Arduino Inventor's Guide: Learn Electronics by Making 10 Awesome Projects
inTro ducTion Welcome to The Arduino Inventor’s Guide This book will get you started working with electronics programming and making cool things Anyone can be an inventor and this guide will walk you through a series of projects that combine common materials with the powerful Arduino to help inspire you to start making your own inventions What Is thIs Book aBout At the heart of this book is the Arduino https www arduino cc an open source microcontroller board that you can program to control LEDs measure temperature react to light interface to GPS satellites and do much more Arduino is also the name of the programming language and development environment that we will use throughout this book Arduino is the ultimate tool for makers looking to add control to their projects A quick search online for Arduino projects returns millions of hits There are thousands of projects and ideas available on sites like Instructables hackster io and YouTube That shows just how many makers out there are using Arduino At SparkFun Electronics we encourage people to experiment play and tinker with common household items by altering and integrating electronics components This is sometimes known as hacking This book will teach you some core electronics and cod ing skills and we hope it will inspire you to build something new and unique with materials you find around your house Why arduIno There are dozens of different microcontrollers and development platforms out there so why are we creating another set of projects for Arduino The answer lies in the simple fact that Arduino was not originally created for makers engineers or hobbyists but for design students in Ivrea Italy as a learning platform to help them make their projects function without needing years of electrical engineering courses or tons of math and theory It was designed to shorten the time from xviii inTroducTion
nothing to awesome that is from idea to physical product for nontechnical people Arduino did its job so well that the maker community and hobby ists picked up the platform and ran with it This is due to a number of factors low price good documentation open source hardware but we think the core reason Arduino is so popular is that it is easy to learn on Arduino is a gateway for anyone into making inventing and prototyping projects The projects in this book are designed for someone who wants to learn and is driven by the initial spirit of Arduino to bring an idea to fruition hoW Is thIs Book dIfferent from others A lot of programming books read like reference manuals jumping right away into coding or electrical concepts before providing con text and collecting dust on your bookshelf until you need to look up a command or concept you’ve forgotten This book is not like that It aims to teach new concepts through fun interesting and practical projects The projects progress in com plexity and difficulty incrementally from Project 1 to Project 10 and they will help answer the age-old questions Why am I learning this Why is it important And why should I care We assume you’re reading this book because you’re eager to learn something new or looking for materials to share with others Whether you’re an interested novice a teacher a librarian or a par ent this book is a hands-on guide for people who want to learn and is not meant as a reference manual to sit on your bookshelf You don’t need any experience with electronics or program ming to get started with Arduino We assume you know nothing at the start and that you may be a little apprehensive about diving in That’s okay This book progresses steadily from introductory material to more complicated and challenging projects We also know that there are plenty of people out there with experience looking for something new maybe a new spin on an old topic such as a fresh look at blinking LEDs Many of these projects can be used as starting points for you to hack and develop further or build out of better materials for a more polished and durable finish In the end this book is for someone who is proactive a problem solver who jumps in with both feet xix inTroducTion
We encourage you to build the projects as you go learning by doing These projects have been carefully designed to introduce both the tools and skills for programming and circuit building as well as fabricating using cardboard scraps and other household items The fun of learning is in playing out the entire process and that is what this book offers materIals The electronics components used throughout this book are based around our flagship product the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit KIT-13969 and are also readily available individually from a number of sources online We’ve also used a few parts that aren’t in the Inventor’s Kit and these additional parts are available as a single kit as well https www sparkfun com NoStarchArduino If you already have an electronics starter kit or want to buy the components separately rather than getting the Inventor’s Kit you can find the full Bill of Materials BOM for the book in Tables 1 and 2 We’ve included individual lists of materials at the beginning of each project as well We’ll also be using many basic building materials like cardboard cardstock construction paper drinking straws and paper plates to build the enclosures for the projects As you start working with electronics and integrating them with common materials you’ll find yourself looking at everyday household items in a new way Qt y Pa r t n u m b e r D e s c r i P ti o n 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 DEV-13975 CAB-11301 PRT-12002 PRT-11026 COM-12062 COM-09264 COM-11508 COM-11507 COM-10302 or COM-09190 COM-08588 COM-09806 COM-13689 SparkFun RedBoard or other Arduino-compatible board USB Mini-B cable Solderless breadboard Male-to-male jumper wires qty 30 Assorted color LEDs qty 20 RGB LED common cathode 10 kΩ resistors qty 20 330 Ω resistors qty 20 Push buttons Diode 10 kΩ potentiometer NPN transistor 2N2222 or BC337 xx inTroducTion table 1 SparkFun Inventor’s Kit parts used in the book
table 2 Additional parts used in the book not included in the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit Qt y Pa r t n u m b e r 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 SEN-09088 SEN-10988 SEN-08680 COM-07950 LCD-00709 ROB-09065 ROB-11696 Qt y Pa r t n u m b e r PRT-12043 PRT-13870 D e s c r i P ti o n Photoresistor TMP36 temperature sensor 50 mm SoftPot membrane potentiometer Piezo buzzer 16 2 character LCD Submicro size servo motor Hobby motor D e s c r i P ti o n Mini breadboard Short 4-inch male-to-male jumper wires qty 30 1 1 2 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 PRT-09140 Male-to-female jumper wires qty 10 COM-12062 SEN-09088 PRT-09835 PRT-09100 ROB-13845 ROB-13302 ROB-13259 COM-00102 Assorted color LEDs qty 20 additional LEDs Photoresistor additional 4 AA battery holder AA battery TB6612FNG H-bridge motor driver Geared hobby motors qty 2 Rubber wheel fit for the geared hobby motor qty 2 Mini slide switch requIred tools The only tools you’ll need for these projects are a pair of scissors a craft knife and a hot glue gun However don’t feel limited to these tools If you have a laser cutter available to you use it If you are itch ing to 3D-print a project feel free Our designs are made with paper craft and cardboard in mind but they can be combined with any fabrication technique you want You shouldn’t have to spend any money on the materials for this book if you don’t want to In fact there are probably a few projects you could use the book itself as a material for If you do that’s awesome As former teachers we are familiar with working with very small budgets and our focus is always on the most cost effective building materials such as cardboard paper wood and recycled plastics and metals xxi inTroducTion
