ePanorama.net » Arduino

Depends what you want. I’d go with a microcontroller for starts so you can change it programmatically. I’d bet someone has done it with an Arduino or Pi. Here are some links to interesting looking projects. Those circuits operate mostly at safe low voltages and control low power LEDs. The same ideas can be used to control higher power lights with help of FETs or SSRS (if you know how to do that safely).

Disco LED
It is a simple tutorial on how to create disco lights.
https://www.hackster.io/MightyProjects/disco-led-b261d5
The project is about the disco lights. Just upload the code to the arduino and enjoy the lights in a dark room.

Disco Lights With Arduino
https://www.instructables.com/Disco-Lights-With-Arduino/

Disco Lights
https://mehackit.org/en/courses/electronics_projects/05-projects/04-disco_lights/
Build disco lights that flash to the beat of the music. The sound sensor in the Maker Kit can track music, and at the same time, we’ll learn how to flash five leds independently with Arduino.

I need some help making a disco ball
https://forum.arduino.cc/t/i-need-some-help-making-a-disco-ball/874123
This project is triying to recreate the melody “Take on me” using two piezos and flash some LEDs. There is the code and discussion on that.

Arduino 101 with Blinking Disco LED
https://www.ashishvishwakarma.com/arduino-101-disco-led/
This is a beginner level Arduino DIY. Tweak the Arduino blinking LED example with a Tri-color LED, and made it as Disco LED.

RGB Disco Light
https://www.instructables.com/RGB-Disco-Light/
This project will show you how to create a rainbow disco light with just some wires, code, and an RGB LED module.

Arduino LED Chaser|| Sequential LED Blinker || Chaser LED
https://www.hackster.io/helloanimesh390/arduino-led-chaser-sequential-led-blinker-chaser-led-ca266f

PROJECT 4: DISCO STROBE LIGHT
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/arduino-project-handbook/9781457198861/xhtml/ch04.xhtml
Turning the potentiometer up or down changes the speed of the flashing lights, creating a strobe effect. You can use red and blue LEDs for a flashing police light effect.

WS2812 based circuits blog post
https://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2016/06/19/ws2812-addressable-leds-test/
WS2812 is a intelligent control LED light source that the control circuit and RGB chip are integrated in a package of 5050. WS2812b LED strips are very popular among the maker community because of their versatility and ease-of-use.

WS2812b LEDs
https://learn.illuminations.mit.edu/chapter/ws2812b
In order to make MIT Illuminations-style lights at home, we need to scale up from programmatically controlling one LED to a lot at once! WS2812b LED strips are very popular among the maker community because of their versatility and ease-of-use.

How To Control WS2812B Individually Addressable LEDs using Arduino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhYu0k2woRM

ARDUINO DMX512 CONTROLLER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PjBBBQB2m4
Using the DMXSimple Arduino library, you can get to get two American DJ Micro Wash RGBW PAR can lights running, controlling them with manual commands from the serial monitor or automatic scenes from the sketch.

NEOPIXEL DMX Controller for a WS2812B LED Strip Using Arduino Uno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ_UWYBOj8M
How to use Arduino as a DMX controller and receiver to control commercial DMX fixtures as well as your own projects. This uses the Arduino to send and receive custom hard coded data with the DMX protocol, not meant to receive other standard controller data.

How to Make DMX512 Fixture Using Arduino to Control the Stepper Motor | How to Build DMX512 Fixture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtvbEccsefk
This is a project demonstrating how to make DMX512 Fixture Using Arduino to Control the Stepper Motor. We have controlled the Stepper motor position angle using the value on the DMX512 channel. In this fixture we can change the Channel number addressing using the simple DIP switches.

Disco lights DIY
https://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2024/04/21/disco-lights-diy/

More videos:
https://youtu.be/bNWzbIw8Mfs?si=yLPNU8CA0xi9ZH9A
https://youtu.be/nB3DT5NU-vA?si=FZ-lMXN-SFCLwcu7
https://youtu.be/G-zCNkNp4RY?si=UwvrA9n2QXHOl7UV
https://youtu.be/2uLxyBaii70?si=X_m9g1kVHIkDSq8B
https://youtu.be/82dXy_CqCeg?si=rd8J-Vt-ohI0xGtw

Arduino simulators in web

Tomi Engdahl — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 18:58:39 +0000

There are now Arduino simulators for what you will just need a web browser you’re good to go.

