[chbot] APC Magazine Arduino Article

[Tim Carr]

Hi Charles, hello Christchurch Robotics

Thanks for the ideas and feedback Charles and begrudgingly I think I must
admit that the blinking light does indeed include a component of necessity.

One idea I'm chewing over (as a result of Charles' feedback) is to use the
blinking light example to build a basic animatronic head (with blinking
lights from the first article being used for eyes), the servo gives movement
to the head in the second article and the LDR's/IR's gives tracking for the
3rd article.
The end product may end up being a 'head' on a servo where the maker can
decorate/manipulate the 'skin' to their desire and it follows passers by.
Heh, that just makes me laugh my evil laugh just thinking about the
applications of such a monstrous thing and it's opportunity to scare the
daylights out of my better half.

Having said all this, I suspect even the most basic project will be hard
pressed to fit into a few mag pages so if anyone has any ideas or comments
(positive or negative) I would be most appreciative of your opinion.

Regards,
Tim
MindKits Chief Ninja

On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 10:37 AM, Charles Manning <manningc2 at actrix.gen.nz>wrote:

>
> You must include the blinking LED. It is a rite of passage. It is an
> offering
> to the Embedded Gods. If you do not make it then you will have a hard life
> with lots of blown chips etc. Like any journey you mist start out right!
> :-)
>
> Getting the led blinking means you've got all the toolchain, cables and
> programming working. Enough for the first article.
>
> But you want to make something a bit more interesting quite soon.
> Preferably
> something that has some action.
>
> A few cool(ish) ideas:
>
> * 2 LDRs as On/Off touch switches. When you cover the LDR the ambient light
> is
> blocked and the output turns on/off.
>
> * 2 LDRs mounted on a servo that can track light.
>
> * Digital lock using DS2401 single wire serial number chips as keys. Save
> a "database" of keys in EEPROM.
>
>
> On Monday 03 August 2009 23:00:01 Tim Carr wrote:
> > Hi all, I'm hoping I may be able to help me with some ideas. I've been
> > asked by APC Magazine in Australia to write a series of articles related
> to
> > getting started with Arduino. APC have picked up on the growing
> popularity
> > of the platform and I've been tasks with writing a complete beginners
> > article that gives them an interesting grounding in Arduino in just 2-3
> > magazine pages and followed on by one or two more advanced articles.
> >
> > The challenge I see is not so much in the technology but in picking an
> > interesting first project that leaves them with the desire to experiment
> > and extend their knowledge. As a result I'm loath to start with the
> > blinking light 'hello world' as I imagine there must be better options
> that
> > haven't been thrashed. I must admit though, at this point it really does
> > seem to be the best fit. Please prove me wrong....please.
> >
> > So, my question is this: When you started building robots, what really
> took
> > your fancy and what do you feel may be a good starting 'micro-project'
> for
> > others to start with?
> >
> > One aim (that may be asking too much) is to develop the howto in such a
> way
> > that the initial article demonstrates the key essential elements of
> Arduino
> > setup and use while being easily extended in the second article to
> produce
> > something fun and functional. So perhaps the first may be setting up a
> > servo to move and the second may make it follow the light (I'm not sure
> if
> > that's too hard for newbies but you get my drift).
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any thought you can share on this.
>
>
>


-- 
Regards,
Tim
MindKits Chief Ninja
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