Exploring Arduino: Tools and Techniques for Engineering Wizardry / Edition 1

by Jeremy Blum

Overview

Learn to easily build gadgets, gizmos, robots, and more using Arduino

Written by Arduino expert Jeremy Blum, this unique book uses the popular Arduino microcontroller platform as an instrument to teach you about topics in electrical engineering, programming, and human-computer interaction. Whether you're a budding hobbyist or an engineer, you'll benefit from the perfectly paced lessons that walk you through useful, artistic, and educational exercises that gradually get more advanced. In addition to specific projects, the book shares best practices in programming and design that you can apply to your own projects. Code snippets and schematics will serve as a useful reference for future projects even after you've mastered all the topics in the book.

• Includes a number of projects that utilize different capabilities of the Arduino, while interfacing with external hardware
• Features chapters that build upon each other, tying in concepts from previous chapters to illustrate new ones
• Includes aspects that are accompanied by video tutorials and other multimedia content 
• Covers electrical engineering and programming concepts, interfacing with the world through analog and digital sensors, communicating with a computer and other devices, and internet connectivity
• Explains how to combine smaller topics into more complex projects
• Shares downloadable materials and source code for everything covered in the book
• Projects compatible with many official Arduino boards including Arduino Uno; Arduino Leonardo; Arduino Mega 2560; Arduino Due; Arduino Nano; Arduino Mega ADK; LilyPad Arduino and may work with Arduino-compatible boards such as Freeduino and new third party certified boards such as the Intel Galileo

Exploring Arduino takes you on an adventure and provides you with exclusive access to materials not found anywhere else!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118549360
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	07/22/2013
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	7.42(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Jeremy Blum is known for his series of educational YouTube videos that have taught engineering concepts to millions of people around the world. He has built a range of microcontroller-based systems including solar trackers, prosthetic arms, truss-traversing robots, musical theremins, computer vision-based and glove-based gesture controllers, and more.

