Arduino Blogs

Come See Us Speak!

admin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:49:04 +0000

It’s time to get out and spread the *duino love. Droops and I (Morgellon), will speaking again at various computer conferences through out this year.

Outerz0ne 5 Atlanta, GA March 6 - 7, 2009

I’ll be at Outerz0ne 5 in Atlanta, GA March 6th - 7th, 2009. (kinda short notice, as it is next weekend…)

My talk there is entitled, *Dunio-Punk! Manifesting Open Source in Physical Space. You can read more about it and the others talking at the Outerz0ne 5 Speaker Page. If you’re near the Atlanta area, be sure to swing by and say hello! Outerz0ne 5 will be at the Wellesley Inn 1377 Virgina Ave Atlanta, GA 30344 (more info at Outerz0ne 5 website)
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Notacon 6 Cleveland, OH April 16 - 19, 2009

Droops and I will both be at Notacon 6 in Cleveland, OH April 16th - 19th, 2009. (A bit more notice here…)

Our talk there is entitled, Interactivity with Arduinos, Transducing the Physical World. You can read more about it and others talking at the Notacon 6 Speaker Page. If you’re near the Ohio area, make plans to come out and spend the weekend at Notacon 6! Notacon 6 will be held at the Wyndham Cleveland at Playhouse Square, Downtown Cleveland, OH 1260 Euclid Ave Cleveland, OH 44115. (plenty of directions and more info at the Notacon 6 site)

Don’t worry if you can’t make it out, I’ll do my best to post pictures and the video of the talk from Outerz0ne and Notacon.

Know of a conference where we should be speaking? Be sure to drop us a line and let us know!

Arduino and Wii Nunchuck

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:41:19 +0000

Arduino and Wii Nunchuck

Our next robot we are planning to build we want to be able to control it using the Wii Nunchuck. I download some code from Todbot.com that demonstrates controlling a servo. The brain of the robot is going to use the Roboduino, and we had planned on recycling some old Hitron modems to use as the base. We’ll have to table that idea for later. Several attempts at making one into a robot base didn’t turn out so well. Mostly due to lack of tools. We found a robot base online that is designed for use with the Arduino and DC motors. I think we can alter it a bit to use servos instead. (Lets hope). It should be arriving in the mail at the end of this week.

Wiichuck Adaptor

Using the sketch from Todbot, here is what you will need to be able to hook this up. You can pick up a Wiichuck Adaptor at FunGizmos.com for $4.00. One of the cool things about the Wii is that the expansion port on the bottom of the Wii remote is an I2C serial connection. This means that anything that plugs into that port can work with microcontrollers like the Arduino or Basic Stamp or others. Of the available peripherals, the Wii Nunchuck is one of the best. It contains a 3-axis accelerometer, a 2-axis joystick, and two buttons. Hooking up a Wii Nunchuck to Arduino is easy. But cutting off the connector of the Nunchuck to get at the wires is a little drastic.

Wii Nunchuck testing with Arduino

For testing purposes, I have the Wiichuck Adaptor on a small breadboard with +5v and GND hooked up (red and black cables) Then the two I2C hook ups are as: Wiichuck Adaptor SDA (Green Cable) going to Arduino Pin 4. SCL (Blue Cable) going to Arduino Pin 5. For the Servo we are using +5v and GND (second pair of red and black cables) and the Yellow signal cable goes to Arduino Pin 7. There is a LED hooked up to Pin 13 and GND on the Arduino. The shorter leg of the LED goes into GND. You won’t need a resistor because Pin 13 has a built in resistor for it. You can pick those jumper cables up at SparkFun.com, they come in handy.

Now that we have tested this, our next step is to get it working using two Xbee Wireless adapters. Guilherme Martins has been working with these on his robots, so hopefully we can learn from the examples he has on his blog. We picked up a couple of Xbee Adapter kits from Adafruit, and I have already started going through some of the testing stages to allow the Xbees to talk to each other. I will post more progress to our blog once the base arrives and we start getting things put together.

