Tech Desk Tid Bits.com

Is that a 3D printer inside a laser cutter?

2011-10-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

lol. That was said to me today, as someone looked into the Epilog Helix. I spent some time learning how to run the laser cutter today. I wanted to add a Spark flame, and something a little extra for the housing of our Thing-O-Matic. At about 50 minutes of print time to engrave the whole back side of the Makerbot, I had a number of hours with the Epilog tweaking settings and experimenting with the details. Once it was all said and done, here's what we ended up with. Much thanks goes out to Mary, one of our trained Epilog supervisors. We worked together to dial in the machine, and we are both very pleased with what came out.

MakerBot Build day 1

2011-10-06T17:02:00.001-07:00

The build is well underway. The instructions are online, and are quite good. I have been taking my time, and making sure I do everything correctly once. This has brought my overall mistake average to an all time low! I have only made a couple mistakes so far. There are about 6 or 8 low profile screws in the build. Just don't think you know where to put these. I thought the step wanted the low pro screws, and about 10 steps later I discovered I would have to go back and undo 4 incorrectly placed screws.

All in all it is going smoothly. The extruder is built, and mounted on it's platform. The main automated printing surface has been assembled. That is then mounted to the main X, Y members. Tomorrow I will be back at it, beginning with the main enclose of the whole assembly. This is a pretty fun little project. There are a ton of parts, and a lot of nuts that need bolts. But if you are looking at getting into the 3D printing world, I would definitely recommend you look into the MakerBot.

My big brown box!

2011-10-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

   This morning I was happy to receive my newest project. On my desk, sits a generally plain brown cardboard box. The only identifying markings are a sticky note that says "For Joo! Tai Opened, everything is inside Thanks!" and a bright orange sticker that proclaims "MakerBot inside" That's right, I have a MakerBot in my possession. This of course is not my personal unit. It will become a new toy in Sparkfun's arsenal of ever growing rapid prototyping machines. I have been entrusted to build, and operate this machine for the first time in our building.
   If you are not familiar with the MakerBot, have a look at this video from Stephen Colbert Report

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So the Maker Bot is a 3D printer. It takes images that are user created, and prints them out in resin. This is a pretty amazing piece of equipment if you really think about it. Think of all the random plastic parts, and things that you could replicate, create, replace, or simply build for the hell of it.
I'll fill you all in as I go. Pictures, updates, and a time lapse are in the works. I hope you all enjoy.

Arduino Learning. Dig into the code.

2011-09-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed a change in the layout. Pretty nice huh? Yeah! I know. I wish I had more to do with it, but actually thanks to Blogger, they just updated to these sweet layouts! Woot. Also, enjoy a picture of this little guy I was checking out on my in-laws rain gutter in Topeka, KS. Pretty cool little dude.

I'm not just here to talk about the new layout, and wild frogs. Actually I have some nice new material to share with you! I have a very nice customer, Woody, who is working on a Pan and Tilt system. He came to me with some coding questions, and it led me down the rabbit's hole. I am envisioning a three part lesson here.

Lesson 1 - Basic Arduino Code Structure
Lesson 2 - Intermediate Code Reform (Refine that code to do what you want.)
Lesson 3 - Intro to advanced code functions

Lesson One begins with a code example that I have written. I have included two versions so that you can read through the commented version. Then move on to the non commented one when you are ready to make your own code tweaks.

If you want to follow along with this lesson you will need

You can get it here...

Pan Tilt Step 1 -Code

Photo of the day

2011-09-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

I am finding that most views coming in to the site are originating with the Nerf Gun. Unfortunately, the Nerf gun went off-line a while back. At one point I pulled the brains out, and tried reworking the system, but found myself in a similar situation of a non working Vulcan.

It's time to pull that bad boy back out, and take another go at it. I will be documenting the project as I go. Maybe we can make version 1.2 even better!

Until then, enjoy a picture of my dog Snoopy!

Time Lapse Clockit build

2011-08-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

I had to build up a kit today to double check a customer question. In doing so, I thought I would film it and see what comes of it. Check it out.

LEDs, Arduinos, Cameras, Light paintings.

2011-07-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

I came across an interesting project today. mechatronicsguy has an awesome combination of all things geeky.
Think Persistence of Vision

Think Light painting.

