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Serious question: what are people building with these boards? The recurring projects I've seen are controlling lights, doors/locks and monitoring water in plant

Serious question: what are people building with these boards? The recurring projects I've seen are controlling lights, doors/locks and monitoring water in plants. I don't find these particularly compelling, am I missing something? How is this the next big thing?

mr337 10y ago
From what I have seen a lot of ppl who wouldn't want to sit down and grok a datasheet [1]. The friction of getting started with one of these is soooo small, assuming the serial driver installs on Windows. Out of the box support on other systems. [1] - http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-42735-8-bit-AVR-Microcontroller-ATmega328-328P_datasheet.pdf http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-42735-8-bit-AVR-Microcontr...
StavrosK 10y ago
The compelling thing about them is that they're a gateway into hardware design. It's like asking "what serious apps have people made with Scratch?", it's rather missing the point. You start making a rotary mobile phone with Arduino and move on to make your own autonomous drone.
jonlucc 10y ago
It's not the next big thing, so much as the next big educational thing, in my opinion. It is a simple enough system to put electronic power in the hands of people who wouldn't otherwise have it. They learn some basics of coding, some basics of electricity, and get something tangible out of it.
laurent123456 10y ago
I don't think it's really a "big thing", it's mostly for hobbyist projects (since you need to know quite a bit about software development, Linux, etc.), and for that purpose it's quite good. It's cheap and you can easily connect leds, motors, etc. and control them via Python scripts. It's also frequently used to create home entertainment units for music, films or video games (emulators in particular), since there's an HDMI port that you can connect to your TV.
- utexaspunk 10y ago
  Arduinos do not have HDMI ports. You're thinking of a Raspberry Pi
Kadin 10y ago
It's not "the next big thing", as much as it's a lot of little things. There's always been a gap between software and the physical world; the Arduino lets people easily bridge that gap. Though the typical projects are trivial as you suggest, the effect of being able to easily construct such projects is significant. That said, I think there are other MCs aside from the Arduino that are more interesting today, because they have WiFi or Ethernet on-board, and you get into a much more interesting class of project when you add networking as a core feature rather than something that needs to be bolted on.
- FuNe 10y ago
  "other MCs aside from the Arduino that are more interesting today" Can you give a few links? Thanks in advance.
  - anton_gogolev 10y ago
    ESP8266[0] springs to mind: > The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi chip with full TCP/IP stack and microcontroller capability... [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266
    - kordless 10y ago
      I messed around with several versions of these and will say they are all sorts of a pain in the ass to get going. The Python stack I was using on them kept crashing when I would put it into power saver mode. Still, it's pretty cool you can buy one for like $2 and basically have a computer that runs Python with some minimal microcontroller functionality.
      - brokenmachine 10y ago
        I think the software support has improved a lot since I first checked them out about a year ago. I've only used the Arduino libraries, but I haven't had a problem yet. Funny that a 160MHz board with wifi built-in can be referred to as "minimal microcontroller functionality" nowadays.
nfriedly 10y ago
I used one to control a pair of candy machines for a Watson demo - there was a laptop with a microphone that did sentiment analysis on your speech, and then it told the Arduinos to give you either sweet or sour candy. The next version is probably going to have a Raspberry Pi replace both the laptop and the Arduinos, but they were a good starting point to get the project up and running.
- douche 10y ago
  RaspPis are startlingly cheap these days, and surprisingly capable. For less than a tank of gas, I just built a retro ROM console, and the new version 3 boards are beefy enough to run video through Kodi without missing a beat or play any old console games I've tried up through the PS1/N64 era.
  - soapdog 10y ago
    That is not true to all countries and regions. For example, in Brazil a raspberry pi 3 will cost a bit more than USD 100 which is a lot of money for many people and prevent it from being acquired by low and middle income classes which are arguably among the ones that would most benefit from access to this ecosystem. Arduino/Genuinos on the other hand are easily available on our version of eBay and can be purchased as low as USD 30 which is an order of magnitude difference between the prices, and yes, one is a real computer and the other a microcontroller but sometimes you get what you can afford. this schism between arduino people is completely ignored here and we'll buy the cheapest chinese knockoff if it is available.
    - nfriedly 10y ago
      Yikes! Is that because the main distributors (RS/Allied Electronics/Newark) charge more to ship it to Brazil, or do they just not ship there at all and make you purchase through more expensive re-sellers? (Or is it something else like tariffs?)
      - rescbr 10y ago
reidrac 10y ago
I'm not sure it is the "next big thing" as you say. The Arduino IDE and all the ecosystem of libraries and community could be the actual "big thing", because the Arduino is just a convenient development board; but you can get those from the chip manufacturers themselves (OK, may be now those are nicer because the Arduino boards). I think the IDE is making the hobbyists able to work with microcontrollers in a very easy way; compared with all the tooling and docs you have to read to build your own dev board and program the MCU yourself.
devnull42 10y ago
We use them all over my office because each team has their own metrics portal and we can just plug one into a big screen TV and have it run that portal. Cheaper than a full computer and just as effective.
- trevyn 10y ago
  That would be a Raspberry Pi, my friend.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
durkie 10y ago
we're building electronic noses with gas sensors to monitor fruit ripening and tell us when we should pick fruit trees. arduinos are cool because they make physical computing really easy. they're just a nice tool.
- detaro 10y ago
  Interesting, that does work reliably? Could you tell us more? (I've read about gas sensors in the past and it seemed like they are either extremely inaccurate or hideously expensive)
  - durkie 10y ago
    We're just now getting them up and running, so I don't exactly know yet. I'm pretty sure that we can do it though. There are some interesting data analysis techniques (PCA, neural nets) that can be used to get meaningful results out of less than perfect data. We're working with the guy that makes these: http://www.maskau.dk/projects/electronic-nose http://www.maskau.dk/projects/electronic-nose -- he's super thorough and has lots of interesting data.
dan1234 10y ago
I’ve built a few ESP8266[0] (so not Ardunio but same space) based sensors and have them distributed throughout a building so we can see how changes in one part affect the temperature and humidity in other parts. They’re very cheap to build (we only use the project boards to prototype, final builds are on PCBs) and they can be run on small batteries when they’re just doing simple data collection. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266
- seizethecheese 10y ago
  Any tips for going from a project board to a PCB?
  - dan1234 10y ago
