# Arduino



## Cole&Jacksdad (Jan 20, 2011)

WOO HOO! I just orderd my first microcontroller for a pneumatic prop I am building. I orderd an Arduino uno starter kit. I can't wait to get it and play around with it.


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## MonkeyBasic (Mar 22, 2009)

Great to hear! Do you have a link to the Arduino controller? I'm not too familiar with it.


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

MonkeyBasic said:


> Great to hear! Do you have a link to the Arduino controller? I'm not too familiar with it.


Here is a kit being sold by Adafruit. Kind of pricey. I like the Arduino controllers, but the price can add up pretty quick. I might get one just to play with, but I think I will stick with dirt cheap PICAXEs for building props.


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## Cole&Jacksdad (Jan 20, 2011)

I haven't seen much or heard much about PICAXE. It seems there is alot more info on Arduino's and it's components. I didn't think the Arduino was too expenseve compared to the button bangers and some of the other microcontrollers. An Arduino microcontroller can be had for about $25 on ebay.


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

The last 5 I bought were $18 each with integral USB & 25 I/O lines including 12 Analog In and 7 PWM Out. For $8 more I can get 46 I/O lines. I can set any of the I/O lines to be an input, output, PWM or servo pin. They make great prop controllers and there's a ton of code already written so you don't have to be an expert. There's an Arduino discussion over at GarageOfEvil and a huge following (and code collection) at www.arduino.cc.

You can get an AdaFruit.com USB Boarduino for $25 (on Saturday nights they offer a 10% discount, this Saturday the promo code is JAN22 good for 24 hours) http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?m..._id=91&zenid=92ed5aa951b143d63e1dff9d816c2a05

Yes Picaxes are cheap but you have to consider the cost of a programming cable and also some kind of proto board and associated parts. You can save money by building those yourself as I have done before. It's really nice to be able to program and talk to an Arduino over USB especially when you use software like Vixen or VSA to control lighting and props.


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## Graverobber (Dec 7, 2010)

HomeyDaClown said:


> It's really nice to be able to program and talk to an Arduino over USB especially when you use software like Vixen or VSA to control lighting and props.


I got an Arduino for Christmas and my plan was to use it to hack together a lighting controller. Are you saying that you use Vixen to setup lighting sequences with the Arduino?


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

Graverobber said:


> I got an Arduino for Christmas and my plan was to use it to hack together a lighting controller. Are you saying that you use Vixen to setup lighting sequences with the Arduino?


Yepper.

There are many examples out there check out this thread for starts:

http://doityourselfchristmas.com/fo...en-Generic-Serial-Output-controls-the-Arduino!

Or do a search on Arduino DMX if that's your game, Yes an Arduino can do DMX:

http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/DMX

Or better yet:

http://iad.projects.zhdk.ch/physicalcomputing/hardware/arduino/dmx-shield-fur-arduino/


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## Graverobber (Dec 7, 2010)

That those links gave me a lot of great ideas.
Thanks for posting them!


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## Cole&Jacksdad (Jan 20, 2011)

WOO HOO! My Arduino came in today. Now what? Not sure what to do or where to start.LOL!


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

Cole&Jacksdad said:


> WOO HOO! My Arduino came in today. Now what? Not sure what to do or where to start.LOL!


Great!

Now power it up (plug it into a USB port) and hit the reset and you'll be running your first program or sketch as it's known in the Arduino world. (they come preloaded with the LED Blinky sketch).

I'd say grab the latest Arduino IDE at www.arduino.cc then
fire up your board and start to play.

Great tutorials over at Adafruit.com: http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=tutorials&zenid=70bcf46d29176a72dd760c00b5979e8d

Limor Fried (Ladyada) runs Adafruit and is a brilliant electrical engineer and always cuts to the chase of matters. There's a great forum on her site to ask Arduino questions (beginner or otherwise).

I've been known to come up with a good answer now and then also if you need help.


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

HomeyDaClown said:


> Yepper.
> 
> There are many examples out there check out this thread for starts:
> 
> ...


That $22 USB cable has been a big stumbling point for my first foray into Picaxe. Are you saying that the arduino comes with a USB Cable for $18??. I'm only vaguly familiar with thier idea of "Shields" and need to learn a lot more before I dive in with either the P-A or the arduino.