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Table of Contents

Introduction xix

Part I Arduino Engineering Basics 1

Chapter 1 Getting Up and Blinking with the Arduino 3

Exploring the Arduino Ecosystem 4

Arduino Functionality 4

Atmel Microcontroller 6

Programming Interfaces 6

General I/O and ADCs 7

Power Supplies 7

Arduino Boards 8

Creating Your First Program 13

Downloading and Installing the Arduino IDE 13

Running the IDE and Connecting to the Arduino 14

Breaking Down Your First Program 16

Summary 18

Chapter 2 Digital Inputs, Outputs, and Pulse-Width Modulation 19

Digital Outputs 20

Wiring Up an LED and Using Breadboards 20

Working with Breadboards 21

Wiring LEDs 22

Programming Digital Outputs 24

Using For Loops 25

Pulse-Width Modulation with analogWrite() 27

Reading Digital Inputs 29

Reading Digital Inputs with Pulldown Resistors 29

Working with “Bouncy” Buttons 32

Building a Controllable RGB LED Nightlight 35

Summary 39

Chapter 3 Reading Analog Sensors 41

Understanding Analog and Digital Signals 42

Comparing Analog and Digital Signals 43

Converting an Analog Signal to a Digital One 44

Reading Analog Sensors with the Arduino: analogRead() 45

Reading a Potentiometer 45

Using Analog Sensors 50

Working with Analog Sensors to Sense Temperature 52

Using Variable Resistors to Make Your Own Analog Sensors 54

Using Resistive Voltage Dividers 55

Using Analog Inputs to Control Analog Outputs 56

Summary 59

Part II Controlling Your Environment 61

Chapter 4 Using Transistors and Driving Motors 63

Driving DC Motors 65

Handling High-Current Inductive Loads 65

Using Transistors as Switches 66

Using Protection Diodes 67

Using a Secondary Power Source 68

Wiring the Motor 68

Controlling Motor Speed with PWM 70

Using an H-Bridge to Control DC Motor Direction 72

Building an H-bridge Circuit 73

Operating an H-bridge Circuit 76

Driving Servo Motors 80

Understanding the Difference Between Continuous Rotation and Standard Servos 80

Understanding Servo Control 80

Controlling a Servo 85

Building a Sweeping Distance Sensor 86

Summary 90

Chapter 5 Making Sounds 91

Understanding How Speakers Work 92

The Properties of Sound 92

How a Speaker Produces Sound 94

Using tone() to Make Sounds 95

Including a Definition File 95

Wiring the Speaker 96

Making Sound Sequences 99

Using Arrays 99

Making Note and Duration Arrays 100

Completing the Program 101

Understanding the Limitations of the tone() Function 102

Building a Micro Piano 102

Summary 105

Chapter 6 USB and Serial Communication 107

Understanding the Arduino’s Serial Communication Capabilities 108

Arduino Boards with an Internal or External FTDI USB-to-Serial Converter 110

Arduino Boards with a Secondary USB-Capable ATMega MCU Emulating a Serial Converter 112

Arduino Boards with a Single USB-Capable MCU 114

Arduino Boards with USB-Host Capabilities 114

Listening to the Arduino 115

Using print Statements 115

Using Special Characters 117

Changing Data Type Representations 119

Talking to the Arduino 119

Reading Information from a Computer or Other Serial Device 120

Telling the Arduino to Echo Incoming Data 120

Understanding the Differences Between Chars and Ints 121

Sending Single Characters to Control an LED 122

Sending Lists of Values to Control an RGB LED 125

Talking to a Desktop App 127

Talking to Processing 127

Installing Processing 128

Controlling a Processing Sketch from Your Arduino 129

Sending Data from Processing to Your Arduino 132

Learning Special Tricks with the Arduino Leonardo (and Other 32U4-Based Arduinos) 134

