As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
Let's be mad scientist! [Arduino DIY projects!]
useless4
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In the server thread we were discussing remote temperature sensors and someone mentioned Arduino for this task so I am attempting to make a thread to spur discussion and hopefully get us all excited and experimenting with Arduino.
Everyone wants to build a death ray or a robot that cleans your house right?
Well, there is a DIY electronics platform that makes that almost possible today. It's called Arduino and is described by it's inventors as this:
Basically, it's a microcontroller package that control a range of things like motors and lights. It can take input from sensors ranging from temp to IR to ultrasonic and more. It's programmed through a free IDE called Arduino that is cross platform. Best of all: Both the Arduino hardware and software platform are Open Source.
What does an Arduino look like?
The current standard is an Arduino Uno pictured below:
Yes, they are small! This one is rather large because it has a power port, usb to serial conversion and other nice features that makes it ideal for a starting project.
What can I do with one?
Lots of stuff. I suggest going here first Bildr.org and watch some of the videos.
So how hard is it?
The easiest way to find out is simply buy a starter kit and get started.
It will come with a book and all the bits and pieces to do something. As you learn to blink a LED or read a temp in a room you are learning building blocks to complete even more complex steps on your way to taking over the world with a death robot or making low cost weather monitoring stations complete with built in web servers for agricultural projects.
What are some good starter kits?
Everyone has one ! Just read the descriptions and see what "fun projects" the starter kit has to decide which one is best for you.
Here are some I have found:
The SparkFun Inventor's Kit
Makershed's Getting Started with Arduino Kit Ver 2.0
Adafruit's Experimentation Kit
So they are over $50 and under $100. You don't need them, I just felt this was a great way to jump in and have a book with all the parts to match. I actually have the Arduino kit from Makershed. It's a decent kit to start with however the book is very punk rock in it's style and tone. I love the writer hate the hand drawn circuit layout examples .
Ok, so what does the programming look like?
Sort'a like C++ apparently. I haven't programmed since Visual Basic a 100 years ago and am picking this up pretty fast. If you can make nice formulas in Excel you can do this.
Can I buy it locally?
Not sure... in fact if you find stores that carry Arduino type things let us know! Microcenter actually carries both Makershed and Sparkfun products! I have nearly bought them out at our Microcenter in the first week. It's that fun!!!
Ok... so anything else?
Do you want more info?
The Arduino official webpage, the best site for information and coding examples
The Wikipedia summary
Sparkfun, lots of fun stuff that can be used with Arduinos
More Adruino stuff is available at Adafruit
OK Your turn! Show us what you made! Give us tips and tricks or just ask questions! Over to you all.
Everyone wants to build a death ray or a robot that cleans your house right?
Well, there is a DIY electronics platform that makes that almost possible today. It's called Arduino and is described by it's inventors as this:
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
Basically, it's a microcontroller package that control a range of things like motors and lights. It can take input from sensors ranging from temp to IR to ultrasonic and more. It's programmed through a free IDE called Arduino that is cross platform. Best of all: Both the Arduino hardware and software platform are Open Source.
What does an Arduino look like?
The current standard is an Arduino Uno pictured below:
Yes, they are small! This one is rather large because it has a power port, usb to serial conversion and other nice features that makes it ideal for a starting project.
What can I do with one?
Lots of stuff. I suggest going here first Bildr.org and watch some of the videos.
So how hard is it?
The easiest way to find out is simply buy a starter kit and get started.
It will come with a book and all the bits and pieces to do something. As you learn to blink a LED or read a temp in a room you are learning building blocks to complete even more complex steps on your way to taking over the world with a death robot or making low cost weather monitoring stations complete with built in web servers for agricultural projects.
What are some good starter kits?
Everyone has one ! Just read the descriptions and see what "fun projects" the starter kit has to decide which one is best for you.
Here are some I have found:
The SparkFun Inventor's Kit
Makershed's Getting Started with Arduino Kit Ver 2.0
Adafruit's Experimentation Kit
So they are over $50 and under $100. You don't need them, I just felt this was a great way to jump in and have a book with all the parts to match. I actually have the Arduino kit from Makershed. It's a decent kit to start with however the book is very punk rock in it's style and tone. I love the writer hate the hand drawn circuit layout examples .
Ok, so what does the programming look like?
Sort'a like C++ apparently. I haven't programmed since Visual Basic a 100 years ago and am picking this up pretty fast. If you can make nice formulas in Excel you can do this.
Can I buy it locally?
Not sure... in fact if you find stores that carry Arduino type things let us know! Microcenter actually carries both Makershed and Sparkfun products! I have nearly bought them out at our Microcenter in the first week. It's that fun!!!
Ok... so anything else?
- You can make robot kits!
- The lillypad version is sewable into clothing!
- It's a prototyping environment... you design here then substitute out cheaper parts when/if you invent something ready for mass production!
