Winners Announcement: We're Giving Away Arduino Starter Kits!

Congratulations to ecolyx , pinkfloyero , imaginarygoose , willygeek , 14rhb , mwmsjc ,  and  pandatech

You are the winners of the Arduino Starter Kit!

You will be contacted within the next few days and asked for shipping information to send you kits to!

The expectation is that you complete the projects in the included project book (or creative variations of the projects in the book) and post them in Arduino Projects !

ecolyx :

Hi, I'd love this opportunity, it is kind of element14 to offer it.

I am semi-retired software engineer, and have taken on a few small maker projects, including building a Prusa i3 3d printer, RetroPie game station, and some of my own prototype ideas.

I generally find I don't have enough odd electronic parts, and borrow the arduino from the printer, so this kit would fill all the gaps, and allow me to be more productive, and my funds are tight so my hobby gets little time.

I would love to go through the projects and write reviews, and/or make videos, as it would give me some direction to learn, without jumping in at the deep end all the time.

I also have a son, who I would love to teach programming and basic electronics to, and allow me more time to spend building the projects in my time with him, rather than finding spare time I don't have a lot of.

Thanks for the chance to get my hands on this.

pinkfloyero :

I always wanted to start in the world of electronics and arduino/raspberry (my father studied electronic engineering ), but the prices of certain kits pull me back. I am now studyin computer engineering at the university, and I think this kit would we awesome as a hobby/complement for my career (for the first year at least). I think I would do all the proyects that comes with the kit, and then start doing some more "advanced" proyects

Great for you guys giving away this awesome kit and let people get started in this amazing world!

P.D: Im thinking of making a mini-handheld computer to learn programming and carrying it to the university, and I think arduino would be a great base to this project 

imaginarygoose :

I would love to get my hands on one of these kits. As a current Electrical Engineering student with a background in programming, electrical systems, and electronics, this could really help me a lot. I also enjoy teaching others and helping others in any way I can. I spent six years in the Navy and my most memorable experiences come from training my fellow aviation electricians. If I receive one of these kits, I would immediately jump right into putting together the different projects and experimenting with projects of my own.

willygeek :

Hi there folk, I am a 73 year old who has, in previous lives, been a registered electrician, a technician for a large photocopying and high speed electronic printing company, eventually becoming a product launch tech specialist.  I had to retire 20 years ago due to ill health, but did subsequently work for myself for many years in website hosting and design as well as PC servicing and building.  But never at the level offered by ARDUINO.  So, I would love to get involved in this, not only to complete the projects, but to continue my development & earning and keep my brain active, at my age this is very important.  Whilst I don't have a specific project in mind at this point I am sure that something will come to mind as I go along with the project 14 programme.

I would also like to use these projects to get my 12 year old granddaughter interested in these, especially the coding aspects.  She is a very bright youngster and has already stated that she wants to become a scientist.

By the way I live in the southern part of the South Island of New Zealand.

mwmsjc :

I've been wanting to get into Arduino but keep hitting walls--there are some pretty good tutorials online and in print but the kit adds up quickly... best book yet has me at several hundred dollars just to complete the exercises. Sure, I'd have lots of parts once done; but that's not a small investment while I explore the possibilities through structured challenges--the best way I learn as an "achiever."

This promotion sounds like a great answer to my block--and the endorsements of your kit certainly beat the Amazon jungle (no pun intended).

I started with Raspberry Pi because it had a lower barrier to entry (no additional parts required to get started); but it's like using a hammer for every project, instead of just the right tools/parts--and that investment makes less sense. On the plus side, I have a nifty Homebridge controller to fill in the gaps (with *far* more affordable kit) until Apple can figure out how to establish a viable and sustainable HomeKit ecosystem.

My schedule doesn't fit meetups or community college classes that might have shared supplies, and I'm at the point where I need to do more than read--I need to get hands-on with more than blinking the onboard LED. I'm excited that this would let me branch out and test my technical chops in (quasi-) engineering to see how far I can go...

My books-to-hands-on style also mirrors what I see in some of my after-school STEM students. While some "get" programming, others have a greater affinity for hands-on activities. And the combination would benefit all participants and further break down stereotypes and barriers.

