Arduino

[Brass_Machine]

Well, I did it. I finally bought an arduino to play with. I got a Getting Started with Arduino Kit from Make Magazine. I bought it at the local Radio Shack on sale with a gift card so it didn't cost too much.



I have quite a few things I have been wanting to do with these things. I hope to dive into this and start learning fairly soon. I have the book that goes with it, so it should be interesting.

Eric

[AussieJimG]

Good on you Eric, I know I should play with one of these.

Chuck Fellows did some interesting things with his Arduino (but then he does so many interesting things) that will watch in case inspiration takes hold.

Jim

[Fergus OMore]

Deja Vu- or snap?
 Yesterday, my Ardu- whotsit Mega buck 2650  and a kit of things which I have yet understand arrived to complement 4 of these Nemo 23's whatever they are.

Whether they will solve the problems of my Old Age, a left hand which is pretty ineffective and a right one which has trigger finger in all digits( or is the other way) I have yet to discover.

I certainly look forward to your exploits

Regards

Norman

[raynerd]

Hi Eric.. You will love it. They are very powerful when you get going on them!

Have you any project ideas?

[ieezitin]

Eric..

I have been reading all about these and I am so interested what they can do, if you decide to post the project on whatever you make with this please be sure to explain it in very lay-men terms,  I have absolutely not electrical experience and would love a down-to-earth tutorial on it.

Can’t wait to see what it becomes.

Best of luck……………..  Anthony.

[Brass_Machine]

Hi Eric.. You will love it. They are very powerful when you get going on them!

Have you any project ideas?

I have some. I have some LED lighting ideas I want to accomplish. Some robotics stuff. 

[Dawai]

HI.

  Just dig in.. I didn't start out with the "kit" cause I felt pretty confident on my stubborn nature.    A kit has "examples" already configured for your "wiring components" there, so you can do somethings right out of the box. This guarantees you will have "some success".

  There is so much information available to "make these work" I can't go into all the things, people much better than I at explaining.

  A Uno Arduino costs like $12 off ebay.. comes with a cable.. you spend that much at a fast food hamburger joint and learning is a lot better on you than eating all that carbs and fat.

If you get hung up.. as I have on a couple of these projects.. holler, perhaps I can direct you to the right place to get where you want to go?? 

Write CLEAN coding, make notes as you write stuff so if you come back "cold" you can trigger your memory.. which I have very little of these days.  "//" at the beginning of a line nullifys the rest of that line.. it is a note for later..

I Posted a "how to use" a "stepper.h" file on another post this morning.. by using "pre-written drivers" and "calls" to the "driver to do all the heavy lifting". your code can be much simpler once you understand what is happening and know how to interact with it..

THE Handbag app.. has kicked my butt for a couple of weeks now.. I can't get it to compile without errors.. have not gotten the nexus 7 to work usb, even bought otg cables for it.
  IT is a app that is universal, your arduino code configures the screen on the tablet with widgets, dumps them to the tablet. then updates them.. you could do a dro on a mill or lathe in minutes.. once you got the app to working.. which I have not.. so far.

two dollars worth of tip120, or IR530, IR540 can operate things and amaze people. 

[tom osselton]

I found this interesting while exploring the makezine site.

http://makezine.com/projects/projects-in-motion-control-three-types-of-motors-with-555-timers/

[Dawai]

A 556 is two 555 timers in one IC.  I used to use a 556 1st half to generate the waveform, and the other half to modify it's pulse width.  using two pots, you modify speed and pulse width to tune it in.  THIS was on a tattoo machine to replace the points-capacitor coil drive. My system would run the machine much faster, and drive the needles "ALL THE WAY IN" if you wanted to make hamburger by widening the pulse waveform.

A 555 is a 8 pin if I remember correctly, a 556 is a 16 pin.  On some of the capacitors needed to make this work, it requires a electrolytic capacitor. I spent half a day trying to make a ceramic capacitor work in a circuit in the 80s.

A arduino can modify frequency, and pulse width with a minimum of components.

AND who says one system, a single device is easier to use on a  bread-board with all the loose connections.. My first automated casting operation was breadboard based, I controlled the wax burn-out oven, the electro-melt in time and temperature, both got to the "apex" of burnout and molten metal at the same time.  BUt stomping the floor in my tiny wooden building shop while I was drinking, kicking a punching bag, made the system fail with loose connections. 

