[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Anyone have an Arduino? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 10/27/2012 7:39:09 AM EDT
| If so how do you like it? I'm thinking about experimenting with one to mess with LEDs or some such. What should I get to get started? I've got a small electrical background from working on my cars etc. I'm also a science teacher so I would like to show off some work in class to drum up enthusiasm for math and science. |
| I intend to get some for my class, I will pair it with this. Robot chassis |
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I've worked with the Mega 2560 and the Pro Mini.
Arduino is easy to get up and running. The basic hardware is already in place. The language is easy to pickup and there are plenty of tutorials. You don't need an external programmer for the larger models. Also look into just buying an AVR + breadboard and getting the programmer and software from Atmel. Getting started with just the AVR is a little more involved, but there is still plenty of documentation, tutorials and example schematics and code for AVR projects. |
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Yes, also a science teacher here. The Arduino programming platform is incredibly easy, it was built to make it possible for anyone (artists, musicians, students) to program and use a microcontroller-based system. It's also just stupidly cheap for what you get. Do you already have things like breadboards and components (resistors, capacitors, LEDs, etc)? If not, you might want to grab some, or look for a more complete Arduino 'starter kit'. |
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Take a look at these as well: Teensy USB Nice little package with really good specs. |
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I used the Arduino Uno microcontroller in my senior EE design project.
They have a forum here where I'm sure all of your technical questions can be answered. |
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I wouldn't count on salvaged components to work in breadboards, often the leads are too short to make it down to the contacts. Some might be OK. Look at LadyAda.net and MakerShed.com for parts. Look at science/tech/computer stores, universities, community colleges, and maker zones/hackerspaces around you for workshops and help getting started. If you're reasonably confident in tackling it yourself, the free tutorials that come with the Arduino will do a good job getting you started too. |
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I used one to monitor temperature data from my BBQ smoker. http://petenelson.com/2011/07/remote-temperature-monitor-beta-version/ |
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I used one to monitor temperature data from my BBQ smoker. http://petenelson.com/2011/07/remote-temperature-monitor-beta-version/That's great! roughly 400 times more useful than my car robot up there that drives by itself...poorly... |
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I'm getting really excited looking through all of this. Thanks for all the links and suggestions. I really want to do a few things that are a bit over the top throughout the year to get kids pumped about the hard sciences. Of course myself and a girl have been working on a crystal radio in study hall for about 2 weeks now with little success. I'm thinking we may not be in an area that can pick up much of any AM after all our testing. I'm bringing in the crappiest AM radio I can find on Monday to see if we can pick up a station on it. If we can get anything it'll be time for a new coil and cap.
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Quoted: Quoted: I used one to monitor temperature data from my BBQ smoker. http://petenelson.com/2011/07/remote-temperature-monitor-beta-version/That's great! roughly 400 times more useful than my car robot up there that drives by itself...poorly... It works pretty well, but the thermocouple I have doesn't seem to be very accurate. |
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I'm just finishing up a high-speed flash controller for capturing pictures of bullets hitting things. My next project will be and intervalometer for my camera.
there's literally an unlimited amount of projects you can build and you can find examples all over the net. Quoted:
If so how do you like it? I'm thinking about experimenting with one to mess with LEDs or some such. What should I get to get started? I've got a small electrical background from working on my cars etc. I'm also a science teacher so I would like to show off some work in class to drum up enthusiasm for math and science. |
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I made a program the other day that allows you to display morse code. It uses the built in LED but you can easily change what pin it outputs to.
