The Arduino platform should be perfect for throwing together a lightweight webserver because of the availability of quality shields that take care of the hardware for you. As [Ovidiu Predescu] found, there are a few hiccups along the way and he’s put together a guide that covers the workarounds. Specifically, using an Ethernet shield and data logging shield at the same time produces a bus conflict which he sidesteps by cutting the CS pin trace on the data logging board and moving it to a different pin. There is also a bug with one of the chips on the Ethernet shield that is fixed using a similar method. So if you’re not just going to etch your own webserver hardware maybe this is the next best thing.
:-p mine was actually hosting my page when my server died.
See here for more info http://wtfmoogle.com/?p=1110
was first seen here http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/06/15/arduino-web-server/
*Sigh*
Seconded.
I quite literally sighed when I saw this at the top of the page.
And here comes the slew of Arduino hating…
imho, this gives the arduino all the credibility it needs.
I confess I’ve never understood why people whinge about the tools they’re not using.
The pic reminds me of Voltron.
>I confess I’ve never understood why people whinge about the tools they’re not using.
Allow me to list the reasons:
* Not a hack.
* Not even a project. All of that can be bought off-the-shelf now.
* It shows up so often here that it seems that it’s actually just advertising, acting under the guise of content.
* Combining three products that were meant to be combined isn’t even interesting, it’s not novel, and it’s certainly not news. Faucet + garden hose + sprinkler = yawn.
Surely you can’t argue that the Arduino is overkill in this case.
*facepalm*
i would like to point out some posibilities of a uC webserver.
With one you could:
1) home automation
2) car monitoring
3) ehh id rathe not say
* Not a hack.
nothing new on hack a day
* Not even a project. All of that can be bought off-the-shelf now.
those off the shelf peices do not work together, nor does their software, not a from scratch project but I am sure it was a pita
* It shows up so often here that it seems that it’s actually just advertising, acting under the guise of content.
Really, I am sorry I must be new here, how many arduino powered web servers are there on hack a day?
* Combining three products that were meant to be combined isn’t even interesting, it’s not novel, and it’s certainly not news. Faucet + garden hose + sprinkler = yawn.
they were never designed to be comparable with each other only the arduino
One could stop smelling their own crap for a second and read the summary before yapping their “I dont understand it so I hate it” tripe
okay, to all the people bitching about the use of the arduino platform:
Show us how you would like to do something like this. No, seriously. Do something constructive instead of bitching and moaning. Who knows, perhaps you will 1up the arduino and have a real marketable product
I’d rather use a TINI network microcontroller.
@brian4120:
“Show us how you would like to do something like this. No, seriously.”
Custom firmware on a router. Costs less than the above solution, takes up less of my time, works better to some extent, and if selected properly any USB mass storage device can be attached.
As a non-programmer and one who knows only the basics of ICs, chips and such, I find this way beyond my understanding – and yet I LIKE IT! It’s interesting because he took things that aren’t supposed to work together and made them do just that. That is a hack, in my book.
If you don’t like the posts here, don’t bloody visit the website. Try contributing something useful. There’s nothing more annoying than people who constantly complain without being productive themselves. I’m sure Caleb and the rest of the HaD crew really appreciate all the bitching you people do in return for their hard work.
Arduino: $30
Ethernet Shield: $45.95
8-bit ATmega328
mbed: $59.00
Ethernet Jack: $1.95
32-bit LPC1768
The Arduino really isn’t the right tool for the job, nor is stacking shields interesting hardware wise. That said, getting upset because this was posted is pretty asinine.
@brian4120
How bout this?
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/web-platform-assembled-p-582.html?cPath=61_68
Let’s look at the checklist:
-More powerful uC – CHECK
-Doesn’t look ridiculous – CHECK
-Bootloader, for those who need it as a crutch, also includes programming header for those who don’t – CHECK
-MicroSD, Ethernet, runs Microchip’s TCP/IP stack, USB connectivity – CHECK
-Onboard LED’s and breakout pins – CHECK
-Open source firmware and forum support – CHECK
-Entire package costs just a few dollars more than a base Arduino board (with NO shields included) – CHECK
-Isn’t a pita to program and use – CHECK
-Doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel – CHECK
Yep, I’d say that about does it.