However, this is an interesting twist. Persistence of Vision tricks our eyes into thinking it is seeing motion, when really it is seeing simple images that are moving faster than our eyes can refresh. If we take this idea out of the realm of eyes, and into photography using a long exposure the image is no longer motion, but is now painting pictures.

The mechatronicsguy created the LightScythe. What a cool project. An arduino, some xbees, and some very clever code has created this awesome painting device. Check it out.

2011-06-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

There is a holy land of alcohol in Boulder. I remember seeing it on Canyon for longer than I was old enough to drink. The Bacardi branded weekly specials sign glowing on the side of the mostly anonymous windowless building. The big brown brick store that never seems to have an empty parking lot, also known as Liquor Mart to the locals. This place has the widest selection of booze in the Boulder Valley. Wine, Spirits, Beer...You name it they have probably got it. In my recent trip into the drunken promise land I noticed the isle of beer has grown. It now stretches the entire length of Whiskey, Rum, Tequila, Vodka, and Gin. I mean come on, that is a lot of beer!

2011-06-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

Like I mentioned, photography is quickly turning into one of my favorite hobbies. I have been playing around with my Nikon D3100. This is one is my favorite shots I have captured so far. Enjoy

Well hello there.

2011-06-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize that I have neglected this blog for so long. There may be a few reasons for this. Work has been crazy. Sparkfun is a never ending whirlwind of madness, and fun. Not that it is a bad thing. But the days of playing with nerf guns are few and far between to say the least. In the personal world, well busy might not be the right word. I just got married! How cool is that? Well I think it's cool. It's been madness though. Planning, preparing, and then actually doing the wedding thing is a heck of a work load. I thank my wife for most of the planning, I left allot of things in her hands. And I think it might have been the right choice considering my first suggestion was a local park, christmas lights, a couple kegs, and a Boom Box.

I have come across a few things in my recent travels. Pictures, and Beer, and Pictures of beer.

I recently received a Nikon 3100 as a wedding gift (Thanks Dad!). So photography has been a new hobby of mine. I took a freshmen high school photography class with my grand fathers Nikon, but never upgraded to a DSLR until now. Likely a new blog is in the works in my head if you are interested. It will be from the perspective of a beginner exploring the world of photography for the first time. That might be fun.

Also, I realized that I have a keen interest in beer, clearly as I am the resident beer czar of Sparkfun. So there may be a new discussion of beer. I have been sampling the local beers as I journey to new places. As well as exploring each end of my local coolers. Why not discuss the tastes, and experiences that are encountered.

I hope that this isn't such a diversion from the original idea of this blog, but in leu of electronics talk, I think I can pull off some beer discussion. Have fun, and Cheers.

To hack, or not to hack... And I'm serious

2010-09-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

Having spent time building, and molding a project from conception to reality, I truly have come to a greater appreciation for many products, and devices that we encounter in every day life. Especially this one.

So the other morning I walk into SparkFun IT and I see this giant box. I'm not kidding, the thing weighs more than 100 lbs. And takes up a large portion of a desk top. This thing means business. "What is it?" I ask to one of the guys in the room. "I don't really know..." they respond, "Plug it in." Don't mind if I do. This thing is sweet! "Dude, It's a Dell." Sorry, for those of you who don't remember that guy... Any way, moving on.

So it's a Dell PowerVault 130T. I can't seem to find to much information on this, but from what I am told this is a compact 2 Terra Byte drive from the 90's. Very wild. Check it out.

It has 22 tape decks. The arm scans for individual tapes, and automatically changes tapes as needed. Pretty sweet. Some engineer, or team of Engineers likely spent a long time building this device. Now, I find myself trying to decide if it is terrible that I want to rip this thing apart for hacking purposes. It sure is a shame to waste such a heavy piece of machinery.

A day in the life...

2010-07-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

I'm testing Weather boards. Two came in defective. I need to know what's wrong with them. This is my life...

First things first, once the unit is plugged into the computer, and streaming data to the terminal, there is going to be a lot of data coming at me. I need to know what it all means. Here is how I broke it down, reading the data sheet for this information of course.

