30 Arduino Projects for the EVIL GENIUS_ Introduction
Introduction :
ARDUINO INTERFACE BOARDS provide the Evil Genius with a low-cost, easy-to-use technology to create their evil projects. A whole new breed of projects can now be built that can be controlled from a computer. Before long, the computer controlled, servo-driven laser will be complete and the world will be at the mercy of the Evil Genius!
This book will show the Evil Genius how to attach an Arduino board to their computer, to
program it, and to connect all manner of electronics to it to create projects, including the computer-controlled, servo-driven laser mentioned earlier, a USB-controlled fan, a light harp, a USB
temperature logger, a sound oscilloscope, and many more.
Full schematic and construction details are provided for every project, and most can be built
without the need for soldering or special tools.
However, the more advanced Evil Genius may wish to transfer the projects from a plug-in breadboard to something more permanent, and instructions for this are also provided.
At this point, the Evil Genius might be wondering which top secret government organization they need to break into in order to acquire one. Well, disappointingly, no evil deeds at all are required to obtain one of these devices. The Evil Genius needs to go no further than their favorite online auction site or search engine. Since the Arduino is an open-source hardware design, anyone is free to take the designs and create their own clones of the Arduino and sell them, so the market for the boards is competitive. An official Arduino costs about $30, and a clone often less than $20.
The name “Arduino” is reserved by the original makers. However, clone Arduino designs often have the letters “duino” on the end of their name, for example, Freeduino or DFRduino.
The software for programming your Arduino is easy to use and also freely available for Windows,
Mac, and LINUX computers at no cost.
To begin using Arduino, first go to the Arduino site (www.arduino.cc) and download the software for Mac, PC, or LINUX. You can then either buy an official Arduino by clicking the Buy An Arduino button or spend some time with your favorite search engine or an online auction site to find lower-cost alternatives. In the next chapter, step-by-step instructions are provided for installing the software on all three platforms.
There are, in fact, several different designs of Arduino board. These are intended for different
types of applications. They can all be programmed from the same Arduino development software, and in general, programs that work on one board will work on all.
In this book we mostly use the Arduino Duemilanove, sometimes called Arduino 2009, which is an update of the popular board, the Diecimila. Duemilanove is Italian for 2009, the year of its release.
The older Diecimila name means 10,000 in Italian, and was named that after 10,000 boards had been manufactured. Most compatible boards such as the Freeduino are based on the Diecimila and Duemilanove designs. Most of the projects in this book will work with a Diecimila, Duemilanove, or their clone designs, apart from one project that uses the Arduino Lilypad.
When you are making a project with an Arduino, you will need to download programs onto
the board using a USB lead between your computer and the Arduino. This is one of the most convenient things about using an Arduino. Many microcontroller boards use separate programming hardware to get programs into the microcontroller.
With Arduino, it’s all contained on the board itself.
This also has the advantage that you can use the USB connection to pass data back and forth between an Arduino board and your computer. For instance, you could connect a temperature sensor to the Arduino and have it repeatedly tell your computer the temperature.
On the older Diecimila boards, you will find a jumper switch immediately below the USB socket. With the jumper fitted over the top two pins, the board will receive its power from the USB connection. When over the middle and bottom pins, the board will be powered from an external power supply plugged into the socket below. On the newer Duemilanove boards, there is no such jumper and the supply switches automatically from USB to the 9V socket.
The power supply can be any voltage between 7 and 12 volts. So a small 9V battery will work just fine for portable applications. Typically, while you are making your project, you will probably power it from USB for convenience. When you are ready to cut the umbilical cord (disconnect the USB lead), you will want to power the board independently. This may be with an external power adaptor or simply with a 9V battery connected to a plug to fit the power socket. There are two rows of connectors on the edges of the board. The row at the top of the diagram is mostly digital (on/off) pins, although any marked with “PWM” can be used as analog outputs. The bottom row of connectors has useful power connections on the left and analog inputs on the right. These connectors are arranged like this so that so-called “shield” boards can be plugged on to the main board in a piggyback fashion. It is possible to buy ready-made shields for many different purposes, including:
You can also use prototyping shields to create your own shield designs. We will use these Protoshields in some of our projects. Shields usually have through connectors on their pins, which means that you can stack them on top of each other. So a design might have three layers: an
Arduino board on the bottom, a GPS shield on it, and then an LCD display shield on top of that.
The projects in this book are quite diverse. We begin with some simple examples using standard LEDs and also the ultra high-brightness Luxeon LEDs.
In Chapter 5, we look at various sensor projects for logging temperature and measuring light and pressure. The USB connection to the Arduino makes it possible to take the sensor readings in these projects and pass them back to the computer, where they can be imported into a spreadsheet and
charts drawn.
