A few months ago some website let me know that the arduino was on sale along with a book: Getting Started with Arduino. I read the first few chapters of the book and looked very intently at the arduino, but that’s as far as I got for several months.
Then, for some reason earlier this week I wanted to start messing with it. I knew I would need some more junk.
Some searching on the internet led me to believe that what I wanted were the things that fell out of boxes at the factory, were found under big machines and returned by other people. I figured that if I bought in bulk, I wouldn’t have to worry so much about buying the right thing. It turns out that someone sells just what I needed (actually, a lot of people like messing with this stuff, so it’s pretty easy to buy).
Anyway, a little explanation: the Arduino is that blue thing in the top picture with the USB cable coming out of it. It’s a microcontroler, a little computer that is good at interacting with the rest of the world. You hook it up to stuff and it either does things, or sends data to something else. I know that’s not a great explanation. Here are some examples: a touchpad, a display board, a laser controlled wireless automatic cat food dispenser.
I’ve got an idea that I want to try with this, but I’m not ready to share it yet.
I’m sorry that when you talk about your hobby you don’t have a better audience than us.
You did a good job explaining it though. I at least know what an Arduino is now. And I’m curious to see what you try to build. I’m going to guess it will be a laser controlled wireless automatic Lauren food dispenser.
One of our friends has a son who owns this thing. He used that stuff for the candles on his birthday cake. The lights were blinking, and he figured out how to make it play/sing Happy Birthday, too.
Interesting stuff, I just have no idea what it really is.
How old is this genius?
The photo of the LEDs on a coin battery? That’s my work.
Lloyd: Complicated wires, cables, and switches connecting lights to computer, typing incessantly to make them blink and dim.
Lauren: Battery and light, proclaiming it a monster eye and putting it on the stairs to freak herself out.
It was a great Friday night at the Sommerers.
Let me know how the experimentation goes. Arduino is a very powerful tool.
Lauren: You should make LED throwies 🙂
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/projects/led-throwies/
I love you, Matt, because that song is one of my very favorites.
My first college roommate was a guy named Arduino.
That’s a lot like the “science” thing you had as a kid, where you connect a bunch of wires in different ways and it did different things? I don’t remember it ever doing much, but we used it a lot in our “adventures”. That and the blocks with the switches and levers drawn on them in marker! LOL!