0 Arduino Robot 1 - The InsectBot

Hi, guys! I hope you liked my earlier post on making a distance display. So here I am again, and this time I'm going to show you, how to build a robot! Though it's not much of a robot, but I'm sure it'll be fun to watch! Basically the Insect will just squirm it's way around, but if you want, you can actually connect a distance sensor to the arduino and use it for object detection and avoidance! So let's get started!  You're gonna need : Arduino Board 2 Servo Motors (I prefer micro servos) Stiff wire ( I used an old hanger wire) 9v battery and it's clip Heat Shrink tubing Glue My tutorial on controlling Servos So first you need...

0 Got the new Raspberry Pi?! A Guide to setting it up!

  I'm sure most of the people reading this must've heard of the Raspberry Pi. No? What?! Have you been living on Mars?! So even if you've not heard of it, I'm gonna tell you all about it in this post. The Raspberry Pi is basically a credit card sized computer that was developed with the intention of helping students learn programming and developing their own applications with them. Well, I must say, it has succeeded phenomenally in that respect. The board has a Broadcom BCM2835 SoC design, which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU, a RAM of 256MB (later upgraded to 512MB). It has no hard drive but uses...

0 Arduino Project 7 - Connect an LCD module to an Arduino and Make a distance display.

You are starting to build confidence in your arduinoing capabilities now aren't you? Gives you satisfaction to know that you are really progressing in something doesn't it? Right! So that's why I'm here with a new tutorial which will show you how to interface an LCD with your arduino. Although it involves some amount of soldering and wiring, it's still a fairly easy concept to grasp. Once you get the theory behind how an LCD module is connected, you will have no difficulty in remembering how to connect it the next time you want to use it. So let's get started shall we? In this tutorial, we will use a 16X2 LCD having HD44780 driver. You can...

0 The MakerBot Replicator 2 - The Best in 3D Printing

So here's a new addition to my wishlist! The replicator 2! It's bigger, faster, more efficient and sturdier than the original replicator. Plus it's "Hand-assembled in Brooklyn, NY". It's now considered the best 3D printer in existence and has set a benchmark for future ones. But in addition to the upgrades which make it a fantastic machine, there is an increase in price which make it a deal breaker for many buyers. According to the CEO of MakerBot, the Replicator was designed with the serious designers in mind, not the tinkerers. So let's see what all has the Replicator to offer. A mere look at the Replicator 2 tell us that it can do...

0 Arduino Project 6 - Inputting Analog Values into Arduino and mapping them to control different functions.

Hi people! So now enough with those simple boring LED projects. From now on I will not be posting any LED tutorials - at least not the simple ones! As is evident from the title, today I'll be showing you how to recieve an analog input from sources like a Light Dependent Resistor(LDR) and an Infrared Sensor. First, let's start with a LDR. Wire up the circuit according to the pic given below. All done? Let's start with the coding part. Basically what we want to do, is to define an input for the LDR, begin a serial connection(because that's what is used for getting output from the arduino), then print the values to the screen! So...

0 Arduino Project 5 - Controlling a DC motor and a Servo Motor

Okay, so now I've shown you enough projects on LED's and it's time to move on! This project will show you how to control a DC motor and servo motor with an arduino. This is just a basic projetct in which you will learn how to rotate a servo back and forth, and to any position you want, speed up a DC motor and speed it down. So let's get it started! Things you will need: An Arduino Board A DC motor A servo motor A breadboard Some jumper wires A transistor (NPN) A diode A capacitor (1 microFarad) First up is controlling a DC motor -  The schematic is shown here: Now what the transistor does is, that it prevents the current from...

0 Arduino Programming - Lesson 1

Hi folks! Been a long time since my last post but this time imma teach you programming! This is a post about the basics of arduino programming. Now, the arduino is not a language of its own, but was developed from C. Since C looks like it has been designed by dyslexic aliens, and is very difficult for beginners to pick up, the designers of arduino decided to do some modifications in thier IDE to make the language look like plain english. Believe you me, if you know nothing about arduino, and start to read a program, you will be able to understand what exactly its author intended the hardware to do. For example, let's review the following lines...

0 Arduino Project 4 - Making A Keypad Security Lock

You, the evil genius wouldn't rest easy till you are sure that all of your creations are locked away somewhere safe, now would you? Well, this project is exactly about that! I'm gonna show you how to make your very own keypad security lock using an arduino board and a bit of cunning.   Parts Needed Arduino Uno or a clone Two 270 Ohm metal film resistors A Green 5mm LED A Red 5mm LED A 4X3 Matrix Keypad Understanding the Concept The key switches are placed at the intersection of row and column wires. When a key is pressed, it connects a specific row to a specific column. By arranging the keys in a grid like this,...

0 Get Ready For the Zombie Apocalypse!

Yeah! This is a very different topic from what I usually write about, but I just felt like writing it! By now I'm sure you must have seen quite a lot of the zombie movies to know what a zombie apocalypse is. And believe me it's one of the most exciting thoughts I've had. Almost in all the movies the pandemic starts from a laboratory where some scientist is doing shit he shouldn't be doing. He goes 'lemme see what happens when I feed the rabid dog to some useless chimp'. Naturally the chimp is infected, bites the scientist and runs off. That' when the chaos begins and that's when the busier populace become zombies. The more couch potato ones...

0 Arduino Project 3 - Morse Code Translator

This project uses the same apparatus as the projects 1 and 2, but has an upgraded sketch that allows us to write a sentence on the computer and the arduino translates that for us in long blinks and short blink. (Morse Code) Hardware, Materials and Construction Refer to the Project 1 Software For this project to work, we first have to understand the concept of loops and arrays. Loops: As in project 2, when we had to flash the LED 3 times, we had no problem in repeating the command. But what if we want the LED to flash say 100 times? In that case we use loop function. An example is given below for (int i = 0; i < 100; i ++) { flash(200); } The...