Arduino

Arduino is a word that many people do not know its meaning, and many others are not even able to pronounce it. For those of us who make up this website it is something essential, and that is because it is a free hardware platform. Designed to facilitate the use of electronics in multidisciplinary projects, it has a board, a microcontroller and a development environment. Whether you knew what Arduino was or not, welcome, make yourself comfortable and get ready to enjoy our interesting articles.

IMAX B6: the balancing charger you’ll want to have

IMAX B6

One of the most practical gadgets I’ve tried is the IMAX B6 multi-function charger. A product that can serve you to feed many projects with Raspberry Pi, Arduino, since it allows you to charge different types of batteries that are used in projects of many makers.

All these DIY projects need power, and it’s not always possible to leave the Arduino board connected to the PC’s USB for power or you may need a special type of ‘string’ power supply. It is also sometimes not possible to have a specific type of charger for each battery. With the IMAX B6 charger you can get what you need from everything it has to offer.

HC-SR501: Arduino compatible IR motion sensor

HC-SR501

If you want to equip your Arduino DIY projects with the ability to detect proximity or motion, and based on that do some kind of action, such as recording an event, turn on a light, set off an alarm, activate a DC motor, etc, then you should know the HC-SR501 sensor.

This sensor uses IR, like other similar types of sensors, and in this guide I will try to explain everything you need to know to start using it from scratch. From its features, to how to integrate HC-SR501 with your Arduino UNO board, to how to integrate it with . Everything in a more practical way to make it as simple as possible.

Arduino Mega: all about the big development board

Arduino Mega

If the Arduino UNO Rev3 board is too small for you and you want to create more advanced projects and enjoy more power, then what you are looking for is an Arduino Mega board, another of the available models created by the same developers as the original board, but with a faster microcontroller, more memory, and more pins for programming.

Arduino Mega has many similarities with Arduino UNO, but there are some differences that make it very special for all the makers who are looking for something more. Usually, if you are starting out it is not the best choice, but it is if you have already exploited the capabilities of UNO and want to go further.

Joystick Arcade: the best game controllers for your retro projects

joystick arcade

There are a lot of arcade joystick controllers for video games on the market, some of them for DIY arcade machines, such as those compatible with boards like the Raspberry Pi or with Arduino. They don’t have a high price, so they turn out to be a very interesting device to manage your projects and enjoy them like a child.

Choosing the best of these arcade joysticks is no easy task, as there are many of them, and sometimes the differences between them are conspicuous by their absence. But there are some whose small details can make the difference. If you are interested, you can read on to find out what these controllers are, and how to choose the best ones.

Arduino UNO: Free hardware board analysis in depth

Arduino bus I2C

Since the release of ‘Strong’, the Arduino UNO board, much has evolved with the release of its latest revisions. In addition, its creators have been quick to create other similar boards in different formats to cover more needs than the UNO initially covered. Many others have even dared to create their own clone or compatible boards, although not with the same success.

Before the appearance of Arduino there were other similar projects, like the famous Parallax boards with Microchip PIC microcontrollers that could be programmed very easily using languages like PBASIC and others. An example of this is the Parallax Basic Stamp 2. But the fact that it is not free hardware meant that it did not have the same market roots as the Arduino project has had. The Italian board has been a real revolution in this sense.

Multiplexer: all you need to know

chip multiplexor

A multiplexer is a combination circuit that has several inputs and a single data output. This allows you to select the step of only one of its inputs to channel it to its output. That is, you could select from which input to take the data or bit at the input and ignore the rest of the inputs. This is very common in electronics when several connections need to share a single line or bus.

That is, by controlling the multiplexer you can select the appropriate input at any time. This makes it possible to work with multiple input devices at the same time without them interfering with each other, even though there is only one connection. Also, you should know that usually a demultiplexer is used in conjunction with the multiplexer in many projects .

Machine vision: introduction to this interesting discipline

artificial vision artificial recognition

Arduino may seem very rudimentary, but it’s more than enough to create even fairly advanced projects. With the help of some existing modules in the market, like the camera modules, and with the help of some libraries or APIs, you can provide your project with intelligence or >strong> artificial vision. This will give new applications and new horizons beyond the rudimentary projects.

Machine vision is a type of computer vision. It is not simply capturing the image through a digital camera, but it goes beyond that. It can be used to acquire data from the environment, process the image, analyze it, understand real world images, etc. For example, it could be used to obtain numerical information through the camera, recognize human beings, etc. Imagine what you could do with this…

Termistor: everything you need to know to measure temperature in your projects

termistor

Different temperature sensors have been analyzed in other articles. One of the elements or devices you can use to measure such temperature is precisely the thermistor (thermally sensitive resistor). As its name suggests, it is based on a material that changes its electrical resistance according to the temperature it is subjected to.

In this way, by means of a simple formula, knowing the voltage and the intensity to which it is subjected, the resistance can be analysed to determine the temperature according to its scale. But it is not only used as a temperature sensor, it can also be used to alter some characteristics of the circuit according to its temperature, as a protection element against current excesses, etc.

PWM: emulating analog pins with your Arduino board

PWM signals

With the digital and analog pins, which you can use on your Arduino board, you can receive or send electrical signals to control or obtain data from your electronic projects. In addition, there are other very interesting signals on this type of boards, and those are the PWM, that can emulate an analog signal without being really analog. That is to say, they are digital pins that can act in a similar way (that not equal) to an analog signal.

This type of signals are very practical for when you not only want to use digital HIGH and LOW signals, that is, 1 or 0, ON and OFF, but you want to go further and describe signals that are a little more complex. For example, you can modulate the speed of a DC motor, or the light intensity of a light, for a solenoid, etc.

Electromagnet: how to integrate this element with your Arduino board

electromagnet

There are some electronic projects or to use with your Arduino, in which you will need to work with controlled magnetism. I mean, in a normal permanent magnet, there will always be a force of attraction, but with a electromagnet you can control that magnetic field to generate it just when you need it. That way, you can attract ferromagnetic materials for a multitude of applications.

For example, imagine that you want to open or close a small trap door automatically when something happens, or move some metal object, etc. In that case, the best thing you can use is an electromagnet, avoiding having to create other complete mechanisms that do the same function.