Arduino Workshop

We had Arduino workshop today, Arduino is a family of single-board microcontrollers, intended to make it easier to build interactive objects or environments. The hardware consists of an open-source hardware board designed. It is for people who do not have any experience about machine. And also it is really easy to use it.

Arduino is a tool for making computers that can sense and control more of the physical world than your desktop computer.

The thing about arduino is that it's an open source physical computing platform. Before using arduino, we needed some material such as switches, sensors, LED lights, motor and some components connected from the Bread board. It has own programing language, and we can learn from their own site.

The compnoents used with Arduino are (LEDs, Resistors, Wire, Breadboard, Arduino Board)

Before we did, we installed Arduino program to control the machine. Blue image is program which help to working Arduino machine.

Then we need to open Arduino computer program and connect computer and Arduino Kit with USB. System is easy to control the Arduino board. We working in pairs, following the brief we learnt to make the LED light lit up. The code is what we used in Processing to make it work.

With those components, we tried to Arduino works. In workshop, it is only simply exercise to do, however we were struggled with this program.

This exercise is the simplest thins we ca do with an Arduino to see physical output: it blinks an LED.

Before starting, what we need to..
-Arduino Board, LED, Resistor

To build the circuit, connect one end of the resistor to Arduino pin 13. Connect the long leg of the LED (the positive leg, called the anode) to the other end of the resistor. Connect the short leg of the LED (the negative leg, called the cathode) to the Arduino GND, as shown in the diagram and the schematic below.

Most Arduino boards already have an LED attached to pin 13 on the board

After we made the circuit plug your Arduino board into the computer, start the Arduino IDE, and enter the code below.

/*
Blink
Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.

This example code is in the public domain.
*/

// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards.
// give it a name:
int led = 13;

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
// initialize the digital pin as an output.
pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
digitalWrite(led, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(led, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}

To get Arudino projects code below this link;
http://www.arduinoevilgenius.com/?page_id=338

This code helps to change the speed an delay period of the light you simply alter the numeric value in each section and upload the code into the Arduino via a USB connection which also supplies power.

After the workshop, I found really good example of the Arduino project. This is LED coffee table. It built the coffee table and sized the inner cabinet to accommodate these pegboard reactive surfaces. The array of white lights that you see when there are no blue LEDs on are the infrared (IR) emitters. This portion of the light spectrum is invisible to the naked eye, but digital cameras can pick them up. Simply: in person, you would not see any light until you interact with the table.

Reason I have chosen this work, its because it is really interactive and also amazing. I supposed to do my FMP as an interactive design, so I thought it is really good example and research for my FMP for next year.

This is TED Talks from Massimo Banzi. Massimo Banzi helped invent the Arduino, a tiny, easy-to-use open-source microcontroller that's inspired thousands of people around the world to make the coolest things they can imagine.

This is great tutorial to using Arduino.

I believe that those project could help me to get idea for my FMP in final year.
I bought some books for Arduino project, I will learn how to use more effectively in a summer holiday. Definitely it could helps me for creating for interactive design.