Free electronic circuit drawing tool for Windows, OSX and Linux
February 29th, 2012
The light version of Cadsoft Eagle Cad is a free tool to draw electronic circuits. This tool is available for Windows, OSX and Linux. It allows you to draw electronic schematics and design PCB boards.
The Arduino Mega schematics in Eagle CAD Light
Arduino component 4: 840 Pin Breadboard + Jumper Wire Kit
February 28th, 2012
So I do have LEDs, potentiometer, Arduino shield, but I also need wires and a breadboard. Luckily I already had an old breadboard. But today a new one arrived with jumper wires included.
| Component description | |
|---|---|
| What? | 840 Pin Breadboard + Jumper Wire Kit |
| Why? | Without a breadboard and wires we can not build any experiment at all. |
| Price | EUR 11,76 |
| Shop | Ebay / elektorbase |
840 Pin Breadboard + Jumper Wire Kit
This component has been used in the following Arduino sketches:
Getting Arduino syntax highlighting for the wp-syntax plugin
February 26th, 2012
The wp-syntax plugin is very useful. Unfortunately the wp-syntax plugin does not support the processing language which is used for Arduino programming. This website offers the arduino.php file for the wp-syntax plugin. Simple upload the arduino.php file to the wp-content/plugins/wp-syntax/geshi/geshi folder.
Arduino sketch 1: Blinking LED
February 26th, 2012
I started my first sketch with this tutorial. The tutorial describes how to install the Arduino environment and how to run your first Arduino sketch which is a blinking LED. In this sketch pin 13 is used because according to this page the Arduino board already has connected a resistor to this pin. The LED is not necessary since the Arduino has a build-in LED for pin 13. In the video you can see this red LED blinking as well.
Result
Arduino component 3: Arduino UNO (2011 Version) + USB2.0 Cable
February 25th, 2012
Last, but not least, the most important package I expected: the Arduino Uno board itself. Without this board all the other components stay useless. I chose for the UNO since this is the most recent version of the Arduino board. The company delivered a free USB cable as well. Specs:
| Component description | |
|---|---|
| What? | Arduino UNO (2011 Version) ATMEGA328P-PU AVR MCU Board + USB2.0 Cable |
| Why? | Without this board all the other components stay useless. |
| Price | EUR 14,57 |
| Shop | Ebay / unique.buy |
Arduino UNO (2011 Version) + USB2.0 Cable
Arduino component 2: 100pcs 5mm white red blue green yellow round LED
February 25th, 2012
The mailman had three packages today, this is the second package:
| Component description | |
|---|---|
| What? | 100pcs 5mm white red blue green yellow round LED |
| Why? | We love LEDs. They could be used to blink, to indicate a status or to work as a dot matrix display. |
| Price | EUR 2,35 |
| Shop | Ebay / exrell |
100pcs 5mm White Red Blue Green Yellow Round LED
This component has been used in the following Arduino sketches:
Arduino component 1: 5K Ohm linear taper rotary potentiometer
February 25th, 2012
As you could have read in one of my previous post about Arduino, I decided to compose my own Arduino Starter Kit. Today the first component arrived by the mail: the potentiometer.
| Component description | |
|---|---|
| What? | 5K OHM Linear Taper Rotary Potentiometer 5KB B5K |
| Why? | A potentiometer is a variable resistor, which could be useful as control in a game. To set the speed of led blinking etc. |
| Price | EUR 0,78 |
| Shop | Ebay / tayda2009 |
5K OHM Linear Taper Rotary Potentiometer 5KB B5K
Which multimeter to buy?
February 21st, 2012
Before I could start developing my Arduino projects, I needed a multimeter. There are plenty of them in the market which makes the choice even harder. Luckily Quintin pointed me to the multimeter shootout at EEVBLOG.
The EXTECH EX430
Fritzing – A free tool to design your Arduino project
February 20th, 2012
Fritzing is a tool which allows you to draw the electronic schematics of your Arduino/electronic project. The tool runs on Windows, OSX and Linux and is totally free. Since this is an open source initiative the source code is available as well. Fritzing contains a large amount of Arduino related components, but also allow you to work on a simple breadboard instead. When you are done designing in the WYSIWYG editor, it possible to view your experiment in a electronic schematic view. If you are really creative you can add your own components to the library.
Fritzing screenshot
How to store all your Arduino and electronic components?
February 18th, 2012
I started to order an Arduino Uno (Why the Uno? More on this is a later post) as well as all the fancy electronic components. When the mail arrives I have got potmeters, resistors, leds, wires, shields, buttons, displays, more wires, speaker, condensators etc. To just put all this stuff on my desk does not really sound like a nice idea. Therefore I bought an organizer box.
My edition has been made of transparent plastic, but is also available in red, blue and yellow. I bought the Allit EuroPlus Basic 37/12, which is 370 x 295 x 60mm, has 12 compartments of different sizes and cost EUR 9,98 at the Karwei, which is a Dutch DIY shop. These boxes are stackable, so if I need more in the future I can just put another box on top of this one.
, 
Allit EuroPlus Basic 37/12