Leonardo Russo’s ArduinoSimulator is an open-source Arduino Simulator written in JavaScript that runs code directly in your web browser and shows the serial output and digital/analog pins status for various Arduino boards like Arduino UNO R3, MEGA1280, MEGA2560, and NANO V3.

This simulator has an area to write your code and save it locally. To test a program simply click on the run button at the top. To visualize the program operation the simulator shows icons for digital pins states (red = low, green = high) and analog pins (value from 0 to 255), and a serial monitor with a field that allows you to send commands as needed.

Arduino simulator demo
https://lrusso.github.io/ArduinoSimulator/demo1.html

Arduino Simulator in JavaScript – source code
https://github.com/lrusso/ArduinoSimulator

Wokwi is an online simulator for Arduino, Raspberry Pi Pico, and ESP32 boards designed to help to learn programming without the actual hardware. Wokwi simulator looks like it could be a great little tool for educators to emulate circuits and run code right in a web browser. Wokwi has support for several Arduino boards (Uno, Mega, Nano), the Raspberry Pi Pico, and a generic ESP32 board programmed either with Arduino or MicroPython. Wokwi is free to use with public projects and standard features, but there’s also a premium membership option with more features.

Wokwi
https://wokwi.com/

Links to sources:

https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/01/16/arduinosimulator-is-an-open-source-arduino-simulator-that-runs-on-your-web-browser/

https://www.cnx-software.com/2023/04/10/wokwi-arduino-raspberry-pi-pico-esp32-board-simulator/

Tinkercad for Arduino simulation

Tomi Engdahl — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 19:35:07 +0000

Tinkercad is a free web app for 3D design, electronics, and coding, trusted by millions of people around the world. Tinkercad is a free-of-charge, online 3D modeling program that runs in a web browser. Users can quickly learn how to use the Tinkercad software through basic tutorial lessons. It’s used by teachers, kids, hobbyists, and designers to imagine, design, and make anything!

Since it became available in 2011 it has become a popular platform for creating models for 3D printing and for teaching. In May 2013, Autodesk announced at a Maker Faire that they would acquire Tinkercad.

Tinkercad has a electronics circuits design section that has a browser-based electronic circuit simulator. Despite being an entry-level tool for programming and electronics, Tinkercad offers advanced features such as multi-board simulation, complex analog circuits and can simulate code running on several micro-controllers.

That simulator supports Arduino Uno microcontrollers, Micro:bit boards, or ATtiny chips. Code can be created using graphical CodeBlocks or text-based code. It supports programming languages such as C++, JavaScript, and Python. Users can write code to control their circuits and create interactive projects such as robots, alarms, and other devices.

For Arduino experimenting Tinkercad comes with built-in libraries for popular components, including the Adafruit Neopixel, Arduino Servo, and I2C display libraries. However, custom libraries cannot be selected or uploaded. The simulator also supports analog components that are fully simulated. It allows us to test our Arduino program without having real hardware. You can (perhaps you SHOULD) simulate your own designs before trying them on real hardware.

Tinkercad Circuits is probably the first option most users will find when searching for an Arduino simulator, and it’s easy to see why this app is popular among makers. Tinkercad allows you to do Arduino programming using blocks and Arduino own programming language (similar to C++). For beginners, it is recommended to use Blocks + Text mode. With Blocks you can code by selecting the blocks and connecting them appropriately. You can start the simulation by clicking Start Simulation.