    I used KiCad[0] PCB design software and followed a lot of Youtube tutorials. This[1] one was the best tutorial I found, it seems pretty trivial at first glance but touches on all the parts of the process. I use OSH Park for the actual PCB production[2], they're pretty cheap and good quality boards but be prepared for a bit of a wait. There's also a good price comparison site[3] for alternate suppliers. [0]http://kicad-pcb.org http://kicad-pcb.org [1]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy2022BX6Esr6yxwDzhqYZyuuenJE2s5B https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy2022BX6Esr6yxwDzhqY... [2]https://oshpark.com https://oshpark.com [3]http://pcbshopper.com http://pcbshopper.com
    - seizethecheese 10y ago
      Thanks!
    - brokenmachine 10y ago
      I started on KiCad but found the interface very unintuitive. I got stuck at the point of making my own footprints for custom devices, which I needed to do because the library doesn't seem to include all that much (or maybe I couldn't find devices I was using because I couldn't work out the UI for searching well enough. Might have another go at some stage.
manyxcxi 10y ago
Because they're much friendlier to get started for the novice, most of the widespread examples seem extremely trivial to someone with experience. Now- I'm DEFINITELY not an expert, probably barely mediocre with the EE fundamentals, but I did take a lot of EE and some robotics at Uni to get my degree in Computer Engineering. I am nothing more than a hobbyist but some of my cooler projects have been: - Autonomous 4WD robot - Quadcopter - A USB nerf gun that shoots at the developer who broke the Jenkins build - Used an electronic photo frame as a display to show happy birthday tweets and Facebook posts to my wife from all the friends and family on her birthday - WiFi/Proximity garage door opener (before they were cool) - Garage freezer monitor (after an accidental unplug that spoiled a season's worth of salmon and elk) - A vending machine that let you pay with your work badge from 'points' you earned (this involved a Raspbery Pi and a surface tablet as well, but the Arduino was what actually controlled the vending machine) I've done a ton of random home automation IoT gizmos, mostly just for the fun of it, and a lot of robot builds for the boys. But the reason I use a lot of Arduino is that they are pretty friendly to use, there's a lot of help when I'm stuck, and I often don't need more. When I do, sometimes I just add another Arduino (or 4) and use serial or SPI communications between them. I've got some PIC chips for stuff, and some other random chips laying around, but I get more done quickly with the Arduino. Now, if I ever got on to an idea I wanted to make more permanent I would look elsewhere, but for a hobby, everything else provides more friction and ramp up in the few hours a month I can free up to work on stuff. EDIT: I'll add I've gotten some ESP8266 chips/breakouts that I've gotten more used to and I may start using them in a lot of places I've previously used Arduino + WiFi because the WiFi breakouts use a LOT of the available I/O and are usually the most expensive part of a build. I think I have 2 or 3 that I reuse.
- timlyo 10y ago
  >A USB nerf gun that shoots at the developer who broke the Jenkins build Anywhere I can read any more about this?
  - trampi 10y ago
    I think it was on HN some time ago: https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation
maccard 10y ago
I worked on some robotics research not too long ago. We used an arduino for interacting with motors, sensors etc. We ran some semi-interesting filtering on the data before passing it back to a more powerful processor that ran a python program that did the decision making and provided interactivity from the user. The main reason we used the arduino was compared to all the alternatives (other similar hacker boards, and FPGAS say) it gave us a flexible toolkit, easy deployments to a board, and a very simple way of interacting directly with sensors throuhg a fairly convenient API.
bholzer 10y ago
Last Christmas, a friend of mine did an musical project that he wanted to spice up with a light show. Another friend and I created a lighting controller that did realtime signal processing and MIDI-controlled lighting, which relied heavily on Arduino.
zenogais 10y ago
I worked on a government defense contract a few years back that used an Arduino to raise a 100-ft tower on a mobile command station.
wangchow 10y ago
How about a satellite built with Arduino: https://www.diyspaceexploration.com/ardusat-your-personal-satellite/ https://www.diyspaceexploration.com/ardusat-your-personal-sa...
HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
Most of the interesting projects will never be posted online. You are seeing mostly beginners excited to get into hardware and posting what they do. Arduino is "the next big thing" mainly because of the community that's sprung up around it: tons of libraries (of varying quality...), lots of cheap hardware and online resources make it easy to get started and continue past the beginner stage. Previous attempts (BASIC Stamp, etc) never made it to remotely this level of popularity. e.g., I'm an experienced electrical/firmware engineer and I do Arduino prototype consulting on the side. One of my recent projects was a downhole scanner for measuring well diameter. I also have a set of ongoing automation projects that are specific to a particular customer in the entertainment industry. Arduino turns out to be perfect for this kind of work. This is the CRUD work of the Arduino world: basic automation that's not exciting or even difficult, but fills a real need.
TheCapn 10y ago
Personal uses of Pi/Arduino: - Garage opener/security (door sensing / camera & push notificaitons to cellphone) (Pi) - 2-axis solar tracker with manual control & wind speed sensing (Arduino) - Home VPN Server (Pi) - Sump water level monitor (Pi) - Industrial temperature cable sensing and reporting device for reading from ~140 cables (http://www.advancedgrainmanagement.com/products/temperature-cables/ http://www.advancedgrainmanagement.com/products/temperature-...) (Pi) So as others have said, if you have the ability to do it you're limited by what you can imagine. If you treat the output in the same way you would any industrial automation you're virtually only limited by what you can imagine you want to do with the device. I've set up a Pi as a home media server (though that's extremely common). I've got a friend using Pi for underground sprinkler control.
pjc50 10y ago
Arduino (the platform) has been to amateur electronics what BASIC was to home computing in the '80s. It's the platform with a user community and a huge number of example projects, that lets people learn easily with early results and a minimum of time and cost investment. The toy projects are a journey, not a destination. Compare them to all those people typing in listings for Breakout games in the '80s computer magazines. It's also a means of doing "IoT" home automation and monitoring without getting locked into someone else's surveillance ecosystem. I have a Raspberry Pi reading my electricity meter, for example.
- voidz 10y ago
  How does it read your electricity meter?
  - pjc50 10y ago
    I implemented this project: https://github.com/pjc50/emon-server https://github.com/pjc50/emon-server The meter has a (standardised) red LED that flashes once for each watt-hour. The Pi has a phototransistor that turns flashes into a GPIO transition interrupt. I've put it on my solar panel generation meter, and plan to build another (slightly improved) unit to monitor the mains input meter.
    - exhilaration 10y ago
      Very nice, I've got a modern electric meter but had no idea this was possible.
dejv 10y ago
I built lab grade NIR spectrometer around Arduino. At least first two prototypes of it, then graduated to Teensy (32bits compatible board) and will use custom board for production. The thing is: most of electronic projects needs some way to control things and it is great to take shortcuts. In my case all analog section was custom made to the point of 16bit ADC and used Arduino/Teensy as a way to react to clicks on button, transfer data to computer and stuff like that.