So you can see already some strange data coming from test unit # 1. The temp claims it's 36 degrees Fahrenheit, and 2.8 degrees Celsius in my office... I don't think so. The interesting thing about this is that those two numbers match up. 36F =2.2C, so it's trying to calculate it's data correctly, it's just not reading the actual sensor properly. Something is definitely fishy.

Time to get scientific. It's not the craziest of lab tests. Simple actually, but I allowed each sensor 250 seconds to balance out their readings. They each sat in the same position on my desk under a lamp. I then cut the last 50 readings (200-250) and pasted them into a spread sheet.

After obtaining enough data from all 4 units, I compared the readings side by side.

In the end, one thing is clear. The defective units are in fact not functioning properly. There appears to be different faulty data streaming on each of the two units. One shows the temperature to be much colder than it really is. The other, claims it to be much hotter. The light readings seem to be similar. The humidity was stable and functioning properly on test unit #2, but Unit #1 was all over the place with data. I'm not sure what causes sensor failure like this, but one thing is for sure, these units are off to the scraps bin.

If you would like to see my data it is available here.

MIA / Ebb and Flow

2010-07-21T23:13:00.000-07:00

My experiments have been on hold for a while now. It's a bummer. I have a few new toys in the works. I will be sure to begin sharing the process as I start them. For now, I am stuck with my head in data sheets. I have been playing with a few tings though. It's not using a micro controller, but it is DIY. Check it out, I want to grow some plants on my desk at work, but don't want to deal with a soil plant(to expected, not geeky enough!). So why not try to go Hydroponic with my desk plants. So the next step, build my own Ebb and flow desktop hydroponics setup. Thanks much to the insight of Surf Monkey Coconut.

Building the bliplace 1.1

2010-05-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Austin, the creator of the Bliplace for setting me up with a few samples of his kit. It seems like an fun project for beginner to intermediate tinkerers. Out of the box it is a simple device that anyone can put together, but it has room to hack, and modify later on if you are a little code savvy. It's a wearable, hackable, sound responsive blinky toy that you put together. It's great for brushing up on your solder skills, and also a fun project to just build something blinky. The kit came with a full page step by step instruction set that was clearly written, and includes more than enough information to complete the task at hand.

Tools required

Soldering Iron
Flux core solder
Diagonal or flush cutters

Once you've finished inhaling those solder fumes, and the kit is put together, you can leave the included (preflashed) firmware, and it will blink to the music. If you want to go further with your bliplace it may be time to start hacking that code to make your widget do new, and exciting things.

Having worked in Technical Support for some time now, I have to send out some extra brownie points for the clear, and concise troubleshooting section. Very nice.

The kits will be available starting June 3, 2010 at tanjent.com I recommend you check them out. Thanks again Austin!

I made it to Make Zine!

2010-04-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

I know you all may not care as much as I did, but a few days ago I made it to the front page of www.MakeZine.com I have managed my way onto Hack A Day back in December with the Wii controlled Sumo Bot in Saturday Afternoon Robot Cooking. but I feel that a slot on Make is a bit more exciting. No offense Hack a Day, I love you too. Any how, here it is if your interested.

Know your RFID from MakeZine.com

5 minutes of AVC.

2010-04-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

Here is the start of the multi bot round. This is a for fun round where all of the competitors released their bots onto the world to raise hell. Enjoy.

Wanna know more about RFID?

2010-04-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys, We put together a new video for you this weekend. I walk you through the basics of RFID, and a few products that you can use to easily hook up RFID for your next project. I hope you enjoy.

Some fresh Trigger upgrades

2010-03-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

This last week I have been thinking that I am not really happy with the final outcome for Heavy Mod's trigger system. The code works just the way that I want it to. But the overall look, and packaging of the unit was not up to par.
After searching high and low through the local carry all stores I came up with this case. It was a bait aerator. I pulled the internals, and have a nice enclosure to build what may ultimately lead to the bomb squad being called at some point.
The latest revision of the trigger still includes wireless trigger transmission in Manual mode, and an unmanned firing squad in Autonomous mode.
For more on the trip sensor you can check out the original post here
A good video of sneak attacks is on the way, very sorry for the delay.

Cut the Red Wire

The time is running out. It's almost AVC Round 2

2010-02-19T15:20:00.000-08:00

The annual Autonomous Vehicle Competition at Sparkfun is getting close. We are preparing for the Saturday of madness. The company is planning, and prepping for the onslaught of spectators, and competitors. It's quickly becoming one of our favorite events in the year. With that said, the time for video games, and Nerf guns is quickly transitioning into NMEA crunching, and circuit bending.

