BarCamp Brighton Blog : Introduction to Arduino at BarCampBrighton2

Introduction to Arduino at BarCampBrighton2

Posted by Jay Caines-Gooby in February 24th, 2008

Photo by Nicholas Zambetti

Lincoln Smith, a Sussex University researcher, will be doing a session or two on Arduino, the open-source electronics prototyping platform aimed at artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

He’s going to purchase a number of the boards and bring them along to BarCamp where you’ll be able to quickly write your first “Hello World” and then get hacking. Just look what one enterprising person did with some Linden Lab schwag from the recent Wired Sussex Jobs Fair…

Tinker.it has supplied Lincoln with 40 Arduino boards for his session and for general use over the weekend. He will be selling these Arduinos at the end of BarcampBrighton2 (£18.51).

If you’d like to install the IDE and have a bash at doing some coding or buy a board at the end of the ‘Camp, please leave a comment here so he can gage interest and know what to bring.

You can download the IDE (Linux, Mac & Windows) from the Arduino site at http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software.

For ideas, help and inspiration have a look in the Arduino playground.

If you’ve got an idea for a talk at BarCampBrighton and want to let others know about it here, blog it and let us know the URL so we can link to it, or send us the text and we can post it for you.

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daveph Said in February 24th, 2008 @9:45 pm

Sweet! I’m interested (longtime MAKE reader, never fiddled with a PIC or an Arduino).
Problem: I haven’t coded anything more than a dumb shell script in about 20 years. Am I going to be wasting Lincoln’s time?
Dave Ph

Jay Caines-Gooby Said in February 25th, 2008 @11:58 am

This is a talk that I’d definitely like to attend too!

Lincoln Smith Said in February 26th, 2008 @12:23 am

Absolutely no one can waste my time on this one. Come one come all!

I am not planning to present anymore than a brief introduction, followed by hands on work… here is a board, install the software, make it do something.

It will be a exercise in “hurdle removal” for anyone even marginally interested in transitioning from screen output to motor output.

If you have an Arduino or experience, please bring it along and pitch in.

Ian Ozsvald Said in February 26th, 2008 @3:03 pm

Yep, I’m interested. I’m a long-time electronics tinkerer, but not for a while. I used to solder light sensors & mics to my Commodore 64 and have it talk to passers-by (err, like my mum) as a wee laddie.
Since this bit of kit has usb and a number of outputs, it is just the sort of thing to hook-up a WOPR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOPR) blinkenlichten display…something I’ve always wanted :-)
I could provide a decent soldering iron and an old multimeter if some hw is required?
Linc has suggested doing a brute-force lock picker with this (I’m thinking of doing a total-newbie lock-picking session, one of my old and dubious interests)..which could get, ah, interesting.
Ian.

Kerry Buckley Said in February 27th, 2008 @6:12 pm

I’m definitely going to come along to this session. Looks like fun!

Dan W Said in February 27th, 2008 @9:35 pm

Sweet, I’m certainly interested. I’ve been meaning to pick one up for a while and am super enthusiastic after reading this post today: http://www.botanicalls.com/twitter/

Using arduino a potted plant can post twitter messages when it needs to be watered!

Paul Silver Said in February 28th, 2008 @1:09 pm

I’m very interested too. Haven’t done any electronics since school, but the Arduino looks like it’ll take a lot of the pain out of it.

ni Said in March 12th, 2008 @12:38 pm

Pleased to see barCampBrighton2 looks like it’s going to be an Arduino fest :) . I’ll be bringing my board along and featuring some sketches in my talk similar to the ones mentioned above.

I’ve been playing with the Arduino for a while and have taken part in couple of the tinker.it workshops: Processing + Arduino; Toy Hacking.