Patrick, Ben, and Arduino: What we've been building
Prior to this class, Ben and I had had no experience whatsoever working with the Arduino open-source prototyping platform, however, we were more than excited to jump in and actually start learning how to build the interactive environments we were beginning to envision.
Fortunately, between the two of us, we have had a fair amount of experience writing code in various programming languages ranging from Java to PHP to ActionScript. And with a dash of electrical engineering education to add to that experience, getting acquainted with some of the more basic aspects of the Arduino programming environment and hardware has been a relatively easy and enjoyable process.
Just as the "Hello world!" statement is a standard for introductory programming courses, blinking an LED seems to be the first little introduction into the world of Arduino. Of course, being the hyper-active, humorous individuals that we are, we took this introductory project a few steps further and within a few minutes of learning how to set up this basic circuit and write the program, we had our own variation -- an extremely annoying, though amusing LED light show:
If you're interested in seeing it, the code is available here.
Taking this project a step further, and utilizing our basic understanding of the programming language as a whole, we put together a short light show controlled by a simple button, starting with an ordered succession of blinking lights, a randomized succession of blinking lights, and finally a series of fading LED's using the Arduino's inherent PWM outputs:
If you're interested in seeing it, the code is available here.
More recently, we began exploring different kinds of controllable input. In this example, we used a potentiometer to control the brightness of two LED's inversely; as one LED becomes brighter, the other decreases in brightness:
If you're interested in seeing it, the code is available here.
We've also started looking into different kinds of sensors in the hopes of finding the appropriate hardware for our final project. This past weekend, the nice folks at Metrix introduced us to a series of pressure sensors that could be used to measure the amount of liquid in a container based on weight. The first was a low cost, home made pressure gauge:
The second option was a pre-fabricated pressure sensor costing around $9:
With these sensors in mind, our vision for the perfect Arduino enhanced social beer drinking experience is one step closer to becoming a reality!
As usual, more pictures and videos of the fun stuff we're doing to come...
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