Wow, and only about the size of a friggin’ cinderblock.
Perhaps if you learned to solder instead of plugging ‘shields’ in some crazy arrangement, it could … say … fit on a business card?
@Brennan, how about a free (even closed source), not crippled C compiler?
do it M4CGYV3R, FOR GODS SAKE DO SOMETHING AT ALL
till then STFU
you can actually buy a really small web server for around $100 AUD
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_111701/article.html
I think HaD should just disable comments for a few months. Then only people who want to see the content would come to the site.
@Paul
Really? That’s all you can come up with? And the link I posted was just ONE example of an alternative to this monstrosity.
Impressive
@jeicrash
Actually, I come to the site for the content and the comments equally. Yes, they often piss me off but just as often I learn something from reading them. I understand your sentiment though. The negativity is annoying.
“The negativity is annoying.”
All you prancing comment whiners must be in marketing where everyone plays nice. In the engineering world it’s get tough or get out.
@fluidic: Since when is installing a custom firmware on a router being called a hack? Nothing hacky about it…just download, RTFM, do what FM tells you to do to success.
@all the others complaining about arduino: Seriously, do something yourself that is worth posting it on HaD, then you can start complaining about the usefulness of tools. Until then, as many said, stop bitching or STFU completely.
Not everyone has the capabilities to design his own PCBs, etch/mill them and solder components on them…not speaking about getting it to same or smaller size than an arduino, because its all SMD except for the about four “huge” parts. It takes way more time and some people just are very good at programming.
And this guy managed to make things work together, which weren’t designed to. Therefor i say: it IS a hack.
@Hammerhead
“Since when is installing a custom firmware on a router being called a hack? Nothing hacky about it…”
I don’t know, having to solder in a jtag header, to flash a new boot loader, then soldering in a COM header to connect a RS232 to TTL board,so you have a console, so you can TFTP a new firmware that dramatically changes to abilities of the product sounds “hacky” to me.
I realised I had been gated to an alternative universe when I read
marketing where everyone plays niceClearly not the axis of evil that I am familiar with.
Instead of calling this a hack, don’t you mean it is actually correcting a stupid mistake that the shield makers did?
There are more shields that use SPI, didn’t it occur to anyone designing them that someone somewhere would maybe connect more than one to an Arduino so they should have used a different pin for CS on every board?
when hack actually happen, when he connected shields or when he wrote some code ?
The saddest part that single uC can do this (since most of you like to code here is a challenge for you)or use s special uC for this. So who will tell me that Arduino is learning bla bla BS… Because it looks like lead shoes to me
In that size, you could fit a decent sized cluster of webACE servers. Okay, that makes as little sense as this.
It makes more sense to use a router or PC as webserver and just attach some equipment to the net that needs to be controlled via the webpage.
@DarkFader: Oversized…the PC will need to run all the time -> high power consumption => high runtime cost. The Router idea seems nice, but there aren’t so many routers that have a Serial/Parallel interface.
@Bogdan: when someone except of Apple manages to get the iPhone4 to work properly sou you can hold it any way, it also will be considered a hack…and it’s a failure by design, too.
@Bogdan, finally a constructive comment.
@the rest that bitch for a living: STFU and get a life.
@Hammerhead
“The Router idea seems nice, but there aren’t so many routers that have a Serial/Parallel interface.”
WHAT!? show me one that doesn’t
Osgeld: you stick wifi up your ass? I would just use cat 5 and fish tape. Helps with the VOIP colon packet dropping problem. ;)
Sheevaplug kicks this ones butt hard.
@Paul
Checkout SDCC sometime eh?
