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Suggest a project for me

awinning

Hi,

 

I've really enjoyed being on element14, and it has reawakened my desire to actually play around with electronics. I think the main spur has been reading about the Arduino like boards coming onto the market now. At the moment we have three Multicomp Arduino clone boards here, the Amicus board, which is an Arduino clone with a PIC controller here, and mbed. I think personally I'd like to try the PIC programming, but if anyone thinks the AVR or mbed is easier to get into, I'm open to convincing.

 

About me,

I graduated in 1996 with a BSc in Electronic Systems. Since then I have worked in a number of publications writing about electronics, but not practising. My favourite subjects were digital design and C programming. Currently I'm working on this, which hopefully you are all familiar with.

 

About the project,

I'm looking for something to ease me back into electronics. I want to use either one of the Arduino clone boards or an mbed. I'd hopefully be designing a shield/board for the chosen dev kit using EAGLE Freemium. The project should be fairly cheap and at an intermediate level, I'd like to stretch myself a bit while learning (and hopefully you are all going to help me through image).

 

Any and all suggestions welcome!

Parents

  • Hi Ally,

     

    Welcome back to the ranks of electronics experimenters!

     

    I'd follow your inclination to use the Pic-based amaicus, just because I find I work better and faster doing something I want to image

     

    As for a project - do you have other interests you could link into? Music? Photography? Food? Home brewing?

     

    I mention home brewing because I saw a fascinating arduino application in this area (and ISTR you enjoy a pint).

     

    I'll put my thinking cap on, but I think an idea of other interests of yours would help us all to focus on promising areas.

     

    Best, Romilly

  • in reply to romilly

    Hey Romilly,

     

    Funny you should mention hobbies, I've just bought a Vespa and I was enviously looking at this http://www.janspace.com/b2evolution/arduino.php/2010/06/26/scooterputer. I was actually thinking of replicating it for the Amicus. But I do like the problem solving aspect as opposed to try emulate someone else's effort.

     

    Other hobbies, I'm neither going to confirm or deny the beer drinking assumption, but I have a feeling me operating a alcohol production site in the Farnell lab would probably be frowned upon, as well as invalidating our insurance.

     

    Music is a good call, but I usually enjoy listening as opposed to making it.

     

    Robotics, not a hobby, but something I'd like to try, so maybe something electromechanical, motor drivers etc?

     

    Flying things...have always been fascinated by flight!

     

    Games, I love computer games, especially retro ones,

     

    Camping, goes with the scooter.

     

    Ithink that's it for now, but I'll add as I think more up,


    Ally

  • in reply to awinning

    Hi Ally,

     

    The scooterputer looks great fun, and useful as well. But

     

    1) It sounds as if you'd like to build something to your own design, and

    2) It seems quite ambitious. Nothing wrong with that, but I'd go for a quicker and easier win for a first project.

     

    First thoughts:

     

    A combined IR sensor and motor drive shield, which you could use as the basis for a robot you could control with a TV remote.

    A graphics LCD shield so you could recreate the grandfather of all computer games - the classic 'pong' video game. You could use a Wii remote with its I2c interface to control the paddles.

    An autonomous blimp - slower than a plane, so simple to fly. You could start with a simple controller and add capability as you find time/money: accelerometers, GPS, a video interface...

     

    Cheers, Romilly

  • in reply to romilly

    Thanks Romilly,

     

    Some good suggestions there. While I'd obviously prefer a scale model of the Typhoon Eurofighter, like real life, it is probably better to start at Montgolfier brothers level! I also like the fact that the project is expandable, I think this is my favourite one.

     

    Pong also sounds good, but I think I'd have to go all the way and build retro paddle controllers. I always have been interested in graphics, So i'd also give strong consideration to this

     

    The motor driver sounds good, but I think I'd prefer an end product...kinda think for me if I built it, I'd think, that's cool, but it will be cooler next year when I build a robot image

Reply
  • in reply to romilly

    Thanks Romilly,

     

    Some good suggestions there. While I'd obviously prefer a scale model of the Typhoon Eurofighter, like real life, it is probably better to start at Montgolfier brothers level! I also like the fact that the project is expandable, I think this is my favourite one.

     

    Pong also sounds good, but I think I'd have to go all the way and build retro paddle controllers. I always have been interested in graphics, So i'd also give strong consideration to this

     

    The motor driver sounds good, but I think I'd prefer an end product...kinda think for me if I built it, I'd think, that's cool, but it will be cooler next year when I build a robot image

Children
  • in reply to awinning

    MY suggestion would be:

     

    Make a PONG clone using your preferred dev board and an OLED or LCD display.

    Start by just getting it working, with anything at all on screen, then add basic bouncing ball, then add user input to control the bats and finally add scoring.

     

    That way you get to re-learn all about power, interfacing, user input, debouncing switches, logic and AI.

     

    Then you can add an ethernet interface, IP Stack and network the game ;-)

     

    Whatever you do, I'm sure it'll be fun and you'll enjoy the process.