A perfect start for the new maker: learn by creating a gadget that posts your environment data to a Web logging service.
What you'll learn:
- Make simple circuits based on the Arduino board
- Acquire data from sensors and display them on an LCD screen
- Upload sensor data to a free cloud logging service and visualise it in a dashboard
- Understand the basics of programming for microcontrollers
This course is designed for beginner makers. I will help you get started with the basics of creating circuits with the Arduino prototyping board, and by the end of this course you will have an Internet-connected home environment monitoring gadget, build with your own hands!
The only prerequisite is a basic understanding of concepts like voltage, current and resistance, and ability to download and install software on your computer. A very basic understanding of programming is a bonus, but not absolutely necessary.
Along the way, you will learn about programming, sensors, and communications.
The course is split in three parts:
- Part 1 is an introduction, which will gently help you create your first circuit and open your appetite for more.
- Part 2 contains a primer on making with the Arduino, focusing on the Integrated Development Environment and the sketching language.
- Part 3 is about making JING. JING (not an acronym!) is the environment monitoring system that you will put together piece by piece, and line by line.
Materials:
- To fully take advantage of this course, you will need (all of these are easily sourced from Ebay):
- 1) An Arduino (I suggest a genuine Arduino Uno)
- 2) A photoresistor
- 3) A DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor
- 4) A BMP085 barometric sensor breakout
- 5) A 16x2 LCD screen based on the Hitachi HD44780 driver (or compatible, these are very common)
- 6) A potentiometer
- 7) Assorted resistors
- 8) A small breadboard
- 9) Lot's of breadboard wires.
- The basics of electricity, like voltage, current, resistance.
- Makers who have an existing intermediate or better understanding of electronics
- Beginner Arduino makers
Introduction:
- Introduction
- Please read this before continuing!
- Components needed for this project
- Where can you find the sketch source code?
- Hello World! Diodes, LEDs, and your 1st circuit
- Hello World! Your 1st sketch
- Use Pulse Width Modules, make the LED fade
- 7 lectures
- Measuring light with Lux and the Axel-Benz formula
- Measuring light with a photoresistor demonstration
- Measuring temperature and humidity
- Measuring barometric pressure
- Adding an LCD screen, setup the circuit
- Adding an LCD screen, adding a library and sketch walkthrough
- Create an echo server with the Ethernet Shield
- Transmit sensor data with the Ethernet Shield
- Emoncms, what is it, walkthrough
- Upload data from a single sensor to Emoncms
- Setting up logging and visualising data on Emoncms
- Completing the hardware assembly
- The Jing complete sketch walkthrough
- Completing the Jing dashboard
- How to configure a widget (and why is a widget blank?)
- Wrap-it up, what did we learn, and improvements
- Bonus Lecture