jldugger 10y ago
You mean you're not using Arduino to grow weed with indoor hydroponics?
Washuu 10y ago
I am working on a write up on a project for CAN bus messages to CCD bus messages for old Chrysler vehicles. A mixture of reverse engineering and vehicle bus interfacing. Note: I am using a Teensy instead of an Arduino, but using the Teensyduino Arduino IDE plugin. https://github.com/Alexia/CAN-CCD_bus https://github.com/Alexia/CAN-CCD_bus
PeanutNore 10y ago
I wired my own custom board for it rather than using a commercial Arduino type board, but I built a guitar effects pedal that runs Arduino code to process a guitar signal using the built in ADC and a pretty basic passive DAC. It works great for effects like bitcrushing, distortion, compression, and I'm trying to get high and low pass filters working on it but haven't made any progress lately. Schematic and code: https://github.com/PeanutNore/guitarduino https://github.com/PeanutNore/guitarduino
- squeaky-clean 10y ago
  This is really cool, I'm doing something similar! I'm making synthesizers with the Uno and Due; I haven't tried doing anything with audio input yet, but want to play with that as well. How is the sound quality of it? I did the 8-bit resistor ladder DAC from the instructable linked, but quickly broke the layout when I tried to bring it to a friend's house and haven't tried putting the breadboard back together. I really should go back to that, I liked how crappy it sounded. I also tried making a 1-bit DAC out of it, which worked better than I expected (though it still wasn't good, I just didn't expect anything haha). Now I'm using the Due and Teensy (Cortex M3 / M4) because of the hardware DAC and 32 bit processor. I haven't gotten filters working yet either, they are my next goal. IIR first, and then FIR if the Due can handle it. But I have gotten a cool resonant filter simulation by using a hard-sync as described here [0]. You get some neat variations by changing the waveshapes used and the windowing function. I might not even have subtractive filters in my final design, just because of how cool it sounds to approach it differently, but I still want to understand how to implement them. Nothing on Github to share at the moment, unfortunately. I'm too embarassed by the state of the code, lol. But I will be checking out your project this weekend, so thanks for sharing! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_distortion_synthesis#Simulating_a_resonant_filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_distortion_synthesis#Sim...
  - PeanutNore 10y ago
    Thanks! The sound quality of it depends mostly on the sample rate it is able to achieve, which is somewhere around 9.6khz if all it's doing is reading a sample and then outputting it to the DAC. At 6bit 9.6khz a guitar sounds surprisingly clean through it, aliasing is only really noticable at the highest frets of the high strings. At lower bit depths and sample rates it gets really interesting. Getting the best sound quality out of it also depends on finding the sweet spot on the input gain to get the best dynamic range from the DAC without clipping, although I designed the preamp to sound pleasant when overdriven, mostly using JFETs.
squeaky-clean 10y ago
I don't think it's "the next big thing." Not everything needs to be. I'm making a synthesizer with the Arduino Due (and Teensy which is compatible). It's a fun playground for things I would never normally get to do in C++ and asm. I've never gotten to code on a platform with true realtime and no OS restrictions before. Also the barrier to entry is so low, it makes it so much fun. WIthin less than 15 minutes of receiving my Amazon package I had my my first blinking LED working.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  For me that would be the fun of it, to go back to the days where the language runtime was the OS and we literally own the machine.
the_af 10y ago
Apparently the Arduino is part of some DIY 3D printers. I'd say that is a big deal!
rawfan 10y ago
Depending on what your trade is, you often need prototypes of things that do stuff. Before Arduino is usually cost thousands of dollars to make these (only counting the hardware cost). Arduino drove that price down to a fraction. It's easy to develop pretty much everything in very little time. Here are couple rather uncommon examples: - a greeting card with an integrated mobile baseband that calls a certain number once opened ("hey grandma!") - a tea-timer that automatically pulls out the teabag after a set amount of time - a UV-dosimeter that measures the actual amount of UV exposure and connects to your smartphone to track the data and warn of potential damage (with respect to your skin-type). - the DIY-cellphone by David Mellis modified to display reading from arbitrary sensors Your imagination is the limit. ;)
knicholes 10y ago
I used an arduino to receive weights of coins from a scale and then trigger flippers to remove coins into various buckets depending on their classifications.
andyidsinga 10y ago
I've had similar questions from some of my hard core embedded colleagues, here's my answer: Just think of something you might do with a traditional embedded systems approach, then google "arduino for ________" or "arduino shield for _______" and see what you'll find. Its can be pretty amazing. Its much broader that the surface stuff of LEDs and basic sensor / actuator tasks. As someone who's done production embedded systems work, what I build from arduino (and the fairly large arduino ecosystem) is not for high volume product, its for proof of concept, small run pilots and show and tell (and fun). Off topic a little: One thing I've done to convince colleagues of the a plausible story of arduino POC to Production is collect a bunch of arduino gear (simply through web search and amazon) and build a paper-product with all the cobbled together parts. Then pose the question "if these cobbled together things cost _______ in single quantities, is there a plausible story for them to be 10x (or 100x) less on a cost optimized board with a proper contract mfg"? If the answer is yes, then you cobble together your arduino thing and go show and tell with customers.
ArkyBeagle 10y ago
These boards are just low cost "evaluation" bards for whatever chip is on them. If we include larger chips ( say an ARM Cortex A8 on the Beaglebone Black ) , they're great for test fixtures and prototyping systems.
samtho 10y ago
Arduino is a platform (the boards, the IDE, the language, debugging tools, etc) that allows any sort of user new to programming and/or hardware to get started very quickly. It is a great gateway into raw microcontrollers, as it is based on the Atmel/Microchip ATMega line of chips, which are also fairly easy to program. Most people can easily transition into that and build "production-ready" things. Also, many 3D printers, laser cutting tools, and CNC routing tools use Arduino as their microcontroller of choice. It represents a huge community and is one of the most basic of tools in any new or seasoned maker's toolbelt.
cptskippy 10y ago
The big thing about Arduino is that it makes embedded electronics more accessible to people. Arduino is a C Framework for interacting with hardware that is portable across microprocessors. Arduino also offers an IDE that's modular and allows vendors to package up their Workflows for programming their Microprocessors and easily integrate it. What this means is that a naive user can pickup any Arduino compatible board, configure the IDE to be able to program that board via a single URI from the vendor, write some code in C using the Arduino framework, and push it to the board with the click of a button. So if you have had an idea for a piece of hardware, Arduino makes it ridiculously easy to prototype it. And since it's based on standard microprocessors, if the overhead of Arduino is too much then you can replace it with the microprocessor OEM's workflow and port your code over. It's a very accessible RAD environment.
