Planet Arduino

PyroEDU began in 2012 with the mission of offering free online courses teaching the fundamentals of electrical engineering in an approachable and entertaining manner. Rather than studying textbooks and advanced mathematics, students are taught using a learn-by-doing approach that follows four basic steps: introduce the topic, explain the theory, build an experiment to demonstrate the theory, and offer real-world examples to demonstrate how the topic is utilized today. Students can interact with other students and the instructor via the PyroEDU forums or by joining one of PyroEDU’s hosted classrooms on uReddit or P2PU.

PyroEDU is currently teaching its sixth course, An Introduction to Sensors, covering a wide variety of sensors from motion detectors to temperature sensors. This sixth course is the capstone in the Introductory Series of courses PyroEDU offers (visit http://www.pyroelectro.com/edu/ for a complete listing of courses in the Introductory Series). Working with The Gadgetory, an online electronics retailer, PyroEDU will be offering a comprehensive kit that includes all the parts necessary to complete the Introductory Series of courses. More advanced series are planned in the future which may include courses in animatronics and robotics.

An introduction to sensors – [Link]

PyroEDU began in 2012 with the mission of offering free online courses teaching the fundamentals of electrical engineering in an approachable and entertaining manner. Rather than studying textbooks and advanced mathematics, students are taught using a learn-by-doing approach that follows four basic steps: introduce the topic, explain the theory, build an experiment to demonstrate the theory, and offer real-world examples to demonstrate how the topic is utilized today. Students can interact with other students and the instructor via the PyroEDU forums or by joining one of PyroEDU’s hosted classrooms on uReddit or P2PU.

PyroEDU is currently teaching its sixth course, An Introduction to Sensors, covering a wide variety of sensors from motion detectors to temperature sensors. This sixth course is the capstone in the Introductory Series of courses PyroEDU offers (visit http://www.pyroelectro.com/edu/ for a complete listing of courses in the Introductory Series). Working with The Gadgetory, an online electronics retailer, PyroEDU will be offering a comprehensive kit that includes all the parts necessary to complete the Introductory Series of courses. More advanced series are planned in the future which may include courses in animatronics and robotics.

An introduction to sensors – [Link]

Wireless, Credit-Card sized, Android + Linux + Arduino™, Embedded Sensors, starting from $49. What else?

UDOO Neo embodies a new concept: a single board computer suitable for the Post-PC era:

• Like a Raspberry Pi, you can program it in any language and run a full Linux environment with graphic interfaces.
• You get all the simplicity of an Arduino-compatible board, thanks to the Cortex-M4 and the Arduino UNO pinout layout, with the possibility of adding most Arduino™ shields, actuators and sensors, both analog and digital.
• An incredible, smoothly-running Android 4.4.3, it gives you the possibility to build new Android-based smart devices.
• You get a wireless module: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0 (Classic Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy), because we hate cables.
• 9-axis motion sensors are embedded, to build your perfect drone/robot/3D printers/whatever or create new kinds of interactions with the real world.
• Open-source hardware: because we love to let you hack things or create new devices from scratch!
• Starting from $49!

UDOO Neo = Raspberry Pi + Arduino + Wi-Fi + BT 4.0 + Sensors - [Link]

by Mahesh Venkitachalam:

I was in Bhutan last December, and as we travelled to different locations, I kept wondering what the temperature and altitude was, and wished I had some gizmo that would show me these values. Back home, I did a bit of research on altitude sensors, and one that came up was the cheap BMP180 sensor. It measures temperature and pressure, and the latter can be used to calculate the altitude. It’s been lying around with me the past few months, and now I’ve finally gotten around to building a display around it.