Sensorpedia » Blog Archive » How To: Interface a light color sensor with Sensorpedia and serve Atom! (guide 3)

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:45:06 +0000

For this guide we will be switching things up a bit. Instead of using a Make Controller to communicate with sensors, we will be using another popular DIY/tinkerer microcontroller: the Arduino (duemilanove). Instead of pushing our data to Twitter, we will now be generating an Atom feed and serving it ourselves.

via Sensorpedia » Blog Archive » How To: Interface a light color sensor with Sensorpedia and serve Atom! (guide 3).

Wired Italia - Arduino ed elettronica faidate

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:33:40 +0000

Arduino article in Wired Italy

Wired Italia - Arduino ed elettronica faidate.

Basic Processing to Arduino Communications: part 2

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:14:12 +0000

Continuing from the last sketch, I’ve done the same thing but in a different manner. I still have Processing generate a square and when the mouse moves over the square it lights a LED on the Arduino, just as before. Although this time, the only code on the Arduino is the “Standard Firmata” sketch.

Processing interfaces with Firmata to control the pins as one would in the Arduino IDE. So instead of sending for “H” or “L” on the serial port, we send arduino.digitalWrite(ledPin, Arduino.HIGH) or arduino.digitalWrite(ledPin, Arduino.LOW) on the serial port. See the video below for examples, and code at the bottom.

Basic Processing to Arduino Communications part 02 from Morgellon on Vimeo.

My first impressions of Firmata and why one would use it:

All code is stored in Processing, commands are sent via serial, an Arduino running Firmata interprets commands.
With the Arduino running Firmata, Processing can change the different values, variables, or even “load” different “sketches”… this could eliminate the need to flash different sketches to the Arduino, and use Processing to “simulate” this when needed.
Perhaps by keeping the code in Processing and sending commands via serial to be handled by the Firmata on the Arduino, would mean that one would not be restricted by the memory size of the Arduino chip. (This is just a guess on my part).

First impressions of Firmata and why one would NOT use it.

To have functionality with the Arduino after unplugging it from USB, the code would need to be running on the Arduino. Once the Arduino is unplugged from USB, there is nothing for Firmata to interpret, so the Arduino will do nothing.

Processing Code

import processing.serial.*;
import cc.arduino.*;

Arduino arduino;
int ledPin = 12;

void setup()
{
println(Arduino.list());
arduino = new Arduino(this, Arduino.list()[0]); // v2
//arduino = new Arduino(this, Arduino.list()[0], 57600); // v1
arduino.pinMode(ledPin, Arduino.OUTPUT);

size(200, 200);
noStroke();
frameRate(10);
}

void draw()
{
background (255);
if (mouseOverRect() == true) { //if mouse over square
fill(242, 204, 47); //yellow color
arduino.digitalWrite(ledPin, Arduino.HIGH); //LED on
} else {
fill(0); //black color
arduino.digitalWrite(ledPin, Arduino.LOW); //LED off
}
rect(50, 50, 100, 100); //draws the square
}

boolean mouseOverRect() {
return ((mouseX >= 50) && (mouseX <= 150) && (mouseY >= 50) && (mouseY <= 150));
}

Basic Processing to Arduino Communications

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:45:18 +0000

Finally sat down and figured out how to send some basic signals via serial from Processing to an Arduino. For this example I was just looking for basic functionality, so I settled for a simple way to turn a LED on and off. It’s also mostly sample code gathered from the Internet.

The Processing code creates a small black square on the screen. When the mouse cursor is moved over the square, it changes color to yellow and sends a “H” over serial to the Arduino. While the Arduino detects a “H” on serial it will light the LED.

Here’s a video of it in action and describing how to get started.

Basic Processing to Arduino Communications from Morgellon on Vimeo.

