Arduino

[letterboy]

I have been looking at this, from afar, for some time.

Anyone have advice on which "starter kit" to pull the trigger on?

I have no idea what I want to accomplish with it...

Thought it would be fun to tinker with...

 

[wedivebc]

I bought the mega board, haven't used it yet. You should avoid any of the older ones that interface with RS232 as I think few computers still use that protocol although I keep an old desktop around just for that purpose.
The language is easy to use if you know C or C++ but there is also an IDE where you can basically drag and drop functions into the project and just stitch them together with some minor coding. Have fun.

 

[victorzamora]

What he said. I like the Mega board as it's got EVERYTHING you could want, but it's expensive. You could get something like an Uno and save some cash. Really, I think the first step is finding a couple of projects for it. Once you figure out a good project, you can get working on which one to get. Otherwise, it'll just sit in a box (as mine is currently doing).

 

[diversteve]

I don't know much about them but Wired often features Limor Fried and her company in related articles. They sell a lot of different options. Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

 

[letterboy]

Thanks, this looks like the only "starter kit" they offer.

I was in R.S. the other day and saw they had at least two sets, one was ~70 and one was ~120.

 

[johnohuk]

I started with a Arduino Uno which is pretty cheap, you can use it as a programmer for a variety of the chips... as well as learning the language and interfacing to... I prototype with the Uno and then move the code to a mini or programme a chip directly from the uno...

Amazon.com: Arduino UNO R3 board with DIP ATmega328P: Computers & Accessories

Buy a breadboard to prototype with, makes life much easier...

http://www.amazon.com/Duemilanove-p...1391206736&sr=8-8&keywords=arduino+breadboard


Once you get the hang of it, buy the cheap clones off ebay... and remember to use Google for code/circuit snippets..

 

[3D diver]

Subscribed...

 

[Pyrotrons]

Reviving a 3-month old thread here, figured I'd mention that I am making my own Oxygen analyzer to analyze my Nitrox fills at home using an Arduino Uno. Basically, I'm just replacing the digital meter in most of the DIY O2 sensor schematics with an Arduino that writes to a fancier display. The Arduino will read the O2 sensor about 10 times, average the results to increase accuracy, then write the Oxygen concentration that it just measured to a nice looking display that I'll stick on the wall.

Arduino isn't programmed (by the user) in C. It's programmed it in a higher-level language, called ArduinoC. ArduinoC is C-based, and will most certainly help make the transition to C when you're bored with Arduino. C is can be used to program "real" microcontrollers, such as made by Atmel, and do things extremely quickly and efficiently as opposed to the limited capabilities of Arduino. However, the Arduino platform is still very powerful.

As an example, an Arduino could easily measure the real-time tank temperature during partial-pressure blending, to provide a real-time correction factor for Oxygen pressure when the tank being filled gets warm. This way, the person blending needn't wait for the tank to cool off to know exactly how many PSI of air to top the tank off with, to get to exactly EAN36 or whatever.

After filling the scuba tank 95% of the way, the Arduino could calculate the difference between the ACTUAL tank O2 concentration, and the TARGET O2 concentration, AT temperature. It could then instruct a proportional valve to let "X" flowrate of air in for "Y" time period to get to "Z" target O2 concentration.

For most people this isn't necessary, but if you are in the business of making filling stations...

Microcontrollers will change your World if you let them.

For the O2 analyzer, the code should be extremely simple. I'll be using one of the on-chip Analog to Digital Converters (ADC's) to read the amplified O2 sensor output voltage, digitize it, then write to the display. I might write a little calibration routine in there.