Question on how "f" value is calculated in converting Morse Code to laser audio from this tutorial

Question

I am working on this tutorial,

https://www.hackster.io/SURYATEJA/morse-code-communication-using-laser-module-both-ea1b01

and the author created a "Send" and "Receive" code for encoding and decoding Morse code. He created the "Send" code with the entire alphabet A-Z, but his receive code only has 9 letters.

I thought I could easily add in the missing characters, and even add in numbers, but I am stuck.

His code has 2 values to decode the morse - "a" and "f"

In his receive code he has a value "f" that is supposed to be calculated by the number of spaces, but I cannot see how he comes up with his result.

For example, this is his sending code for "a"

    case 'a': 
MorseDot();
LightsOff(elemPause);
MorseDash();
LightsOff(elemPause);
break;

Then this is the receive code;

if(a==4 && f==10) {   Serial.print("a");

I understand the value of 4 for "a", but I cannot understand the value of 10 for "f"

"a" is calculated by assigning a value of 1 for a dot and 3 for a dash and adding the values (in this case one dot and one dash, 1+3 = 4)

He explains how to calculate "f" here in his tutorial, but I still don't understand.

2. When the LASER falls on the LDR, the value goes beyond 1000, and then it will enter into a loop.

3. Now quantize the values i.e. if the value goes beyond 1000, then assign it as '1', otherwise assign it as '0'.

4. Inside a loop, calculate the number of '1's and '0's. Set the counters 'a' and 'f'. Count the number of '1's and store it in 'a' and similarly count the number of '0's and store it in 'f' respectively.

5. Now check the specific values of 'a' and 'f' respectively. Each character will have different set of 'a' and 'f'. The matching value will be displayed.

That seems to indicate; Laser on = Over 1000 = 1 Laser off = Under 1000 = 0

So for the letter a, I only see 2 times the laser goes off, not 10.Minof formatting changes

Answer 1

This is not a good tutorial. The receiver works by assuming 14 dotLen time periods for each character. There is a loop that runs 14 times, with a 200ms delay between each iteration. If the laser is detected, then a is incremented, otherwise f is incremented. This means that the sum of a and f is always 14, and the case where a==0 means nothing was transmitted. The incomplete receiver code shows only 10 options for received characters and leaves out a==5 (which would be R or U), but does define 1 through 10 otherwise.

The receiver code does not differentiate between dots and dashes, it only counts the number of dotLen transitions where light is detected. This is not Morse Code.

The receiver code cannot distinguish between S (dot-dot-dot) and T (dash) because they both have 3 dotLen value. Same for A (dot-dash) vs. N (dash-dot).

If you want to understand decoding morse code, this is not a good tutorial to follow. It does not decode morse code, and I cannot see how it would work even with it's companion transmitter program.