In process right now is the development of class utilizing the Arduino microcontroller. Before anyone points it out, there are others that are developing classes utilizing this same chip. This class is being developed by a person that has been building projects with this chip for almost a year. It is an easy to use chip and it’s a lot of fun building the projects.
The intent behind this class is to share. There are those that may be experiencing some difficulty or just don’t know how to proceed. After taking the class, then someone working with small robotic projects will have a set of tools and solutions that can be easily applied in that field.
There are multiple microcontroller products with the name “Arduino.” In this class, the term “Arduino” will refer to the Atmel ATMega 328 chip with an Arduino boot loader. The chip itself is used on a prototyping breadboard and not on one of the development platforms sold by Arduino such as the Arduino Duemilanove. It’s easier to pronounce if you speak Italian.
Much information about the Arduino can be found on the web.
Arduino maintains this site:
Much more is available and easily found.
The Arduino chips for this class were purchased from Sparkfun Electronics
(http://www.sparkfun.com/)
and are modestly priced. Breadboards were purchased from Marlin P. Jones & Assoc. Inc. (http://www.mpja.com/);
Breadboards and other electronics were purchased from Tanner Electronics in Carrollton, Texas (http://www.tannerelectronics.com/).
The current USB to TTL serial adapter is the USB BUB board from Modern Device (http://www.moderndevice.com/)
and is the most expensive item on the basic Arduino breadboard setup. This product may be changed in the future.
In addition, this class is built as an extension to the “Breadboard Arduino” class developed by Dale Wheat (http://blog.dalewheat.com/tag/arduino).
Prerequisites to this class are all in his class. If you have attended the introductory Breadboard Arduino class, then you have the base hardware and training needed for this class.
So, as far as the class goes, updates have been posted to Facebook, but will now be posted in this blog. There will probably be some information fed into one or two posts that gets the information caught up.
