Anyone using Arduino?

[ICT_GUY]

We are about to invest in some Aduino Clones for our primary school after many months of me playing around with various projects.

 

I have not found anything as easy to use and as fun as these little £10 boards. Well apart from this > Olimex DUINOMITE-MEGA maximite basic computer

Is anyone else using them? Experiences?

[pcstru]

I use them for ...err , personal projects. They are very good and the library support is excellent for a wide range of devices.

 

I still have a fondness for PicAxe kit. It's cheaper with simpler support circuitry requirements, so when all you need is a little bit of programmed logic, it's a sensible choice.

[plexer]

I've got some Digisparks for personal use they could be interesting for students?

 

Ben

[ICT_GUY]

These are similar to the digispark, a cutdown nano and less that £4 :-)

 

What do you use your digispark for?

Edited June 19, 2013 by ICT_GUY

[Guest Guest]

£10 Arduino clones? What are they? Ardunios are £30!

[pcstru]

These are similar to the digispark, a cutdown nano and less that £4 :-)

 

Thanks for that link. That's a nice cheap solution for embedding in a final project - and I have a use for one!

[pcstru]

£10 Arduino clones? What are they? Ardunios are £30!

 

 

You can buy Uno's for £13. ATmega 328's with caps and resonator can be had for <£4 - you need to provide an external serial interface - usually something like USB to TTL to do the programming - and some breadboard or other means of laying out a circuit.

Edited June 20, 2013 by pcstru

[ICT_GUY]

If you want a school friendly supplier try here They do a 10% discount if you order a good whack of them. I have been using this brand for a few months and they work flawlessly.

 

On ebay, the nano can be had for £7 pro mini for £4 and a Arduino Mega for £11 all delivered to your door from China. I have one of each and they all work and have had no problems.

Edited June 20, 2013 by ICT_GUY

[plexer]

Not done a lot with my digisparks atm built the charlieplex shield there's a youtube video of it posted here somewhere.

 

Ben

[ICT_GUY]

Nice,

 

I built a binary counter shield with a 595 shift register. And played with this which was fun (and easy to build) Cheap too.

 

[mats]

Those sub-£4 nanos need an external usb interface. For the money, a complete arduino for £12ish is a steal, all you need is a usb A-B cable - they can also be powered from usb (like a Pi) so you can use a spare phone charger charger. If you're really on a shoestring, cannibalise old kit for leds, motors, transistors, ir tx / rx bits.

 

Arduinos can also program attiny micros - I have a few attiny45 smd's for sale if anybody wants them (hard to get in small numbers).

[ICT_GUY]

I just completed an incubator monitor. It displays the temp and humidity and sounds an alarm if either goes too far out of wack.

 

*Wife hatches Turkeys, wife happy*

Edited June 20, 2013 by ICT_GUY

[mats]

It should be noted that there is a project which can connect Scratch to an Arduino which I got working last year.

 

First person to get it into a primary curriculum wins!

[pcstru]

I just completed an incubator monitor. It displays the temp and humidity and sounds an alarm if either goes too far out of wack.

 

*Wife hatches Turkeys, wife happy*

 

In a sense the exact opposite end of the process for my Arduino PID which was controlling a slow cooker to do Sous Vide.

[ICT_GUY]

It should be noted that there is a project which can connect Scratch to an Arduino which I got working last year.

 

First person to get it into a primary curriculum wins!

 

Im interested as we use scratch for year 3.

 

BTW

 

Graphical programing for Arduino.

[ICT_GUY]

In a sense the exact opposite end of the process for my Arduino PID which was controlling a slow cooker to do Sous Vide.

 

I saw this project only recently. How did you do it? Quick and dirty or screens and keys all singing and dancing?

[pcstru]

With the Arduino I did it quick and dirty using the PID library and a relay to drive a slow cooker - a 2 line LCD and a couple of buttons all on breadboard to display actual and set target temp. I swapped out the Arduino for a commercial PID for the final incarnation. The results cooking meat sous-vide can be stunning.