Arduino Your Environment
Learn to monitor and control your home & environment with self contained, inter-communicating microprocessors. Applications include robotics, model railroading, toys and more.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Mixing and Amplifiying Your Audio Sources
http://www.all-electric.com/schematic/simp_mix.htm
For an amplifier, it's hard to beat a good set of amplified computer speakers for this application. The Logitech S120 2.0 Multimedia Speakers are very inexpensive (<$11), and give great quality sound.
BTW, today is my birthday, so please check out my Arduino Store, and you can celebrate with me!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The Most Important Arduino Book?
Only one teaches you about motion, the science behind it, and how to make your Arduino interact with the real world through electro-mechanical, pneumatic, and hydraulic ways. Learn how to size motors for a particular task, how to determine rpm and torque requirements, and much more.
I believe this is the most important Arduino book available, and it has a prized position at my work bench. I recommend it highly!
Making Things Move DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists
Monday, January 2, 2012
Using Mosfets
The first phase of the project is simple on and off, the second phase will PWM the MOSFET for brightness of the LED's. Third phase is 3 MOSFETS each controlling a different color bank of LED's for tonal control.
What we have working in phase 1:
+12vdc to 3 white LED's in series with a 120 ohm resistor
This configuration was determined using the LED Wizard at http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
The next step was to insert a IRL520 MOSFET is series with the LED's, between the resistor and ground. The Drain (pin2) connects to the resistor, the Source (pin3) connects to Ground. The Gate (pin1) can be tested by connecting to +12v (momentarily, not good to exceed 10v) and Ground, alternately.
WAIT!
What have we discovered? The output (LED output) toggles with the gate connection. When we touch +12 momentarily, the LED's light up, and stay lit even after the Gate is no longer touching +12v. When the Gate is grounded, the LED's go out, and stay out, until Gate touches +12v again. We need to connect a 10k ohm resistor between Gate and Ground, so that the LED's are off unless power is applied to the gate, which will be +5v from Arduino pin 13 in the next example.
Schematic generated in SchemeIt, a free online schematic tool.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
A platform for microcontrolled electro-mechanical, hydraulics, and pneumatics
Ideal for rapid prototyping, ease of disassembly, moving and reassembly. Fun for kids and adults. Solar mounts, wind turbines, hydroelectric, electric vehicles (cars, trains, submarines and more) are just some of the ways to use this system. We develop solutions using microcontrollers in a variety of electro-mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic applications and have many uses for grid beam as a platform for these solutions. Check it out!
Isaacs, Ken - How To Build Your Own Living Structures (Free Download)
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Arduino Robotics
This book by John - David Warren and friends is one of my favorites. A good beginning in electronics and Arduino basics (easily ignored if you are experienced, but I suggest a overview anyway), then jumps into well documented meat and potatoes robotics, including wireless control, motor control, and sensors such as ultrasonic, IR, and tactile.
Arduino Robotics by John-David Warren (Author), Josh Adams (Author), Harald Molle (Author)
New Arduino IDE 1.0
routines, functions, and behavior in old functions. This one is important, check
it out at
http://tronixstuff.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/initial-review-arduino-v1-0-ide/
Join the Arduino discussions at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/arduinohome/ .
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Build your own Proto Shield for the Arduino
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Hardware/Arduino_Shield.html
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Tutorial/Introduction.html
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Workshop/Introduction.html