As a personal bonus, it would also mean my "false start" with C and C++ (not the same thing, but I know) before switching to Java wouldn't be for naught. And there could be some AR/VR (r/t) applications down the line... but I'm getting ahead of myself--at least a bit.

I certainly hope to be selected for this promotion--it would be a great experience for me and, regardless of whether I'm the next great Maker, even a basic to intermediate understanding would let me open new doors for others.

Thank you for your consideration.

14rhb :

I mainly design projects using the PIC microcontroller range and their C compiler (XC8/16/32), often without havng to explain the basics of what I am doing to anyone. I'd like to try and share some of that knowledge with other likeminded people who would like to see what they can actually make with electronics...the Arduino being a great way of starting. I like the idea of the challenges set out in the booklet, and for me the fun would be in attempting to explain what I have done in a clear, succinct and fun way without getting too caught up in complicated detail (perhaps just hyperlinking to additional source material).

The Arduino range has great community support with extensive official libraries, Github libraries, project examples and expansion boards. At the same time I think this 'low clock rate' level of microcontroller board provides the ideal platform for learning rather than some of the higher spec boards available which boot to a high level OS - it is important to understand computers at a byte/bit level. Another thing I like about the Arduino Uno is that the microcontroller is a PDIP package and so can be replaced if the experiment doesn't go as planned.

I've used an Arduino Nano in the past to rapidly prototype an idea - and had it working in hours.

pandatech :

  I am new to the Arduino.. wait!! Before you pass me over, think of the fun we could have with that device! Select me and we will venture down all the included projects, then into the unknown. I am into pinball with about 30 machines in my collection. There is a use waiting in there for one, I just know it. I am into keyboard, mostly analog and earlier digital keyboards, rack mount midi modules and yes, I would love to see how I can work that into my music area. Airplanes? Yes I fly both real and radio control... can I find a use there? Let's find out. It seems that the limit here is imagination. Drop one into my hands and we will see what happens. Challenge accepted!    

The Starter Kit walks you through the basics of using the Arduino in a hands-on way. You'll learn through building several creative projects. The kit includes a selection of the most common and useful electronic components with a book of 15 projects. Starting the basics of electronics, to more complex projects, the kit will help you control the physical world with sensor and actuators.

Projects you can make:

• 01 GET TO KNOW YOUR TOOLS an introduction to the basics
• 02 SPACESHIP INTERFACE design the control panel for your starship
• 03 LOVE-O-METER measure how hot-blooded you are
• 04 COLOR MIXING LAMP produce any color with a lamp that uses light as an input
• 05 MOOD CUE clue people in to how you're doing
• 06 LIGHT THEREMIN create a musical instrument you play by waving your hands
• 07 KEYBOARD INSTRUMENT play music and make some noise with this keyboard
• 08 DIGITAL HOURGLASS a light-up hourglass that can stop you from working too much
• 09 MOTORIZED PINWHEEL a colored wheel that will make your head spin
• 10 ZOETROPE create a mechanical animation you can play forward or reverse
• 11 CRYSTAL BALL a mystical tour to answer all your tough questions
• 12 KNOCK LOCK tap out the secret code to open the door
• 13 TOUCHY-FEEL LAMP a lamp that responds to your touch
• 14 TWEAK THE ARDUINO LOGO control your personal computer from your Arduino
• 15 HACKING BUTTONScreate a master control for all your devices!

Once you’ve mastered this knowledge, you’ll have a palette of software and circuits that you can use to create something beautiful, and make someone smile with what you invent. Then build it, hack it and share it.

You can find the Arduino code for all these projects within the Arduino IDE, click on File / Examples / 10.StarterKit.

An Introduction to Arduino

Arduino is a family of circuit boards that make microcontrollers easy to use. The microcontroller on the Arduino Uno circuit board is an Atmel AVR 8 bit chip. A microcontroller is basically a tiny, low powered computer that can run small simple computer programs. Atmel AVR microcontrollers are notable for being one of the first microcontrollers to use on-chip flash memory for program storage.