Here's a sneak peak at my platform this year.

Heavy Mod Vulcan Trip Sensor.

2010-02-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

The whole idea behind Project Heavy Mod was to have a Remotely operated Nerf assault rifle. In the end that is precisely what it turned into. With control via Xbee we can now remotely trigger the Vulcan. But that wasn't all the remote system was meant to do. Not only did I want to remove pesky co workers from my office from the click of my keyboard. No, it needed to go one step further. Enter the trip sensor.

This little bugger has a long range Sharp IR detector, a plunger switch, a STDP switch, Arduino Pro, and Xbee.

This little package is capable of being placed in unsuspecting locations, tripping the sensor to send a FIRE! command to Heavy Mod.

The plunger and switch on the side allow you to swap between manual, and automatic mode. When in manual mode, Heavy Mod's laser module is turned on, and the Vulcan will await a manual fire from the plunger switch. With a flip of the switch your in automatic mode, the laser turns off, and the Vulcan is ready to wait out it's pray.

Ambush videos coming soon. Enjoy.

Configuring Xbees.

2010-01-15T21:31:00.000-08:00

The Heavy Mod Vulcan uses a pair of Xbees to communicate. All Xbees come with the same default settings to allow simple connection, and communication. However, in the case of Heavy Mod, I wanted to be able to drive the machine from the Robothon robot Scrapper's Wii mote control system. In order to work with the Wii mote, we need to change the default Baud settings to 19200. In order to do this we need to work with a software package called XCTU. This can be a bit of a daunting task. But I have written an Instructable to walk you through the whole process. You can check it out here.

Xbee configuration Instructable

Heavy Mod Nerf Vulcan

2009-12-30T18:11:00.000-08:00

You saw it stock, out of the box in my last post. Now let's get you up to speed. This was a fun project. It had it's issues, but in general this is a fairly easy project. A good one for a beginner, to intermediate Arduino project.

After a bit of a paint job, and some hacking to the electronics, we are left with a wireless Nerf destroyer.

The parts inside include:

Arduino Pro Mini

Xbee Regulated Explorer

Darlington relay

and a laser module.

Happy Holidays everyone.

2009-12-25T11:13:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has stuffed themselves silly with treats, and home cooked feasts. It truly is a wonderful time of year.

I decided to treat myself to a gift of my own this year. But I didn't wait until Christmas to open it. Actually I didn't even try it out before voiding the warranty and hacking into my new Nerf gun.

Check back next week. I will be showing you what I have done to modify this foam flinging weapon. I'll give you a hint, it now has an Xbee, Arduino Pro mini, and a handful of other equipment stuffed into it now. I'll get some pictures, and videos posted up after the holidays. Until then, happy holidays.

Wii mote controlled sumo bot.

2009-12-07T10:33:00.000-08:00

After competing in Robothon 09' the autonomous sumo bot "Scrapper" was converted to a remote control bot. Using an Arduino, a pair of Xbees, and a Wii Chuck, the bot now rolls around by input received from the thumb stick of the chuck. The accelerometers are outputting data, but currently not used. The 2 push buttons control start, stop, and reverse. The backpacks on its top cover are both Xbee, and IR packs. The IR allows tracking via Chris Rojas' bot tracking projection system mentioned in previous posts.

This little bot weighs in at 450 Grams before the addition of Xbee, and IR led backpacks. It's chassis was made out of recycled Circuit boards. The original weight with all electronics, motors, wheels, and tires, was only 198 grams. So an additional 250 grams of lead was added to bring Scrapper up to his weight class of 500 grams. By competition rules Scrapper is also under size restrictions, as well as weight. He measures in at just under 10 cm square. For more on the specs that were followed when building this bot, have a look at the Robothon sumo rules

Scrapper competed autonomously in the 500 gram Sumo class in the 2009 Robothon Competition.

Under the hood we can see the Arduino pro mini, and motor driver tightly packed into the 2" x 3"

compartment. Also in there are 2 high torque geared motors, and 2 lipo batteries.

