In this lesson we will learn how to print from the Arduino. Since you are often using the arduino to make reading from sensors or other devices that interact with the environment, you need an easy way to get that information out to the user. The easiest way to do this is to send it over a serial port to the IDE Serial Monitor. There, is can be easily read and watched by the user. In this lesson we show you how to configure the serial port, and send values from the Arduino. If you want to follow along at home, you can order the Arduino Kit we are using HERE.
So far in these lessons, we have just been using the Arduino output pins. If we actually want to read values from a sensor or other such components, we need to learn how to read values from the analog pins. These are pins A0 through A5. This lesson will teach you all about the analogRead command that allows you to interact with these pins. Enjoy!
In this new series of lessons, I will be using this Arduino kit.
In this video we unbox and review the new CrowPi Raspberry Pi. Bottom line is, this is a really well done products, and I think it is a great option for using in High School and College STEM programs. I have been impressed and intend to continue to use this platform. We unbox, boot and program it in this video.
As we learn more about programming the Arduino, we become more and more excited about connecting and controlling simple circuits. In order to do this, we need to begin to understand how to design and analyze the circuits we are building. In this lesson we introduce you to Ohm’s Law and some techniques that will allow you to design and analyze simple series circuits. If you want to follow along at home, you can order the Arduino Kit we are using HERE. The nice digital voltmeter used in the lesson is available HERE.
In Lesson 7, we learned how we can get in-between voltages from the Arduino pins using the analogWrite command. Actually, this command only approximates analog voltages, and does not produce actual analog signals. It works by quickly turning the voltage to the pin on and off. For example, if you ask for 2.5 volts, it will quickly switch the pin on, with it on 50% of the time and off 50% of the time. Similarly, if you asked for 1 volt, it is really switching 5 volts on and off quickly. For this case, it would be on 20% of the time and off 80% of the time. This technique is called Pulse Width Modulation. In this video we show you the actual waveforms coming from the analogWrite command on an oscilloscope. If you want to follow this lesson at home, you can get the Arduino kit we are using HERE.
Making The World a Better Place One High Tech Project at a Time. Enjoy!
