Getting Started With Arduino How To Build A Twitter Monitoring Alertuino

Getting Started With Arduino: How to build a Twitter-monitoring Alertuino Adrian McEwen - www.mcqn.com

What is Arduino?

Embedded computing platform

Open Source Hardware

Open Source Software

Easy-to-use

A way to build the “Internet of Things”

Adrian McEwen - www.mcqn.com

Common Features

Assortment of Arduinos, but most share the same common features:

16KB flash

1KB RAM

14 digital I/O pins

6 analogue I/O pins

Easy to Learn

Integrated IDE

Upload code via USB with a single click

Lots of examples to learn from

Active community sharing how they made their projects

Easy to Extend Adrian McEwen - www.mcqn.com

The Anatomy of a Sketch

The code that runs on the Arduino is called a sketch.

Two main parts:

setup()

loop()

This is the Arduino “Hello World” - Blink

The Anatomy of a Sketch: setup()

Runs once, on startup.

The Anatomy of a Sketch: loop()

Runs continually, after startup.

Seeing Blink in Action

Load Blink example in the IDE: File -> Sketchbook -> Examples -> Digital -> Blink

Click the upload button:

Watch the LED blink*

*on boards other than the Diecimila and Duemilanove you might need to connect an LED between digital pin 13 and GND

Now the real fun starts… Adrian McEwen - www.mcqn.com

Some (Very) Basic Electronic Concepts

You can think of electronics in a similar way to how you’d think of plumbing

Voltage [V]: a bit like water pressure

Current [I]: a bit like the amount of water flowing through something

Resistance [R]: a bit like the (inverse of the) diameter of a water pipe

Ohm’s Law

The only equation you’ll need to begin tinkering

Voltage = Current x Resistance

Current = Voltage / Resistance

Resistance = Voltage / Current

Learn more as you want to do more…

Tinkering With Toys

Hacking a toy ray gun to notify me when someone twitters about #barcampliverpool

Take 1 Cheap Toy Ray Gun

Battery-operated electronic toys are ideal

Takes 3 AAA batteries, so near enough to the Arduino’s 5V

Open It Up

Find the connections to bypass the switch and turn the toy on

Use 5V and GND connections on Arduino with some wires to test where the connections should go

Make New Connections

Solder the connections ideally

But you could cut the wires and connect new ones with connecting block

Parts We’ll Use

Resistor – 1K ohm (brown-black-red)

Parts We’ll Use

Transistor – basically an electronically operated switch

(we’re using a 2N2222)

Parts We’ll Use

Breadboard – easy, solderless prototyping board

Transistors in (a Bit) More Detail

Wire emitter to –ve/GND side of circuit

Wire collector to +ve side of circuit

Current will flow from collector to emitter when a voltage is applied to base

Our Circuit Adrian McEwen - www.mcqn.com

Software

Computer will fetch the data from Twitter for us

Then send the number of alerts over serial to the Arduino

The Arduino will listen for the number of alerts over serial

Then turn on the toy for 2 seconds for each alert

Alertuino Software: setup()

Runs once, on startup.

Alertuino Software: loop() Adrian McEwen - www.mcqn.com

Lets Try It

Upload the Alertuino sketch

Start the serial monitor

Send it a command

Enjoy*

*fingers crossed ;-)

Find out more

My Blog:

http://www.mcqn.net/mcfilter/

Or email adrian@mcqn.net

Buy a beginners kit:

http://tinker.it/ukstore/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=51

Download the software:

http://www.arduino.cc/

Learn more:

http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage

Getting Started With Arduino How To Build A Twitter Monitoring Alertuino

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Notes on slide 1

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