How to Protect your Arduino Design (Electrically) Part 1

In this video we look at how to protect your Arduino against different forms of electrical damage and ensure your design is electrically rugged. We will be looking at parts such as current limiting resistors, zenor diodes, and schottky barrier diodes.

How to Reset Your Arduino from Code

In this video we talk about how to reset your Arduino from code with no hands. You can find the schematic and code from this video below.

***************Arduino Code from Video************************************

// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards.
int led = 13;
//create a variable for detecting what mode you are in. If used in interrupt must be "volatile"
/*volatile*/ bool nMode = 1;

void setup() {
  pinMode(4, OUTPUT); //set up pin 4, which is connected to base of transistor
  digitalWrite(4,LOW); //set to low so transistor is off and doesn't trigger reset
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT); //set up the LED pin to output
  Serial.begin(57600); //start serial comm
  Serial.println("We just started back up"); //print quick message so we know we just went through setup code
  Serial.println();
  Serial.end(); //need to shut off serial comm because it uses interrupts
  //Create interrupt: 0 for pin 2, the name of the interrupt function or ISR, and condition to trigger interrupt 
  attachInterrupt(0, interruptFunction, CHANGE); 
}

void loop() {
    digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
    delay(400);               // wait 
    digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
    delay(400);               // wait 
  /*
  noInterrupts(); //disables interrupts
  // critical, time-sensitive code here
  interrupts();//enables interrupts
  */
}

//This is the function called when the interrupt occurs (pin 2 goes high)
//this is often referred to as the interrupt service routine or ISR
//This cannot take any input arguments or return anything
void interruptFunction() {
  digitalWrite(4,HIGH); //with this variable set to 1 the LED will blink
 //detachInterrupt(0); this function call will turn the interrupt off
}