reaDIYmates are fun wi-fi objects that you can build easily. They move and play sounds depending on what's happening in your digital life. Choose from a variety of existing designs, use our templates or create your own object.  Then decide what you want them to do through a simple web interface. Link them to your digital life (Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, RSS feeds, SoundCloud, If This Then That, and more to come) or control them remotely in real time from your iPhone. You don't need any creative or technical skills to build and use your reaDIYmate, but if you want to go further, we made it super easy for you to change designs, write applications, or add inputs and outputs. They're Arduino compatible and you can plug 50+ solderless electronic bricks.

A servo motor is a special geared DC motor equipped with an electronic circuit for controlling the direction of rotation, as well as the position, of the motor shaft. Because servo motors allows precise angular positioning of their output shaft, they are used extensively in robotics and radio-controlled cars, airplanes, and boats to control the motion of their various parts. In this lab session, we will first explore what a servo motor consists of and how it works and then illustrate how to interface it with a PIC microcontroller.

Our curriculum has been broken out into three main categories: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Materials may include presentations, handouts, code and whatever else we've got!

You'll be able to learn simple programming techniques, soldering skills, and other basics before moving on to more advanced skills like using an Atmega and Xbee Wireless. The curriculum is simple enough for a child to understand, but interesting enough for an adult to walk away with some good knowledge. The entire curriculum is free and you'll even get a nice big Intro to Arduino book. If you've been toying with the idea of taking on some of the electronics projects we've featured here but didn't know how to start then this curriculum will give you a good understanding of what you need to know.

Ich habe mich in letzter Zeit ziehmlich mit dem Thema LED Matrix beschäftigt, hauptsächlich mit dem Rainbowduino RGB Led controller von Seeedstudio. Dieser Treiber steuert eine common anode 8x8 rgb led matrix an. das schöne: jeder controller hat ein i2c/spi/uart anschluss (man kann beliebige matricen hinzufügen), das negative: software pwm. nichts desto trotz, habe ich die rainbowduino firmware aufgemotzt und dazu eine einfach library für Processing geschrieben, damit man das teil auch einfach ansteuern kann. ich wollte mich natürlich mit einer 8x8cm "grossen" led matrix zufrieden geben, daher baute ich mir selber eine grössere. Das ganze habe ich in meinem blog dokumentiert, hier ein screenshot der matrix ohne diffuser:

This is a really simple ambient display for temperature using an Arduino, an RGB backlight LCD, and a temperature sensor. The LCD displays the temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius and adjusts the color of the backlight depending on the reading. An ideal range is set at 61F to 67F. If the temperature is in this range the backlight will change green. Above this range and the color will change red, below the range it will change blue.

Android phones/tablets/media players are so cheap at dx.com that maybe it is time to start using them as user interfaces to our projects. I mean, glue one to your project and have touch screen UI with graphics display.. :-)

As a designer and engineer, I asked myself what should I do, I do not have political or economical power enough to make a difference. eWaste and kids not interested in education. What should I do? Ah! there there, eWaste = partly functional gadgets at no cost and kids = maybe fun interactive toys made from those gadgets? With that thought, ThinkerToys started, converting eWaste into educational fun interactive toys. Tinkering was a central part of coming up with new toys, and these toys were made to make the kids think, and yes that's where the name comes from, Thinking X Tinkering = Thinkering.

The SocialBot9000, as [Chris] calls his build, is an Arduino Uno connected to an Ethernet shield and an LCD character display. The firmware uses the Twitter API to search for recent posts containing the phrase, ‘socialbot9000.’ A PHP script on the Arduino does all the heavy lifting and with the great Bildr tutorial on getting the Ethernet shield up and running

Arduino and Python Talking to Arduino over a serial interface is pretty trivial in Python. On Unix-like systems you can read and write to the serial device as if it were a file, but there is also a wrapper library called pySerial that works well across all operating systems.

arduino_serial.py is a Python port of Tod E. Kurt's arduino-serial.c program for communicating with an Arduino microcontroller board over a serial port. It only uses standard Python modules (notably termios and fcntl) and does not require any special serial communications modules.

