Year: 2011

Tutorial – Measure Voltage Across a Potentiometer

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This tutorial demonstrates how to measure voltage across a potentiometer.  The concepts explained in this tutorial can be used to create position feedback sensors and contrast/brightness control for Liquid Crystal Displays.  Check out the tutorial for full details.

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Tutorial – Use a Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) to Measure Light Levels

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This tutorial demonstrates using a Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) to vary the blink rate of a LED based on the level of light striking the LDR.  This tutorial covers some basic concepts that can be used to develop home automation applications such as automatic light dimmers, automatic blinds or curtains and a automatic night-light.  Check out the tutorial for full details.

Gallery – Hobbyduino XBee Plug V1.0

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I’m pretty sure the majority of my projects will never be considered “Complete” as I’m always tinkering with the firmware to add or refine features.  However, I like to give my projects a finished look which means they will be inside of enclosures or integrated into other devices.  It would be nice if I could update the firmware without having to dissect the project to get at the controller.  To accomplish this, I created a XBee plug for my Hobbyduino Mini V3 Arduino clone.  Check out the gallery here and the tutorial here.

Tutorial – Wireless Arduino Programming

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This tutorial demonstrates uploading sketches to an Arduino over a wireless connection.  I designed a couple of XBee adapter boards for my Hobbyduino V3 (Arduino clone).  These adapters made it easy to properly configure each of the XBee Series 1 modems used in the tutorial.  Check out the tutorial for full details.

Links – Arduino Development for Visual Studio 2010 and 2008

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Visual Micro has developed a plugin for the Visual Studio 2010 and 2008 Development environment that allows full featured Arduino development with such features as intellisense. This plugin frees one from having to use the Arduino IDE to develop and upload sketches.   Visual Micro CodePlex,  Adafruit Post, Visual Micro, Visual Micro on Arduino.cc

Links – Using Dropbox to Centralize Arduino Sketches

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I was browsing my typical batch of favorite blogs and I came across a post that discussed how to use Dropbox to centralize sketches.  Now, this is a great idea in my opinion as it allows me to work on the same file from multiple computers, back up the file, and keep a track of the different versions just in case I screw something up.  Here is a screenshot of my setup and a link to the author’s site.

All you need to do is click on File -> Preferences in the Arduino IDE and browse to the location in your Dropbox folder that you want to use for your Arduino sketches.  You can get a free 2gig account from Dropbox which may be plenty for most.

Links – Programming an ATtiny with the Arduino IDE

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The MIT High-Low Tech Lab posted a tutorial on how to program an ATtiny45 or ATtiny85 micro-controller using the Arduino IDE.  This functionality is accomplished by using a subset of the Arduino libraries to add a set of core runtime source files to support the ATtiny45/85.  Matt Richardson of MAKE Magazine posted a video demonstrating how to use the Arduino IDE to program the ATtiny.

There is also an open source project called the “Arduino-Tiny” that enables Arduino users to work with the ATtiny84/44/24, ATtiny85/45/25, and ATtiny2313.

** Update ** This tutorial has been updated for the Arduino IDE V1.0 and includes some updated commands.  Check it out here.