Download Processing

http://processing.org/download/index.html

Download Arduino to Processing Library

http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Interfacing/Processing

Now that you’ve gotten all the files installed and in their proper places, try out my test code I used in the video.

Arduino Code (Download here)

// Read data from the serial port and turn ON or OFF a light depending on the value

char val; //Data received from the serial port
int ledPin = 13; //Set value ledPin to pin 13

void setup(){
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); //Sets pin as OUTPUT
Serial.begin(9600); //Start serial communication at 9600bps
}

void loop(){
if (Serial.available()){ //If data is available to read,
val = Serial.read(); //read it and store it as val
}
if (val == ‘H’){ //If H is recieved
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); //turn ON light
} else {
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); //If not leave light OFF
}
delay(25);
}

Processing Code(Download here)

//Check if the mouse is over a rectangle and write the status to the serial port

import processing.serial.*;
import cc.arduino.*;

Serial port; //Create object from Serial class

void setup() {
size(200, 200);
noStroke();
frameRate(10);
//Open the port that the board is connected to and use the same speed (9600bps)
port = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[0], 9600);
}

void draw() {
background (255);
if (mouseOverRect() == true) { //If mouse if over square
fill(242, 204, 47);                    //change color
port.write(’H');              //send H to serial port
} else {            //If mouse is NOT over square
fill(0);          //change color
port.write(’L'); //send L to serial port
}
rect(50, 50, 100, 100); //Draws the square
}

boolean mouseOverRect() { //Tests if mouse is over square
return ((mouseX >= 50) && (mouseX <= 150) && (mouseY >= 50) && (mouseY <= 150));
}

Arduino and Parallax RFID

admin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:19:21 +0000

Arduino and Parallax RFID

We picked up a Parallax RFID Card Reader the other day. Over at the Arduino Playground we grabbed a sketch that lets the Arduino read the Parallax brand RFID reader. Once connected and programmed, prints the tag number in the serial monitor window. I put a couple of photos and the pin outs here so that if you are new like us, hopefully this will be easy to understand. A lot of the code at the Playground is just that, code and descriptions, so when you are new to all this it can be confusing at first.

Close up of pins from Arduino to RFID

When the module is successfully powered-up and is in an idle state, the LED will be GREEN. When the module is in an active state and the antenna is transmitting, the LED will be RED.

You will hook up the pins as: Arduino GND to RFID GND, Arduino TX to RFID SOUT, Arduino Digital 2 to RFID /Enable and Arduino 5v to RFID VCC. You can download the Parallax RFID doc here.

Here is the Arduino sketch we used to test with. I have pasted it below for easy access. After uploading the sketch, press the Serial Monitor button and set it to 2400. When you pass the key card in front of the antenna, the ID will show up in the window. Our next step is to work on a door lock. We have been checking out several examples online that looked fun.

Arduino Sketch

// RFID reader for Arduino
// Wiring version by BARRAGAN
// Modified for Arudino by djmatic

int val = 0;
char code[10];
int bytesread = 0;

void setup() {

Serial.begin(2400); // RFID reader SOUT pin connected to Serial RX pin at 2400bps
pinMode(2,OUTPUT); // Set digital pin 2 as OUTPUT to connect it to the RFID /ENABLE pin
digitalWrite(2, LOW); // Activate the RFID reader
}

void loop() {

if(Serial.available() > 0) { // if data available from reader
if((val = Serial.read()) == 10) { // check for header
bytesread = 0;
while(bytesread<10) { // read 10 digit code
if( Serial.available() > 0) {
val = Serial.read();
if((val == 10)||(val == 13)) { // if header or stop bytes before the 10 digit reading
break; // stop reading
}
code[bytesread] = val; // add the digit
bytesread++; // ready to read next digit
}
}
if(bytesread == 10) { // if 10 digit read is complete
Serial.print(”TAG code is: “); // possibly a good TAG
Serial.println(code); // print the TAG code
}
bytesread = 0;
delay(500); // wait for a second
}
}
}

// extra stuff
// digitalWrite(2, HIGH); // deactivate RFID reader

Light Arduino Robotic Shield

admin — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:44:27 +0000

Light Arduino Robotic Shield

The Arduino shield we designed in Eagle and had made at Sparkfun’s BatchPCB.com arrived today. We are going to test it out and make sure everything is working properly and then sell them on our site (hopefully that will help cover the hosting cost, etc.).