Under the Controller's cover we find an old Decimellia, Xbee Explorer regulated, and another couple lipos.

Robo Joust turns into Robo soccer.

2009-12-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

With a few IR leds, a hamster ball, and a half dozen robots, what more would you expect to happen? Robosoccer of course!

Today's joust was mild, with the table lowered to about 4 inches from the ground, rather than the planned 4 feet. The battle was lighthearted, and much less violent than originally expected. However, the competition was fierce once a impromptu soccer game broke out on the jousting floor.

For more about the interactive floor make sure to check out Chris Rojas' blog Project Allusion. He has been the one behind the magic floor. More information on the Wii Chuck controlled Sumo bot coming soon right here on Tech Desk Tid Bits.

Interesting new projects with the Sumo bot.

2009-12-04T15:53:00.000-08:00

Since Robothon 09', Scrapper, the sumo bot, has been converted to remote control via a Wii chuck, and Xbee equipped Arduino. A complete post will be coming soon with more on this bot.

With the coming robotics workshop that will be held tomorrow at SparkFun head quarters, we have been preparing some interesting projects for the attendants to play with. Here is a sneak peak of what we are working on.

Chris Rojas (http://www.projectallusion.com/), has been working with Processing, Community Core Vision, and a modified Memo TUIO particle system to create an IR tracking user interface. This allows simple addition of IR leds to such things as a Sumo bot to interact with virtual environments. Have a look!

The New controller for the Sumo Bot

Tracking IR with cross hair.

Scrapper is drawing it's path in the window beside it.

Pretty cool stuff. If you happen to be in Boulder on the 5th of December you should stop by SparkFun for some robot geekery!

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT!

2009-11-30T06:26:00.000-08:00

With the sun setting early this time of year, Instructables has put on a contest called the Light up the Night contest. The goal, well to light up the night of course. They want to see how different people are getting noticed when the sun goes down. With entries ranging from a light up umbrella, to flashing backpack hacks.

How fitting a competition seeing as I recently completed my flashing top tube light. It looks great, and draws a lot of attention so you are less likely to get nailed by that car that isn't watching the road ahead. The instructable will walk you through how to put one together for your own bike. Check it out here. It's in the finals!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Flashing-LED-Top-Tube-Pad-for-your-bike/

Preparing for the Joust

2009-11-18T18:04:00.000-08:00

Checking out the Joust table. This should be interesting...

Oh No... A Sparkfun sponsored Robot Battle. Sounds like fun!

2009-10-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well thanks to the success of our annual Autonomous Race, it sounds like we are going to broaden our robotics competitions this year. If you have not already seen it, December 6, 2009 we are hosting the first SparkFun Robot joust! You better believe I will be building a bot for this. I'll keep you all posted as progress is made. Until then here is some info on the competition.

When: Sunday December 6th, 2009. Rounds begin at 3PM.

Where: SparkFun H.Q. (You can now easily find us with our fancy sign)

What: Robots, that Joust!

Why: Challenging, Exciting, Fun, Innovative. The real question is why not?

Rules:

2 minute time limit
There will be a 1 inch solid black line running down the middle of the platform which may be used any purpose. (think line-following)
Weapons are allowed
The robots may be remote controlled, autonomous, or a mix of the two
There will be two classes: Beginner (exclusively for the students who take the two day workshop) and Advanced (everyone else)
Size and weight limits:

There are no constraints on the size of the robot other than the weight
We're not sure what the weight limit is yet. We need only to limit it avoid breaking our table. Probably 20lbs+ so you can get gnarly if you think it will help you.

As usual for SparkFun events, this set of rules is subject to change at any time, so stay informed!

Robothon '09 A bloody sucess!

2009-10-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

Aside from being invaded by a crowd of undead, Robothon was great! We had an awesome time. I would like to thank Seattle Robotics Society for putting this event on. And the zombie hoard for not eating our brains.

SparkFun competed in Line Follower, Line Follower obstacle, Mini Sumo, and 13 lb battle bot.We brought home a second place finish in line follower obstacle! Next year we're bringing our A game with plans for domination!

A few of the competitors next to BroadSide the line follower.

The Line follower obstacle course

Battle Bot!

Sumo Competition

SUMO! Scrapper throwin down in the ring

Robomagelin Rover

We're at Robothon 09!

