[Marcus] wrote a guide to using TouchOSC to control your projects. He sent a link to us after reading our feature about using Open Sound Control for Arduino without an Ethernet shield. He’s been using that method for quite some time now, but takes it one step further by using a smartphone as a control device. He designs his own user interface for the iPhone using TouchOSC. This is a package which we’ve seen in other projects but now you can get an idea of how easy it really is.
The project starts by interfacing an Arduino with the device you’d like to control. The circuit above patches into a remote control using a couple of transistors. Now the Arduino can simulate button presses on that remote, sending the signal to turn a light on or off. Next, TouchOSC is used for the smartphone – here it’s an iPhone but the suite works on Android as well. In the video after the break you can watch a quick interface design demo. Buttons are dragged into existence, uploaded to the phone, then configured to control you device over a network. A Processing sketch listens for OSC commands and then sends instructions to the Arduino via USB.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjMEoPwIA6w&w=470]
Neat!
But is there a way of doing this without a PC or Mac? i.e. direct connection mobile – Arduino (or similar device)?
@USL – There is the “wireless” way, and I did just that. But it still uses the WiFi and PC. You can replace the USB connection with a pair of Zigbee radios and power the Arduino with batteries.
If you want wireless programming of your Arduino, you can go with one of two easy to follow tutorials:
Adafruit’s which I could not make work:
http://www.ladyada.net/make/xbee/arduino.html
or Nate’s which looks like it works, although I didn’t implement it yet:
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/122
What would be better though, is controlling your hardware directly from the phone like you requested, and you should be able to do it with Bluetooth. However the last I looked, Apple was very picky about who they let connect to the iPhone with bluetooth. It’s probably not the same with all phones, and it might have been solved already on iPhones… dunno.
Good luck!
I haven’t tried it myself but there is a library for Osc commands to the wiznet Ethernet sheild. Or you can use a xbee which I have done. You can also set it up outside wifi
If you are on an android phone, touchOSC is quite gimped still. You can use FingerPlay MIDI (outputs both MIDI and OSC) for the same purpose, and it allows for custom XML layouts.
check it out here:
http://thesundancekid.net/blog/fingerplay-midi/
an iphone, a pc, an arduino lot of software, some glue
ain’t that a lot to switch on a lamp ?