- A ton of midi instruments and sequencers are being developed on this platform
Do you want more info?
The Arduino official webpage, the best site for information and coding examples
The Wikipedia summary
Sparkfun, lots of fun stuff that can be used with Arduinos
More Adruino stuff is available at Adafruit
OK Your turn! Show us what you made! Give us tips and tricks or just ask questions! Over to you all.
useless4 on
0
Posts
Wonder what I should try to make first...
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
This. I want to do this.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
The system is modular, you can put any gun on it that has a trigger. From Nerf guns to AK-47s.
First: I want to build an arcade stick. Plug it in and use it as a game pad. Pretty sure it's been done before.
Then: I want to build an arcade cabinet. Probably StepMania, or maybe Immaterial and Missing Power.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
Speech synthesizing seems like way, way took much of a task for an Arduino to handle. You're going to want to move up to a 32-bit uC at that point.
There may be some variation with Ethernet built in, otherwise there's an Ethernet shield.
You're looking at $70 for that plus an UNO though. You could altneratively pick up a mbed and MagJack for $60 and get a much more powerful platform.
Or perhaps acid etch my own, but I've never tried that and I'm a bit skittish on that yet.
http://wiki.yobi.be/wiki/Arduino#Pro_.28SparkFun.29 has a bit more on the pro versions.
Looking at picking one of these up soon, I started messing with electronics late last year and am just starting to get into IC's.
Ardunio looks like it will be fun to play with while i try to wrap my head around stuff like how 555 timers work and what to do with them.
Steam/PSN/XBL/Minecraft / LoL / - Benevicious | WoW - Duckwood - Rajhek
If youve got questions, please ask. Been a few years since I messed with ICs, but once you've got the language and math down, they aren't hard at all. Microcontrollers was, for me, far more interesting and fun than designing analog circuits.
From there you branch into other things.
It's a gateway drug.
Since I started:
I have created a wireless weather station outside sitting in a salsa jar - (barometer/temp sensor, humidity sensor, xbee wireless and occasionally a GPS just because it can)
a joypad
a parking sensor for the garage using a ping))) ultrasonic range finder so i know when my car is "just right" in the garage
Trying to figure out what I want to play with this weekend. I def. need to pick up an lcd to hook up to it to be more mobile while I play with it.
Anyone know what he's using and where I can get one?
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
Looks like a resistive touch screen.
Here's one that you can get:
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8977
Not sure that it's the exact one that he's using, but something like it.
I only knew basic electronics (a little bit more about electricity but still not much), no C++ skills (i can make a mean excel formula though and that helps quite a bit) and no soldering skills.
I have been growing leaps and bounds from "no skill" to "beginner" pretty quickly. I am making all sorts of neat crap and just picked up some more stuff just today. I am addicted not lying.
This is the kit I started with:
Makershed Arduino Starter Kit
Like I said before , the book is good just wish the diagrams were more "professional" then "sketched".
I was looking at the Sparkfun kit today and it actually has overlays that go over the breadboard to show you where everything should go.
Here is an example of the first basic project from Sparkfun (everyone's first project is MAKE THE LED BLINK!)
Sparkfun Lesson 1. I think this is from the book in that kit.
If you have a Microcenter nearby, they actually have the starter kits of both brands .
Wouldn't have to be fancy/use the keypad, would just want it to hit a speaker if I didn't push a button within X seconds...maybe if I didn't have an RFID thingy nearby, if that's not too fancy.
Easily, I think you can actually do that without any chips at all using a type of sensors, a speaker, and a few simple parts.
Sorry about the lack of specifics, I just know its a project about halfway through the book i'm using
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Platt/dp/0596153740
Not sure about integrating it with the existing system, would probably require some googling around.
Steam/PSN/XBL/Minecraft / LoL / - Benevicious | WoW - Duckwood - Rajhek
My one concern is the amount of workspace required. I'd love to have a little workbench area and set of tiny shelves / drawers to devote to a project but that sort of space is kind of hard to come by in our current place. How much space can I realistically expect to need? If anyone would care to share pics of their setups that would be nifty.
You can do it with no extra space used at all:
It's easily stored, I wouldn't worry about space.
But seriously, I'm super interested in just...learning and making awesome things.
I went with the SparkFun Inventor's Kit. Just over $100 after shipping. Looks like they sell pretty fast -- I thought there were ninety or so in stock when I ordered yesterday and it's down to 42 today.
Will report back once I've had a chance to play around with it.
There's also SparkFun Inventor's Kit w/ Case which they have more of, it's like $5 more for a fancy case, but otherwise the same it looks like.
Here is what I made it out of:
Not the cheapest or prettiest way to make one, but I am thinking cloudy right now thanks to the medicine.
Just shows what you can do quick and dirty and with minimal soldering skills. I actually didn't get one of the pins solder right and all the instructions were unclear - at least to my cloudy state of mind - that you needed resistors between the ground and the +5 pins. I need to fix this in the morning, I just threw random resistors in until it worked. Don't follow my advice there.
