Requirements
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- Laptop (Mac OS X or Windows. Linux if you’re willing to work at it)
- Some programming experience

Good To Have
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- Basic knowledge of electric circuits
- Multimeter
- Wire cutters / strippers
- Soldering skills

Tools Needed In Class
———————
- Wire cutter
- Tape

Class Outline
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Class 1: Intro and Blinky LED

- Introducing Arduino
- Arduino the concept (vs Basic Stamp)
- Arduino the board
- Arduino the IDE
- Processing pedigree
- Getting the Arduino IDE, and running it
- Installing USB drivers
- Arduino sketch structure
- Two functions: setup() and loop()
- C code, but easy
- Quick overview of build process
- Basic (LED) circuts
- Power and ground
- Current limiting resistors
- Connecting them the right way ’round
- Making an LED lamp with battery, LED, & resistor
- Saftey Considerations
- Lead on parts (wash hands)
- Static sensitivity of parts (stay grounded)
- Your first Arduino sketch: “Blinky”
- Blinky as “hello world” for microcontrollers
- Building and coding an LED blinking device
- Using digitalWrite()
- Get Creative / Fun modifications
- blinkblinkblink, wait…., blink.
- Morse code player
- Make blinky eyes

Class 2: Reading Digital and Analog Values

- Hooking a Button to Arduino
- A simple schematc of the circuit
- Visual wiring diagram version
- Using digitalRead()
- Hooking a potentiometer to Arduino
- A simple schematc of the circuit
- Visual wiring diagram version
- Ardino sketch: “SendPot”
- Using analogRead()
- Use pot to vary blink rate of LED
- Arduino sketch: “VaryBlinky”
- Making Some Evil Eyes
- Uses pot to vary brightness of LEDs
- Hooking up two red LEDs, w/ schematic
- Briefly about analogWrite(), more in next class
- Arduino sketch “EvilEyes”
- Making Evil Eyes Come Out At Night
- Using Light-sensitive resistors
- Modify “EvilEyes” to use LSR
- Making eyeballs out of ping pong balls
- Make a Stand-alone Arduino board
- Adding 9V battery
- Be careful of polarity and shorts
- Going Further
- Other types of inputs (mag reed switch, FSR, etc)
- Get Creative
- Make your own inputs
- Wrapping things in alumninum foil to make switches
- Making pressure sensors from old tin cans and duct tape

Class 3: Motion and Color with PWM

- About PWM
- PWM as digital-to-analog voltage converter
- PWM as analog time (percentage on vs off)
- Making a Color Fading Mood Lights
- R, G, B LEDs
- Arduino sketch “MoodLight”
- Adding Movment with a Servo
- About servos
- Making PWM by hand using digitalWrite() to control a servo
- Making a Scary Severed Hand or Wiggling Snake
- Attaching a servo to the hand or snake
- Programming the motion
- Controlling the computer with Arduino + Processing
- About Processing
- Running Processing sketches
- About Serial.print()
- Going Further
- Using Arduino as custom input device for Processing
- Get Creative
- Add motion to any Halloween object
- Add dynamic color

Class 4: Touch and Sound: Piezo elements

- About Piezos
- Can be ouput, like a buzzer
- Can be input, to measure pressure
- Build and write a melody player
- MIDI notes
- Arduino sketch “MusicBox”
- Some spooky melodies
- Piezos as Pressure Sensors
- Schematic of piezo as input device
- Adding “knock sensor” to EvilEyes or MoodLight
(wakes up with noise, etc)
- Get Creative