Finally, my Arduino USB board has arrived. The Arduino is an open-source platform for physical computing which allows you to integrate your circuits with a simple microcontroller. While other boards are rather expensive, the Arduino is cheap (EUR 25,-) and comes with a very easy-to-use development software…
A quick test revealed that it is pretty easy to control some LEDs. There are a lot of tutorials and example code on the Arduino website which should get me started rather fast. Some examples:
- Dimming LEDs shows how to use pulse-width-modulation for dimming – see picture above.
- Reading analog values demonstrates how to read analog values of devices such as potentiometers. This could also be applied to thermo-resistants and so on…
- Stepper Motor describes how to use a stepper motor.
In addition, people already coupled the Arduino with VVVV, Processing, Flash, Pd, … So there’s a lot of things to play with.
I will do some low-budget experiments with the Arduino. But first, I need to build a cheap benchtop power supply like this one at inscructables.com.
Theres also some classes online, see e.g. spooky projects.
hi my dear mathias :) what a coincidence!! i posted today about arduino .. and i did not check your blog for weeks :) so you have it, I still dream of it.. :)