Arduino: A new platform

Arduino is the first of it’s kind – An open-source electronics prototyping platform fit for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone who would like to mess with electronics and make some interactive environments or objects. Arduino has been developed in Italy by the Arduino Team: Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino, and David Mellis.

By open-source hardware, it doesn’t mean that the items come free of cost, rather it means that one can get the schematics or circuits and the source-code for free or from internet and they can use it the way they like – Make changes and develop something on their own.

We (6 of us – we call ourselves – The A-Team, A for Arduino or Amritapuri :D) attended a workshop in our Ettimadai campus on Arduino. The board alone is enough to create an enthusiasm in anyone to do electronics. The way the Italians have designed it makes it more exciting to use. A fairly large amount of sensors can be interfaced with the baseboards which comes in different models. The one I’ve worked on is Arduino Uno. Don’t get fooled by it’s size. This little board can make wonders happen.

<<= Arduino Uno:Out of the box.

Guided by Ajith Peter Sir, we are working on some interesting sensors and devices slowly improving our confidence and the learning experience is simply thrilling. The sheer thrill we get once we make any sensor work and get the desired outputs is simply awesome. Dreams flash before our eyes each second. Dreams of doing this doing that. Making light shows, TV-B-Gone’s and playing pranks, which we already have done. 😉

We went into the Cyber security department here in Ettimadai and turned off their TV. You should have seen the expression of the person sitting there when suddenly his TV turned off. Neither had he pressed the Off button on his remote nor had the current gone. (We had used our TV-B-Gone made using Arduino to turn it off). CEN(Computational Engineering and Networking) Dept. Head, Dr.Soman Sir came to our rescue telling him that we were testing our little hands-on project. It was fun! (Just exaggerating, wanted to add some masala. Soman sir had already asked the guy if we could test our device. Alas, No prank played. But the test was successful!)

The four day workshop introduced us with a lot of new terms like UART, I2C, EEPROMS, etc…It also taught us about serial communication, introduced us with a lot of sensors like PIR sensor, LM35 temperature sensor, Real Time Clock, LDR(Light Dependant Resistors), IR LED and TSOP IR receivers, LCD, Stepper Motor, XBee, Ultrasound distance sensor and loads of other stuff. Also it gave us the confidence to try out simple projects and get our hands dirty. Also he gave us a brief tutorial on soldering and PCB designing and etching.

Want to learn PCB designing and Etching?? Here is a youtube tutorial on it! Watch all the four parts!

I’ll update with more of my works in future posts. 🙂