As the preeminent tool for makers, Arduino is a versatile platform that covers almost every type of creative making. With its simple-to-use coding language and fun programming concepts, Arduino enables users to create modern electronics with ease. From beginner level projects like flashing LED lights to more advanced builds such as interactive robots, there are an endless number of possibilities when it comes to building projects with Arduino. Whether you are new or an experienced builder in search of fresh ideas, these posts will provide interesting Arduino tutorials and unique ideas that may spark your creativity and motivate you take on any type of maker project!
Tim Heath and Ryan Hickman’s Truckbot could be built for under $20 (excluding mobile). That’s pretty impressive for such an open and accessible robotics prototyping environment. Using a laser-cut cardboard chassis, $3 micro servos, and a bare bones Arduino, the duo have assembled one of the cheapest platforms to come along in some time.
Need more digital outputs for your Arduino? If so, the EZ-Expander shield for Arduino might be a good solution. You can pick up a kit, or an assembled version, over in the Makers Market!
Super Mario Brothers with an Arduino
Although this is still a work in progress, I think it’s great! All you need is an Arudino, a few buttons, and an 8×8 LED matrix to make you own simplified version of this arcade classic. What’s next Halo? Let’s hope so! More information, including the Arduino code, can be found in the Vimeo description.
This is a game project for S10-05833 – Gadgets, Sensors, and Activity Recognition in HCI taught by Scott Hudson at Carnegie Mellon University. I created a simple version of Super Mario Bros using an 8×8 LED matrix (one color), an Arduino Nano, two buttons for the input (forward and jump), and a piezo sensor hooked to a separate Arduino for the theme song.
Flickr user zeni666 made this neat visualizer using an Arduino, oscilloscope, and homemade resistor ladder.
Tero Karvinen, one of the authors of Sulautetut, a Finnish book about embedded prototyping, was featured on Finnish National Television along with the book. Tero was kind enough to send along a translation of the interview, which starts at around 4 minutes in to the video above.
An anonymous MAKE subscriber writes in to let us know about this very cool wireless robotics platform based on the Arduino and an XBee. The purpose of the project was to teach their 9-year old son about programming in Processing. What a great way to introduce programming to kids!
Last year, Dave Findlay built a simple Arduino-based iPod remote to make it easy to start and stop his music while in the car.
