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Hello readers Time again for another kit review. Today we will examine the Freeduino Arduino Duemilanove-compatible board in a kit. It is always interesting to see how the different types and makes of Arduino-compatible boards present themselves, so this is review is an extension of that curiosity. This kit was originally designed by NKC Electronics and released under a Creative Commons license. The packaging can either be classed as underwhelming or environmentally-friendly, as the kit arrives in several plastic resealable bags. Upon emptying them out we are presented with the following, the parts: and the PCB: Hopefully you noticed what ends up being..

Hello readers Today I am going to introduce something quite different, yet hopefully interesting to you out there. The renowned director and cinematographer Karl von Muller has just released the roll-call trailer for his upcoming documentary titled “State of Electronics” – a discussion on the Electronics Industry in Australia. Although the focus is on the Australian electronics scene, much of the content and discourse within the documentary can be related to by those from many other countries. However, Karl can explain it better: After several months of researching, interviewing and filming, I’m excited to present the first public Trailer to my new Documentary..

Welcome back fellow Arduidans! In this article we will look at something different to the usual, and hopefully very interesting and useful – interfacing our Arduino systems with infra-red receivers. Why would we want to do this? To have another method to control our Ardiuno-based systems, using simple infra-red remote controls. A goal of this article is to make things as easy as possible, so we will not look into the base detail of how things work - instead we will examine how to get things done. If you would like a full explanation of infra-red, perhaps see the page on Wikipedia. The remote..

Hello readers Within this article we will recreate the game of Tic-tac-toe with our Arduino systems. This game is also known as Noughts and Crosses or Three-in-a-row. Whatever we call it, I’m sure you will be familiar with the game from your childhood or general messing about. For the uninitiated, there is an excellent explanation of the game over at Wikipedia. In the following examples, a human will play against the machine (Arduino). The demonstration sketches are almost identical except for one function – machineMove();. This function contains the method of deciding a move for the machine. By localising the machine’s decision making into that function we..

By  Matt Hope RFM12BP 433MHz Wireless Arduino Shield        This artice describes how to construct an Arduino shield compatible  Hope RFM12BP board. This board uses the Hope RFM12BP Rev 3.0 SMD board (RFM12BP-433) and is compatible with the JeeLabs RF12 library. The reason for building this project was because I wasn’t happy with the limited range of the Hope RFM12B module (stated as 300metres) . The stated range of the RFM12BP, with Power Amplification circuitry  is 3000 metres. Hope have a RFM12BP Datasheet REV2.3 which is eight pages in length and really doesn’t provide too much information. I..

Hello readers Today we are going introduce a very useful kit - the mintyboost. The purpose of this kit is to provide a powered USB socket suitable for charging a variety of devices, powered from a pair of AA cells. The mintyboost is quite a simple, yet clever design – the latest version is based around the Linear Technology LT1302 DC/DC step-up converter - and can provide a full 5 volts DC at 500 milliamps, enough to charge the latest round of USB-chargable gadgets, including those iPhones that I keep hearing about. And unlike an iPhone, the mintyboost kit is licensed under a Creative Commons v2.5..

Welcome back fellow arduidans! Today we are going to examine the internal EEPROM in our Arduino boards. What is an EEPROM some of you may be saying? An EEPROM is anElectrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory. It is a form of non-volatile memory that can remember things with the power being turned off, or after resetting the Arduino. The beauty of this kind of memory is that we can store data generated within a sketch on a more permanent basis. Why would you use the internal EEPROM? For situations where data that is unique to a situation needs a more permanent home. For example,..

By Mad_z Congrats to Sparkfun who next week are approaching the production of their 1,000,000 widget!   This blog post by Nate show just how many parts go into making a board and how they are sourced from all over the world. "Resistors for this build can come from Thailand, Taiwan, Israel, or China. Capacitors may come from Taiwan, USA, Israel, or China. Japan seems to have cornered the market of magnetics. The ICs come from Singapore and Mexico. Did you know the TPA6111A2 has 0.0794mg of gold in it? That's like $0.003957!" "My point here is claiming that "Made in _____"..

By Mad_z   Hey guys,  this is a quick tutorial to show you how to hook up your Water Flow Sensor   waterflowsensor_-_Computer.m4v Watch on Posterous     Used in this tutoral:   Water flow sensor Arduino Uno Jumper wires M/M   Website: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1283065018   Code: // reading liquid flow rate using Seeeduino and Water Flow Sensor from Seeedstudio.com   // Code adapted by Charles Gantt from PC Fan RPM code written by Crenn @thebestcasescenario.com // http:/themakersworkbench.com http://thebestcasescenario.com http://seeedstudio.com   volatile int NbTopsFan; //measuring the rising edges of the signal int Calc; int hallsensor = 2;    //The pin location..