Tutorial videos:

Blink an LED With Arduino in Tinkercad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyG0koj9nNY

LEDs & Breadboards With Arduino in Tinkercad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MojSo7OtF9w

How to Use TINKERCAD For Beginners | Make Arduino Projects Without Hardware: This video teaches you how to use Tinkercad to draw schematic, program Arduino projects and design electronics without hardware
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbOkCnk73ZM

Arduino TINKERCAD Simulation Tutorial- Complete Guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kehd7aH4rug

TinkerCAD Tutorial – Using the Arduino with CodeBlocks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxGNnoLXgcQ

Programming Arduinos in TinkerCAD – LEDs and Switches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRJQt7m_fjE

Tinkercad Circuits Tutorial – Using an LCD screen with Arduino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUJHHLAxRoQ

Potentiometer Analog Input With Arduino in Tinkercad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EDYMQ9lczA

Links:

https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/blogs/2022/arduino-simulators-for-hobbyists-makers-and-classroom-environments

https://wiki.nus.edu.sg/display/Arduino/Tinkercad

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/flHpOFbJ1CN-arduino-simulator-and

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/dEOWWJatCtv-arduino-simulator

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/bTSWA8XP3Ds-mighty-krunk/editel?tenant=circuits

Arduino UNO R4

Tomi Engdahl — Sat, 01 Apr 2023 05:49:55 +0000

Arduino has released an official successor to the iconic Arduino UNO R3 board, the most well-known representative of the microcontroller platform and programming environment based on Arduino’s open hardware, has been released. The Arduino UNO R4 is the first major update to the venerable Arduino UNO R3, which has been around since 2010 and has over ten million users.

UNO R4 continues with the same physical form factor and 5 volt signal levels. This means that the new UNO R4 is compatible with existing hardware. Arduino says that most of the existing Arduino-language software libraries should work without modification, but some that are optimized for the AVR may need to be modified.

The biggest change id that Arduino UNO R4 replaces the 8-bit Atmel ATMega328 processor used in the R3 version with a modern 32-bit solution based on Reneasa’s ARM core. The UNO R4 features a 32-bit Renesas RA4M1 Cortex®-M4 processor, which significantly increases processing power, memory and functionality. The Renesas RA4M1 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller (MCU) operates at a 48 MHz clock frequency, so it offers significantly more power than the previous version’s 16 MHz processor. There is also more memory (32 kilobytes of SRAM and 256 kilobytes of flash memory).

The card connections have improved. In response to community feedback, the USB port is now a modern USB-C. In addition, the maximum voltage of the card’s power supply has been increased to 24 V with improved thermal design. In addition, the card offers a 12-bit DA converter, CAN bus support and an SPI port as new features. The built-in ADC in the new chip is has 14 bits resolution.

Arduino UNO R4 comes available at the end of May in two versions, named UNO R4 WiFi and UNO R4 Minima. In the WiFi version (suitable for IoT applications), wireless communication is handled by the Espressif S3 WiFi module in addition to the RA4M1. The UNO R4 Minima has just RA4M1 controller and no wireless communications. The new UNO R4 version will not replace the current R3 version completely and the current UNO R3 version will also be available after release of R4.

Links to more information:

Arduino UNO R4 is a giant leap forward for an open source community of millions
https://blog.arduino.cc/2023/03/25/arduino-uno-r4/

https://store.arduino.cc/pages/unor4?selectedStore=eu

https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2023/03/27/arm-suorittimilla-lisaa-tehoa-arduino-pienkortteihin/

https://www.hackster.io/news/arduino-announces-the-32-bit-uno-r4-0872e224235d

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/arduino-uno-r4-announced

https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/arduino-is-back-to-the-future-with-the-uno-r4/

Arduino IDE 2.0 is here

Tomi Engdahl — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 06:47:27 +0000

Arduino IDE 2.0 has moved to stable and is available for download! It features a modern editor and provides a better overall user experience thanks to a responsive interface and faster compilation time.

Check out welcome Arduino IDE 2.0 and https://blog.arduino.cc/2022/09/14/its-here-please-welcome-arduino-ide-2-0/ and take a look at Arduino IDE 2 Tutorials to discover and learn all the new features of the Arduino IDE 2. Arduino promises that Arduino IDE 2.0 kis faster and more powerful programming tool than previous versions. The Arduino IDE 2.0 is an improvement of the classic IDE, with increased performance, improved user interface and many new features, such as autocompletion, a built-in debugger and syncing sketches with Arduino Cloud.