merpnderp 10y ago
When they first came out I used one to build a UAV on top of a 6' electric glider. The Arduino simply controlled the PWM's for the rudder, elevator and motor and then fed sensor data over a zigbee. My laptop, connected through a zigbee, actually flew the plane. I had hacked together my own INS from accelerometers and magnetometers, plus a joystick to override. Was fun until it crashed into a pond after a stupid code update that had the IR sensors invert the sky and ground.
Florin_Andrei 10y ago
Well, I built these things: 1. A mechanical/environmental monitor/display for a grinding/polishing machine for telescope mirrors. It measures the rotation speed of two key machine parts; also measures ambiental temperature and humidity. It displays all these parameters on a front panel. http://florin.myip.org/blog/making-tachometer-grinding-polishing-machine-telescope-mirrors http://florin.myip.org/blog/making-tachometer-grinding-polis... 2. Lights control for an aquarium Regular fish tank, LED lights with timer. The lights would turn on or off suddenly, scaring the fish. :) I used pulse-width modulation and a MOS-FET to gradually fade the lights in and out over 1 hour. 3. PC clock I've setup time limits on PC usage for my kids. But before Windows 10 the login screen on Windows 7 didn't have the time displayed, so they didn't know when their accounts would actually let them log in. I've found a big LED display that fits almost exactly in a CD-ROM bay, and built a clock with it. It's synced to the PC every time the OS boots up.
Symmetry 10y ago
As a small robotics startup we use Arduinos to control our grippers just because it was easy for the founders to get started and because adding new features is fairly fast. We've actually moved to a board that pretends to be a mega2560 but is entirely custom but we're still sticking with the Arduino libraries. Some day we might move to a standard uC approach but that'll be when we have many more employees.
vonklaus 10y ago
Anecdotally, I have been using the pi and arduino to learn. They have the basics for small projects and easy interfaces for getting started. The communities are large and it makes it very easy to find beginner and intermediate projects. I like them both and recommend them. They may not Be the perfect base for a robust IoT project but one can do a lot of interesting things and learn a lot doing beginner and intermediate level projects
dvt 10y ago
I built http://gameref.io http://gameref.io with an Arduino board. Not sure about the "next big thing," but it raised a few eyebrows.
ourcat 10y ago
Many get them to learn to program and get acquainted with a Linux command line. Especially kids at school. Personally, I've been learning how to utilise my software skills to controlling hardware. Lots of fun. Also opens up a new horizon of ideas.
misnome 10y ago
It's neat to have a nice, easily controllable small board, but yeah - I went to a Maker Fair last year and one stand was showing off an "Arduino-powered doorbell". It's possible to take it too far.
platz 10y ago
Would you have a similar reaction to non-techincal folks learning a bit of web dev in order to set up another 'cookie-cutter' blog for themselves?
nameless912 10y ago
Well, the easy answer is the arduino is "easier" to get into than most other embedded development boards. These days, though, that's becoming less and less true. You can pick up an ESP8266-based board complete with USB-serial built in and motherfucking Wi-Fi for 15 bucks from Adafruit, and it's identical to an Arduino code-wise (i.e. you can use nearly all the nice fuzzy constructs that the Arduino version of Processing provides), plus motherfucking Wi-Fi. I've been prototyping something with one the last couple of weeks, and it's great. Compared to, for example, my senior design project in college, which predominantly involved writing shitty C code for ATMega-series microcontrollers, it's a breeze. I get C++, a huge standard library, consistent types, a Java-esque wrapper around std::string, and all the register ops to toggle or read pins and enable/disable features are completely abstracted away. It's like comparing writing an app server in Node.JS to writing it using Java EE. Obviously, equally possible in both languages, but one just feels so much nicer than the other.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  Yeah, it's crazy now. In my opinion, the Wemos D1 Mini seems like the best ESP8266 board at the moment. Fits on a breadboard nicely, lots of GPIO, obviously wifi, all nicely set up with a reset button and auto programming mode on a built-in usb serial. And the best part, I just bought one for AU$3.34 (US$2.57) on Aliexpress!!
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    Oh yeah, the D1 Mini also has a very low quiescent current (25uA) RT9013 regulator, so it should be much better for use on battery power than the nodemcu with the LM1117 which uses 5mA! That's 200x less current wasted! Also the dropout voltage is only 250mV compared to about 1V for the LM1117. You couldn't use a LiPoly battery to power it with an LM1117 because of the high dropout voltage.
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 10y ago
My practical-ish project: an advanced egg-timer. I looked for some time trying to find a good egg timer, but there are really just two options, and neither are that great. You can have a nice, intuitive analog interface (the classic dial timer), but you lack precision and many are very poorly constructed and unreliable (seriously, look at Amazon reviews for this type). There's also no way to fine-tune the alarm; some are horrendous, while other are inaudible. The digital ones solve some of this issue, but have terrible UI requiring many button clicks. I used a digispark ($1 for ebay clones), two rotary switches set up as voltage dividers, an arcade button, and an addressable LED strip to make a better timer. You input minutes with one knob, and seconds with the other. This has wonderful tactile feedback, is completely precise, and entirely intuitive. The LED strip counts up (and shifts red to green) as the timer passes, does a rainbow swipe/strobe for a few seconds to alert, and then 'cools down' so you can get a sense of how badly you overshot. There's also a buzzer. It's good for the kitchen, but I actually find it best as a rest-period timer for weightlifting. The visual display is great for loud gyms. It's 100% a better timer than anything else on the market, and I absolutely love it.
- icefox 10y ago
  Could you build one that had a tilt sensor and would start counting up whenever it when off? If so I would buy it.
anotherevan 10y ago
Last week I used a Leostick[1] and an SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor[2] to create a presence detector for my computer. Now, if music is playing whenever I get up and walk away from my computer, it pauses the media player, and when I come back it starts playing again automatically. [1] http://www.freetronics.com.au/products/leostick http://www.freetronics.com.au/products/leostick [2] http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Arduino-and-HC-SR04-Example/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Arduino-and-HC-SR04-E...
kbob 10y ago
Arduino is not the next big thing; it's arguably a few years past its peak. But the thing is, it's really really fast to prototype stuff. Last week I needed to convert an analog voltage to a pulse width -- I had a potentiometer and I wanted to control an ESC. It took me less than 10 minutes to breadboard and code that on an Arduino clone (Teensy). The week before, I needed a frequency counter. Again, it took less than 10 minutes. I've done more elaborate projects, but the point is that the overhead to get started is tiny.