Emulating a Keyboard 135

Typing Data into the Computer 135

Commanding Your Computer to Do Your Bidding 139

Emulating a Mouse 140

Summary 144

Chapter 7 Shift Registers 145

Understanding Shift Registers 146

Sending Parallel and Serial Data 147

Working with the 74HC595 Shift Register 148

Understanding the Shift Register Pin Functions 148

Understanding How the Shift Register Works 149

Shifting Serial Data from the Arduino 151

Converting Between Binary and Decimal Formats 154

Controlling Light Animations with a Shift Register 154

Building a “Light Rider” 154

Responding to Inputs with an LED Bar Graph 157

Summary 160

Part III Communication Interfaces 161

Chapter 8 The ^I2C Bus 163

History of the ^I2C Bus 164

^I2C Hardware Design 164

Communication Scheme and ID Numbers 165

Hardware Requirements and Pull-Up Resistors 167

Communicating with an ^I2C Temperature Probe 167

Setting Up the Hardware 168

Referencing the Datasheet 169

Writing the Software 171

Combining Shift Registers, Serial Communication, and ^I2C Communications 173

Building the Hardware for a Temperature Monitoring System 173

Modifying the Embedded Program 174

Writing the Processing Sketch 177

Summary 180

Chapter 9 The SPI Bus 181

Overview of the SPI Bus 182

SPI Hardware and Communication Design 183

Hardware Configuration 184

Communication Scheme 184

Comparing SPI to ^I2C 185

Communicating with an SPI Digital Potentiometer 185

Gathering Information from the Datasheet 186

Setting Up the Hardware 189

Writing the Software 190

Creating an Audiovisual Display Using

SPI Digital Potentiometers 193

Setting Up the Hardware 194

Modifying the Software 195

Summary 197

Chapter 10 Interfacing with Liquid Crystal Displays 199

Setting Up the LCD 200

Using the LiquidCrystal Library to Write to the LCD 203

Adding Text to the Display 204

Creating Special Characters and Animations 206

Building a Personal Thermostat 209

Setting Up the Hardware 210

Displaying Data on the LCD 211

Adjusting the Set Point with a Button 213

Adding an Audible Warning and a Fan 214

Bringing It All Together: The Complete Program 215

Taking This Project to the Next Level 219

Summary 219

Chapter 11 Wireless Communication with XBee Radios 221

Understanding XBee Wireless Communication 222

XBee Radios 223

The XBee Radio Shield and Serial Connections 224

3.3V Regulator 226

Logic Level Shifting 226

Associate LED and RSSI LED 226

UART Selection Jumper or Switch 226

Hardware vs. Software Serial UART Connection Option 227

Configuring Your XBees 228

Configuring via a Shield or a USB Adapter 228

Programming Option 1: Using the Uno as a Programmer (Not Recommended) 229

Programming Option 2: Using the SparkFun USB Explorer (Recommended) 230

Choosing Your XBee Settings and Connecting Your XBee to Your Host Computer 230

Configuring Your XBee with X-CTU 231

Configuring Your XBee with a Serial Terminal 235

Talking with Your Computer Wirelessly 236

Powering Your Remote Arduino 236

USB with a Computer or a 5V Wall Adapter 237

Batteries 237

Wall Power Adapters 239

Revisiting the Serial Examples: Controlling Processing with a Potentiometer 239

Revisiting the Serial Examples: Controlling an RGB LED 243

Talking with Another Arduino: Building a Wireless Doorbell 246

System Design 246

Transmitter Hardware 247

Receiver Hardware 248

Transmitter Software 249

Receiver Software 250

Summary 252

Part IV Advanced Topics and Projects 255

Chapter 12 Hardware and Timer Interrupts 257

Using Hardware Interrupts 258

Knowing the Tradeoffs Between Polling and Interrupting 259

Ease of Implementation (Software) 260

Ease of Implementation (Hardware) 260

Multitasking 260

Acquisition Accuracy 261

Understanding the Arduino’s Hardware Interrupt Capabilities 261

Building and Testing a Hardware-Debounced Button Interrupt Circuit 262

Creating a Hardware-Debouncing Circuit 262

Assembling the Complete Test Circuit 267

Writing the Software 267

Using Timer Interrupts 270

Understanding Timer Interrupts 270

Getting the Library 270

Executing Two Tasks Simultaneously(ish) 271

Building an Interrupt-Driven Sound Machine 272

Sound Machine Hardware 272

Sound Machine Software 273

Summary 275

Chapter 13 Data Logging with SD Cards 277

Getting Ready for Data Logging 278

Formatting Data with CSV Files 279

Preparing an SD Card for Data Logging 279

Interfacing the Arduino with an SD Card 284

SD Card Shields 284

SD Card SPI Interface 288

Writing to an SD Card 289

Reading from an SD Card 293

Using a Real-Time Clock 297

Understanding Real-Time Clocks 298

Using the DS1307 Real-Time Clock 298

Using the RTC Arduino Third-Party Library 299

Using the Real-Time Clock 300

Installing the RTC and SD Card Modules 300

Updating the Software 301

Building an Entrance Logger 305

Logger Hardware 306

Logger Software 307

Data Analysis 311

Summary 312

Chapter 14 Connecting Your Arduino to the Internet 313

The Web, the Arduino, and You 314

Networking Lingo 314

IP Address 314

Network Address Translation 315

MAC Address 316

HTML 316

HTTP 316

GET/POST 316

DHCP 316

DNS 317

Clients and Servers 317

Networking Your Arduino 317

Controlling Your Arduino from the Web 318

Setting Up the I/O Control Hardware 318

Designing a Simple Web Page 318

Writing an Arduino Server Sketch 320

Connecting to the Network and Retrieving an IP via DHCP 321

Replying to a Client Response 321

Putting It Together: Web Server Sketch 322

Controlling Your Arduino via the Network 326

Controlling Your Arduino over the Local Network 326

Using Port Forwarding to Control your Arduino from Anywhere 327

Sending Live Data to a Graphing Service 329

Building a Live Data Feed on Xively 330

Creating a Xively Account 330

Creating a Data Feed 330

Installing the Xively and HttpClient Libraries 331

Wiring Up Your Arduino 332

Configuring the Xively Sketch and Running the Code 332

Displaying Data on the Web 335

Adding Feed Components 336

Adding an Analog Temperature Sensor 336

Adding Additional Sensor Readings to the Datastream 336

Summary 339

Appendix Deciphering the ATMega Datasheet and Arduino Schematics 341

Reading Datasheets 341

Breaking Down a Datasheet 341

Understanding Component Pin-outs 344

Understanding the Arduino Schematic 345

Index 349