First and foremost, I must acknowledge that I am standing on the shoulders of giants, and that every giant is standing on the shoulders of giants (such as all contributors to instructables). If it weren't for the unknowably many people who had the mindfulness to freely share information, this would have been utterly impossible; I reckon the same if even a handful of these people chose otherwise. So, if you ...

So I mentioned in an earlier Instructable that I am a teaching assistant (TA) for an introductory engineering course for biomedical engineering majors at Vanderbilt University. My main task as a TA is to re-write a few laboratory exercises that the students will be performed during the class. One of the laboratory exercises was to implement a simple circuit to measure the someone's heart rate using photople ...

This guide details how to build a simple electricity energy monitor on that can be used to measure how much electrical energy you use in your home. It measures voltage with an AC to AC power adapter and current with a clip on CT sensor, making the setup quite safe as no high voltage work is needed. The energy monitor can calculate real power, apparent power, power factor, rms voltage, rms current. All the c ...

About 2 years ago I picked up a ADJD-S371 color sensor from Sparkfun to work with my arduino. I spent a few days getting it to work, but finally got it going pretty well. I still get a few emails here and there asking for help with it. So I figured I would start bildr’s tutorial posts off with this one. Before we begin, I want to say that I could not have done this without the awesome help of Marcus over at ...

Overview In this lab, you'll learn how to connect a variable resistor to a microcontroller and read it as an analog input. You'll be able to read changing conditions from the physical world and convert them to changing variables in a program. (:toc Table of Contents:) Parts For this lab you will need to have the following parts: Prepare the breadboard Conect power and ground on the breadboard to power and g ...

Using this method, I'll show you how you can access 5 (or even more) inputs through 1 Arduino pin. These buttons will only be read correctly if only one is pushed at any time though. As we go through it I'll explain whatever background info you need to know, so as long as you can blink a button, read a switch and read an analog input, you'll be fine. If you can't do any of these, I'll point you in the right ...

This project is designed to help you construct some relay boxes for controlling power from your wall socket using an arduino or microcontroller.  The inspiration for writing an instructable came when I decided to build some relay boxes for my personal Garduino project.  For safety concerns I started designing my own relay circuit and outlet until I came across SparkFun's article "Controlling Big, Mean Devic ...

Hi. I've just got myself an Arduino Uno R3 and I'm really new in the world of Arduinos. There's so much to learn and explore :) One of the first shields that I'm tempted to buy is the Prototype Shield. I think building a prototype circuit right on top of the Arduino is pretty slick. So why buy it when you can make it? Trust me, it is very satisfying :) The first thing that comes into mind is of course to ma ...

This tutorial will show you how to create a garment that changes its behavior depending on how conductive you are. It detects conductivity through iron-on conductive fabric that we will use, and it will light up and sing different notes depending on how you touch the conductive fabric. We'll be using sewable electronics (the LilyPad arduino module) and conductive threads and fabrics so that your garment wil ...

I love my Arduino. It got me into, and hooked on, microcontroller programming. I also like the expandability that shields provide. My Arduino can be a GPS Locator one minute, and be connected to the web the next. There's also a kit that lets you make your own shields. That last option always bothered me. If you're making a bunch of different shields, the cost of ProtoShields starts to add up. Wouldn't it ma ...

This project emulates a trumpet by playing notes using the three buttons (valves). This is easy to make and fun to play with, though it can only play one octave and no sharps/flats. Step 1: Code Load this into your Arduino: int speaker = 9; // Hook up speaker to digital pin 9 int sw1 = 15; // Switch hooked to analog pin 1 int sw2 = 16; // Switch hooked to analog pin 2 int sw3 = 17; // Switch hooked to analo ...

The Twittering office chair "tweets" (posts a Twitter update) upon the detection of natural gas such as that produced by human flatulence. This is part of my commitment to accurately document and share my life as it happens. For more in depth theory, please see the next step entitled Theory. See the results of the toots of your on labor on Twitter. Step 1: Theory According to my coworker, Twitter is suppose ...