mr337 10y ago

From what I have seen a lot of ppl who wouldn't want to sit down and grok a datasheet [1]. The friction of getting started with one of these is soooo small, assuming the serial driver installs on Windows. Out of the box support on other systems. [1] - http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-42735-8-bit-AVR-Microcontroller-ATmega328-328P_datasheet.pdf http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-42735-8-bit-AVR-Microcontr...

StavrosK 10y ago

The compelling thing about them is that they're a gateway into hardware design. It's like asking "what serious apps have people made with Scratch?", it's rather missing the point. You start making a rotary mobile phone with Arduino and move on to make your own autonomous drone.

jonlucc 10y ago

It's not the next big thing, so much as the next big educational thing, in my opinion. It is a simple enough system to put electronic power in the hands of people who wouldn't otherwise have it. They learn some basics of coding, some basics of electricity, and get something tangible out of it.

laurent123456 10y ago

I don't think it's really a "big thing", it's mostly for hobbyist projects (since you need to know quite a bit about software development, Linux, etc.), and for that purpose it's quite good. It's cheap and you can easily connect leds, motors, etc. and control them via Python scripts. It's also frequently used to create home entertainment units for music, films or video games (emulators in particular), since there's an HDMI port that you can connect to your TV.

utexaspunk 10y ago
Arduinos do not have HDMI ports. You're thinking of a Raspberry Pi

Kadin 10y ago

It's not "the next big thing", as much as it's a lot of little things. There's always been a gap between software and the physical world; the Arduino lets people easily bridge that gap. Though the typical projects are trivial as you suggest, the effect of being able to easily construct such projects is significant. That said, I think there are other MCs aside from the Arduino that are more interesting today, because they have WiFi or Ethernet on-board, and you get into a much more interesting class of project when you add networking as a core feature rather than something that needs to be bolted on.

FuNe 10y ago
"other MCs aside from the Arduino that are more interesting today" Can you give a few links? Thanks in advance.
- anton_gogolev 10y ago
  ESP8266[0] springs to mind: > The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi chip with full TCP/IP stack and microcontroller capability... [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266
  - kordless 10y ago
    I messed around with several versions of these and will say they are all sorts of a pain in the ass to get going. The Python stack I was using on them kept crashing when I would put it into power saver mode. Still, it's pretty cool you can buy one for like $2 and basically have a computer that runs Python with some minimal microcontroller functionality.
    - brokenmachine 10y ago
      I think the software support has improved a lot since I first checked them out about a year ago. I've only used the Arduino libraries, but I haven't had a problem yet. Funny that a 160MHz board with wifi built-in can be referred to as "minimal microcontroller functionality" nowadays.

nfriedly 10y ago

I used one to control a pair of candy machines for a Watson demo - there was a laptop with a microphone that did sentiment analysis on your speech, and then it told the Arduinos to give you either sweet or sour candy. The next version is probably going to have a Raspberry Pi replace both the laptop and the Arduinos, but they were a good starting point to get the project up and running.

douche 10y ago
RaspPis are startlingly cheap these days, and surprisingly capable. For less than a tank of gas, I just built a retro ROM console, and the new version 3 boards are beefy enough to run video through Kodi without missing a beat or play any old console games I've tried up through the PS1/N64 era.
- soapdog 10y ago
  That is not true to all countries and regions. For example, in Brazil a raspberry pi 3 will cost a bit more than USD 100 which is a lot of money for many people and prevent it from being acquired by low and middle income classes which are arguably among the ones that would most benefit from access to this ecosystem. Arduino/Genuinos on the other hand are easily available on our version of eBay and can be purchased as low as USD 30 which is an order of magnitude difference between the prices, and yes, one is a real computer and the other a microcontroller but sometimes you get what you can afford. this schism between arduino people is completely ignored here and we'll buy the cheapest chinese knockoff if it is available.
  - nfriedly 10y ago
    Yikes! Is that because the main distributors (RS/Allied Electronics/Newark) charge more to ship it to Brazil, or do they just not ship there at all and make you purchase through more expensive re-sellers? (Or is it something else like tariffs?)
    - rescbr 10y ago

reidrac 10y ago

I'm not sure it is the "next big thing" as you say. The Arduino IDE and all the ecosystem of libraries and community could be the actual "big thing", because the Arduino is just a convenient development board; but you can get those from the chip manufacturers themselves (OK, may be now those are nicer because the Arduino boards). I think the IDE is making the hobbyists able to work with microcontrollers in a very easy way; compared with all the tooling and docs you have to read to build your own dev board and program the MCU yourself.

devnull42 10y ago

We use them all over my office because each team has their own metrics portal and we can just plug one into a big screen TV and have it run that portal. Cheaper than a full computer and just as effective.

trevyn 10y ago
That would be a Raspberry Pi, my friend.
deleted 10y ago
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durkie 10y ago

we're building electronic noses with gas sensors to monitor fruit ripening and tell us when we should pick fruit trees. arduinos are cool because they make physical computing really easy. they're just a nice tool.

detaro 10y ago
Interesting, that does work reliably? Could you tell us more? (I've read about gas sensors in the past and it seemed like they are either extremely inaccurate or hideously expensive)
- durkie 10y ago
  We're just now getting them up and running, so I don't exactly know yet. I'm pretty sure that we can do it though. There are some interesting data analysis techniques (PCA, neural nets) that can be used to get meaningful results out of less than perfect data. We're working with the guy that makes these: http://www.maskau.dk/projects/electronic-nose http://www.maskau.dk/projects/electronic-nose -- he's super thorough and has lots of interesting data.

dan1234 10y ago

I’ve built a few ESP8266[0] (so not Ardunio but same space) based sensors and have them distributed throughout a building so we can see how changes in one part affect the temperature and humidity in other parts. They’re very cheap to build (we only use the project boards to prototype, final builds are on PCBs) and they can be run on small batteries when they’re just doing simple data collection. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266

seizethecheese 10y ago
Any tips for going from a project board to a PCB?
- dan1234 10y ago
  I used KiCad[0] PCB design software and followed a lot of Youtube tutorials. This[1] one was the best tutorial I found, it seems pretty trivial at first glance but touches on all the parts of the process. I use OSH Park for the actual PCB production[2], they're pretty cheap and good quality boards but be prepared for a bit of a wait. There's also a good price comparison site[3] for alternate suppliers. [0]http://kicad-pcb.org http://kicad-pcb.org [1]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy2022BX6Esr6yxwDzhqYZyuuenJE2s5B https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy2022BX6Esr6yxwDzhqY... [2]https://oshpark.com https://oshpark.com [3]http://pcbshopper.com http://pcbshopper.com
  - seizethecheese 10y ago
    Thanks!
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    I started on KiCad but found the interface very unintuitive. I got stuck at the point of making my own footprints for custom devices, which I needed to do because the library doesn't seem to include all that much (or maybe I couldn't find devices I was using because I couldn't work out the UI for searching well enough. Might have another go at some stage.

