Morse Code on Output Pin 

Morse Code is brilliant in its simplicity. For both wired and wireless remote communication, the simplicity of Morse Code led to its use before the technology for voice communication was ready. For displaying output, the simplicity of Morse Code is such that it can be used to communicate diagnostics to the user even when no other outputs are functioning correctly (and also when no outputs other than LEDs are available).

Caution

The CowPi_stdio library disables Morse Code output by default on the Arduino Uno and the Arduino Nano. To enable Morse Code output, use the compiler argument -DMORSE_FONT.

See the Section discussion Enabling/Disabling Memory-Expensive Display Modules for more details.

Discussion 

Configuring the Display 

The only display configuration controlled by software is the sending speed, expressed as an approximate number of words per minute. In C++, use

cowpi_configure_morse_code(wpm_rate)

to generate the appropriate cowpi_display_module_t variable. In C, use

(cowpi_display_module_t) {.display_module = MORSE_CODE, .words_per_minute = wpm_rate}

The simplest use of this display would be to illuminate an LED, such as the built-in LED present on most microcontroller boards. The specific properties of the LED may limit the speed at which intelligible Morse Code can be sent. You can also attach a buzzer to the Morse Code pin; this buzzer would need to have its own oscillator since this library won’t oscillate the output on the Morse Code pin to drive a passive buzzer.

Font 

The “font” characters are sequences of enumerated values (DIT, DAH, CHARACTER_SPACE, etc.) that are converted into a sequence of symbols of 1s and 0s with the length of each 1 or 0 determined by the enumerated value. For example, the letter ‘n’ is expressed as [DAH, DIT, END_OF_CHARACTER] which is converted to

1 for 3 units of time (the DAH),
0 for 1 unit of time (a pause within a character),
1 for 1 unit of time (the DIT),
0 for 3 units of time (a pause between characters).

ASCII Control Characters 

You might think that the absence of an actual display or printer would prevent the use of the ASCII control characters; however, many Morse Code prosigns have similar intent.

	`\a`	`\b`	`\t`	`\n`	`\v`	`\f`	`\r`	0x1B (gcc `\e`)	0x7F
ASCII	bell (alarm)	backspace	horizontal tab	line feed (newline)	vertical tab	form feed (newpage)	carriage return	escape	delete
Morse Code	start of message (KA)	error (HH)	interword space	new paragraph (BT)	next line (AA)	end of message (AR)	ignored	ignored	error (HH)

Communication Protocol 

There is no communication protocol involved with the “display module.” A pin is simply toggled between logic-high and -low as appropriate. In C++, use

cowpi_configure_single_pin(_data_pin_)

to generate the appropriate cowpi_display_module_protocol_t variable. You can use

(cowpi_display_module_protocol_t) {.protocol = NO_PROTOCOL, .data_pin = LED_BUILTIN}

in C or C++.

Custom Transmission Function 

Todo

Describe (absence of) custom transmission function for Morse Code on LED

Or – just hear me out – creating a 600 Hz sounder with a piezodisc might be a nifty part of a GroupLab

Example 

morse_code 

The morse_code example demonstrates sending a short message using Morse Code through the built-in LED. In this example, an arbitrary file stream is used; however, if you choose to use Morse Code for diagnostic outputs, you may wish to assign stderr to the FILE stream returned by cowpi_add_display_module() as a matter of convention.

FILE *display;

void setup(void) {
    // The C++ approach
    display = cowpi_add_display_module(cowpi_configure_morse_code(7), cowpi_configure_single_pin(LED_BUILTIN));

    // The C approach
    /*
    display = cowpi_add_display_module(
            (cowpi_display_module_t) {
                    .display_module = MORSE_CODE,
                    .words_per_minute = 7
            },
            (cowpi_display_module_protocol_t) {.protocol = NO_PROTOCOL, .data_pin = LED_BUILTIN}
    );
    */
}

void loop(void) {
    fprintf(display, "Hello World\n");
    delay(5000);
}