Recently in arduino Category
Last week I ordered a RFID shield for Arduino via Marc Boon (who also organizes regular workshops on RFID here in the Netherlands). Friday evening I soldered it together, using the easy to follow instructions Marc sent with the kit.
The ready RFID shield mounted on to the Arduino.
Currently I am troubleshooting the RFIDuino. It seems to start up all right, as it nicely announces itself when connected to the serial monitor in the Arduino software. Green LED lights up as well, meaning it is scanning for RFID tags in the neighbourhood. However it does not see any, when I put a RFID tag on the antenna. Perhaps something wrong with the antenna. Or it may be a power issue (USB port not delivering enough power to the board), however that seems unlikely because the active part of the RFIDuino is working fine.
My main goal to start with was to get my Arduino board to send data to Processing. This way you can build applications around data that is coming from the Arduino board, or have apps send data to the Arduino.
Basically what you do is load the Arduino with a Fermata script that continuously reads/writes the Arduino's digital and analog in/outputs. Then in Processing you actually create your script (which you otherwise would create in the Arduino software tool).
First you need to make sure that the right libraries are available to both Arduino and Processing. Good instructions for this are on the Arduino website.
With the Arduino board I created a simple circuit with a temperature sensitive resistor connected to an analog input, so that with changing temperature the reading of that temperature would change.
I loaded the Arduino board with the Simple_Analog_Firmata script (the other Analog_Firmata I could not get to work properly yet). Simple_Analog_Firmata is part of the Library_Firmata library, and should be available under Open, Examples.
Then in Processing I loaded arduino_input from Libraries, Arduino, Examples.
The example script reads all digital and analog input ports of the Arduino, but I only needed the analog one that was connected to the thermistor. So I simplified the setup() routine by deleting the initialisation for the 13 digital inputs, and simplified the draw() routine to:
void draw() {
background(off);
stroke(on);
fill(on);
ellipse(235, 140, (arduino.analogRead(2)-300), 20);
}
This little statement draws an ellipse with the value from analog port 2 on the Arduino as the horizontal radius. I substracted 300 from the Arduino reading, as that brought the value within a range that was easy to draw. I kept the vertical radius constant, so I could see a vertical line even when there was no reading from the Arduino. Then I ran the Processing script.
Now when I touched the thermistor (causing its temperature to rise, and its value to fall) the ellipse's horizontal radius became smaller. How pleased can you be with a small blue ellipse on your screen? Very! :)
Screenshot of the ellipse
At higher temperature the ellipse becomes smaller
Technorati Tags: arduino, processing
When I attended the Spimes workshop at SHiFT08, we used a recipe to brainstorm spime applications.
This was the 5 point recipe:
1) Choose the spime's sensors for its interaction (electromagnetic, mechanical, chemical, social sensors etc.)
2) Choose the level of spime data aggregation for your application (loca, global, non-geographic)
3) Choose a point in the timeline of technological development (now, at some specific point in the future)
4) Design machine to machine interaction (reliability, redundancy, systems needed etc.)
5) Design machine to human interaction (what is 'friending', information display, social objects)
Thinking this weekend on how to brainstorm interesting projects for my Arduino prototyping kit or my Lego Mindstorms kit, I decided to extend the recipe by a 6th point: choosing your actuators. Or perhaps it can replace the 3rd point, as in experimenting with Arduino and the like, you are using available technology by definition.
So my Arduino recipe becomes:
1) Choose the project's sensors for its interaction (electromagnetic, mechanical, chemical, social sensors etc.)
2) Choose the level of data aggregation for your application (loca, global, non-geographic)
3) Choose the project's actuators for its interaction (servo's, switches, displays, sounds, lights etc.)
4) Design machine to machine interaction (reliability, redundancy, systems needed etc.)
5) Design machine to human interaction (what is 'friending', information display, social objects)
Playing with my Arduino kit
Transient Technology
For about 18 months now I've been looking into transient technologies. Digital applications are breaking the boundaries of our laptop screens, and the internet of things, as well as internet connected peripheral devices, both sensors and actuators, are moving into our physical surroundings. This means that it is now no longer enough for me to have a sense of what is happening in software development circles to see what kind of new apps are coming, and that I also feel the need to look into hardware more. Open source hardware like Arduino, sensor based space and time aware applications (Spimes), RFID tech, Chumby and Nabaztag etc. That is why I proposed an Arduino workshop to Reboot last June, even though I did not know much about it myself. Alexandra and Nick of Tinker.it in London stepped up and made it happen, but in the end I did not get to attend my 'own' workshop (except for opening it and closing it), because I was speaking at the same time in the hall next door. 
Workshop at ProtoSpace
But today I finally attended an Arduino workshop. It's been a long time since I tinkered with electronics. About 18 years I guess, but I assume I still have a soldering iron in the attic. The workshop was organized by ProtoSpace, one of the FabLabs in the Netherlands. My brother in law is the lab manager there, and he attended the Arduino workshop at Reboot I mentioned. He is now spreading that knowledge again.
In the morning of the day we covered a basic introduction about FabLab and ProtoSpace, and talked about Phidgets (physical widgets) and Lego Mindstorms, before getting to Arduino. The entire afternoon was then spend on playing with Arduino.
Play
I have been used to playing with software tools for so long I really rediscovered the fun of playing with tangible stuff again. A lot of old knowledge of electronics resurfaced. The physics of it hasn't changed of course, but the threshold to make programmable stuff has been seriously lowered, as has the cost of acquiring sensors and actuators that enable you to do interesting stuff.
Playing with Lego Mindstorms:
The trajectory the Mindstorms robot has to follow
Designing the trajectory before programming
Programming the robot via USB
Video of the finished experiment
Experimenting with Arduino open source hardware:
FabLab
Next week Friday I will return to ProtoSpace for a workshop on how to use the different machines that make up the FabLab there: a lasercutter, a milling machine, a vinyl cutter, and a full color 3D printer. All programmable of course. Already looking forward to it.
Lasercutting an apple during lunch:
3D printing examples lying around:
Technorati Tags: fablab, protospace, arduino, utrecht, legomindstorms, reboot10, shift08