We then look at projects using various types of display technology, including an alphanumeric
LCD message board (again using USB to get messages from your computer), as well as seven segment and multi color LEDs.
Chapter 7 contains four projects that use sound as well as a simple oscilloscope. We have a simple project to play tunes from a loudspeaker, and build up to a light harp that changes the pitch and volume of the sound by waving your hand over light sensors. This produces an effect rather like the famous There min synthesize. The final project in this chapter uses sound input from a microphone. It is a VU meter that displays the intensity of the sound on an LED display.
The final chapters contain a mixture of projects. Among others, there is, as we have already mentioned, an unfathomable binary clock using an Arduino Lilypad board that indicates the time in an obscure binary manner only readable by an Evil Genius, a lie detector, a motor-controlled swirling
hypnotize disk, and, of course, the computer controlled-servo-guided laser.
Most of the projects in this book can be constructed without the need for soldering; instead
we use a breadboard. A breadboard is a plastic block with holes in it with sprung metal connections behind. Electronic components are pushed through the holes at the front. These are not expensive, and a suitable breadboard is also listed in the appendix. However, if you wish to make your designs more permanent, the book shows you how to do that, too, using the prototyping board.
Sources for all the components are listed in the appendix, along with some useful suppliers. Theonly things you will need in addition to these components are an Arduino board, a computer, some wire, and a piece of breadboard. The software for all the projects is available for download from www.arduinoevilgenius.com.
started with Arduino as quickly as possible. This chapter contains all the instructions for installing
the software and programming your Arduino board, including downloading the software for the projects, so you will need to read it before you embark on your projects.
In Chapter 2 we take a look at some of the essential theory that will help you build the
projects described in this book, and go on to design projects of your own. Most of the theory is contained in this chapter, so if you are the kind of Evil Genius who prefers to just make the projects
and find out how they work after wards, you may prefer, after reading Chapter 1, to just to pick a
project and start building. Then if you get stuck, you can use the index or read some of the early
chapters.
This book will show the Evil Genius how to attach an Arduino board to their computer, to
program it, and to connect all manner of electronics to it to create projects, including the computer-controlled, servo-driven laser mentioned earlier, a USB-controlled fan, a light harp, a USB
temperature logger, a sound oscilloscope, and many more.
Full schematic and construction details are provided for every project, and most can be built
without the need for soldering or special tools.
However, the more advanced Evil Genius may wish to transfer the projects from a plug-in breadboard to something more permanent, and instructions for this are also provided.
So, What Is Arduino?
Well, Arduino is a small microcontrôleur board with a USB plug to connect to your computer and a number of connection sockets that can be wired up to external electronics, such as motors, relays, light sensors, laser diodes, loudspeakers, microphones, etc. They can either be powered through the USB connection from the computer or from a 9V battery. They can be controlled from the computer or programmed by the computer and then disconnected and allowed to work independently.At this point, the Evil Genius might be wondering which top secret government organization they need to break into in order to acquire one. Well, disappointingly, no evil deeds at all are required to obtain one of these devices. The Evil Genius needs to go no further than their favorite online auction site or search engine. Since the Arduino is an open-source hardware design, anyone is free to take the designs and create their own clones of the Arduino and sell them, so the market for the boards is competitive. An official Arduino costs about $30, and a clone often less than $20.
The name “Arduino” is reserved by the original makers. However, clone Arduino designs often have the letters “duino” on the end of their name, for example, Freeduino or DFRduino.
The software for programming your Arduino is easy to use and also freely available for Windows,
Mac, and LINUX computers at no cost.
Arduino
Although Arduino is an open-source design for a microcontroller interface board, it is actually rather more than that, as it encompasses the software development tools that you need to program an Arduino board, as well as the board itself. There is a large community of construction, programming, electronics, and even art enthusiasts willing to share their expertise and experience on the Internet.To begin using Arduino, first go to the Arduino site (www.arduino.cc) and download the software for Mac, PC, or LINUX. You can then either buy an official Arduino by clicking the Buy An Arduino button or spend some time with your favorite search engine or an online auction site to find lower-cost alternatives. In the next chapter, step-by-step instructions are provided for installing the software on all three platforms.
There are, in fact, several different designs of Arduino board. These are intended for different
types of applications. They can all be programmed from the same Arduino development software, and in general, programs that work on one board will work on all.
In this book we mostly use the Arduino Duemilanove, sometimes called Arduino 2009, which is an update of the popular board, the Diecimila. Duemilanove is Italian for 2009, the year of its release.