The Autocomplete Feature is designed to make your code-writing experience faster and more pleasant. The autocompletion tool can be a real time-saver, while also helping you develop an understanding of a programming language. And in cases if you don’t want to use it, you can easily disable and enable it as you want (navigate to File > Preferences).

For people who work on multiple computers or want to store their Sketches securely in the Cloud, the Remote Sketchbook integration could be a really useful feature. For now, all the sketches you have in Arduino Cloud and Arduino Web Editor can be edited in IDE 2.0. If you don’t have Arduino IDE 2.0 installed on all your machines, just open the Arduino Web Editor and you can code from your browser in the online IDE with access to all your sketches and libraries. You can also work offline and sync later if you want to work that way.

Dark Mode is for those programmers that are feeling the strain from the traditional Arduino IDE editor white text background.

The IDE 2.0 features a richer Serial Plotter that is a versatile tool for tracking different data and variables which are received from your Arduino board.

Debugging with the Arduino IDE 2.0 is a newly introduced feature. A debugger is a software tool which is used to test and debug programs. It basically goes through a program in a controlled manner, with the help of a hardware interface which can help navigate through the program’s execution. The debugger is compatible with all SAMD boards (but not older classic Arduino UNO and other boards). Arduino Zero board or Atmel-ICE and J-Link debuggers hardware to use the feature. With most boards you will need that hardware debugger device, but he Arduino Zero does not require any additional hardware, as it already has a built-in debugger. In order to use the Debugger, we need to upload a sketch to our board first, making sure that the built program will be optimized for debugging.

Why not just download the Arduino IDE 2.0 to your computer. It is available for free for Windows, macOS and Linux. Check out a quick guide on how to install the IDE 2.0 on your operative system.

Getting Started with Arduino IDE 2.0 is an introductory guide what to do with the Arduino IDE 2.0 when you have it installed. Take a look at it next and start experimenting.

The new IDE is based on the Eclipse Theia framework, which is an open source project based on the same architecture as VS Code (language server protocol, extensions, debugger). The front-end is written in TypeScript, while most of the backend is written in Golang.

Star Wars day Arduino projects

Tomi Engdahl — Wed, 04 May 2022 14:55:22 +0000

Star Wars Day is an informal commemorative day observed annually on May 4 to celebrate the Star Wars media franchise.

To celebrate #StarWarsDay, Arduino team has put together a list of inspired builds from a galaxy far, far away. #MayThe4thBeWithYou

The force is strong with these Arduino projects!

https://blog.arduino.cc/2022/05/04/the-force-is-strong-with-these-arduino-star-wars-projects/

Arduino humidity sensors

Tomi Engdahl — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 09:32:49 +0000

Humidity meters are a useful device to help to ensure that your home or workplace is kept at a reasonable humidity. It is a good idea to monitor the humidity to avoid problems caused by dampness or extreme dry conditions. Here are videos and links a look at how they humidity sensors work and how you can check their accuracy and how they work.

Humidity meters and their sensors

Analog Hygrometers – how?

Arduino – Humidity Sensor © GPL3+
The room temperature and humidity will be printed to the serial monitor.
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/sachendra003/arduino-humidity-sensor-288146

How to Pick the Best Temperature and Humidity Sensor for Your Arduino Project
https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2020/04/07/how-to-pick-the-best-temperature-and-humidity-sensor-for-your-arduino-project/

Arduino’s Open Source Report

Tomi Engdahl — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 13:21:56 +0000

Arduino’s Latest Open Source Report Highlights Major Growth, Community Contributions
https://www.hackster.io/news/arduino-s-latest-open-source-report-highlights-major-growth-community-contributions-08945cdbf400

New boards, new software, and a 25 percent boost in community-provided libraries among the highlights from Arduino’s 2021.

The full report is now available for download from the Arduino website at https://blog.arduino.cc/2022/01/13/the-2021-arduino-open-source-report-is-out/