manyxcxi 10y ago

Because they're much friendlier to get started for the novice, most of the widespread examples seem extremely trivial to someone with experience. Now- I'm DEFINITELY not an expert, probably barely mediocre with the EE fundamentals, but I did take a lot of EE and some robotics at Uni to get my degree in Computer Engineering. I am nothing more than a hobbyist but some of my cooler projects have been: - Autonomous 4WD robot - Quadcopter - A USB nerf gun that shoots at the developer who broke the Jenkins build - Used an electronic photo frame as a display to show happy birthday tweets and Facebook posts to my wife from all the friends and family on her birthday - WiFi/Proximity garage door opener (before they were cool) - Garage freezer monitor (after an accidental unplug that spoiled a season's worth of salmon and elk) - A vending machine that let you pay with your work badge from 'points' you earned (this involved a Raspbery Pi and a surface tablet as well, but the Arduino was what actually controlled the vending machine) I've done a ton of random home automation IoT gizmos, mostly just for the fun of it, and a lot of robot builds for the boys. But the reason I use a lot of Arduino is that they are pretty friendly to use, there's a lot of help when I'm stuck, and I often don't need more. When I do, sometimes I just add another Arduino (or 4) and use serial or SPI communications between them. I've got some PIC chips for stuff, and some other random chips laying around, but I get more done quickly with the Arduino. Now, if I ever got on to an idea I wanted to make more permanent I would look elsewhere, but for a hobby, everything else provides more friction and ramp up in the few hours a month I can free up to work on stuff. EDIT: I'll add I've gotten some ESP8266 chips/breakouts that I've gotten more used to and I may start using them in a lot of places I've previously used Arduino + WiFi because the WiFi breakouts use a LOT of the available I/O and are usually the most expensive part of a build. I think I have 2 or 3 that I reuse.

timlyo 10y ago
>A USB nerf gun that shoots at the developer who broke the Jenkins build Anywhere I can read any more about this?
- trampi 10y ago
  I think it was on HN some time ago: https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation

maccard 10y ago

I worked on some robotics research not too long ago. We used an arduino for interacting with motors, sensors etc. We ran some semi-interesting filtering on the data before passing it back to a more powerful processor that ran a python program that did the decision making and provided interactivity from the user. The main reason we used the arduino was compared to all the alternatives (other similar hacker boards, and FPGAS say) it gave us a flexible toolkit, easy deployments to a board, and a very simple way of interacting directly with sensors throuhg a fairly convenient API.

bholzer 10y ago

Last Christmas, a friend of mine did an musical project that he wanted to spice up with a light show. Another friend and I created a lighting controller that did realtime signal processing and MIDI-controlled lighting, which relied heavily on Arduino.

zenogais 10y ago

I worked on a government defense contract a few years back that used an Arduino to raise a 100-ft tower on a mobile command station.

wangchow 10y ago

How about a satellite built with Arduino: https://www.diyspaceexploration.com/ardusat-your-personal-satellite/ https://www.diyspaceexploration.com/ardusat-your-personal-sa...

HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago

Most of the interesting projects will never be posted online. You are seeing mostly beginners excited to get into hardware and posting what they do. Arduino is "the next big thing" mainly because of the community that's sprung up around it: tons of libraries (of varying quality...), lots of cheap hardware and online resources make it easy to get started and continue past the beginner stage. Previous attempts (BASIC Stamp, etc) never made it to remotely this level of popularity. e.g., I'm an experienced electrical/firmware engineer and I do Arduino prototype consulting on the side. One of my recent projects was a downhole scanner for measuring well diameter. I also have a set of ongoing automation projects that are specific to a particular customer in the entertainment industry. Arduino turns out to be perfect for this kind of work. This is the CRUD work of the Arduino world: basic automation that's not exciting or even difficult, but fills a real need.

TheCapn 10y ago

Personal uses of Pi/Arduino: - Garage opener/security (door sensing / camera & push notificaitons to cellphone) (Pi) - 2-axis solar tracker with manual control & wind speed sensing (Arduino) - Home VPN Server (Pi) - Sump water level monitor (Pi) - Industrial temperature cable sensing and reporting device for reading from ~140 cables (http://www.advancedgrainmanagement.com/products/temperature-cables/ http://www.advancedgrainmanagement.com/products/temperature-...) (Pi) So as others have said, if you have the ability to do it you're limited by what you can imagine. If you treat the output in the same way you would any industrial automation you're virtually only limited by what you can imagine you want to do with the device. I've set up a Pi as a home media server (though that's extremely common). I've got a friend using Pi for underground sprinkler control.

pjc50 10y ago

Arduino (the platform) has been to amateur electronics what BASIC was to home computing in the '80s. It's the platform with a user community and a huge number of example projects, that lets people learn easily with early results and a minimum of time and cost investment. The toy projects are a journey, not a destination. Compare them to all those people typing in listings for Breakout games in the '80s computer magazines. It's also a means of doing "IoT" home automation and monitoring without getting locked into someone else's surveillance ecosystem. I have a Raspberry Pi reading my electricity meter, for example.

voidz 10y ago
How does it read your electricity meter?
- pjc50 10y ago
  I implemented this project: https://github.com/pjc50/emon-server https://github.com/pjc50/emon-server The meter has a (standardised) red LED that flashes once for each watt-hour. The Pi has a phototransistor that turns flashes into a GPIO transition interrupt. I've put it on my solar panel generation meter, and plan to build another (slightly improved) unit to monitor the mains input meter.
  - exhilaration 10y ago
    Very nice, I've got a modern electric meter but had no idea this was possible.

dejv 10y ago

I built lab grade NIR spectrometer around Arduino. At least first two prototypes of it, then graduated to Teensy (32bits compatible board) and will use custom board for production. The thing is: most of electronic projects needs some way to control things and it is great to take shortcuts. In my case all analog section was custom made to the point of 16bit ADC and used Arduino/Teensy as a way to react to clicks on button, transfer data to computer and stuff like that.

jldugger 10y ago

You mean you're not using Arduino to grow weed with indoor hydroponics?

