A friend asked me what the whole Arduino thing was about. Rather than handwave, I thought I’d put together a little kit he could try. It comprises:
- Arduino Uno
- USB B Cable
- Small Breadboard
- Mini DVM (DVM810: http://www.vellemanusa.com/products/view/?country=us&lang=enu&id=350295 )
- 10× m→m jumpers
- 1 ea. Red and green 3 mm LEDs, with current-limiting resistors (100 Ω and 150 Ω).
- 2× breadboard momentary switches
- 500 kΩ potentiometer
- Micro-servo (Tower Pro SG92R: http://www.towerpro.com.tw/viewitem1.asp?sn=737&area=50&cat=159 )
- Temperature sensor (LM35DZ: http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm35.pdf )
- LED – RGB Diffused Common Cathode (Sparkfun COM-09264, aka China Young Sun LED Technology YSL-R596CR4G3B5W-F12: https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/LED/YSL-R596CR4G3B5W-F12.pdf )
- IR Receiver (TSOP4038: http://www.vishay.com/docs/81926/tsop4038.pdf ). For code, see: https://github.com/shirriff/Arduino-IRremote
- 9 V battery and lead
- Piezo knock sensor/cheapo sounder (home made)
- Ultrasonic distance sensor (HC – SR04: http://elecfreaks.com/store/download/HC-SR04.pdf ). Use the NewPing Library http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/NewPing
- Photocell, appx. 1–10 kΩ
- Tiny speaker (8 Ω) salvaged from a singing xmas card, with a 1 kΩ resistor soldered inline to limit current.
Rather worryingly, almost all of this was stuff that was lying spare on my (very small) workbench. This might explain why very little electronics were getting done there.