I got my start in microcontrollers with the Arduino, as many of us outside of electrical engineering did. (And still do!) The ease of programming that little board makes it a great gateway… and like any gateway, sometimes you go through. Most of my projects now don’t use Arduinos directly. For simple microcontroller applications, it’s …
ISP Clip for ATtiny44/84 (or others!) Using Arduino Read More »
I’m currently helping a couple of engineering students finish a senior project that didn’t get finished last year. Long story… Anyway, it’s a bicycle brake tester being built for Paul Components. The mechanical design is great, but they had trouble with the electronics. Part of those cinvolved writing numbers to a pair of Sparkfun 7-segment displays. …
Driving multiple Sparkfun 7-segment displays with an Arduino Read More »
To connect a 12V relay to the Arduino you need the following things: – 1 Arduino – 1 diode for example 1N4007 – 1 NPN transistor for example 2N2222 (in the US) or BC548 (in Europe) – 1 relay for example one with coil voltage 12V and switching voltage 125VAC/10 A – 1 multimeter Step …
Make a game pad with an accelerometer inside! This project tutorial will show you how you can convert a console game pad into a USB keyboard mouse for playing games on your PC. The USB game pad can be used with nearly any software, such as a MAME emulator, game, simulation software, or for custom …
USB Game Pad With Tilt-accelerometer Mouse using an Arduino Read More »
Sometimes when you’re testing a sensor or debugging a value in an Arduino project, you want to see something other than numbers flying by in the Serial Monitor. However, you want to get the sensor working quickly, and you don’t want to take the time to write code to graph it or display it in …
I acquired an old fax machine that looked like a ripe source of parts, like steppers, IR sensors, micro switches and things. As it turned out, it was. It also had a nice looking 2 x 16 character LCD. However, after taking everything apart, I found the LCD only had 13 pins instead of the …
Salvaging an LCD from a fax machine using an Arduino Read More »
The 74HC595 is an easy and inexpensive (at about 60 cents apiece) way to increase the number of digital out pins on your Arduino. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to drive up to 16 LEDs with one 74HC595 using a technique called multiplexing. In the end, all 16 LEDs will require only three …
Like me, you may have a few old Arduino boards or ATmega8 chips (in the boards) laying around from when you were first playing with Arduino. Those chips can still be really useful as the heart of a tiny “Minimal Arduino” setup. A normal Arduino board contains support components that make it easy to use. …
I was looking for a way to handle wireless communications between two Arduino boards. Other options like Xbee or Bluetooth were going to cost $50 to over $100. Then I found a cheap RF transmitter and receiver at Sparkfun. The total cost is only $9! Here are a few limitations to RF solution: Communications is only one way. If you wanted …
This example shows how to simulate a simple closed-loop control algorithm in Simulink® and how to run it on an Arduino® board. Supported Hardware: Arduino Leonardo Arduino Mega 2560 Arduino Mega ADK Arduino Pro Arduino Uno Available versions of this example: Arduino Mega 2560 board: Arduino Mega2560 Drive Open-loop Arduino Mega2560 Drive Closed-loop On this …