Washuu 10y ago

I am working on a write up on a project for CAN bus messages to CCD bus messages for old Chrysler vehicles. A mixture of reverse engineering and vehicle bus interfacing. Note: I am using a Teensy instead of an Arduino, but using the Teensyduino Arduino IDE plugin. https://github.com/Alexia/CAN-CCD_bus https://github.com/Alexia/CAN-CCD_bus

PeanutNore 10y ago

I wired my own custom board for it rather than using a commercial Arduino type board, but I built a guitar effects pedal that runs Arduino code to process a guitar signal using the built in ADC and a pretty basic passive DAC. It works great for effects like bitcrushing, distortion, compression, and I'm trying to get high and low pass filters working on it but haven't made any progress lately. Schematic and code: https://github.com/PeanutNore/guitarduino https://github.com/PeanutNore/guitarduino

squeaky-clean 10y ago
This is really cool, I'm doing something similar! I'm making synthesizers with the Uno and Due; I haven't tried doing anything with audio input yet, but want to play with that as well. How is the sound quality of it? I did the 8-bit resistor ladder DAC from the instructable linked, but quickly broke the layout when I tried to bring it to a friend's house and haven't tried putting the breadboard back together. I really should go back to that, I liked how crappy it sounded. I also tried making a 1-bit DAC out of it, which worked better than I expected (though it still wasn't good, I just didn't expect anything haha). Now I'm using the Due and Teensy (Cortex M3 / M4) because of the hardware DAC and 32 bit processor. I haven't gotten filters working yet either, they are my next goal. IIR first, and then FIR if the Due can handle it. But I have gotten a cool resonant filter simulation by using a hard-sync as described here [0]. You get some neat variations by changing the waveshapes used and the windowing function. I might not even have subtractive filters in my final design, just because of how cool it sounds to approach it differently, but I still want to understand how to implement them. Nothing on Github to share at the moment, unfortunately. I'm too embarassed by the state of the code, lol. But I will be checking out your project this weekend, so thanks for sharing! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_distortion_synthesis#Simulating_a_resonant_filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_distortion_synthesis#Sim...
- PeanutNore 10y ago
  Thanks! The sound quality of it depends mostly on the sample rate it is able to achieve, which is somewhere around 9.6khz if all it's doing is reading a sample and then outputting it to the DAC. At 6bit 9.6khz a guitar sounds surprisingly clean through it, aliasing is only really noticable at the highest frets of the high strings. At lower bit depths and sample rates it gets really interesting. Getting the best sound quality out of it also depends on finding the sweet spot on the input gain to get the best dynamic range from the DAC without clipping, although I designed the preamp to sound pleasant when overdriven, mostly using JFETs.

squeaky-clean 10y ago

I don't think it's "the next big thing." Not everything needs to be. I'm making a synthesizer with the Arduino Due (and Teensy which is compatible). It's a fun playground for things I would never normally get to do in C++ and asm. I've never gotten to code on a platform with true realtime and no OS restrictions before. Also the barrier to entry is so low, it makes it so much fun. WIthin less than 15 minutes of receiving my Amazon package I had my my first blinking LED working.

pjmlp 10y ago
For me that would be the fun of it, to go back to the days where the language runtime was the OS and we literally own the machine.

the_af 10y ago

Apparently the Arduino is part of some DIY 3D printers. I'd say that is a big deal!

rawfan 10y ago

Depending on what your trade is, you often need prototypes of things that do stuff. Before Arduino is usually cost thousands of dollars to make these (only counting the hardware cost). Arduino drove that price down to a fraction. It's easy to develop pretty much everything in very little time. Here are couple rather uncommon examples: - a greeting card with an integrated mobile baseband that calls a certain number once opened ("hey grandma!") - a tea-timer that automatically pulls out the teabag after a set amount of time - a UV-dosimeter that measures the actual amount of UV exposure and connects to your smartphone to track the data and warn of potential damage (with respect to your skin-type). - the DIY-cellphone by David Mellis modified to display reading from arbitrary sensors Your imagination is the limit. ;)

knicholes 10y ago

I used an arduino to receive weights of coins from a scale and then trigger flippers to remove coins into various buckets depending on their classifications.

andyidsinga 10y ago

I've had similar questions from some of my hard core embedded colleagues, here's my answer: Just think of something you might do with a traditional embedded systems approach, then google "arduino for ________" or "arduino shield for _______" and see what you'll find. Its can be pretty amazing. Its much broader that the surface stuff of LEDs and basic sensor / actuator tasks. As someone who's done production embedded systems work, what I build from arduino (and the fairly large arduino ecosystem) is not for high volume product, its for proof of concept, small run pilots and show and tell (and fun). Off topic a little: One thing I've done to convince colleagues of the a plausible story of arduino POC to Production is collect a bunch of arduino gear (simply through web search and amazon) and build a paper-product with all the cobbled together parts. Then pose the question "if these cobbled together things cost _______ in single quantities, is there a plausible story for them to be 10x (or 100x) less on a cost optimized board with a proper contract mfg"? If the answer is yes, then you cobble together your arduino thing and go show and tell with customers.

ArkyBeagle 10y ago

These boards are just low cost "evaluation" bards for whatever chip is on them. If we include larger chips ( say an ARM Cortex A8 on the Beaglebone Black ) , they're great for test fixtures and prototyping systems.

samtho 10y ago

Arduino is a platform (the boards, the IDE, the language, debugging tools, etc) that allows any sort of user new to programming and/or hardware to get started very quickly. It is a great gateway into raw microcontrollers, as it is based on the Atmel/Microchip ATMega line of chips, which are also fairly easy to program. Most people can easily transition into that and build "production-ready" things. Also, many 3D printers, laser cutting tools, and CNC routing tools use Arduino as their microcontroller of choice. It represents a huge community and is one of the most basic of tools in any new or seasoned maker's toolbelt.

cptskippy 10y ago

The big thing about Arduino is that it makes embedded electronics more accessible to people. Arduino is a C Framework for interacting with hardware that is portable across microprocessors. Arduino also offers an IDE that's modular and allows vendors to package up their Workflows for programming their Microprocessors and easily integrate it. What this means is that a naive user can pickup any Arduino compatible board, configure the IDE to be able to program that board via a single URI from the vendor, write some code in C using the Arduino framework, and push it to the board with the click of a button. So if you have had an idea for a piece of hardware, Arduino makes it ridiculously easy to prototype it. And since it's based on standard microprocessors, if the overhead of Arduino is too much then you can replace it with the microprocessor OEM's workflow and port your code over. It's a very accessible RAD environment.

merpnderp 10y ago

When they first came out I used one to build a UAV on top of a 6' electric glider. The Arduino simply controlled the PWM's for the rudder, elevator and motor and then fed sensor data over a zigbee. My laptop, connected through a zigbee, actually flew the plane. I had hacked together my own INS from accelerometers and magnetometers, plus a joystick to override. Was fun until it crashed into a pond after a stupid code update that had the IR sensors invert the sky and ground.