The older Diecimila name means 10,000 in Italian, and was named that after 10,000 boards had been manufactured. Most compatible boards such as the Freeduino are based on the Diecimila and Duemilanove designs. Most of the projects in this book will work with a Diecimila, Duemilanove, or their clone designs, apart from one project that uses the Arduino Lilypad.
When you are making a project with an Arduino, you will need to download programs onto
the board using a USB lead between your computer and the Arduino. This is one of the most convenient things about using an Arduino. Many microcontroller boards use separate programming hardware to get programs into the microcontroller.
With Arduino, it’s all contained on the board itself.
This also has the advantage that you can use the USB connection to pass data back and forth between an Arduino board and your computer. For instance, you could connect a temperature sensor to the Arduino and have it repeatedly tell your computer the temperature.
On the older Diecimila boards, you will find a jumper switch immediately below the USB socket. With the jumper fitted over the top two pins, the board will receive its power from the USB connection. When over the middle and bottom pins, the board will be powered from an external power supply plugged into the socket below. On the newer Duemilanove boards, there is no such jumper and the supply switches automatically from USB to the 9V socket.
The power supply can be any voltage between 7 and 12 volts. So a small 9V battery will work just fine for portable applications. Typically, while you are making your project, you will probably power it from USB for convenience. When you are ready to cut the umbilical cord (disconnect the USB lead), you will want to power the board independently. This may be with an external power adaptor or simply with a 9V battery connected to a plug to fit the power socket. There are two rows of connectors on the edges of the board. The row at the top of the diagram is mostly digital (on/off) pins, although any marked with “PWM” can be used as analog outputs. The bottom row of connectors has useful power connections on the left and analog inputs on the right. These connectors are arranged like this so that so-called “shield” boards can be plugged on to the main board in a piggyback fashion. It is possible to buy ready-made shields for many different purposes, including:
- Connection to Ethernet networks
- LCD displays and touch screens
- XBee (wireless data communications)
- Sound
- Motor control
- GPS tracking
- And many more
You can also use prototyping shields to create your own shield designs. We will use these Protoshields in some of our projects. Shields usually have through connectors on their pins, which means that you can stack them on top of each other. So a design might have three layers: an
Arduino board on the bottom, a GPS shield on it, and then an LCD display shield on top of that.
The Projects
The projects in this book are quite diverse. We begin with some simple examples using standard LEDs and also the ultra high-brightness Luxeon LEDs.In Chapter 5, we look at various sensor projects for logging temperature and measuring light and pressure. The USB connection to the Arduino makes it possible to take the sensor readings in these projects and pass them back to the computer, where they can be imported into a spreadsheet and
charts drawn.
We then look at projects using various types of display technology, including an alphanumeric
LCD message board (again using USB to get messages from your computer), as well as seven segment and multi color LEDs.
Chapter 7 contains four projects that use sound as well as a simple oscilloscope. We have a simple project to play tunes from a loudspeaker, and build up to a light harp that changes the pitch and volume of the sound by waving your hand over light sensors. This produces an effect rather like the famous There min synthesize. The final project in this chapter uses sound input from a microphone. It is a VU meter that displays the intensity of the sound on an LED display.
The final chapters contain a mixture of projects. Among others, there is, as we have already mentioned, an unfathomable binary clock using an Arduino Lilypad board that indicates the time in an obscure binary manner only readable by an Evil Genius, a lie detector, a motor-controlled swirling
hypnotize disk, and, of course, the computer controlled-servo-guided laser.
Most of the projects in this book can be constructed without the need for soldering; instead
we use a breadboard. A breadboard is a plastic block with holes in it with sprung metal connections behind. Electronic components are pushed through the holes at the front. These are not expensive, and a suitable breadboard is also listed in the appendix. However, if you wish to make your designs more permanent, the book shows you how to do that, too, using the prototyping board.
Sources for all the components are listed in the appendix, along with some useful suppliers. Theonly things you will need in addition to these components are an Arduino board, a computer, some wire, and a piece of breadboard. The software for all the projects is available for download from www.arduinoevilgenius.com.
Without Further Ado
The Evil Genius is not noted for their patience, so in the next chapter we will show you how to getstarted with Arduino as quickly as possible. This chapter contains all the instructions for installing
the software and programming your Arduino board, including downloading the software for the projects, so you will need to read it before you embark on your projects.
In Chapter 2 we take a look at some of the essential theory that will help you build the
projects described in this book, and go on to design projects of your own. Most of the theory is contained in this chapter, so if you are the kind of Evil Genius who prefers to just make the projects
and find out how they work after wards, you may prefer, after reading Chapter 1, to just to pick a
project and start building. Then if you get stuck, you can use the index or read some of the early
chapters.
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