Arduino Uno - (Uber geeks only) - What yours doing ?

[no_akira]

Got myself one of these for Xmas, something to puzzle over through the winter nights.

For those that have never heard of an "Arduino" its a little electonic project / prototyping circuit board that gives you the basic core (microcontroller) for creating quickly / cheaply, advanced electronic projects. Its fully programmable (relatively simple commands and syntax), which you do by hooking it up to your PC.

What is also clever about it is its modular, you can add "shields" stacked one on top of another on the main board to add functionality.

Its becoming abit of a phenomenon, quite a few web based companies have sprung up selling them and the related shields over the last few years.

If you unsure what use this little board is just look at this list on instructibles website..... 18 pages of projects with the arduino board as the brains.
http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-technology/channel-arduino/

Its on its 4th revision, its an evolving project, so you could say its out of beta and is probably on about version 1.2

Other useful links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino
http://www.arduino.cc/

I remember seeing a Pico board a few years back that was a similar tool but it was about £99, the Arduino Uno is £20 ex vat !

[TimMcC]

You've just reminded me, I've been meaning to hook my garage door opener up to my phone using one of these!

[kaivalagi]

I opted for a pic2 programmer and pic chips, it's a little bit more of an expensive outlay to begin with, and although they're not so user friendly the chips are 50p plus to buy and range from 8 legs with low IO ability to 32 leg chips I think....

Coding is done either in assembly or in C and cross assembled

The problem I have is finding the time, I have still to get busy with a faded lighting project for my fish tank, white LEDs fade in over 1 hour at dusk and fade out at dawn...and blue fade in/out to replace. Using PWM to get the changing light intensity...I have a basic app written, have all the bits I'll need but need to get busy with breadboard and testing...

If/when I get this done I may well try and sell pre-programmed chips with kits to enthusiasts

What project do you have in mind? Anything taken your fancy yet?

[no_akira]

Coding is done either in assembly or in C and cross assembled

This is the bit where the arduino scores, it does all the compiling for you. With the arduino its not just the board, its the Java based coding IDE that comes with it plus the "community". Your little program that you upload on to it is called a 'Sketch' and the IDE comes with about 40 Sketch examples for most situations. Plus all the sketch's off the forums. All for £20.

The project started out, it was going to be a 90 day remote (battery powered) 4 channel, 22mm copper pipe - temperature data logger twinned with an android smart phone for pulling the data off. Also possible bluetooth findable when within 20 feet. All from a £20 board.

Unfortunately the Uno doesn't have a real time clock, its got the delay function, also its only got 32000kb on chip space to store the cyclical logged data. It needs a microSD card attaching. Also the board uses about 200ma an hour or day so it gonna need to be mains attached.

I've got as far a blinking LED stuck in pin 13 that blinks . . . - - - . . . (S O S)....... get in there!

You've gotta dream, as it says in the Arduino manual "the arduino isn't for quitters" :geek: