I ordered my Arduino stuff last night so it should all be here some time this week or next week

[G+_Dan Anderson]

I ordered my Arduino stuff last night so it should all be here some time this week or next week. I've been watching Know How for years but, for whatever reason, never tried anything. Well, now is the time and judging by all the great posts I will not be want for project ideas! Thanks, group!

[G+_Shooter_FPV (Shooter_FP]

What project are you doing??? Great people here to help...

[G+_Telford Dorr]

Arduinos are great tools for quick-and-dirty projects, and are amazingly powerful. And the IDE has full C++ support, so it's a great platform for learning C++ (or you can pretend it's 'C', and it will work just fine). Couple of hints:

 

- Arduino chips have only minimal input / output over-voltage protection. It doesn't take much over-voltage to release the purple smoke., so try to keep all signals between 0 and +5 volts. [This is especially an issue on analog input pins.] You can buy / make a shield which has double diode protection on the I/O pins, clamping them between 0 and 5 volts, if you're trying something risky.

 

- Turn on the 'verbose' error mode on the compiler. Pay attention to the RED error and warning messages which pop up. Do your best to resolve them all. It will make you a better coder.

[G+_Dan Anderson]

Ken Jancef I'm really liking some of the LED projects. The fist types of projects I'm going to try will be with those. What a coincidence! My cheap starter kit came with some! Seriously, I'll be happy to get it to light up.

 

I am NOT a coder. I have a grand total of about 25 minutes of education on coding over the course of my life. I know it's going to be an uphill battle but I want to learn!

 

Later I want to build a project where using infrared LEDs to make a universal remote and/or a trick remote that will shut off all the TV's in the room. Yes, my 8 year old and I have the same sense of humor...

 

More advanced stuff? I'd like to create a camera that takes time lapse photos and sends them to me via cell tower.

 

The toughest project that I can think of combines one of the previous things that I mentioned with a quad copter because nothing is funnier than a quad that follows you around shutting off all the TV's in your neighborhood. No, that's mean... I better not have it follow me. ;)

[G+_Dan Anderson]

Telford Dorr Thanks! I don't know jack about programming so this is going to be how I get my feet wet. I figure this would be the best way because hopefully I'll stay engaged if I can see real world results as I learn. I have 5 Arduino nano coming tomorrow and I already have a few people wanting to buy one from me and learn simply because I won't shut up about it. I'll recommend the group to them, too. :)

 

Thanks for the technical tips. I'm a total noob and soon after this original post I ordered the 5 nanos because I know i'll end up breaking some as I learn. So do you have any recommendations for a first project? I'd be happy to get an LED to blink without destroying the board.

 

p.s. I also bought a cheap soldering station from Amazon. No idea how good it is but probably not that good. That's ok, though. I just wanted something to get me started. I can go nuts on it later once I learn more, right? Besides, I probably won't need to solder much at first, right?

 

amazon.com - X-Tronic Model #3020-XTS Digital Display Soldering Iron Station - 10 Minute Sleep Function, Auto Cool Down, C/F Switch, Ergonomic Soldering Iron, Solder Holder, Brass Tip Cleaner with Cleaning Flux - - Amazon.com

[G+_Shooter_FPV (Shooter_FP]

Dan Anderson Great stuff! I'm not much of a coder at all myself, that's why I'm glad Padre includes the code in the projects, but also glad that he explains it so we can SORTA see what's going on... lol

 

I bounce from Know How projects to drones, then to projects... it's nuts... I built 3 racing drones, and 2 Tiny Whoop drones (those are FUN!). Then I also tried the SMD sound meter project that they had on the show a few months ago. I got it working, but I have one row and one column that is totally out, and couldn't figure out why, so I bought another one, only to have the same result.

 

I built the Steampunk goggles from a few months back, my son loves them, and we will probably use it for Halloween this year.

 

Now my current project is 3D printing and building a R/C F1 car, hopefully will get it done in a month or so... here's the link:

 

thingiverse.com - OpenRC Formula 1 car by barspin

[G+_Telford Dorr]

OK, the first thing I would recommend is getting a good tutorial on 'C'. Kerninghan and Ritchie is the standard, but it's pretty dense. There are others. This will give you the basic programming language structure. Specifically, learn about data types, their sizes, and limitations.

 

Keep in mind that your 'sketch' is really subroutines for a pre-written main program, which looks like:

 

void main()

{

// Do needed system initializations and setup here

...

 

setup(); // <<- You write this

 

while (1)

{

loop(); // <<- and this

}

}

 

You're writing the setup() and loop() functions, and whatever else that you may want.

 

The next thing you need to do is study the Arduino examples which come with the IDE. They're pretty simple, generally. Good way to learn how things are done. After that, start in on the code from KnowHow projects. Hack and tweak the code to put in your own changes, and see if they work. If you keep at it long enough, and you'll either go crazy, or get good at it. Most people get good at it.

 

Finally, if you get stuck, post here for help and explanation. There are lots of resources here to draw in, from what I've seen. Lots of people will be more than happy to assist.

 

After you get good at that, then you can move on to C++ (which is like 'C' on steroids...) Then it gets really fun ;-)

[G+_Dan Anderson]

Ken Jancef That's so awesome! It looks pretty fast! So the helmet sounds really cool! I like the idea of all the stuff you've built so far.

 

OK, so here's something that I would like to be able to build someday. I'm sure it exists already which is fine with me since I want to learn how to do it. Basically it's an LED matrix that you can hang up. The led's are evenly spaced either by using black peg board type backing or similar.

 

The webcam views the object and turns that information into a shape on the board. So not sure how to do this but I'm assuming it will need a computer or GPU or both. It's just for decoration and would probably look at hanging up at a club or something. Maybe, depending on the way the subject moves or the beat the LEDs can change color or do a cool pattern or something. I know this is way down the road for me but would be one of my goals.

 

I'm so jealous that you already finished a bunch of stuff!! haha. I'll be back for sure to check on your posts.

 

[G+_Shooter_FPV (Shooter_FP]

Dan Anderson Wow, that sounds like an interesting idea... not sure if it's out there somewhere, but my first impression would be that it wouldn't be so easy!

 

My son loves it when I make stuff. He's 10 years old. I've already made him maybe 6-7 fidget spinners, which is about 6-7 too many... lol... and the Steampunk goggles were for him as well. And if the R/C car project works out well, I might give it to him for Christmas.

 

I've been into drones for 2-3 years now, started with an old Phantom 2, and now I have a Phantom 3 that I am trying to integrate into my photography business. Racing drones, for me, was a natural progression. I can build them, but my flying skills are slim to none.

 

I was actually lucky enough to get mentioned on the show a couple of times, but it's humbling for me, because there are just so many great people and projects here, I never feel like I measure up... but I do have fun.

 

Do you have a 3D printer yet? If not, it's a great thing to have once you start getting your projects going. You can even pick out projects based on prints, maybe something catches your eye... not that it ever happens to me... lol...