Arduino question

SoloFlyer

SoloFlyer

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So earlier this week was prime day on amazon and I was browsing to see if anything looked interesting. I happened to see that there were Arduino kits on sale for something like 15% off I think. I figured what the heck, I know nothing about electronics and am willing to learn plus I need a hobby, so I picked up an Elegoo Arduino Starter Kit. I saw some posts from earlier that some people were using these to build custom button configurations for SC, but what other cool things can I do with this?
 
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Bruttle

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I haven't had too much experience with an Arduino. Mostly I play around with the Raspberry Pi. I have had a bit of fun with them though. Arduino boards are good for "if this, then that" operations. For instance, "if someone walks into the room, then turn on the light" or "if the RFID dog collar comes within range of the door, then unlock the latch". They are a microcontroller that can facilitate an extremely wide variety of simple operations. One of my co-workers has one running a humidity based watering system because they always neglected their office plants. I always thought that was a cool way of using one.

Now a Raspberry Pi? I have those all over my house...
 
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Bambooza

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SoloFlyer said:
So earlier this week was prime day on amazon and I was browsing to see if anything looked interesting. I happened to see that there were Arduino kits on sale for something like 15% off I think. I figured what the heck, I know nothing about electronics and am willing to learn plus I need a hobby, so I picked up an Elegoo Arduino Starter Kit. I saw some posts from earlier that some people were using these to build custom button configurations for SC, but what other cool things can I do with this?
Click to expand...

Honestly, the sky is the limit on what you can do.
 
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Vavrik

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SoloFlyer said:
but what other cool things can I do with this?
Click to expand...
That depends on your imagination or need, and ability to write a sketch. It helps if you know at least the basics of C++, or some other object oriented programming language - but the instructions at https://www.arduino.cc/ starts you off from scratch. It can be a lot of fun, and an interesting way to automate tasks, make a robot part, game controller or any of ... i dunno, a million different things... There are people who have built systems to manage their garden, built fancy light shows right into clothing... the sky's the limit. A friend of my youngest learned how to make a working airlock in a day. It's not just about the arduino itself, it's also about the motors, sensors, switches... and putting them together to solve a problem.

Also just to add to what @Bruttle spoke of: You can even marry several Arduino devices with Raspberry PI devices. Leverage the processing power of a computer, and the process control capabilities of the Arduino... and you can even get intelligent devices. I wouldn't use it to drive an autonomous vehicle, but the technology isn't all that different.
 
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SoloFlyer

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Yeah I looked around to see what a Raspberry Pi was, seems like a cool little gizmo that I might pick up after I figure out the arduino stuff. My imagination fails me because I don't even know what I need so I have no idea what to make. I guess I'll have to start out with the basic instructions and work my way up in difficulty until inspiration strikes me.
 
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Bruttle

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SoloFlyer said:
Yeah I looked around to see what a Raspberry Pi was, seems like a cool little gizmo that I might pick up after I figure out the arduino stuff. My imagination fails me because I don't even know what I need so I have no idea what to make. I guess I'll have to start out with the basic instructions and work my way up in difficulty until inspiration strikes me.
Click to expand...
I stumbled on the Pi due to my love of NES games. It just kinda went from there. Along the way to figuring that out, I found a ridiculous amount of documentation on every project and use imaginable. That's the beauty of the internet. There's information out there for every possible thing.

Currently, the most useful one I have around the house is what they call a Pihole. It's a stand alone dns server that runs a blacklist for every ad site. It's a bit of a overly complicated way to run an adblocker, but sites can't detect it (and refuse access) and it works for every device and pc that hooks into my router and wifi.

I also have a Pi Zero running an emulator that I stuffed into an altoids tin. It's based off this project, called Mintypi. That was an unbelievably frustrating project. I am also building another retro arcade cabinet that uses a Pi 3b for its brains. There are tons of amazing projects.
 
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stockish

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Arduino is a rabbit hole of which I tried going down, you can do so much with it. I did some 3d printing and had Arduino parts that involved some displays and stuff when charging phones or being able to automate some parts of the process. Humble Bundle has a great deal on Arduino books that I would recommend to give you some ideas.
 
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DarthMunkee

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So I've never used an Arduino but I am familiar with the Pro Micro which is basically the same thing with a few less pins. They both use an ATmega controller so they are very similar. The Pro Micro is really popular in the custom keyboard world due to the cost and easy of use, and there is a great custom firmware available called QMK. It's open source and lots of community members contribute to it. I just started reading up on using analog controllers with it so I can make a game pad using the both keyboard switches and an analog thumbstick, sort of a home made Nostromo.

As for other projects, I think you are just limited to the sensors/actuators/etc... and your ability to program what you want it all to do.
 
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Vavrik

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DarthMunkee said:
As for other projects, I think you are just limited to the sensors/actuators/etc... and your ability to program what you want it all to do.
Click to expand...
Yep. that's pretty much the only limitation for most people, but you can also build your own sensors and actuators, motors etc. It can be a fun hobby if you can get into it. If you have the right tools, you can even build the Arduino devices yourself. That includes the Pro Mini by the way. It's an Arduino design... I'm kind of interested in it for one of my more interesting (to me) projects.
 
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DarthMunkee

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Vavrik said:
Yep. that's pretty much the only limitation for most people, but you can also build your own sensors and actuators, motors etc. It can be a fun hobby if you can get into it. If you have the right tools, you can even build the Arduino devices yourself. That includes the Pro Mini by the way. It's an Arduino design... I'm kind of interested in it for one of my more interesting (to me) projects.
Click to expand...
I just started doing SMD soldering with a proper hot air solder setup and I don't know why I didn't start sooner. That along with trying my hand at PCB design and soon I'll be able to make whatever I want. I've even been considering clearing out a corner of the garage to make a PCB fab station.
 
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MurderingPsycho

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I bought an Uno a few years ago just to play around. Arduinos are pretty easy to program and use. Just keep in mind that the AT Mega doesn't actually need the prototype board. If you find that you like it and want to actually make a few projects with it, you can get a board with replaceable controller chips and use that to prototype and program the controller. Then pull the AT Mega out of the board and rebuild the circuit with just the chip. The controller chips are only a couple of dollars each.
 
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Vavrik

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DarthMunkee said:
I just started doing SMD soldering with a proper hot air solder setup and I don't know why I didn't start sooner. That along with trying my hand at PCB design and soon I'll be able to make whatever I want. I've even been considering clearing out a corner of the garage to make a PCB fab station.
Click to expand...
I love what you're doing. I used to do it too, back from 83 to 98 to help with my work, and as a hobby from 2005. Nothing serious, just something to get ideas out of my head. I discovered Arduino almost by accident in 2008, and cut my "investment" in the hobby by something on the order of 98%. Buying a device went from between $500 and $1000, to 10 bucks quite literally overnight.
 
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