2009-10-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

More Pictures to come as the event gets underway!

Our New Robot Security on patrol of the lot...

2009-10-07T22:14:00.000-07:00

Not really. I just love this picture from our autonomous race. Now for the credits.

Robot Name: Swosume

Photo From: MakeZine.com

Wanna Peak?

2009-10-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak peak at the Robothon 2009 Sparkfun Sumo Team.
Enjoy.

I Survived the Swine Flu 2009

2009-10-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

After a weekend from hell, I am happy to say the I have quite possibly survived the Swine flu. This was the worst flu I have ever experienced. I hope that none of you out there have to experience this yourselves. Good news is, I should be healthy in time for Robothon!

Did you bring your Decoder ring?

2009-09-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

While it is nice, and useful to look over example code to get your feet wet, before we go to wild with prewritten examples, and tutorials, it is important that you under stand what is going on in your code. Today we will be talking about the different parts involved in coding Variables with Arduino.

When writing a program, We are basically telling the Arduino what to do at all times. The board is an I/O board, or Input/Output board. So each of those pins is an In or an Out. We can change the behavior of some pins in code. While others are simply doing there predetermined job. Examples of pins we can not effect would be the 3.3V and 5V lines. As well as the TX, and RX lines.

If you have played with some code, you by now may know that for your program to work properly you will have somethings required to happen. Let's break down some common variables and discuss what each of them does.

Let's crack this code:

Think back to High School math class. X=(y+z). This is a variable. In Arduino we work with variables as well. We need to program some variables to tell the computer that X equals something. In this case X equals a pin on our Arduino. This would be written in Arduino like this.

int x=1;

Since our pins are all whole numbers, they can be called by using an int, or integer. This is used for numbers that do not use a decimal point. 1,2,528.

Later on in your program you may need to work with numbers that use decimals. When this happens we want to call for a float. Floating point numbers are generally used for analog and continuous values that require a larger range of numbers than allowed by integers, and would look like this.
int x;
float z;

x=1;
z= x / 3.34

In this case X equals 1, and z equals 1 divided by 3.34. Don't forget, floats must include a decimal to work properly. So if you want a whole number like 3 it would have to be 3.0

If you want to set the variable to be a True/False status, we work with a boolean. These have the Arduino output a 1 for true, and 0 for false. A boolean will only take up 1 byte of memory in your program. This will look like this.

boolean running = false;

void loop()

{
 running = !running;                // toggle running variable

This is a stripped down example from the Arduino.cc site. For the complete example check here. In this code the boolean will change from states everytime the loop restarts.

Just a few more important variables to touch on, Longs and Bytes.

Longs allow large non floating point numbers to be stored. It is similar to an int, except that in Arduino a long number can range all the way up to 2,147,483,648, and look like this.

long bignumber= 102933;

Bytes allow the Arduino to store 8 bits of numerical information. In Arduino this allows a byte to be a number from 0 to 255. This is a good way to transmit data quickly, or transmit data that may not be properly interpreted on the other side. Bytes look like this.

byte b = B10010;  // "B" is the binary formatter (B10010 = 18 decimal)

Now get out there and hack some code apart with your new found wealth of information.

Every one loves to make things blink.

2009-09-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

By now we should all have an Arduino in front of us. We should also all have a copy of the latest Arduino software. One great thing about Arduino is the software is always being updated. The down side to this is sometimes you will run into issues loading code onto newer boards if your software is even a few versions older than the latest one. So once you have downloaded the software, make sure to go back to check for updates every few months.

Great, so lets open up our Arduino software.

We should be looking at something like this. Go ahead and click on File/SketchBook/Examples/Digital/Blink.
This should open the Blink sketch into your window.

So what is going on here?
Let's go through this one step at a time. To get started, this code begins with a note. The information is enclosed within /* and */. In Arduino code you can comment out anything you want to include for informational use. By either using the /* */ for big sections of text, or simply // for a single line you can cut anything out of your code. This is also nice for testing. Say you want to print a number when a button is pushed to make sure it works. Once the test is done, maybe you don't want to delete this line of code, but don't want it always printing the number. A quick // and that line is out.