Hello readers This article is my response to a request on how to use the LCD4884 LCD shield from DFRobot in China. It is a simple way of displaying text and the odd graphic, as well as another way to accept user input. Here is the shield in question: From a hardware perspective the LCD has a resolution of 84 by 48 pixels, with a blue back light. It can easily display six rows of fourteen alphanumeric characters, or two rows of six very large characters. Furthermore, it can display bitmap images that are appropriately sized. At the top-left of the shield digital..

By Mad_z This awesome project by the Brooklyn based hacker space NYC Resistor has taken the pokies to a whole new level.  This machine mixes drink according to where the wheel lands.  The original plan had been to associate particular images with ingredients...but the result were some undrinkable combinations - so 30 pre-programed drinks were created, the favorite (Wild Turkey) was set to the jackpot.   "The question of reading where the wheels stop with each spin--how the machine knows if you’ve got three cherries--required learning how to read the “stepline” system. The wheels are turned by stepper motors, which have several internal coils that magnetically turn the rotor. Drivers..

By Mad_z   Quick tutotrial on how to hook up your IR Kit   IRKit_mad.mov Watch on Posterous Products in this video: IR Kit for Arduino Arduino SMD Male to Male Jumper wires   Code: Arduino Setting up Arduino Libraries IR Library    

By Mad_z awesomebuttons_-_Computer.m4v Watch on Posterous Products in this video   IP67 Rated Illuminated Pushbutton Switch Red Concave Button - Green Push Button 33mm - Green Arcade Joystick    Arcade Joystick - Short Handle  Thumb Slide Joystick  

Welcome back fellow arduidans! In this article we will learn how to send messages from our Arduino to twitter. For the uninitiated who may be thinking “what is all this twitter nonsense about?”, twitter is a form of microblogging. You can create a message with a maximum length of 140 characters, and broadcast this on the twitter service. For people to receive your messages (or tweets) they also need to be a member of twitter and choose to subscribe to your tweets. Generally people will use the twitter service using one of three methods: using a web browser on a personal computer or internet device, on..

By Mad_z   prototyping_shields.mov Watch on Posterous   Products in this video ProtoShield Basic - 5 Pack Arduino ProtoShield Kit Arduino Prototyping Shield MegaShield Kit for Arduino Arduino MEGA ProtoShield Kit   Also avaliable  ProtoShield for Arduino    

By  Mad_z resistors.mov Watch on Posterous   Products in this video:   The Resistor Kit RGB LED Arduino SMD Male to Male Jumper wires Breadboard Mini Self Adheasive   Code: Arduino File -> Examples -> 1.Basics -> Blink

By Mad_z The guys at Teague Labs have created a great project which allows the Arduino to be reprogrammed without the need to hook it up to a computer.  With an Arduino-compatible mircrocontroller loaded with a realtime code interpreter, and a 5 button LCD display to show port values and manipulate code. "The programming instruction set for the Computerless Arduino is quite small, making it easy for novices to get started while still working with real code. Navigating the user interface is a bit tedious on such a tiny display, but it’s easy to learn and provides everything you need —..

Hello readers The purpose of this article is to follow on from our explanation of the 555 timer IC by demonstrating some simple yet interesting, noisy and plain annoying uses of the 555. They are by no means that complex, and intended to help move theory into practice. Button de-bouncer De-bouncer? How does one bounce a button in the first place? Many years ago I bounced a button on the arcade Sonic the Hedgehog – hit it so hard it popped out and bounced over the table… But seriously, when working with digital logic circuits, you may need to use  a momentary..

by Matt                                           How to build a JeeLabs RFM12B wireless board clone        This artice describes how to construct an Arduino shield compatible clone of Jean-Claude Wippler’s RFM12B breakout board. This board uses the Hope RFM12B SMD board (RFM12B-868-S1) and provides the same wireless interface which is standard to the JeeNode series. I’m going to use  the 433MHz version of this board (RFM12B-433-S1). The 433MHz band is “supposed” to give longer range with the trade-off of less noise immunity...

By Madz   Another exciting trip to Ikea out in Rhodes  (its a bit of a Road Trip from Maroubra). All in the name of science really....   Who else can answer the questions... Q.   How many green containers can fit in the boot of a Camery?  A.   884   (52 packs of 17)   1 Trolly Load Part of second Trolly = full boot   Q. What is the optimal arrangement of green containers in a trolly? A. 3 x 3  + 2 at the front  = 11 on each level and can fit 3 levels Comfortable total..