What made the Arduino popular, and the board of choice for so many maker projects Arduino is designed to make it easy to program microcontrollers thanks to the Arduino software development environment.  Before Arduino, you would typically have to type out a lot of binary and memorize a lot of hard to remember registers and instructions. You’d also have to use special programming hardware with custom cables to upload your program to your microcontroller.

Arduino got rid of all of that by creating the cross platform Arduino IDE that works with Windows, Mac, and Linux. Uploading your code to Arduino is as simple as connecting a USB cable to your board and clicking a button.You still can’t run a full operating system on an Arduino board, although there are microcontrollers out there that have progressed to the point where you can install an OS.  (Just not Linux, Linux variants, or Windows because of the resources required)

What Arduino is good for is for acting as the microcontroller “brain” of your electronics projects.  Because it is well supported there are code snippets that are all over the Internet that allow even beginners to do all kinds of complex electronics & design projects that they probably aren’t aware they could do because they don’t have the technical background.

This has all kinds of implications for creative artists that come up with good ideas, and have a natural interest in making devices that are beautiful.

The Arduino IDE

The USB cable you use to upload programs, referred to as sketches, it also powers your Arduino board.   You can also get a separate power supply and a lot of projects involve connecting the Arduino to some sort of battery.

A sketch is what you use the Arduino IDE for.  It is a unit of code that is uploaded and used to upload your programs to the microcontroller on your board.  You can run only one program at a time with on an Arduino board.

The Arduino IDE supports the languages C and C++ using special rules of code structuring.  The reason for this is to make programming your board as simple as possible.

A minimal Arduino C/C++ sketch consists of two functions:

• setup() – the function that is called once, when the sketch starts after you power-up or reset your board. It initializes the variables, input and output pin modes, and other libraries needed in the sketch.
• loop () – after setup () function is run the loop () function is executed repeatedly in the main program. It controls the board until it is turned off or reset.

For those who have programmed C or C++, you know there's a bit of a learning curve, especially if you have no prior programming experience. Arduino simplified their programming environment with these people in mind. They want creative artists to make something beautiful so what they did is made it as simple as possible to program their board.

Its called the Arduino IDE and it's also a good place to start if you’ve never programmed a microcontroller.  It’s possible that you’ll start with and then move onto other development boards down the line.  If you do so you'll likely be on your own for most things.  That's because, what makes the Arduino special is the tremendous support and documentation that already exists around you.  It lets you jump right into advanced projects because so many people have provided their work on it, freely and openly.

There are also a lot of code snippets that you can use, to make your life even easier, thanks to the support of the open source community that has rallied behind it’s platform.

Included in the kit is what is known as the Arduino Uno R3   It uses the ATmega 16U2 which a high performance, low-power Microchip 8 bit AVR with 16 KB of flash memory to run your programs on.

The Basics of Electronics

A Crash Course in Electronics Projects:

But first a crash course in electronics projects. Typically, you'll start an electronics project with a set of schematics, which are basically ingredients for electronics projects. If you have experience in electronics projects this would be a good place to start. If you're new to electronics projects this may not be something you are ready for and that's okay!

If you're interested in participating in a Project14 competition you should be able to jump right in. That's because this type of design competition is set up around general themes and it's inclusive to novices, experts, and anyone in between. The hardest part of trying something for the first time is not getting frustrated and giving up. As you gain more experience, you'll find schematics more useful. There are countless schematics all over the internet that will tell you exactly what you need to know to build a circuit.

You don't have to know anything about Ohm's Law to get started with electronics projects but as you get more involved with projects it's something you may very well learn to appreciate along the way. It's basically a formula that shows you the relationship between current (measured in Amp or A), voltage (measured in Volt or V), and resistance (measured in Ohm). The voltage pushes the current while the resistance prevents the current from getting pushed too hard.