Temperature / Altitude / Pressure Display using BMP180 - [Link]

by Francesco Truzzi :

Some time ago I came across a new chip from TI, the HDC1000. It’s a temperature and humidity sensor with I2C interface and requires little to no additional components. It comes in an 8BGA package: we can all agree it’s pretty small.
Some of the peculiar characteristics of this chip are that it has a DRDYn pin which goes low any time there is a new reading from the chip (so you can precisely time your requests) and that the sensor is located on the bottom of the IC, so that it’s not exposed to dust and other agents that may false the readings. Also, it has an integrated heater that can remove humidity from the sensor.

So I developed a very small breakout board for this chip as well as an Arduino library (yay, my first one! raspberryPi and nodemcu might come next).

[via]

HDC1000 temperature and humidity sensor breakout, with Arduino library! - [Link]

The design is small scale mobile robot. The robot has two wheels that optimizes direction control and rotation. It is simple and low cost compared to other robotic designs. It is accurate and reliable with three sensors, which accuracy can still be increased with additional sensor pair.

The circuit is comprised of an Arduino Uno microcontroller, which serves as the main board of the system. It handles the complete integration of the system. The distance sensors serves as the eyes of the robot, which are three pairs for accuracy and faster obstacle sensing. The motors drives the two wheels independently, each has its own wheel to drive. The transistors that is connected to the motor are used as a switch of the motor as the microcontroller releases the signal.

This simple design of mobile robot is helpful in order to developed our own version of mobile robot. It is an efficient and helpful concept in developing a robot that can roam around especially without the need of human control. It is suitable to different applications like gathering data, search and rescue, safety measures, and other related stuffs that needs support at a very rigid situation.

Basic Mobile Robot with Autotravel Configuration - [Link]

praveen @ circuitstoday.com:

This article is about interfacing pressure sensor to arduino. The pressure sensor used here is SPD005G from Smartec . SPD (Smart Pressure Device) is a series of silicon based pressure sensors suitable for industrial as well as house hold applications. These sensors are generally available in plastic inline or dual inline packaging. SPD sensors are generally available in two operation modes namely gauge type and absolute type. In gauge type the pressure is measured with respect to the atmospheric pressure. There is a small vent on the package for getting contact with the atmosphere. In absolute type, the pressure is measured with respect to vacuum. A small vacuum chamber is incorporated into the package during fabrication. Typical applications of SPD005G are medical systems, BP monitoring, air conditioning systems, process control, hand held pressure sensors etc.

Interfacing pressure sensor to arduino - [Link]

by Jason Poel Smith @ makezine.com:

When working in extreme temperatures it is important to monitor your body temperature. In freezing weather, your fingers and toes get numb and you can develop frostbite without even noticing it. Likewise, if your core body temperature drops too low, you can start to start to suffer the effects of hypothermia before you are aware of it.

So I designed an automatic temperature sensor that will monitor the temperature of your fingers, your toes, and your torso, as well as the outside temperature. This can help you to stay safe when working in extreme cold.

Wearable Temperature Sensors For Working in Extreme Cold - [Link]

“Raz” over embedded-lab.com has written a tutorial on how to interface BMP180 temperature and barometric pressure sensor with Arduino UNO board. The BMP180 is a new generation sensor coming on a LGA package and it’s able to measure pressure in the range of 300 to 1100hPa using low power and achieving low noise measurements. The interface is a standard I2C and sensor is fully factory calibrated. The voltage required to power the IC is 3.3V, so your Arduino must provide 3.3V. On this tutorial the data is displayed on a 1.44″ TFT display and “Raz” moved a step further calculating the altitude from the derived pressure. Code and libraries are supplied on the link below.

Interfacing BMP180 temperature and pressure sensor on Arduino UNO - [Link]

praveen @ circuitstoday.com:

This article is about interfacing gyroscope to arduino. Gyroscope is a device used for measuring the angular velocity in the three axes. It works under the concepts of angular momentum and can be used to determine the orientation of an object. Typical applications of gyroscope includes missile guidance, flight control, smart phones, game station joy sticks etc. Mechanical gyroscopes, MEMS gyroscope, optic fiber gyroscope, ring laser gyroscope.

Interfacing gyroscope to arduino - [Link]