Choose topics of interest…

News

  • Subscribe to our e-mails and we’ll keep you informed with MECControl news.

A small update

In today’s small update to MECControl, accessing the Position property of a potentiometer will now return a percentage that is accurate to 0.5%.

If you have previously purchased the MECControl software, you can download the new version from the order summary after logging into your account. There is no need to update your Arduino/Genuino Uno/Mega firmware.

New mathematical functions

Today’s update to MECControl adds the ability to use the Absolute, Arccosine, Arcsine, Arctangent, Ceiling, Cosine, Floor, Round, Sine, Square Root and Tangent mathematical functions with the Let command — if you’re unfamiliar with these, take a look at the examples in the Help section.

There is also a refinement of the Run command — if you use a speed variable with it and the variable contains a negative value, this will now cause the direction of the motor to be inverted.

If you have previously purchased the MECControl software, you can download the new version from the order summary after logging into your account. There is no need to update your Arduino/Genuino Uno/Mega firmware.

Two new Project Spotlights

Here are two new Project Spotlight videos featuring models controlled with MECControl:

Philip Drew has built an automated warehouse pallet stacking crane:

Pete Evans has built a model of an Hitachi 650 backhoe excavator:

You can watch both videos on our Videos page or via our YouTube channel.

Keyboard input update

Just a small update to MECControl today — when using the Wait command to wait for a keypress, you can now test to see if any key, or no keys, were pressed using the Jump command.

If you have previously purchased the software, you can download the new version from the order summary after logging into your account. There is no need to update your Arduino/Genuino Uno/Mega firmware.

A computer-controlled robot arm

In this Project Spotlight Roelf and Pieter Valkema demonstrate their computer-controlled robot arm at this year's Henley Gathering. You can watch it on our Videos page or via our YouTube channel.

The arm uses three Meccanoid servos to provide hand, elbow and shoulder motions, controlled via an Arduino Uno and the MECControl software. A motor, controlled via the Arduino Uno and an L298 H Bridge module, allows the whole arm to rotate, with positional feedback given by a potentiometer.

A computer-controlled gantry crane

Our latest Project Spotlight features Philip Drew's new computer-controlled gantry crane, demonstrated at this year's International Meccano Model Show. You can watch it on our Videos page or via our YouTube channel.

Philip has built on his previous MECControl experiment (see our previous Spotlight) to create a crane controlled from his laptop via keyboard commands. The operator simply enters a letter and a number and the crane moves to the corresponding row and column. Further keyboard commands allow the arm to be raised and lowered, and the grab to be opened and closed. The current status of the crane is displayed on the laptop screen.

The crane uses four motors, three potentiometers and one microswitch, controlled via an Arduino Uno and two L298 H Bridge modules, both of which are available to buy from the MECControl shop along with the MECControl software.

International Meccano Model Show

I´ll be at the International Meccano Model Show in Skegness from tomorrow, Friday 23rd June until Sunday 25th June, giving demonstrations of the MECControl system and answering questions. Plus I have many of the items that you´ll find in our shop available for sale too.

The show is on from 10am to 5pm each day at the Embassy Theatre on the Grand Parade — find out more here: https://embassytheatre.co.uk/shows/international-meccano-model-show.

Hope to see you there!

Arduino/Genuino Mega support

The Arduino/Genuino Uno can be a bit limiting sometimes, as it only has 12 digital pins and 6 analogue pins available for you to connect devices to when it’s used with MECControl.

So MECControl now supports the Arduino/Genuino Mega, the Uno’s big brother, giving you 52 digital pins and 16 analogue pins to play with! Even better, 15 of the digital pins can used for controlling motor speed or LED fading.

When using an Arduino/Genuino Mega with MECControl, make sure that you place the Board command somewhere in your sequence, otherwise MECControl will assume that you are using an Arduino/Genuino Uno.

If you have previously purchased the software, you can download the new version from the order summary after logging into your account.

Because there are some changes to the MECControl firmware too, you will also need to download and install firmware version 1.3.0 on your Arduino/Genuino Mega.

  • If you only using an Arduino/Genuino Uno with MECControl, there is no need to download the new version or update the firmware at this time, as no other changes have been made to the software or firmware.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

MECControl update!

A small update to MECControl is now available to download, and it includes a few improvements to the new display window feature plus a new shortcut for commenting-out lines:

  • Stop now restores the display window if it is maximised and located on the same monitor as the main window.
  • Pressing F11 now maximises and restores the display window.
  • Improved display window performance.
  • Added the ability to press CTRL + - to comment out selected lines.

If you have previously purchased the software, you can download the new version from the order summary after logging into your account. There is no need to update your Arduino/Genuino Uno firmware.

Displaying shapes and text

The latest version of the MECControl software is now available to download. You can now draw shapes and write text in your sequences using the new display window feature.

To find out more, take a look at ‘Using the display window’ here and check out these new commands:

  • Clear — clears the whole display window, or specific shapes or text displayed on it.
  • Draw — draws lines, circles, rectangles and squares.
  • Use — allows you to change the appearance of shapes and text.
  • Write — writes text, numbers stored in variables, or any combination of the two.

If you have previously purchased the software, you can download the new version from the order summary after logging into your account. There is no need to update your Arduino/Genuino Uno firmware.

If you have any questions, please let me know!