A nice talk by Peter Kropf at PyCon 2012 on using Python to control external devices through an Arduino.

It's definitely not the most efficient way to get a clock on your wall, or the cheapest, but if you're looking for a clock that turns heads, looks cool, and is a great starter project if you're interested in tinkering with an Arduino, this laser wall clock definitely fits the bill. If you dig DIY clocks or you just think lasers are cool, this is the kind of project that you might want to try, especially if you're getting started with Arduino projects. You'll need an Arduino, of course, and you'll also need a pair of laser pointers, a few servos and motors to make the lasers move as time passes, and of course, the IKEA BLANDA salad bowl, available for 5 bucks, which will serve as the housing for all of the gear.

While I feel Python’s a great learning language on PCs (and it would be “great” if the Arduino IDE supported it), I have to point out you’d be losing a lot in terms of “ecosystem” if you went with anything other than an Arduino platform.

Interaction with python First we import the serial library to python in order to communicate with the arduino (this includes talking over usb)

While you could (eventually) learn to code Arduino projects yourself and make your Arduino do almost anything, you can also simply piggy back off open-source projects already available (that's what this budding Arduino user has done). Programming knowledge isn't required to get started with an Arduino. You just need a little patience. Project complexity varies, but most can be accomplished exclusively with an Arduino and a computer.

“FLORA has the benefit of not using an ISP header for programming; FLORA is completely USB-compatable.”

True, but there’s a Lilypad kit that includes the ISP header to USB thingy, so in practice you’re just programming it over USB anyway.

Not as slick as having USB built in (and the HID support in Flora is sweet) but folks shouldn’t get the idea that loading programs onto the Lilypad is somehow tricky.

Arduino is an open embedded hardware and software platform designed for rapid creativity. It's both a great introduction to embedded programming and a fast track to building all kinds of cool devices like animatronics, robots, fabulous blinky things, animated clothing, games, your own little fabs... you can build what you imagine. Follow along as we learn both embedded programming and basic electronics.

What Does Arduino Do?

Arduino was invented by Massimo Banzi, a self-taught electronics guru who has been fascinated by electronics since childhood. Mr. Banzi had what I think of as a dream childhood: endless hours spent dissecting, studying, re-assembling things in creative ways, and testing to destruction. Mr. Banzi designed Arduino to be friendly and flexible to creative people who want to build things, rather than a rigid, overly-technical platform requiring engineering expertise.

his is the home for everything about amateur Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Use the tabs and drop-down menus above to navigate the site.

This community also created ArduPilot, the world's first universal autopilot (planes, copters of all sorts, ground rovers, boats). The ArduPilotMega autopilot hardware runs a variety of powerful free Arduino-based UAV software systems, including:
* ArduPlane, a pro-level UAV system for planes of all types.
* ArduCopter, a fully-autonomous multicopter and heli UAV system.

The open-source Arduino environment makes it easy to write code and upload it to the i/o board. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The environment is written in Java and based on Processing, avr-gcc, and other open source software.

Back in August 2010, an Electronics Engineer from the UK called Ken Boak wrote that he had built a web connected Arduino for £12 and later shared the schematic.

These posts became the basis of a whole new product he would create which is known as the “Nanode”. Nanode is short for “Network Application Node” and is an open source, low cost Arduino board with built in Ethernet courtesy of the Microchip ENC28J60 chip. Over 1000 Nanode’s have been sold in the past few months.

"The LCDs we sell at Adafruit have a low power LED backlight, run on +5v and require only 6 data pins to talk to. You can use any data pins you want! This tutorial will cover character LCDs"

The Android 3.1 platform (also backported to Android 2.3.4) introduces Android Open Accessory support, which allows external USB hardware (an Android USB accessory) to interact with an Android-powered device in a special "accessory" mode. When an Android-powered powered device is in accessory mode, the connected accessory acts as the USB host (powers the bus and enumerates devices) and the Android-powered device acts as the device. Android USB accessories are specifically designed to attach to Android-powered devices and adhere to a simple protocol (Android accessory protocol) that allows them to detect Android-powered devices that support accessory mode

Google's really not leaving any stone unturned at IO today -- it's now also announced a brand new Android Open Accessory standard, which promises to effectively be its own version of "Made for iPod." That means that any accessory designed using the API (which could even be something like an exercise bike) will be compatible with any Android phone or tablet -- running at least Android 2.3.4 or 3.1, that is. What's more, Google is also making a reference hardware design dubbed an "ADK" available to developers and, get this, it's based on Arduino.