Components Included in the Kit:

After completing the examples projects in the included book you should have everything you need to learn to start doing projects of your own. Here is a quick overview of what's in the kit and what you need to know about what's included:

• Resistors - a passive device, can be make up of nothing more than a wire, that allows you to design your circuit to have the voltages and currents that you want to have in your circuit.
• Capacitors - like a battery in that it can charge and discharge but it has a very low capacity. It is often used to introduce a time-delay in a circuit such as in a blinking light, for removing noise, or to make the supply voltage of a circuit more stable.
• Diode - used to ensure that electricity only flows in one type of direction. They are polarized so the direction you place it in a circuit matters. Placed one way they allow current to pass through, placed another way they allow block it. The anode side typically connects to the point of higher energy, while the cathode typically connects to the point of lower energy or ground.
• Light Emitting Diode (LED) - A type of diode that illuminates when electricity passes through it.. It's used in electronics projects to give visual feedback from a circuit such as when it's used to show that a circuit has power.
• Transistor - all though there's a lot more to it, a simplistic way to understand this is as a switch controlled by an electrical signal
• Inductor - a coil of wire, often used as a filter
• Integrated Circuit (IC) - an electronic circuit that has been reduced to the size of the chips. It can mean anything from an amplifier, a microprocessor, to a USB to serial converter. The Atmel Microcontroller on the Arduino is an example of an integrated circuit.
• H-bridge - a circuit that allows you to control the polarity of the voltage applied to a load, usually a motor. The included H-bridge is an integrated circuit.
• DC Motor - when electricity is applied to its leads it converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Coils of wire inside the motor become magnetized when current flows through them. These magnetic fields become magnetized when current flows through them. The magnetic fields attract and repel magnets which cause the shaft to spin. If the direction of the electricity is reversed, the motor will spin in the opposite direction.
• Servo Motor - A type of geared motor that rotates 180 degrees. The Arduino tells the motor what position to move to by sending electrical pulses to it.
• Breadboard - A board that you can use to build electronic circuits. It has rows of holes that allow you to connect wires and components together.  The version in this kit does not require soldering, some boards do.
• Jumper Wires - This is what you use to connect components to each other and to the Arduino.
• Male Header Pins - these pins fit into female sockets, like those on a breadboard. They help make connecting things easier.
• Optocoupler - allows you to connect two circuits that do not share a common power supply. It contains a small LED that when illuminated, causes a photoreceptor inside to close an internal switch. When you apply voltage to the + pin, the LED lights and the internal switch closes. The two outputs replace the switch in the second circuit.
• Piezo - an electrical component that can be used to detect vibrations and create noises.
• Phototransistor - a component that generates a current proportional to the light absorbed.
• Potentiometer - a variable resistor with three pins. Two of pins are connected to the ends of a fixed resistor. The middle pin, or wiper, moves across the resistor, dividing it into two halves. When the external sides of the are connected to voltage and ground, the middle leg will give the difference in voltage as you turn the knob.
• Pushbuttons - monetary buttons that close a circuit when they are pressed. They snap easily into the included breadboard and are good for detecting on/off signals.
• Temperature Sensor - changes its voltage output based on the temperature of the component. The outside legs connect to the power and ground. The voltage on the center pin changes as it gets warmer or cooler.
• Tilt Sensor - A type of sensor that will open or close depending on its orientation.  It's used to detect the tilting of an object. It uses a metal ball to commute the pins of the device from on to off and vice versa if the sensor reaches a certain angle.
• Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) - A type of alphanumeric or graphical display based on liquid crystals. The one that is included has 2 rows with 16 characters each.

Making the Board Useful

Arduino Uno Rev3 Schematic:

Arduino is open source as well as open hardware, meaning that you can build your own board, as schematics have been made freely available.  The only thing you can't do is use the Arduino name. There are a lot of people that have done that, built their own board, and there is a clone market to boot. If you wanted to build your own board you could, but then again, if you could then you're likely not the intended audience for this kit.

The above schematic is provided to demonstrate what you would need to do to build your own board.  Coming up with the Arduino required taking an off the shelf microcontroller, using a lot of extra parts, and putting it together in a way that is simple to use.   The genius behind the Arduino is the hard work is done for you, and the microcontroller is designed to be easily programmable through the Arduino IDE.

To do anything useful with the Arduino you will need to know the various parts of the circuit board.  There are what are known as shields, that plug into the board, and extend the capabilities of the board further.

The starter kit does not include any shields, but you'll still need to know what the pin connectors are for, if you are going to do anything useful with your board. When you are programming the microprocessor, you are simply telling it what the pins are to be used for.

External Power Supply - allows the Arduino to run when its not connected plugged into a USB port for power.  It accepts between 7V- 12V of voltage.

