One of my favorite classes in college was the Digital Logic class where we had to design basic computer circuitry. Then this year I read Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software and again, was just engrossed in all of the gates, adders and multiplexers. I really am clueless when it comes to a lot of this stuff but always wanted to get some hands-on experience.
I first found about the Arduino project from the July 2010 issue of PragPub. Then a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine mentioned that he bought an Arduino and was fooling around with it so I decided to take the plunge too.
Like my friend, I ended up purchasing the SparkFun Inventor's Kit for Arduino, which comes with some basic parts and project schema to get you started.
Here is a video of my son and I with our first project to light up some LEDs:
2 comments:
Hi Ryan,
Nice video. Arduinos are a fun learning tool. I am going to use an Arduino to connect my telescope to a netbook to help me locate objects in the night sky.
If this is your "toy", I would recommend the book "Making Things Talk" by Tom Igoe. Some great projects that push you to the next level of embedded programming.
Maybe now, maybe in a couple years, I think your son would like the Lego Mindstorms NXT. Much easier to make it "do things". My kids have participated in First Lego League with the local middle schools and really enjoyed it.
Rick
Wow-it is just like my house, only I play the part of the 3 year old ;-)
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