This design is basically what we had designed for our autonomous robot. Once we have tested this and know it works, I will post the eagle files to share with anyone interested in using it.

Arduino Refrigerator Alert System

admin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:58:39 +0000

Refrigerator Alert System - Concept Design

With five kids in the house, someone is always leaving the refrigerator door open. The common response to this is “I didn’t know it was open”. So we started our new project for an Arduino Refrigerator Alert System. We are using a Bare Bones Board to control the 8×8 LED matrix. I edited the code to use an LDR (light-dependent resistor) so that when it senses that the light inside the refrigerator is on, the LED panel will activate and display the message “Door Is Open. Please Close Door”. When the door is shut, the light is off and so the panel will not be on.

Refrigerator Alert System - Concept Drawings

We hope to also figure out how to get the system to play a .WAV file. I used a text to speech program and created a wav file thats says “Door is Open. Please Close Door”. As an alternative, we could use an annoying beep sound to get someones attention. The photo to the left shows our rough concept idea. Once we get all the components working we will start assembling it all together in a nice housing unit that can be attached to the refrigerator. This may also work out to save a little energy! I will post more of our progress as we go along and include the final code when everything is finished.

Twitter Burglar Alarm

admin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:17:44 +0000

Twitter Burglar Alarm by Kelvin Lawson

We have our first viewer submitted Arduino Project. Kelvin Lawson built a burglar alarm that tweets when an intruder enters the house. “My alarm panel is somewhat isolated in the house with no nearby Ethernet connection, so I added an Xbee wireless module capable of sending data to another room in the house with Ethernet available. The Arduino spends its time monitoring the alarm output pins and sending the latest status over the air.

At the other end of the wireless connection, I have a Linux server with an Xbee USB module. A Python script running on the server reads the alarm status being received off the air by the Xbee module. If it sees that the Intruder alert signal is being asserted at the alarm panel, it generates notifications in the form of an SMS (via txtlocal.co.uk) and a Twitter status update.”

Makers Notebook Hack

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:25:01 +0000

Maker's Notebook with Breadboard and Boarduino

I ordered a Maker’s Notebook from the Makershed which arrived today. I am constantly doodling ideas on small pieces of paper and then losing them. I thought this notebook looked like a great idea to keep organized with. I loved seeing other Maker’s come up with their own hacks for the notebook. This is my quick version, phase one with breadboard and Boarduino. When we start a project I usally test things out first so I can teach them to Drew. That way if he has any questions, I can have answers or we can find them together. I attached the breadboard to the cover, and then plugged in the Boarduino. I can toss it in my laptop bag and work on things on my lunch break. It will also be handy for when I am traveling, and lays nicely on my desk when I am at home. As an alternative, you could use a half-sized breadboard and still have cover room for other devices.

8×8 LED Matrix

admin — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:13:05 +0000

8x8 LED Matrix

We put together the ModernDevice.com 8×8 LED Panel and attached the Bare Bones Board to the back. We are going to use this panel as a component in our project for the “Hacking Life 2″ Arduino Contest. I have to give Paul Badger and Todd Harrison a huge “Thank You!” on this. Once we had everything soldered together we couldn’t get it to work. Two of the columns were not lighting up. After some troubleshooting ideas emailed to us, I was finally able to get it to work. I am a little embarrassed to say that the biggest problem was that one of the chip sockets was not completely soldered in. That wouldn’t be so bad except that the chip sockets were soldered by me. I let Drew do the majority of the LED’s etc. and was worried about the pins being bent so I said I would do it. Hmmmm, maybe I should be learning from him instead of the other way around!