PROToTYPING Wire-wrap is perhaps a little bit better than a perf or bread board.  Flip the devices upside down and "hot glue" them to a piece of plastic or??  Looks like crap, runs like magic. CHEAP. and pretty dependable, even if you are kicking a punching bag in the same room.

[PekkaNF]

I got Arduino Uno a week ago. Followed Arduino site and started doing examples on from top to down and left to right:
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage
I had most of the hardware, I used to do some electronics on and off. Whole lot less with the sorface mounted components. I don't mind using magnifier to find them, but there is real risk of "blowing off" worth of 100€ of components when carelessly sneezing or inhaling.

Then I ordered two books:
 Getting Started with Arduino, 2nd Edition
By Massimo Banzi
Publisher: Maker Media, Inc
Released: September 2011
Pages: 130
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920021414.do?green=1F313C24-404C-586A-ACAD-9471D450CFD5&intcmp=af-mybuy-0636920021414.IP

+++ Inspiring book, if you don't have a glue about processor, programmin, electronics or electricity in general. Fine if you are vegan and used all life to study classic arts or such and you are contemplating if you an do something with this stange object

---- This is no good if you can spell the words: processor, programmin, and electronics. You are beter of just reading this and doing the experimets as they came: http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage, then again one of the official kits a way to go if you got no breadboard and such.


Second book is this one, and it looks like a good intro, not too complicated at all to greater audience:
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920022244.do?intcmp=il-na-books-videos-product-intsrch_arduino_ct
Arduino Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Recipes to Begin, Expand, and Enhance Your Projects
By Michael Margolis

I have done some C, way before any post operands on it and some 8-bit processor hardware in the 1980s. This is no stranges, just weird feeling to download a program (IDE), drivers, hook up a card and start playing. It has a serial monitor too . But no real debugger.

All basic C:stuf is there, but very little about the libraries.

I recommed the Arduino, but please read this before hooking up anything new to I/O pins:
http://ruggedcircuits.com/html/ancp01.html
It's all really basic, but I still would not buy one of those boards for myself.

PekkaNF

[Fergus OMore]

I'm getting nowhere. Perhaps I am far too pragmatic or simply have never had time for these ethereal fancy notions. Probably, I have read too many good technical books like Mrs Beeton who said-quite rightly 'First catch your pheasant'. You can read all you like about cooking the miserable thing but catch it-- and then start the 2nd phase. Let me assure readers that eating a cook book compares unfavourably with a cooked bird!

Sorry but for the few extra   coins involved, there must be an easier way of seeing the handles on a lathe or mill turn. 

[Dawai]

Sure is brother, hire a young man to turn them. (snicker) I am right there behind ya.

I just bought another cable for the arduino, this one a otg Nexus male cable to a female B cable so i can plug in the the arduino to the nexus 7.  (and that fancy fuel injection on the 57 GMC)

That tiny tablet has a wad of cpu power crammed in a small package. Touchpad Display & co processor.

[Dawai]

BEWARE, not all A-b cables (the flat to the tombstone for the arduino) are the same.

I spent a hour learning that, went back to the blue cable that came with the UNO. BLUE one had a pop up on the Nexus 7.. PING, works.. (it should have said "you dummy")

[Fergus OMore]

These tablet things Mine- a mark one in slate needs something- perhaps a new slate pencil.

Served me reasonably well, shouldn't really grumble about quality or warranties. I mean - who has a tablet that done calculations which have assured me a lifestyle so that I haven't needed to work for almost 30 years now?

I'm simply having problems holding a pencil and 

Drat, my grip has gone again.

Cheers

Norman

 

[Dawai]

In case you missed it.. Yuri's toys.. his android os free app, downloaded from google playstore,
PUT ON MY Nexus 7, $2.88 otg cable to female usb, hooked to a Arduino  (with multiple serial ports) runs right out of the box.

IF you use the work he has done, you can use the "arduino transmit format" in the sketch, suddenly you have a DRO readout you can adapt to anything you want.

This worked right out of the box, less than a minute after I downloaded the sketch into the arduino and the app off google..  Way to go for simple. NOW to hook my "junk" to it..  (you remember that ultrasonic distance SF04 I had hooked up?? ) instant distance.