30 Arduino Projects for the EVIL GENIUS _ Quickstart

30 Arduino Projects for the EVIL GENIUS _ Quickstart

Quickstart

THIS IS A PRTS for the impatient Evil Genius. Your new Arduino board has arrived and you are eager to have it do something.

So, without further ado...

Powering Up

When you buy an Arduino Diecimila or Duemilanove board, it is usually preinstalled with a sample Blink program that will make the little built-in LED flash. Figure 1-1 shows an Arduinocompatible

board with the LED lit.

The light-emitting diode (LED) marked L is wired up to one of the digital input-output sockets on the board. It is connected to digital pin 13. This really limits pin 13 to being used as an output, but the LED only uses a small amount of current, so you can still connect other things to that connector.

All you need to do to get your Arduino up and running is supply it with some power. The easiest way to do this is to plug in it into the Universal Serial Bus (USB) port on your computer. You will need a type A-to-type B USB lead. This is the same type of lead that is normally used to connect a computer to a printer. 

If you are using the older Arduino Diecimila board, make sure that the power jumper is in the USB position (see Figure 1-1). The jumper should connect together the two top pins to allow the board to be powered from the USB. The newer Arduino Duemilanove boards do not have this jumper and select the power source automatically. If everything is working okay, the LED should blink once every two seconds. The reason that new Arduino boards have this Blink sketch already installed is to verify that the board works. If your board does not start to blink when connected, check the position of the power jumper (if it has one) and try a different USB socket, possibly on a different computer, as some USB sockets are capable of supplying more power than others. Also, clicking the Reset button should cause the LED to flicker momentarily. If this is the case, but the LED does not flash, then it may just be that the board has not been programmed with the Flash sketch; but do not despair, as once everything is installed, we are going to modify and install that script anyway as our first project.

Installing the Software

Now we have our Arduino working, let’s get the software installed so that we can alter the Blink program and send it down to the board. The exact procedure depends on what operating system you

use on your computer. But the basic principle is the same for all. 

Install the USB driver that allows the computer to talk to the Arduino’s USB port. It uses this for

programming and sending messages.

Install the Arduino development environment, which is the program that you run on your computer that enables you to write sketches and download them to the Arduino board.

The Arduino website (www.arduino.cc) contains the latest version of the software.

Windows 8, 7, Vista, and XP :

• Go to the Arduino download page and download the latest version of the Arduino software for Windows.
• When the download is finished, un-zip it and open up the Arduino folder to confirm that yes, there are indeed some files and sub-folders inside. The file structure is important so don’t be moving any files around unless you really know what you’re doing.
• Power up your Arduino by connecting your Arduino board to your computer with a USB cable (or FTDI connector if you’re using an Arduino pro). You should see the an LED labed ‘ON’ light up. (this diagram shows the placement of the power LED on the UNO).
• If you’re running Windows 8, you’ll need to disable driver signing, so go see the Windows 8 section. If you’re running Windows 7, Vista, or XP, you’ll need to install some drivers, so head to the Windows 7, Vista, and XP section down below.

Windows 8 :

Windows 8 comes with a nice little security ‘feature’ that ‘protects’ you from unsigned driver installation. Some older versions of Arduino Uno come with unsigned drivers, so in order to use your Uno, you’ll have to tell Windows to disable driver signing. This issue has been addressed in newer releases of the Arduino IDE, but if you run into issues, you can try this fix first.

For a nice, step-by-step tutorial with pictures click here, otherwise the steps are outlined below.

To temporarily disable driver signing:

• From the Metro Start Screen, open Settings (move your mouse to the bottom-right-corner of the screen and wait for the pop-out bar to appear, then click the Gear icon)
• Click ‘More PC Settings’
• Click ‘General’
• Scroll down, and click ‘Restart now’ under ‘Advanced startup’.
• Wait a bit.
• Click ‘Troubleshoot’.
• Click ‘Advanced Options’
• Click ‘Windows Startup Settings’
• Click Restart.
• When your computer restarts, select ‘Disable driver signature enforcement‘ from the list.

To permanently disable driver signing (recommended, but has some minor security implications):

• Go to the metro start screen
• Type in “cmd”
• Right click “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator” from the buttons on the bottom of your screen
• Type/paste in the following commands: bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON
• Reboot!

Windows 7, Vista, and XP

Installing the Drivers for the Arduino Uno (from www.Arduino.cc)

• Plug in your board and wait for Windows to begin it’s driver installation process
• After a few moments, the process will fail, despite its best efforts
• Click on the Start Menu, and open up the Control Panel
• While in the Control Panel, navigate to System and Security. Next, click on System
• Once the System window is up, open the Device Manager
• Look under Ports (COM & LPT). You should see an open port named “Arduino UNO (COMxx)”. If there is no COM & LPT section, look under ‘Other Devices’ for ‘Unknown Device

• Right click on the “Arduino UNO (COMxx)” or “Unknown Device” port and choose the “Update Driver Software” option
• Next, choose the “Browse my computer for Driver software” option

• Finally, navigate to and select the Uno’s driver file, named “ArduinoUNO.inf”, located in the “Drivers” folder of the Arduino Software download (not the “FTDI USB Drivers” sub-directory). If you cannot see the .inf file, it is probably just hidden. You can select the ‘drivers’ folder with the ‘search sub-folders’ option selected instead.
• Windows will finish up the driver installation from there

For earlier versions of the Arduino boards (e.g.Arduino Duemilanove, Nano, or Diecimila) check out this page for specific directions.

Launch and Blink!

After following the appropriate steps for your software install, we are now ready to test your first program with your Arduino board!

• Launch the Arduino application
• If you disconnected your board, plug it back in
• Open the Blink example sketch by going to: File > Examples > 1.Basics > Blink

• Select the type of Arduino board you’re using: Tools > Board > your board type

• Select the serial/COM port that your Arduino is attached to: Tools > Port > COMxx

• If you’re not sure which serial device is your Arduino, take a look at the available ports, then unplug your Arduino and look again. The one that disappeared is your Arduino.
• With your Arduino board connected, and the Blink sketch open, press the ‘Upload’ button

• After a second, you should see some LEDs flashing on your Arduino, followed by the message ‘Done Uploading’ in the status bar of the Blink sketch.
• If everything worked, the onboard LED on your Arduino should now be blinking! You just programmed your first Arduino!