USB Plug - This powers the Arduino without needing to use an external power supply and is what you use to upload sketches (program) to the microcontroller, and to communicate with your Arduino sketch (via Serial, println(), etc).

AtMega328 Microcontroller - The brains of the Arduino which you program through the USB plug.  It contains three types of memory.  It has 32KB of nonvolatile Flash memory. This is used to store applications and is stored on your board even after it is removed from it's power source. 2KB of volatile SRAM memory which is used to store variables used by applications while it's running. 1KB of EEPROM nonvolatile memory. This is used to store data that remains available even after the board is powered down and powered up again.

Pin Functions:

Power Pins (3.3 V, 5 V, GND) - Use these pins to connect to circuitry at 3.3 V, 5V, or GND.  Make sure that whatever you power doesn't draw more than a few miliamps.

Serial Out (TX) and Serial In (RX) - Pins (0-1) are RX and TX respectively and used for sending and receiving serial data.  This port can be used to send and receive data from a GPS module, bluetooth modules, WIFI modules, etc.

Digital I/O Pins (2-13) - Accept 0 to 5 V input or output.  Utilizing tristate logic Arduino makes it easy to change between inputs and outputs in software. You can use this pin as an output where it spits out 5V for a digital 1, or 0 V for a digital 0.  You can also configure it to expect a voltage on the pin and that voltage could be interpreted as a 1 or a 0. These pins are used with digitalRead(), digitalWrite (). analogWrite() works only on pins with PWM symbol.

External Interrupts - Pins 2 and 3 can be configured to trigger an interrupt on low value, a rising or falling edge, or a change in value.

PWM Pins - any pins with ~ in front of them can be used to generate pulse modulated square waves. Pins 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11 provide 8-bit PWM output with the analogWrite() function.

Pin 13 - drives the built in LED, that is used by Arduino to receive power and useful for debugging.  When pin is HIGH value, the LED is on, when pin is LOW value, it's off.

Analog In Pins - Pins A0 through A5 provide 10 bits of resolution. Accepts 0 to 5 V inputs and is used to measure continuous voltages anywhere from 0 V to 5 V. It is possible to change the upper end of their range using the AREF pin and the analogReference() function.

Analog Reference Pin (AREF) - input pin used optionally if you want external voltage reference for ADC rather than internal Vref. You can configure using an internal register.

Reset Pin - bring this line low to reset the microcontroller.  Typically used to add a reset button to shields that block the one on the board.

Putting It All Together:

The Arduino is an open hardware and open software platform that allows you to make digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control physical devices. An Arduino is a circuit board with a microprocessor attached on it.  Because it is open software and open hardware, there are schematics to create your own board, and you can take advantage of the open source community and its support of the open platform by using code that is available for you to use in your electronics projects.  The microprocessor on the Arduino is programmed by connecting the Arduino to a computer and programming it using the Arduino IDE, designed a microcontroller simple.  Programs are referred to as sketches and are stored directly on the microprocessor. This allows your Arduino to act as the "brains" of your electronics projects.

The circuit board allows you to easily make the microcontroller on the Arduino useful.

The microcontroller listens to sensors and talks to actuators.

Sensors listen to the physical world. They convert energy given off when you press buttons, wave arms, or shout, into electrical signals. There are many types of sensors for human interface devices that inputs to Arduino. This includes keyboads, and buttons such as for game controllers.  Sensors that you can use to collect information from the physical world for collecting information about temperature, light, motion, position, and more.  Some common sensors for Arduino include laser sensors, temperature sensors, infrared emission sensors, tilt sensors, and accelerometers.

Using the Arduino IDE allows you to take advantage of all the sensors available for Arduino and program your microprocessor to listen to the sensors.

Actuators take action in the physical world. They convert electrical energy back into physical energy, like light and heat and movement. Examples of actuators for light include lasers, LCD displays, LEDs, and Lamps. Examples of actuators for motion include Servo Motors, DC Motors, Stepper Motors, Solenoids and electromagnets. Examples of actuators for sound include buzzers, beepers, speakers, and synthesizers. Power control is an actuator for controlling other electrically operated devices.