Since I am new to this, can you give an objective viewpoint of the advantages disadvantages of the arduino?? You sort of answered it earlier, but I've heard the programming language is more complicated. Since I AM new, would I benifit by starting with an arduino rather than a Picaxe?? My goals are multiple. but in general I'd like to be able to program sounds combined with either servo control or pneumatic selenoids (or both). In other words, how much would it cost to create a Picaboo type controller with stereo sound? and is there and advantage to using the arduino to do this?

I have a fairly logical mind and have done my own ( minimal) programming before in OLDER computers.


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

niblique71 said:


> That $22 USB cable has been a big stumbling point for my first foray into Picaxe. Are you saying that the arduino comes with a USB Cable for $18??. I'm only vaguly familiar with thier idea of "Shields" and need to learn a lot more before I dive in with either the P-A or the arduino.
> 
> Since I am new to this, can you give an objective viewpoint of the advantages disadvantages of the arduino?? You sort of answered it earlier, but I've heard the programming language is more complicated. Since I AM new, would I benifit by starting with an arduino rather than a Picaxe?? My goals are multiple. but in general I'd like to be able to program sounds combined with either servo control or pneumatic selenoids (or both). In other words, how much would it cost to create a Picaboo type controller with stereo sound? and is there and advantage to using the arduino to do this?
> 
> I have a fairly logical mind and have done my own ( minimal) programming before in OLDER computers.


Most flavors of Arduinos now have a USB type "B" connector on-board to accept a standard USB "B" to "A" cable (the $2 cable like most digital cameras use"

You do not have to be a C programmer. Most of the programming is already done and is available for download either as sample sketches or libraries with example code to just copy and paste. Code can all be written in a text file with notepad. The free Arduino IDE compiles and uploads the code to the Arduino board.

Lots of simple tutorials online (young kids are doing these in school) like these: http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=tutorials&zenid=8e13053f8ac179833eb47a6eaf73f9b3

There are now a ton of shields (external hardware interfaces to do various tasks) that plug into Arduino boards to control motors, sounds, SD cards..........

Just about any sensor you can imagine has already been used with an Arduino somewhere somehow, so you won't have to look farr for example code you can just copy and use.

Here's a simple talking skull with a Adafruit Wave shield: http://www.instructables.com/id/Talking-Arduino-Halloween-Skeleton/

You could add a wave shield and still control over a dozen servos and some leds on a single Arduino.

I still use picaxes but for generally smaller projects, controlling a few servos or leds. They are fun to play with and cheap if you use a serial cable setup.

There are also dedicated flavors of Arduinos like a Roboduino for remote servo and motor control, an Arduino Mega can control 54 servos or a newer Netduino that has a 32bit 48mhz processor and can be programmed in .Net framework and is only $29


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

The Picaxe cable is no big deal...you can make your own serial version very cheaply, take a look at the manual. I found an old audio cable in my junk box and bought a serial connector and hood for a buck. I cut off one end of the audio cable and soldered the serial connector on. Done! And I've ordered a USB-to-serial connector from ebay for two bucks, delivered, which will work on my newer computers without a serial connection.

Don't miss hpropman's in-progress book on the Picaxe: http://www.freewebs.com/hpropman/ (Scroll down)

I have two Arduinos and got interested in the Picaxe because of cost. Arduinos come in only a few types; the lowest cost is twenty bucks. If you want a bunch of microcontrollers in your haunt, it can add up. I realized that there were several spots where I could use a smaller controller and the smallest Picaxe would do everything I need. You can get the chip for $2.65 and a board with basic parts on it for about five bucks. Solder a few parts to the board and you're off. Since many props in a haunt only need the controller to do a few things, and many times you end up building the controller into the prop, you might as well get a smaller, less expensive controller.

This animated skeleton fish is a perfect example - an Arduino would've been a waste, with lots of unused capacity: http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=25364

Another thing to consider is the programming language. The Arduino uses a variation of C, and the Picaxe uses a variation of Basic. Basic is easier for most people to use.