Next an INT or integer is called. This is your chance to call out anything that you are wanting to use. If you have a sensor plugged into A1, a motor driver plugged into D3, and D4, you will need to call out

int senspin =1;
int motor1 =3;
int motor2 =4;

senspin, motor1, and motor2 are all names that you can pick. Just remember that these names are case sensitive. The simpler you can make them, with out forgetting what they do, the better!

void setup() // run once, when the sketch starts

{

pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); // sets the digital pin as output

}

Next we get to the Void Setup. This is a basic building block in the arduino sketch. Sometimes you may not have anything to put here. But generally there is at least one or two things that will need to go here. This is where you can permanently control a pins status. In the blink sketch the LED pin is declared as an OUTPUT. This is also where you can open a serial communication connection. This would be done by calling a begin.Serial(9600)

void loop() // run over and over again
{
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); // sets the LED on

   delay(1000);                  // waits for a second
        digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);    // sets the LED off
   delay(1000);                  // waits for a second
}

After void setup, is a void loop. Here is where your program begins. This will loop your code so the system will continue doing what you tell it to until an interrupt, or other variable tells the program to leave the main code loop.

Within the void loop we see the status of the pin changing. This is the code that is physically changing the status of the pin 13.

digitalWrite changes the pin status between high and low.
followed by the pin that is to be effected, and the state it is being changed to. (Ledpin, HIGH);

We can delay the loop so that a certain action does it's thing for a predetermined amount of time. Delay(1000) is one second of delay.

Now that we understand whats going on, click the button that looks like a play button. This verifies that the code is all good, if you missed a ; or forgot to close a loop with a } it won't verify. This will be a pain at first. But as you work with code, you will learn what not to forget, and what to look for when a verify fails.

If everything checks out, click the button with a right arrow in it. This is the upload button. The software should think for a minute (reverifying) and then the TX and RX leds should flash a few times, and your all done. A upload complete notice should pop up, and your on board led should be blinking up a storm.

Here a little fun you can have with the code. Try playing around with the delay times. See what different delays do. Add some extra blinks to the code, and vary the delays to make a pattern!

The Race for Robothon

2009-09-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

In August during a bi-weekly engineering meeting at Sparkfun, discussion of the annual robotics competition held in Seattle WA. Robothon. A challenge was thrown out, If any one wants to try to build a robot in time to compete at Robothon, Sparkfun would send us.

With the challenge set, and the deadline close at hand the work would need to begin quickly.

Robothon is a cool event with a wide range of competitions. I had to decide on a few areas to focus. Even with the always favored BattleBot competition tempting me, I really wanted to approach this event with a focus on autonomous robotics.

With that in mind, Line follower Obstacle Course, and sumo bot seemed to call my name.

With my battle fields chosen, it was time to build. In later posts we will be discussing the building process. I will walk you through building each bot, and share the code with you so that you can make your own Arduino based Line follower robot, and sumo bot.

Until then, here are a few sneak peaks at the competitors.

Eeny Meeny Miny Moe

2009-09-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

While I am sure many of you have day dreamed about it, It's to bad you can't go to SparkFun and just sift through the bins of boards to decide which Arduino you want. Since we can't all do this, let's spend some time today talking about the different boards that you can work with. If you haven't noticed there are tons of Arduino boards, there are Duemilanoves and Diecimilas, and Megas oh my! Pros and pro minis, and lily pads, and even bluetooth to boot. So what is the difference exactly?

// Don't forget you can get all of your Arduino stuff from SparkFun : Sparkfun Arduino Section

Duemilanove: The latest board based on the ATMega 328, from our friends at SmartProjects in Italy. This is a great work horse board for prototyping, and experimentation. A good beginner board, but still plenty capable of stretching it's legs.

A few great things about the Duemilanove

It 3.3V and 5V regulated power supplies are broken out for your needs.
The board has both USB and barrel jack ports for easy power, and communication.
New to the Duemilanove is auto power detection. Gone are the days of having to switch between wall supply, or USB supply.
All pins are broken out to female headers for easy connections.

Mega: Another Smart Projects board for your circuit bending pleasure. The name says it all, this thing is massive. We are upgrading from the traditional 328, and 168. Throwing it to the wind with the ATMega 1280! This thing is a beast. With 54 digital input/output pins, 14 of those offering PWM. 16 analog inputs, and 4 UARTs. The sky is the limit for what can be done with this board.

