Arduino

 A microcontroller is a little computer chip that can be found in devices such as tv remotes and washing machines, forming the brain of the device.

My sister bought me a microcontroller development board called an Arduino. Arduinos are good because there are several modules you can plug in to the board and all the hard work is done for you because they have the application programming interface (api) tied down and you don't have to trawl through the documentation to write your own drivers. 

The kit I was given came with a bunch of modules and a book of tutorial activities. I have been gradually working through these activities. I just build the electronic circuit indicated, plug it in to the Arduino, type up the code on my computer and upload it to the device and run the thing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maths Game.

Image
 I am (occasionally) working on an action RPG game where every time you attack you have to answer a maths question. RPGs are cool and I used to play them a lot but now I am a social gamer and I don't appreciate the brain-drain. I have accrued a large repository of spaghetti code with a few gems as I learn the ins and outs of game programming in C ( https://github.com/BostonBrooks/Spaghetti_Graveyard. ) . I chose C because it is what the electronic and computer engineers use and working as an ECE is a long term goal for me. I am using the C binding for SFML because SDL doesn't easily incorporate 2D meshes, to be used for 2.5D curved ground surfaces. A few demos below. Scritchyness is due to screen capture software.     All for now, Boston.   Update 17/02/2022 In the game, the terrain is represented as a 2 dimensional grid where each point has a third dimension (height). I have used bicubic interpolation (functions with x^3 and y^3 terms) to smooth the areas between points on the
Read more

Diablo II Hell Bovine Figurines

Image
 I am in the process of commissioning a 3d model of the demonic cows from the secret cow level in Diablo II.  See image: I have been researching 3D printing and moulding processes. I have ordered the guts of an mp3 player that comes with a motion sensor to play sounds when someone walks past. I plan to make a cow statue that moos at you. That's all for now, Boss Update 5/1/2022 I asked for a model that was fat and cartoonish with stubby legs, as true to the original (pictured above). Here is an example of what I said I didn't want: Here is what I received: I will work with this for now. All for now, Boston. Update 28/1/2022 If I'm going to produce statues and figurines I'd better learn how to make and use moulds. I decided to start off easy with a simple frog design using paraffin wax. Simple frog design: Frog design with pour spout: Frog in situ.     Pouring the mould.   The mould is now set: Extracting the model: Mould ready to use: Melting wax: Mould in use: Finished
Read more

Artificial Sweeteners.

I'm a thirsty boy and I can drink a whole one litre carton of juice in one go. I try to avoid it though because that's way too much sugar. Instead I drink a lot of artificially sweetened drinks. I like to mix water/milk, lemon juice, artificial flavour and artificial sweetener to make my own cordial / nesquik. I have about a dozen flavours. I drive for Menulog for a living and i like to chew lollies to keep me awake, and I used to chew nicotine gum to help with quitting smoking. I've now gone off nicotine and I'm worried about the associated weight gain. I have been chewing sugar-free gum and lollies but I'm not sure how I feel about store-bought sugar-free lollies. I tried making lollies by mixing lots of gelatin with water, sweetener and butterscotch flavour. According to my father is was "Too wibbly-wobbly and not chewy enough." I've now have some gelatin, agar agar, gum arabic and xantham gum but I don't know how to use them. All for now, Boss.
Read more