And if you need a controller with more capability, there are several Picaxe chips you can step up to. See the Garage of Evil for a couple of articles in their new how-to on using a Picaxe. http://www.garageofevilnetwork.com/

Whatever you pick, you'll have fun with it!


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

Thanks HDC and JH. I was inclined to go Picaxe anyway, but was just curious about the arduino before I finally placed my order. I've been following Joe's book for a while and he's already helped me a lot to get under way. I saw the 2 part tutorial in GOE. I wish I could attend the "In person" part 3. Now if it'll just stop snowing here in the northeast so I can get back to work, I'll be Golden.


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

niblique71 said:


> Thanks HDC and JH. I was inclined to go Picaxe anyway, but was just curious about the arduino before I finally placed my order. I've been following Joe's book for a while and he's already helped me a lot to get under way. I saw the 2 part tutorial in GOE. I wish I could attend the "In person" part 3. Now if it'll just stop snowing here in the northeast so I can get back to work, I'll be Golden.


Before I pick anything, I try to figure out what I'm going to build with it 1st.
Then try to find the solution with the best options for that. I've built props with nothing more than a motor, some magnets and reed switches for control.

2 things I've learned well through the years:

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
You get what you pay for.

Just go build something kewl before the nano or pico processors arrive.


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

JeffHaas said:


> I've ordered a USB-to-serial connector from ebay for two bucks, delivered, which will work on my newer computers without a serial connection.


Yes, but serial is much slower than USB 2.0 and since the picaxe cannot act as a USB host, you cannot inteface other USB devices directly.



JeffHaas said:


> I have two Arduinos and got interested in the Picaxe because of cost. Arduinos come in only a few types; the lowest cost is twenty bucks.


Arduinos come in many, many types... at least 43 that I know of so-far. I own 4 completely different versions. Two more "official" versions were released last month alone. With it's open source hardware and software, there are dozens of variants by many companies (SparkFun, AdaFruit, SeeedStudio, Solarbotics, Freeduino......). The lowest cost Arduino is the Solarbotics Ardweeny, it's $9.95. If you are comparing apples to apples, the newer Arduino Atmega328 processor chip is $5 shipped. You can plug it into a proto board and program it just as you would a picaxe.



JeffHaas said:


> Another thing to consider is the programming language. The Arduino uses a variation of C, and the Picaxe uses a variation of Basic. Basic is easier for most people to use.


The picaxe is a variant of C also, only a lot of internal memory and processing power/performance is used by the proprietary Basic interpreter which converts Basic commands into C for the processor to use.

When I need more speed and control than Basic will allow, I'll program a regular PIC in C if I need something really small.
As I said before, school kids are programming Arduinos it's not hard at all and there's a ton of tutorial and programs already out there to use.

There are some really kewl things out there based on Arduinos. I am working on using a Wii nun-chuck to control a 3 Axis skull. There's already an Arduino code library for for the nun-chuck and 3 axis movement control.


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## Cole&Jacksdad (Jan 20, 2011)

Today I finally got the Arduino up and running(i've been sick). Since this is my first microcontroller, I know very little. Does anyone have an idea how I could lay out a schematic for this prop I am going to build. I would have an input from a PIR to the Arduino. An out put to a 12 volt solenoid, an output to an LED spot and an output to a sound. All the outputs would be triggerd by the PIR.
Thanks


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

Cole&Jacksdad ,

I did something similar last year. I started with info on this webpage:
http://halloweenjared.blogspot.com/2010/10/arduino-pir-and-mp3-oh-my.html

Here are two links describing how to interface the Arduino with relays, use them with the link above if you don't understand his explanation:
http://quarkstream.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/arduino-8-relays/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Connecting-a-12V-Relay-to-Arduino/

I adapted the code in the first link and substituted the Adafruit WAV shield. This thread has a description of what I did:
http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=24211

This project isn't too hard. You just have to take the code from Halloween Jared's page (the first link in this post) and have it trigger three things instead of one. Also, make sure to use the code for the PIR that Jared uses and links to, it will make it much more stable. I bought the Parallax PIR at Radio Shack and all the other code I found was much less smart about how to deal with it and made it trigger unpredictably.