It is setup to automatically scale to the proper times between characters, words etc and the WPM can be adjusted easily in one spot. You edit a string variable with what you want it to display. If you want it shoot me a PM. I plan on making a web interface once my POE board comes in. The code is very simple and easy to read. I will even throw in some more comments in the code for you if you like. ETA: I have the Duemilanove |
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Quoted:
If so how do you like it? I'm thinking about experimenting with one to mess with LEDs or some such. What should I get to get started? I've got a small electrical background from working on my cars etc. I'm also a science teacher so I would like to show off some work in class to drum up enthusiasm for math and science. leaving the technical approaches/solutions aside for the moment, i have a couple of questions for you... 1. would you say that you are more interested in the hardware aspect (circuits, analog or digital) or the software aspect (e.g., learning a hogh level programming language such as C or Sketch?) 2. do you have a "first application" in mind? perhaps monitoring and displaying a temperature, or detectting the state of something (e.g. garage door open/closed) and sending an SMS message? 3. what are your short and long term goals on this topic? i ask because if you intend, for example, to incorporate your concepts into a classroom lesson plan, you might have to think about how to make the approach relevant and interesting to high school age charges who are toting around iPhone5's –– replete with a color display and very powerful multicore ARM processor. 4. is your audience focused on STEM already, or are you trying to use a uC/uP project to leverage interest in STEM? ar-jedi |
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I've worked with the Mega 2560 and the Pro Mini. Also look into just buying an AVR + breadboard and getting the programmer and software from Atmel. This is a better option far more flexibility For kids and beginners the Arduino software/hardware system makes it worth the price. A handful of chips and various components is going to be hard to deal with. The Arduino libraries and examples make it easy to do interesting things right out of the box. It would take a long time to outgrow the capabilities of the Arduino. I'd recommend something like the SparkFun Inventor's kit. It comes with an arduino, breadboard, LEDs, sensors, switches, even a servo and motor to get you started. |
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Quoted: I used one to monitor temperature data from my BBQ smoker. http://petenelson.com/2011/07/remote-temperature-monitor-beta-version/I love the fact that tech like Arduino makes it possible for people to make such wonderfully cool things. For a long time it seemed like the hobbyist 'hacker' population was a dying breed, and now it is booming again. |
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a.) cool b.) I've been looking for an LCD to start playing with...do you like that one? What model/what price? |
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I love the anti-ESD bath towel. 
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I've been looking for an LCD to start playing with...do you like that one? What model/what price? first, decide on what interface you want to use, or perhaps are forced to use because of your development board outputs. serial interface possibilities include –– RS232 –– RS232 TTL-level inverted –– i2c –– SPI –– onewire parallel interface possibilities include –– 4bit –– 8bit then you can start picking LCD's w/controllers. in general, serial interfaces require fewer connections (read: fewer GPIO on uC) and are (IMHO) much easier to connect to "big iron" like PC's. for high volume embedded uC applications, parallel interfaces are generally less expensive. ar-jedi |
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Arduinos are cool and a lot can be done with them. You can also just get a solderless breadboard and a few components (resistors, caps, diodes, LED's, transistors, microphone, speaker, photocell, hall effect sensors, etc, etc) and an IC such as the 555 timer. There are a ton of fun projects that can be built around a 555 timer and can be done on the cheap. The Arduino and the programmable concept would be a great follow up to some nifty analog circuits.
ETA, you'll want some regulators also, such as the LM 7805, LM317, etc. Here are some cool 555 ideas |
| Hack-A-Day is a site that aggregates tons of other peoples projects - look for Arduino hacks (957 of them) on the right side of this page. You can waste days there... |
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Quoted: Quoted: If so how do you like it? I'm thinking about experimenting with one to mess with LEDs or some such. What should I get to get started? I've got a small electrical background from working on my cars etc. I'm also a science teacher so I would like to show off some work in class to drum up enthusiasm for math and science. leaving the technical approaches/solutions aside for the moment, i have a couple of questions for you... 1. would you say that you are more interested in the hardware aspect (circuits, analog or digital) or the software aspect (e.g., learning a hogh level programming language such as C or Sketch?) 2. do you have a "first application" in mind? perhaps monitoring and displaying a temperature, or detectting the state of something (e.g. garage door open/closed) and sending an SMS message? 3. what are your short and long term goals on this topic? i ask because if you intend, for example, to incorporate your concepts into a classroom lesson plan, you might have to think about how to make the approach relevant and interesting to high school age charges who are toting around iPhone5's –– replete with a color display and very powerful multicore ARM processor. 4. is your audience focused on STEM already, or are you trying to use a uC/uP project to leverage interest in STEM? ar-jedi 1. I'm more interested in the hardware aspect. I want to have various interesting little gadgets. The code and software will just be a means to an end. 2. I was thinking about making some LEDs blink in a pattern. 3. I'm looking to introduce circuits and basic principals of electricity. I plan on using the Arduino to supplement the very basics and perhaps allow for some of the more advanced students to try a project. 4. I have very, very few students who are considering the hard sciences as a course of study in college. One of my brightest students wants to be a civil engineer to avoid as much hard math as possible.
