Posted on 10/21/2016 5:27:46 PM PDT by RoosterRedux
Video Link -- I only learned about Arduino yesterday. This might not be the best video to explain what it is, but it will introduce you to the concept.
Arduino is an open source company in Italy IIRC that essentially marries cheap-off-the-shelf hardware to simple code such that you and I can develop our own moving things (i.e. robots, drones, motorized camera mounts, etc.). The only limits are your imagination and determination.
Here's another shorter introductory video that might help...Thinking About Getting an Arduino? Watch This
And "believe me" (as Trump says), I am an old fart so don't tell me that old farts can't learn.;-)
You are smarter than you think.
Teach, just like I do with Photoshop for our camera club.
I know someone who took a single wheel bike, the kind you ride in side of. Arduino ran lights around the wheel rim in changing patterns. The wheel is big, like 6 feet diameter. Very impressive at night.
But I think if Arduino does “useful work”, eg home automation, a commercial product may be out there already.
Flip side, current products may be poor quality. Imho. Once somebody owns a patent, makes some money selling it. Quality drops imho.
I forgot to include the curly brace to close the loop.
WS2812 LED strings can be individually programmed. The effects can be quite remarkable.
I really and truly can NOT imagine WHY I would need to know this stuff. Heck, I still write snail mail with a fountain pen. Sure I write emails too and message ( feebly ) with with my kids and grandkids, but I'd still rather actually write on paper.
I hate drones, not into writing programs, nor inventing anything ( I'd rather companies would brings back stuff and products that are no longer made ) so there's that. But for others, I'm certain this IS of interest and something they can and shall use.
Thanks.....I agree with your original post! :-)
Also, marrying Arduino and robotic video software is a good match. The robot can “see” real objects, and manipulate them. The Arduino does the movement.
IR proximity detectors and ultrasound distance sensors.
Been writing code on them, and other small computer boards like them, for years. Thanks for bringing them to the attention of the general readers here on FR.
Then, in very early '98, I discovered this site and you bet I learned and learned fast how to us a WebTv and then a laptop. I'm still NOT any good on the big computer and though much better than I once was, with using a mouse, I still stink at it.
I don't want to build a robot, do NOT want a drone, I hire people to fix things,we've had a security system since we built this house, have gardeners, and NO machine, on its own can/shall ever be able to polish silver like a human being can.
bump
A VERY powerful offshoot of the Arduino project is the ESP8266 Arduino, which is like an Arduino with built-in WiFi. It’s a very different chip but the Arduino system wa basically ported to it and given additional libraries to support Web pages, TCP/IP, and wireless. You can make “Internet of Things” type projects with it, and it is smaller and actually even less expensive than the Arduino. To make something like a WiFi thermometer with a web page on your home wireless network is almost trivial to do, for example.
For actual commercial non-IoT projects, I still prefer Microchip PIC’s and plain old C. The compiler is inexpensive or even free, and it has an excellent debugging system that costs at most $50. One bad thing about the Arduino environment is that it doesn’t really have an in-circuit debugger. I’m not the best programmer, but armed with a good debugger, I can do practically anything.
It annoys the crap out of me that young people waste their time with social media and their stupid damn phones instead of doing things like this. The capabilities of the Arduino or the Microchip development systems would have set you back high four figures in 1970’s dollars and only engineers would even be allowed near them. And today’s chips and development systems are infinitely superior and you would be hard pressed to spend more than a few hundred bucks on them with the use of your PC.
Is Arduino the same as Raspberry Pi?
Tech ping
I am over 50 and taught myself Arduino 18 months ago for a cosplay project. I used a teeny little chip to control some leds and sound generation. Came out great!
Arduino is one of several low-cost microcontrollers that let the average Joe be part of the coming Internet of Things (IoT).
They are becoming so cheap they will be in everything.
For example, salt and pepper shakers at restaurants will probably some day have a wireless Internet connection so the owner can automatically see if any need to be refilled.
Why? Simple. Because we can.
BTTT
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