are the links to the software applications, libraries and completed project files.