Tardate 2016

The Arduino IDE is the most convenient way to get started with Arduino, but it does obscure the underlying mechanics of building software for an Arduino.

How to do it from scratch? This is my experiement and guide to building software for an Arduino from the command line. I use a Mac and homebrew, so it is somewhat MacOSX-specific.

As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub.

Another way to measure temperatures, this time the DS18S20 - an inexpensive 1-Wire digital thermometer with a range of -55°C to +125°C, at ±0.5°C accuracy from -10°C to +85°C.

It comes in TO-92 packaging and may be powered directly (using three pins), or take parasitic power from the data line (using two pins). This makes it ideal for pin-starved microcontrollers that need a decent ambient temperature reading. In this project, I'm just exercising the sensor with a simple Arduino sketch.

As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub.

I'm working on an idea where I need to measure temperatures to around 500°C - above those typically supported with semiconductor sensors or thermistors.

This project demonstrates the basic approach using an Arduino as the "temperature logger". I'm using a K Type thermocouple that's rated up to 700°C. Since thermocouples only measure a differential temperature, I'm also using an LM35 to provide the cold-junction baseline. The temperature measurement is displayed on a 5110 LCD.

As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub.

So now I have my nRF24 breakout boards back from OSH Park, time to try them out.

This is a simple script that runs on two Arduinos. They bounce messages back and forth over 2.4GHz using the nRF24L01+ modules, flashing their LEDs when messages successfully handled. Sweet, and the breakout boards work just fine.

As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Arduino Projects repo on GitHub.

(blogarhythm ~ invaders must die - The Prodigy)
Tiny 128x64 monochrome OLED screens are cheap and easy to come by, and quite popular for adding visual display to a microcontroller project.

My first experiments in driving them with raw SPI commands had me feeling distinctly old school, as the last time remember programming a bitmap screen display was probably about 30 years ago!

So while in a retro mood, what better than to attempt an arcade classic? At first I wasn't sure it was going to be possible to make a playable game due to the limited Arduino memory and relative slow screen communication protocol.

But after a few tweaks of the low-level SPI implementation, I was surprised myself at how well it can run. Even had enough clock cycles left to throw in a sound track and effects.

Here's a quick video on YouTube of the latest version. ArdWinVaders! .. in full lo-rez monochrome glory, packed into 14kb and speeding along at 8MHz.

As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Arduino Projects repo on GitHub.

[フレーム]

Full source and schematics are in the LittleArduinoProjects collection on Github.

(blogarhythm ~ Diablo - Don't Fret)

The Fretboard is a pretty simple Arduino project that visualizes the build status of up to 24 projects with an addressable LED array. The latest incarnation of the project is housed in an old classical guitar … hence the name ;-)

All the code and design details for The Fretboard are open-source and available at fretboard.tardate.com. Feel free to fork or borrow any ideas for your own build. If you build anything similar, I'd love to hear about it.