For sound, I would suggest you skip trying to hack a cheap mp3 player and get either...
The Adafruit WAV shield: http://www.ladyada.net/make/waveshield/
This comes as a kit and requires a bit of soldering. She has great support on her site.

Or if you're feeling adventurous you can get the Tenda mp3 board discussed in this thread: http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=22800 Advantage is that it costs less, comes assembled and requires less resources from the Arduino. Disadvantage is a small learning curve - the Arduino is talking to a TTL Serial device, but check the end of the thread for my code samples after I figured out how to do it.


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## Cole&Jacksdad (Jan 20, 2011)

JeffHaas said:


> Cole&Jacksdad ,
> 
> I did something similar last year. I started with info on this webpage:
> http://halloweenjared.blogspot.com/2010/10/arduino-pir-and-mp3-oh-my.html
> ...


Thanks so much! That will get me in the right direction.


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## Cole&Jacksdad (Jan 20, 2011)

Would it be a good idea to get something like this instead of trying to figure out the relays, diodes and resistors?
http://www.futurlec.com/Opto_Relay_4.shtml


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

Nice find! You've just got to learn how to do TTL commands. They're not that tough.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

Good post! I'm trying to talk my wife into getting me an Arduino for my birthday next month... Wish me luck!


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## Cole&Jacksdad (Jan 20, 2011)

I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to program my Arduino. Well, tonight a switch fliped. I was following the Adafruit Tutorial. After I started changing sketches everything started to make sense. Pneumatic Halloween props, BRING EM ON!


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

Cole&Jacksdad said:


> I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to program my Arduino. Well, tonight a switch fliped. I was following the Adafruit Tutorial. After I started changing sketches everything started to make sense. Pneumatic Halloween props, BRING EM ON!


Good job!!!

That's the key. Find an example sketch (out of the thousands to choose from) that does what you want or is close enough, then mold it your own way.
Arduinos are very easy to program....picking something kewl to task them to is the hard decision...so many things. Ladyada and Adafruit are a wealth of Arduino information.

Make a Creepy Hand





Or 
A Creepy Kid


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## goneferal (Sep 8, 2010)

I just ordered an Arduino Uno. I have a lot of homework to do.


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## thrilltainment (Apr 8, 2010)

Arduinos are absolutely awesome for haunt projects. I use them extensively, if you have any technical questions using them, ask me anything =)


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

Ok Homey, you beat me down. I just picked up an Arduino Uno. 

Now, to see if I can figure out how to do DMX with this thing.


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## goneferal (Sep 8, 2010)

*Arduino help*

Does anyone know of some good tutorials for using the Arduino with homemade 12v LED mini spots? My main goal is to have 4 or so groups of colors that fade in and out from no lights, to warm whites, and then a few colors like green and blue, then back out again. If it worked with music, that would be ideal. I need to get cracking on this project if I'm going to be ready by Halloween. Thanks a bunch in advance for any advice, I'm simply stuck. I can make one fade in and out, but haven't gotten further than that.


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

goneferal said:


> Does anyone know of some good tutorials for using the Arduino with homemade 12v LED mini spots? My main goal is to have 4 or so groups of colors that fade in and out from no lights, to warm whites, and then a few colors like green and blue, then back out again. If it worked with music, that would be ideal. I need to get cracking on this project if I'm going to be ready by Halloween. Thanks a bunch in advance for any advice, I'm simply stuck. I can make one fade in and out, but haven't gotten further than that.


The most common way to handle LEDs (especially spots) is to use the Texas Instruments TLC5940 and the Arduino Library created for it. It will disspate up to 120 milliamps per channel x 16 channels, plenty for LED groups. The Library has examples for fading (PWM for LEDs and Servos).

http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/TLC5940


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Time to raise the Halloween Arduino bar a little more. Today at Google IO they announced Android Open Accessory standard, Arduino-based ADK. As an Android developer I got something wickedly cool in mind for the 2012 haunt. If you have an Android powered phone you'll want to stop in to Faegoria in 2012 MUHAHAHA!

Here's the news snippet over at Engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/10/google-announces-android-open-accessory-standard-arduino-based/

Good stuff!


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

I might have to take a closer look at these Arduinos


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