@All
Serving web pages isn’t hard.. but you’re going to be hard pushed to a 168 to do anything other than dish out a single page to a single person. A bit useless really. If you just want to toggle pins invent some micro-protocol over TCP and make a little client.
Back in 2006 you could buy this..
http://akizukidenshi.com/catalog/g/gK-01271/
What’s that.. a proper processor and some proper (excuse that it’s realtek..) network hardware; Wowza!
> -Doesn’t look ridiculous – CHECK
We care how things look?
@Hammerhead
You don’t need to be able to produce pcbs (not terribly hard) or solder SMD components (you can do it by hand if you aren’t a total retard) to produce most of what people are using the “Arduino” for. Let’s face it, most people using Arduino’s would struggle to get an LED to blink if it wasn’t for all of the crunky libraries they have.
It’s probably safe to say that 60% of Arduino projects could be implemented with a 555 timer and some 74 series logic. But that would require actually working out the problem yourself. ;)
Ok, I will try to visualise my perception of hacking.
Homemade engine management system\engeine mods
http://i767.photobucket.com/albums/xx315/michiel145/GroteFoto-VEB34YEF.jpg
Portable EEPC based GPS track and trace\Wifi realtime upload system
http://i767.photobucket.com/albums/xx315/michiel145/P1010166Medium.jpg
LED matrix
http://i767.photobucket.com/albums/xx315/michiel145/P1010151.jpg
Solar travel guitar
http://i767.photobucket.com/albums/xx315/michiel145/FrankenStrat.jpg
And I could go on for years, but this is what I call hacking. And not (like Sam mentioned) putting prefab stuff together.
But then again, the point is that the guy that build this had a great time doing it, not me reading it.. : )
EDIT
http://i767.photobucket.com/albums/xx315/michiel145/P1010050Medium.jpg
:P
@cj
Obviously not all of the points in my checklist are important to everybody. But yeah, I would rather have a small, neat little PCB with everything on it that does exactly what I want for a low cost, than have a bunch of stupid arduino shields stacked on top of each other. This is electronics, not Jenga.
@Ben WAAAAY up there:
The propeller can do this with one of its cogs, so yes, its WAYYY overkill.
I have to concur with a number of the people that have posted here. Don’t think it’s a hack? Don’t like hearing Arduino stories? Then get off your ass and start doing “hacks” yourself to submit to Hackaday. I have not doubt that if all the whiners and blow-hards here actually accomplished things on the elitist level they define as a “true hack” then HAD would have so many submissions that simple hacks like this would be relegated to minor mentions in bullet lists.
@cantido: yes of course you could take some 555 and 74 logic to makie things, that other people do with their arduino. But whats with people like me, for instance? i’m just a computer specialist trainee…i’m learning how to implement/fix/control networks, computers and servers and a bit of programming
I just randomly came across HaD and my friend who started to program µCs for himself and i thought “hey that looks like fun”. I started with µCs about 3 months ago and before that i didn’t have ANY background knowledge about µCs, soldering, PCB-design etc. Of course i have a soldering iron and all the needed stuff (at least i hope i have it). So why should i buy several µCs and loads of other stuff just to get a blinking LED? There’s no sense in starting to solder huge logic circuits (555 and 74xx) together without the proper knowledge. I’m more of a programmer and at first, i need to learn the language used in µCs…then i can start thinking about building circuits out of parts on a breadboard instead of just using the arduino.
Saragon:
To be honest, HackAday comments are pretty much some of the whiniest replies of any website I have ever seen.
Personally I think people like to complain because they are not actually doing anything themselves.
@Nomad:
You may enjoy this
http://www.virtualbreadboard.net/Home/tabid/38/Default.aspx
It supports arduino in conjunction :)
via hacknmod.com this morning. Site kinda chugs but the software sounds like what you may be building up to :) I mainly use analog box
http://www.andyware.com/abox2/ to tinker around with softcircuit stuff since I mainly deal with synths. Cost effective and quick fun circuit tinkering :)
Is anyone else having submission problems or am I blacklisted?
You guys are funny.