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News Arduino Projects: Getting Started

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 2 Sep 2010.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    Nice one Gareth I've been looking to try Arduino for ages but never really sure where to start. Certainly looks simple enough.
     
  3. logan'srun

    logan'srun following the footsteps of giants

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    I've been tinkering with Arduiono for a little while, but I have no programming knowledge at all. What seems underwhelming to you is baffling to me.

    Is that Practical Arduino a good book to buy? I'd really like to get to understand the Arduino and be able to make some cool projects with it. They're fun and not that expensive either!
     
  4. Evildead666

    Evildead666 What's a Dremel?

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    Wouldn't mind my own UAV ;)

    Nice Article, thanks .
     
  5. Jimbob94

    Jimbob94 What's a Dremel?

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    Good article, might get the set used to try it out
     
  6. ellism

    ellism What's a Dremel?

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    For those of you who want to try something new with Arduiono why not have a look at the concurrency.cc project.

    Concurrent programming on an atmega.
     
  7. Dr. Strangelove

    Dr. Strangelove What's a Dremel?

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    I've played with one of them for some time and it is really easy to work with.
     
  8. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    I can't recommend it as a starter book - it's really for people with programming and electronics experience.

    Best bet if you want a gentle introduction is Oomlout's ARDX kit - it makes it *really* simple to build things, and gives you a good idea of what's going on at the software end too.
     
  9. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    My Electrical Engineering senior design project features an Arduino.
     
  10. capnPedro

    capnPedro Hacker. Maker. Engineer.

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    I really like the Arduino platform. Hell, I'd go as far as saying I love it. But it has one major fault - its simplicity. It's so simple people now turn to microcontrollers to do overly simple tasks. You don't need a £15 board to flash an LED at a constant rate, for example.

    It's a pet peeve, I mean sure if you want to do it, it's your money and you can do it, but it really bugs me.

    To clarify: I'm not ragging on the morse code flasher here - a uC is perfect for this job - but migrating to something like an ATtiny13 would be better - it's <£1 and has 4 I/O ports and doesn't need an external oscillator. It's a better candidate to use hardware wise, but you'd need to learn proper C rather than Processing/Wiring to get the job done (it's not overly hard, I don't think... as long as you can do a few binary bitwise operations). You can even use your Arduino as an ISP AVR programmer.
     
  11. Toka

    Toka Minimodder

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    Lols

    Im soon for surgery to mod a (regularly) dislocated shoulder and was looking at a C++ / Arduino / Electronics combo as a new hobby for a few months post op. Nicely timed article chaps!

    Big huggles to Bit Tech Towers :)
     
  12. Yemerich

    Yemerich I can has PERSUADETRON?

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    Wow! I've waited for a LONG time for such an article! Always wanted to play with an Arduino! Too bad I am not into casemodding for anytime soon...

    Great article nonetheless! Going right into my favs to experiment as soon as I get some time!
     
  13. kingred

    kingred Surfacing sucks!

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  14. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  15. GreatOldOne

    GreatOldOne Wannabe Martian

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    Ooo - no sooner do I start looking at using an Arduino for something, this article arrives :)

    Can anyone comment on the feasability of this - An Arduino Nano, hooked up via an analogue input to the gooster's fuel sender. Some code to smooth the input (moving average or something) and then output this less noisy signal to the analogue gauage (via PWM on one of the digi outputs).

    I'm hoping it would (with the right software) stop the fuel gauge going bananas whenever the car moves. It would also make swithcing on my low fuel light easy, and I could replace the circuit I already have...
     
  16. Ross1

    Ross1 What's a Dremel?

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    yup, one of my uni modules was based around the arduino. Was quite fun really, and very accessible for anyone to use.
     
  17. capnPedro

    capnPedro Hacker. Maker. Engineer.

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    Totally feasible, but what format is the input? Reading the frequency/duty cycle rather than running it through an ADC may be a better idea. Or if it truly is an analogue signal you may want to output it is an analogue output rather than a squarewave.
     
  18. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    And there I was, wondering what to spend my burfday money on...
     
  19. GreatOldOne

    GreatOldOne Wannabe Martian

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    The fuel sender is a potentiometer that has an arm with a float on the end. It gives a varying voltage depending on the level of fuel. According to my figures, on a 12v car circuit, the sender gives 0.59v when full and 3.20v empty.

    The problem is that when you accelerate, brake, corner etc, the fuel sloshes around, which make the gauge go crazy as the arm on the sender wangs up and down. I'd like to stop that by averaging it out, and maybe only updating the dial every minute or so.
     
  20. Altron

    Altron Minimodder

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    I've used the Arduino Due-whatever for a couple projects. Pretty easy to setup. Mostly just PWMing high-power (3W) LEDs based on inputs from a cheap CdS light sensor as a sort of dimmer thing.

    I also hooked up a small speaker to the outputs and wrote a program to Rickroll, while flashing LEDs in sync with the music. I was working with a buddy who does music on the side and he figured out the frequency of the notes in Never Gonna Give You Up, then we had it PWM the speaker at the same frequencies.

    It's certainly an easy way to get started. I did some work with a small PIC controller before. Connecting it was complicated (who has serial ports now?) and it needed to be set up initially with a program before it could accept the custom programming.
     
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