A few great things about the Mega

More digital pins than you can shake a stick at!
14 PWM lines. Want to build a robot with a ton of servos? How about 14?
Built in Power, and USB ports
3.3V and 5V pins broken out
All pins are broken out to female headers

A little note about the Pro, Pro mini, and Lily Pad Arduino boards,

These are all built to be as small as possible. This means a USB port was not attached to the board directly. You will need a programming adapter to work with these boards. The recommended board is the FTDI basic. You will only need one for 5V and one for 3V.

While I am on the subject, a big difference between these boards, and say the Duemilanove is that each board is only set up to run at either 3.3V or 5V. So you will need to decide which voltage will work best for your specific projects. Also in choosing a voltage, keep in mind that the 3.3V are 8mhz, while the 5V are 16mhz.
Also there are still ATMega168 versions available, though the new standard chip set is the ATMega368.

Wow that was a lot. It's ok. For most of you, a ATMega328 with the proper voltage level will do the trick.

Pro: A Sparkfun original. The pro mini is a great little board. It comes with all of the generally required items already mounted up to the board. The major difference that you should have already noticed, this board uses a surface mount package for its ATmega Chips. What's that mean for the over all performance? Nothing really. The board works just like it's bigger counter part the Duemilanove. Just with out all of the bulk. The cool thing about the Pro series Arduinos is that while it is thinner than the Duemilanove, it still retains the same overall foot print. This means you can use any Duemilanove shield with out modification! Sweet huh?

A few great things about the Pro:

It's skinny
It has every thing broken out the same as the Duemilanove. Hang on to those shields!
On board power switch
JST connector on board. Plug those lipos right in.
Did I mention that it's skinny?

Pro Mini:
Wow that's little. So with such a tiny board in front of you, I can already see you thinking that can't be as good of a board. There must be something missing? Nope. This is the Pro mini. And it is ready to do your bidding. This little guy has everything you need to shrink that proto down to microscopic size. Great for embedded solutions, or even just those times you need the smallest foot print possible.

A few great things about the Pro Mini:

Stepping in to the ring just slightly larger than the ATmega chip itself, this is by far one of the smallest Arduino options out there.
All of the features of other arduinos.
What more can I say, this thing is little in size, and big in muscle. Set this little guy loose on the world.

Lily Pad: This is one of the more interesting Arduinos that Sparkfun has taken part in. Originally designed by Leah Buechley the Lily pad was designed with one thing it mind. Leah wants a sewable electronic component set to allow the addition of electronics to clothing, and other textile projects. Pretty neat stuff. Click on her name for more information on the Lily Pad as well as some great Lilypad tutorials.

A few great things about the LilyPad:

It's sewable!
It's washable!
It has it's own line of accessories. Need a sewable power switch and leds to make that crazy glowing Halloween costume? Sparkfun's got um'

Bluetooth: Want to go wireless? The bluetooth board works over, well... bluetooth. This is a great board to give you all of the same features of the other Arduinos. Only with built in wireless functionality. Just remember that there isn't a USB connector on this board, so you will be stuck with bluetooth for everything. Also as of now these boards are still shipping with the older ATmega168.

A few great things about the Bluetooth:

Wireless functionality
DC-DC converter, allowing the board to be powered with a minimum of 1.2 V, but with a maximum of 5.5 V.
Uses a Bluegiga WT11. Not just any bluetooth module.
5V and 9V broken out

I hope that this has helped you decide which Arduino well be best for your needs. Next time we will discuss getting started with your new Arduino. No matter which Arduino you are working with, there is one common thread that ties them all together. The blink sketch. No matter what your final use for the board is, more than likely you have, or will see the blink sketch in action. We will break this code down, and discuss what exactly is going on.

See you next time.

A crash course in Electronics

2009-07-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

Well, let's face it. Electronics is a wide world of circuits, and schematics. It can be confusing, intimidating even. When you find yourself looking at one of these.

After a while it can start to look like this.

While this may feel like a bit of a mountian to climb, you really can do this! And we'll show you how. One step at a time, we'll cover the tips and tricks you'll need to get started in electronics. We'll cover hacking electronics around the house, to designing your own custom pcbs. Welcome to slightly reused. Where we can modifying the world around us, one hack at a time.