Grove Water Atomizer and Arduino - Not producing mist consistently

Hello,



I purchased a couple atomization units, as well as the base shield v2 for my Arduino Uno. I uploaded the code from this page:



http://wiki.seeedstudio.com/Grove-Water_Atomization/



And modified it to read:

[code]// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin 13 as an output.
pinMode(A5, OUTPUT);// Set A5 as OUTPUT
}

// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
{
/* code */
digitalWrite(A5, HIGH); // atomize
delay(5000); // wait for 10 seconds
digitalWrite(A5, LOW); // atomization stopped
}
}[/code]

so as not to require a button for testing. I plugged it in and it seemed to be working. The water was atomizing fine, although the output was not very strong.



Then I tried modifying the code and uploading again. This time I got an error that read:



avrdude: ser_open(): can’t open device “\.\COM3”: Access is denied.



I was able to fix this by unplugging the water atomizer unit from the shield and uploading. Sometimes I still get the error unless I unplug the base shield completely and upload just to the bare Arduino.



I was able to work around this problem by uploading to the Arduino by itself, then plugging the shield and atomizer in. Now the atomizer seemed to be working okay, but it’s performance began to degrade. It seems that water builds up on the top of the transducer, which causes it to no longer work. If I move it around, it spurts for a little bit every now and then. If the bottom is submerged and the top is above water like in the wiki tutorial, it produces no mist at all. I can still hear the transducer whining when activated, so it’s getting a signal of some sort.



Can anyone please give me some ideas as to why I may be having so much trouble? I have the water atomizer plugged into the I2C port, as in the wiki tutorial. Thank you so much!

Dear Customer,



First, the atomization is digital device. we can connect to any digital or analog port. We can use the I2C port, which includes the A5 and A4 analog port. We can use them to control atomization. We will modify the wiki to make it more clear.



Second, please connect the atomization to D2 port of base shield and try below code, please check if the atomization is on 5 seconds and off 5 seconds.



void setup() {

pinMode(D2, OUTPUT);// Set D2 as OUTPUT

}



void loop() {



/* code */

digitalWrite(D2, HIGH);

delay(5000);

digitalWrite(D2, LOW);

delay(5000);

}



Third, if it still does not work, we suspect the atomization actuator(inside of water) is not working. please drop email to techsupport@seeed.cc and we will handle the case. thanks.



Seeed Techsupport Team