Drew soldering the 8x8 LED Panel

Lesson Learned! Double check all your solder joints. This is a really awesome LED panel. You can also attach several panels together if you want. We just needed the one for our upcoming project, but now I have thought of other ideas where we could use several panels. Paul also has a custom character generator that he created for this. The Arduino sketch can also be downloaded here.

8x8 LED Panel and BBB

The panel uses pins 2,3,4,5 on the Arduino. For prototyping purposes we have this hooked up to the breadboard and power from our bench top regulated power supply. We will continue to work on our project entry. More details and a tutorial to follow later. Right now it’s top secret.

Thoughts on Solder

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:46:01 +0000

Wow, ice storms pack quite a wrath! Having no power for almost a week made me really consider doing some “alternative energy powered” Arduino projects. Perhaps using a solar panel, dynamo or other method… but first a week worth of Internet to catch up on!! While I catch up, here’s a neat video to tide you over until the next post!

Did you know there are different types of Solder? Solder comes in many different forms, with various melting points and properties!

Here’s a great video detailing some of the differences and possible myths between lead/lead-free solder

Our New Tag

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:08:23 +0000

ArduinoFun Logo and Tag Line

I feel this new tag and logo embraces the spirit of the Arduino community. “Learning Today to Build Tomorrow”, the meaning behind this is that what my son and I are learning today, hopefully he will carry with him as he becomes a man and can build a better tomorrow. The iconic logo of watering a plant to help nurture it to grow just seemed to fit with what I am attempting to accomplish as we learn and grow ourselves.

Now I just need to figure out how to get the logo to fit into the header of our blog :) and look good!

Arduino LCD

admin — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:32:47 +0000

BBB with LCD117 Kit

We are waiting for some parts to arrive to get started on our next robot that will be using the Roboduino. In the meantime, we have been experimenting with the ModernDevice LCD117 Serial LCD kit.

The Serial LCD board is piggybacked onto the 2×16 LCD. We then have the BBB (Bare Bones Board) inserted onto our bread board with connections to GND, +5, and Analog 0. Hook up power, ground and data and you’re good to go. No libraries or handfuls of wires to mess with. Coding for the LCD117 board is really simple. “Hello World!” can literally be accomplished with one line:

Serial.print(”Hello World!”) - on a Freeduino/Arduino, other micocontrollers have their own syntax but the implementation is equally simple. The board uses a programmed PIC chip, created by Maryland EE professor Peter Anderson, to convert serial commands, e.g. Serial.print(”Freeduino”), into LCD text.

If you are looking to implement an LCD into your next project, this takes a lot of the confusion out of the process. Paul Badger has even programmed a Custom Character Generator that will work with any LCD. We had searched online prior to using the LCD117 kit, and found several sites with breadboard hookups, crazy wires going everywhere but not a lot of instructions on where stuff was going, etc. It all seemed confusing to us since we are new to this. The LCD117 kit had us up and running within minutes. Plus we got more soldering experience by not using the fully assembled board.

Files:
Arduino demo sketch for Peter Anderson’s chip:
Demo for 2 x 16 LCD display
Demo for 4 x 20 LCD display

Paul Badger’s Custom Character Generator
Mac Custom Character Generator
Windows Custom Character Generator

Roboduino Tutorial

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:50:15 +0000

Roboduino Kit by Curious Inventor

It has been snowing since yesterday and today we woke up to an ice storm which shut down most of the city. All the schools were closed and the kids are home. A perfect day for getting started with the Roboduino kit from Curious Inventor!