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May I also suggest that you get with whoever is in charge of computers/IT in your district and request that they save old printers for you. You will be able to harvest the little motors (regular and stepper) out of them for use with some automation projects you may want to do.
You can build a solid state PWM speed controller for the little DC motors with a 555 and you can also build a stepper control to make some cool robotics. |
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May I also suggest that you get with whoever is in charge of computers/IT in your district and request that they save old printers for you. You will be able to harvest the little motors (regular and stepper) out of them for use with some automation projects you may want to do. You can build a solid state PWM speed controller for the little DC motors with a 555 and you can also build a stepper control to make some cool robotics. CD and DVD-ROM, -R, and -RW drives have nice little stepper motors with worm screws that give about 2" of usable travel. 
ETA: here's a datasheet for one I'm looking at right now: http://robocup.idi.ntnu.no/wiki/images/c/c6/PL15S020.pdf |
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May I also suggest that you get with whoever is in charge of computers/IT in your district and request that they save old printers for you. You will be able to harvest the little motors (regular and stepper) out of them for use with some automation projects you may want to do. You can build a solid state PWM speed controller for the little DC motors with a 555 and you can also build a stepper control to make some cool robotics. CD and DVD-ROM, -R, and -RW drives have nice little stepper motors with worm screws that give about 2" of usable travel.
ETA: here's a datasheet for one I'm looking at right now: http://robocup.idi.ntnu.no/wiki/images/c/c6/PL15S020.pdf Yes, if they will give the towers away also, go for it! (sometimes they sell those) |
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Quoted: 2. I was thinking about making some LEDs blink in a pattern. Consider this: http://makeprojects.com/Project/3x3x3+LED+Cube+Arduino+Shield/2021/1#.UIxCHbTVJdg |
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Quoted: a.) cool b.) I've been looking for an LCD to start playing with...do you like that one? What model/what price? http://www.adafruit.com/products/181 |
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a.) cool b.) I've been looking for an LCD to start playing with...do you like that one? What model/what price? sparkfun serial enabled lcd kit $25 This is an arduino with a lcd. It comes with firmware preinstalled so you can interface with a serial device, if you don't care to program anything. Otherwise, it's a completely functional Arduino with a 328 processor, ready to do your bidding... there are extra inputs available for analog and digital input. I programmed one to parse the serial output of an inclinometer to make a digital display of pitch and roll angles. Beats booting up a laptop
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I've just wasted (invested?) a day looking at arduino stuff. I'm really interested in making a control system for a heating and cooling system that I am designing for a small cottage. It would be a hydronic system with heating being provided by a solar water system and a backup tankless water heater. Cooling would be provided by a loop buried in the ground to provide cool water. So I'd need temperature sensors in the spaces as well as on the supply and return lines for the various water loops. The system would need to determine which heating/cooling loop to run through the slab and and control relays to power the actuated three way valves. Here's a screenshot of the design I've got at this point. It's pretty crammed together but it only occupies 30" wide, 20" deep and 44" high.  I'm thinking that some inexpensive android tablets or used android phones would be a good way to interface with the system, both on site and remotely. You have a touchscreen, micro sd card, wifi, bluetooth and a bunch of other stuff in a nice package. So I've started looking into different ways to interface the arduinos with androids. One thing I found a couple of ardurio variants that have onboard USB hosts so that the interface easily with the androids. I also ran across the IOIO. It isn't an ardurino but it looks like it has the imputs and outputs that I need. |
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IIRC Microsoft had some very, very basic language and IDE for small kids but I can't find it anymore.
My son is 6 and in a couple of years I'd like to teach him some programming. Anyone know of a good, closer-to-english-than BASIC, language that's kid friendly? Maybe something that a kid could use to make a little game or something like that? |
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Quoted: IIRC Microsoft had some very, very basic language and IDE for small kids but I can't find it anymore. My son is 6 and in a couple of years I'd like to teach him some programming. Anyone know of a good, closer-to-english-than BASIC, language that's kid friendly? Maybe something that a kid could use to make a little game or something like that? I don't remember the exact age range that is targeted, but the research group led by Randy Pausch (deceased) created a project called "ALICE" which is supposed to be that first step for getting kids programming. http://www.alice.org |
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Quoted: OK, I just ordered up the Arduino Uno kit from Adafruit. This should be a fun experience. If nothing else I'll make a simple multistage boost controller for my car. I was thinking I could do a wide band oxygen sensor for tuning my old ass MoPars. It might be a good way to get my feet wet. |
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I just pulled the trigger on an Arduino Mega ADK R3 from amazon. I also picked up some LEDS, switches, a breadboard, jumper wires and this relay panel. |
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Consider this
The Arduino is pretty much it's own little world, and uses it's own language If you use the Regular AVR chips you open yourself up to the complete line of chips they can be programmed using C, Basic, etc That means More flexibility and typically lower cost. |
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Quoted: Quoted: OK, I just ordered up the Arduino Uno kit from Adafruit. This should be a fun experience. If nothing else I'll make a simple multistage boost controller for my car. I was thinking I could do a wide band oxygen sensor for tuning my old ass MoPars. It might be a good way to get my feet wet. That's a great idea. It would be pretty simple to make a 5v to 1v converter for running a WBO2 sensor with the old narrow band units. I'm into the 80's FWD turbo mopars myself.
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I watched a video last night with one of these gadgets set up with a stepper motor to operate a box joint jig on a table saw. Worked pretty good without using dado head cutters. That video and this thread are the first times I've read anything about these devices.
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: OK, I just ordered up the Arduino Uno kit from Adafruit. This should be a fun experience. If nothing else I'll make a simple multistage boost controller for my car. I was thinking I could do a wide band oxygen sensor for tuning my old ass MoPars. It might be a good way to get my feet wet. That's a great idea. It would be pretty simple to make a 5v to 1v converter for running a WBO2 sensor with the old narrow band units. I'm into the 80's FWD turbo mopars myself.  |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: OK, I just ordered up the Arduino Uno kit from Adafruit. This should be a fun experience. If nothing else I'll make a simple multistage boost controller for my car. I was thinking I could do a wide band oxygen sensor for tuning my old ass MoPars. It might be a good way to get my feet wet. That's a great idea. It would be pretty simple to make a 5v to 1v converter for running a WBO2 sensor with the old narrow band units. I'm into the 80's FWD turbo mopars myself. Is that EFI, or are you just tuning with a WBO2? |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: OK, I just ordered up the Arduino Uno kit from Adafruit. This should be a fun experience. If nothing else I'll make a simple multistage boost controller for my car. I was thinking I could do a wide band oxygen sensor for tuning my old ass MoPars. It might be a good way to get my feet wet. That's a great idea. It would be pretty simple to make a 5v to 1v converter for running a WBO2 sensor with the old narrow band units. I'm into the 80's FWD turbo mopars myself. Is that EFI, or are you just tuning with a WBO2? |
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Quoted: Consider this The Arduino is pretty much it's own little world, and uses it's own language If you use the Regular AVR chips you open yourself up to the complete line of chips they can be programmed using C, Basic, etc That means More flexibility and typically lower cost. You can set an Arduino down in front of a non-techie artist and have them programming projects they want to do in about a half an hour. Same thing with students in science/etc classes and extracurriculars from middle school on up. The learning curve is relatively short and simple, and they can do real projects. Affordably That's all we need. |