Here is the code from the Arduino page for the Ping - all I did was add the LCD print statements.
/* Ping))) Sensor This sketch reads a PING))) ultrasonic rangefinder and returns the distance to the closest object in range. To do this, it sends a pulse to the sensor to initiate a reading, then listens for a pulse to return. The length of the returning pulse is proportional to the distance of the object from the sensor. The circuit: * +V connection of the PING))) attached to +5V * GND connection of the PING))) attached to ground * SIG connection of the PING))) attached to digital pin 7 http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Ping created 3 Nov 2008 by David A. Mellis modified 30 Jun 2009 by Tom Igoe This example code is in the public domain. */ #include <LiquidCrystal.h> LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2); // this constant won't change. It's the pin number // of the sensor's output: const int pingPin = 7; void setup() { // initialize serial communication: Serial.begin(9600); lcd.begin(16, 2); } void loop() { // establish variables for duration of the ping, // and the distance result in inches and centimeters: long duration, inches, cm; // The PING))) is triggered by a HIGH pulse of 2 or more microseconds. // Give a short LOW pulse beforehand to ensure a clean HIGH pulse: pinMode(pingPin, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(pingPin, LOW); delayMicroseconds(2); digitalWrite(pingPin, HIGH); delayMicroseconds(5); digitalWrite(pingPin, LOW); // The same pin is used to read the signal from the PING))): a HIGH // pulse whose duration is the time (in microseconds) from the sending // of the ping to the reception of its echo off of an object. pinMode(pingPin, INPUT); duration = pulseIn(pingPin, HIGH); // convert the time into a distance inches = microsecondsToInches(duration); cm = microsecondsToCentimeters(duration); Serial.print(inches); Serial.print("in, "); Serial.print(cm); Serial.print("cm"); Serial.println(); lcd.print(inches); lcd.print("in, "); lcd.print(cm); lcd.print("cm"); delay(1000); lcd.clear(); } long microsecondsToInches(long microseconds) { // According to Parallax's datasheet for the PING))), there are // 73.746 microseconds per inch (i.e. sound travels at 1130 feet per // second). This gives the distance travelled by the ping, outbound // and return, so we divide by 2 to get the distance of the obstacle. // See: http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/prod/acc/28015-PING-v1.3.pdf return microseconds / 74 / 2; } long microsecondsToCentimeters(long microseconds) { // The speed of sound is 340 m/s or 29 microseconds per centimeter. // The ping travels out and back, so to find the distance of the // object we take half of the distance travelled. return microseconds / 29 / 2; }I think I'm gonna go with the inventor's kit, purely as the spec says it includes tutorials on controlling larger devices, which is one of the main things I want to learn.
Another option (more pricey) is the Xbee modules to do wireless. I use this with an iPhone app called Caio , it works quite well if a bit limited overall.
Or do it old school with a bunch of status LEDs to tell you what's going on.
Can anyone guess what it is? Hint:
There is no Arduino in this thing, but it is powered by an ATMega168, which used to be the brains of the Arduino board. Other components are a geiger tube, a pressure/temperature sensor and a Hall effect sensor for measuring magnetic fields. The display is from an old junked mobile phone and the case used to be an electronic compass.
Here are some more pictures of the inside of the thing for any one interested:
While Arduino is a great way to start out building stuff, they are expensive for what you get once you are a bit more experienced, and a bit bulky especially when trying to make portable stuff such as this thing. An usb-programmer for programming avr-chips can be had very cheap (I think I paid 10 usd for mine) and can program all varieties of the avr-line. Just something to keep in mind once you are past the absolute beginner stage and know how to solder.
Ok, I'm of to the Zone for some artifact hunting! Here is a short clip of the thing in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0pE1fvNaIo
http://www.instructables.com/id/Twitter-Mood-Light-The-Worlds-Mood-in-a-Box/
I think something like this:
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10111
Could actually make it alot easier just glancing at the instructions.
-The cards you lay over the breadboard to help figure out where stuff goes. That's nice. Really nice.
-The baseplate makes it a bit easier to organise my desk.
Things that I don't like:
- Cutting the bits down, im sure I'll get used to it, but having to do it so soon seemed daunting.
- Sometimes the code in the exampls doesn't match the book. Only simple stuff like assigning variables, but if I didn't know how to code a little bit I'd be a bit confused.
- I'd like a bit more info from the book, little bubles explaining why we put a resistor before every LED, little things like that.
Overall though I love it. Once I did the servo thing I went online and found the code that lets you control it with the twisty knob thing (Potentiometer !). Then attatched an arm from one of my Transformers to the end of it, then controlled it. Silly, simple but oh so fun.
Addictive right?
Makershed Book
has more about resistors etc. then the book you have I think. You could also pick up an intro to electronics book, I am sure someone here probably has a great suggestion they will give up.