Drew and I spent part of the day putting together the Roboduino. There is a lot of soldering to do, so we didn’t do it all at once. The whole idea behind this site is for it to be fun to learn, and so I didn’t want to burn him out. We worked on the small parts for a bit, and then he went out to enjoy the snow. After he warmed up and played around on some of his game websites we headed back to the lab to finish putting together the Roboduino.

We have uploaded a step-by-step tutorial on putting together the Roboduino on the instructables site for anyone interested in getting started. You can access it here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Putting_Together_the_Roboduino/

Our YouTube Video

Drew soldering the Roboduino

Drew got to do a lot of soldering which he enjoyed. I am still amazed at how well he does it! Putting together the Roboduino Kit was fun and pretty straight forward. If you are reading this site and have an interest in building a robot, I highly recommend getting this kit to start off with. Now that we have ours built, we are in the planning stages for our next robot. We have several projects going on at the moment, including our first robot LARS. I will keep posting progress notes as we go along. Drew is going to enter “Hacking Life: II Arduino Contest” and so we are in the planning stages of that as well.

This blog has only been online for a short while and we are already discovering there is a great Arduino community out there. Be sure to post some comments or email us. We would love to hear from you.

Time to Solder! (Soldering 101)

admin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:14:55 +0000

There are many reasons to learn the art of soldering, if you don’t already solder. Whether to take a project from breadboard prototype to a completed project… saving money by buying a kit instead of a pre-assembled… harvesting parts from old/broken electronics… modifying existing consumer electronics… the reasons go on and on!

BUT learning to solder can be intimidating… especially if you’re learning on your own or don’t have someone to consult with.

Luckily, the fine people at Curious Inventor have put together a great resource for soldering and solder reference. They also have a great video tutorial, which you can view below.

Be sure to check out the Curious Inventor Solder Guide for pics, reference and hints!

http://www.curiousinventor.com/guides/How_To_Solder

Processing Interview

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:03:59 +0000

Looks like Ben Fry and Casey Reas the creators of Processing, were recently interviewed on FLOSS Weekly! This is a nice intro into the world of Processing! If you’re looking for ways to extend your *duino projects, communicate with a PC or just have some creative fun, Processing could be for you!

Be sure to head over to the FLOSS Weekly site and listen to this interview!

http://twit.tv/floss52

Hacking Life: An Arduino Contest!

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:20:30 +0000

Looks like the folks over at Libelium are conducting a contest revolving around the Arduino! The contest is called “Hacking Life: II Arduino Contest” and the deadline is April 15th.

The instructions are fairly simple!

Think about the coolest thing you have ever done with Arduino. How can you make your daily life easier and funnier with Arduino?
Create an account.
Show us your hack: record a video and write a tutorial/howto as much complete as possible.

And the prizes aren’t too shabby!!

1st: GPS, GPRS, SD and solar modules for Arduino
2nd: GPS, SD and SD and solar modules for Arduino
3rd: GPS and SD modules for Arduino

Looks like they’re giving out a discount coupon to the Libelium Store just for entering the contest. So there’s plenty of incentive to take a project and join the contest!

Be sure to visit the contest page over at Libelium for more info and fine print.

http://www.libelium.com/tienda/catalog/contest.php

Illuminato: The *Duino-verse Expands!

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:14:28 +0000

Just noticed (thanks Kevin!) Liquidware released a new *duino clone, the Illuminato!

Scanning through the specs of the Illuminato, I was very impressed!

42 Digital I/O pins!! 6 of which can be Analog
Layout still supports “standard” Arduino shield too!
Code compatibility, works with IDE (backwards compatible with Arduino sketches)
Powered by an Atmega645, double the code space and a faster code download speed.
10 white surface mount LED’s on backside of board (controlled with bling() function)

There are several videos from the Liquidware guys showing off the Illuminato

Looks like the Illuminato is already up for sale at the Liquidware Store for $34.99 US.

You can read the release post and all good information at the Liquidware Blog!

http://antipastohw.blogspot.com/2009/01/introducing-illuminato-100-gnu-gpld.html