Florin_Andrei 10y ago

Well, I built these things: 1. A mechanical/environmental monitor/display for a grinding/polishing machine for telescope mirrors. It measures the rotation speed of two key machine parts; also measures ambiental temperature and humidity. It displays all these parameters on a front panel. http://florin.myip.org/blog/making-tachometer-grinding-polishing-machine-telescope-mirrors http://florin.myip.org/blog/making-tachometer-grinding-polis... 2. Lights control for an aquarium Regular fish tank, LED lights with timer. The lights would turn on or off suddenly, scaring the fish. :) I used pulse-width modulation and a MOS-FET to gradually fade the lights in and out over 1 hour. 3. PC clock I've setup time limits on PC usage for my kids. But before Windows 10 the login screen on Windows 7 didn't have the time displayed, so they didn't know when their accounts would actually let them log in. I've found a big LED display that fits almost exactly in a CD-ROM bay, and built a clock with it. It's synced to the PC every time the OS boots up.

Symmetry 10y ago

As a small robotics startup we use Arduinos to control our grippers just because it was easy for the founders to get started and because adding new features is fairly fast. We've actually moved to a board that pretends to be a mega2560 but is entirely custom but we're still sticking with the Arduino libraries. Some day we might move to a standard uC approach but that'll be when we have many more employees.

vonklaus 10y ago

Anecdotally, I have been using the pi and arduino to learn. They have the basics for small projects and easy interfaces for getting started. The communities are large and it makes it very easy to find beginner and intermediate projects. I like them both and recommend them. They may not Be the perfect base for a robust IoT project but one can do a lot of interesting things and learn a lot doing beginner and intermediate level projects

dvt 10y ago

I built http://gameref.io http://gameref.io with an Arduino board. Not sure about the "next big thing," but it raised a few eyebrows.

ourcat 10y ago

Many get them to learn to program and get acquainted with a Linux command line. Especially kids at school. Personally, I've been learning how to utilise my software skills to controlling hardware. Lots of fun. Also opens up a new horizon of ideas.

misnome 10y ago

It's neat to have a nice, easily controllable small board, but yeah - I went to a Maker Fair last year and one stand was showing off an "Arduino-powered doorbell". It's possible to take it too far.

platz 10y ago

Would you have a similar reaction to non-techincal folks learning a bit of web dev in order to set up another 'cookie-cutter' blog for themselves?

nameless912 10y ago

Well, the easy answer is the arduino is "easier" to get into than most other embedded development boards. These days, though, that's becoming less and less true. You can pick up an ESP8266-based board complete with USB-serial built in and motherfucking Wi-Fi for 15 bucks from Adafruit, and it's identical to an Arduino code-wise (i.e. you can use nearly all the nice fuzzy constructs that the Arduino version of Processing provides), plus motherfucking Wi-Fi. I've been prototyping something with one the last couple of weeks, and it's great. Compared to, for example, my senior design project in college, which predominantly involved writing shitty C code for ATMega-series microcontrollers, it's a breeze. I get C++, a huge standard library, consistent types, a Java-esque wrapper around std::string, and all the register ops to toggle or read pins and enable/disable features are completely abstracted away. It's like comparing writing an app server in Node.JS to writing it using Java EE. Obviously, equally possible in both languages, but one just feels so much nicer than the other.

brokenmachine 10y ago
Yeah, it's crazy now. In my opinion, the Wemos D1 Mini seems like the best ESP8266 board at the moment. Fits on a breadboard nicely, lots of GPIO, obviously wifi, all nicely set up with a reset button and auto programming mode on a built-in usb serial. And the best part, I just bought one for AU$3.34 (US$2.57) on Aliexpress!!
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  Oh yeah, the D1 Mini also has a very low quiescent current (25uA) RT9013 regulator, so it should be much better for use on battery power than the nodemcu with the LM1117 which uses 5mA! That's 200x less current wasted! Also the dropout voltage is only 250mV compared to about 1V for the LM1117. You couldn't use a LiPoly battery to power it with an LM1117 because of the high dropout voltage.

Obi_Juan_Kenobi 10y ago

My practical-ish project: an advanced egg-timer. I looked for some time trying to find a good egg timer, but there are really just two options, and neither are that great. You can have a nice, intuitive analog interface (the classic dial timer), but you lack precision and many are very poorly constructed and unreliable (seriously, look at Amazon reviews for this type). There's also no way to fine-tune the alarm; some are horrendous, while other are inaudible. The digital ones solve some of this issue, but have terrible UI requiring many button clicks. I used a digispark ($1 for ebay clones), two rotary switches set up as voltage dividers, an arcade button, and an addressable LED strip to make a better timer. You input minutes with one knob, and seconds with the other. This has wonderful tactile feedback, is completely precise, and entirely intuitive. The LED strip counts up (and shifts red to green) as the timer passes, does a rainbow swipe/strobe for a few seconds to alert, and then 'cools down' so you can get a sense of how badly you overshot. There's also a buzzer. It's good for the kitchen, but I actually find it best as a rest-period timer for weightlifting. The visual display is great for loud gyms. It's 100% a better timer than anything else on the market, and I absolutely love it.

icefox 10y ago
Could you build one that had a tilt sensor and would start counting up whenever it when off? If so I would buy it.

anotherevan 10y ago

Last week I used a Leostick[1] and an SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor[2] to create a presence detector for my computer. Now, if music is playing whenever I get up and walk away from my computer, it pauses the media player, and when I come back it starts playing again automatically. [1] http://www.freetronics.com.au/products/leostick http://www.freetronics.com.au/products/leostick [2] http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Arduino-and-HC-SR04-Example/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Arduino-and-HC-SR04-E...

kbob 10y ago

Arduino is not the next big thing; it's arguably a few years past its peak. But the thing is, it's really really fast to prototype stuff. Last week I needed to convert an analog voltage to a pulse width -- I had a potentiometer and I wanted to control an ESC. It took me less than 10 minutes to breadboard and code that on an Arduino clone (Teensy). The week before, I needed a frequency counter. Again, it took less than 10 minutes. I've done more elaborate projects, but the point is that the overhead to get started is tiny.