x-vmaier / levitator

Magnetic levitation system implementing PID control

Levitator

This repository hosts the Arduino code for managing an electromagnet levitator system.

Overview

The levitator system employs a PID controller to regulate the position of an object levitated by an electromagnet. It communicates with a graphical user interface (GUI) via serial communication to update parameters such as setpoint, proportional, integral, and derivative gains.

Requirements

• PlatformIO
• Arduino Nano (ATmega328)

Installation

To utilize this code, proceed with the following steps:

1. Clone this repository to your local machine.
2. Open the project folder in PlatformIO.
3. Upload the code to your Arduino Nano.

Usage

Connect the Arduino Nano to your electromagnet system and power it up. Ensure that the GUI from PyLevit is operational and connected to the Arduino via serial communication.

The system will receive input from the GUI to update parameters and control the electromagnet accordingly.

Implementation Details

Packet Format/Serialization

Communication between the Arduino and the GUI is facilitated through packet-based serial communication. Each packet comprises a start delimiter, identifier, separator, data payload, and end delimiter, structured as {identifier:data}. The fastprotoc library handles packet serialization and deserialization.

EEPROM

System parameters such as setpoint, proportional gain, integral gain, and derivative gain are stored in the EEPROM to retain their values across power cycles. The EEPROMHandler class manages reading and writing data to EEPROM, ensuring that only altered values are written.

Credits

• Author: Valentin Maier
• Institution: HTL Bulme

License

This code is licensed under the MIT License. Feel free to use, modify, or distribute it according to the terms of the license.

For more details, refer to the PyLevit repository for integrating the levitator system with the graphical user interface.