For the supporters out there, [John Boxall] has put together a site jam-packed with Arduino tutorials covering a wide array of concepts and techniques. We have covered his work before in relation to specific topics, but we felt that his site deserved mention as a whole. His tutorials cover some of the most basic concepts such as lighting LEDs with the Arduino, and work their way to more advanced subjects, lesson by lesson.

I’m really excited about MAKE Volume 25, because we have a terrific 39-page special section about Arduino. If you don’t already know, Arduino is a electronics prototyping platform that allows you to quickly build interactivity into your projects. This microcontroller system allows you to connect different kinds of inputs (such as light sensors, motion sensors, sound sensors, humidity sensors, etc.) and write programs to process those signals to control devices that are hooked up to output pins (such as motors, buzzers, lights, solenoids, computers, etc.)

Our Arduino Revolution section includes a primer that shows you how to build your own Arduino from scratch and how to program it to do different things, such as blink an LED, or play sounds. We also have an article about a new kind of drag-and-drop Arduino programming system, called ModKit, that allows you to program your Arduino without having to write code. Other Arduino projects include making different kinds of game controllers using accelerometers or other sensors, converting a classic 1930s vintage telephone into a Skype telephone, making a a gumball machine that dispenses a treat only when you knock the secret rhythm on its front panel, and an automated yogurt maker.

Whether you’re an experienced microcontroller user, or a complete newbie, I think you’ll find our Arduino Revolution section of MAKE magazine to be fun and useful.

More:
Secret Gumball Machine on Make: Live
See our budding Make: Arduino landing page

Check out MAKE Volume 25:

MAKE Volume 25: Arduino Revolution
Give your gadgets a brain! Previously out of reach for the do-it-yourselfer, the tiny computers called microcontrollers are now so cheap and easy to use that anyone can make their stuff smart. With a microcontroller, your gadget can sense the environment, talk to the internet or other hardware, and make things happen in the real world by controlling motors, lights, or any electronic device.

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The Arduino Ethernet Shield allows an Arduino board to connect to the internet. It is based on the Wiznet W5100 ethernet chip (datasheet). The Wiznet W5100 provides a network (IP) stack capable of both TCP and UDP. It supports up to four simultaneous socket connections. Use the Ethernet library to write sketches which connect to the internet using the shield. The ethernet shield connects to an Arduino board using long wire-wrap headers which extend through the shield. This keeps the pin layout intact and allows another shield to be stacked on top.

Kristen Dirksen of faircompanies.com talks to Massimo about Arduino. She writes:

The Arduino- an affordable, open source microcontroller board- has been touted as connecting the real world to your computer (a few Arduino projects: a battery life extender; a DIY Water meter; a tweeting; self-watering garden system; an open energy monitor; a sun-tracking solar panel). We talk to Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi about the power of the Arduino, how it’s “not for nerds” and how it was kept alive by the fact that it was open source.

The last part — specifically how Arduino stayed alive by being open source — makes an interesting point about the potentially short life-cycle of closed hardware.

What is an Ambient signage system? Ambient computing sits at the centre of an area of research called ubiquitous or pervasive computing. Ambient computing proposes devices that can present information in a way that sits at the periphery of our attention. This sits in contrast with the current desktop, laptop and mobile devices that we use to access information which require dedicated attention. Ambient devices are embedded in our surroundings and we can choose when and how to engage with them by simply glancing at them.

Place-stat*, an interesting Arduino-based home-monitoring tool, adding a more intuitive, informal and relational way to visualize data