Getting started with Arduino Starter Kit

I have always been fascinated by electronics. Growing up I tried to learn electronics by reading radio repair guides and engineering textbooks in vain. Always got stumped by mathematics and dry tone of the books. The advent of Arduino changed all that. Now it is easier to learn electronics without getting bogged down by technicalities and focus on making something fun!.

The 'Arduino Starter Kit' is suitable for self-learning Arduino with simple fun projects. Lot of attention has given to developing course material and overall ascetic design of this kit. The Starter kit comes full set of high quality electronic components and a 170 page project guide book. The ready to use cardboard cutouts makes it great activity kit that could used by parent and the child.

The project guide book explains all the basic electronic components, their function and use in a simple lucid manager. The quality
of the book and its design is very tasteful. The programming code is explained in full detail. Further online resources are also
provided to aid learning.

Here is complete list of the components that are bundled in the kit.

• 1 Projects Book
• 1 Arduino / Genuino Uno
• 1 USB cable
• 1 Breadboard 400 points
• 70 Solid core jumper wires
• 1 Easy-to-assemble wooden base
• 1 9v battery snap
• 1 Stranded jumper wires (black)
• 1 Stranded jumper wires (red)
• 6 Phototransistor
• 3 Potentiometer 10kOhms
• 10 Pushbuttons
• 1 Temperature sensor [TMP36]
• 1 Tilt sensor
• 1 alphanumeric LCD (16x2 characters)
• 1 LED (bright white)
• 1 LED (RGB)
• 8 LEDs (red)
• 8 LEDs (green)
• 8 LEDs (yellow)
• 3 LEDs (blue)
• 1 Small DC motor 6/9V
• 1 Small servo motor
• 1 Piezo capsule [PKM17EPP-4001-B0]
• 1 H-bridge motor driver [L293D]
• 1 Optocouplers [4N35]
• 2 Mosfet transistors [IRF520]
• 5 Capacitors 100uF
• 5 Diodes [1N4007]
• 3 Transparent gels (red, green, blue)
• 1 Male pins strip (40x1)
• 20 Resistors 220 Ohms
• 5 Resistors 560 Ohms
• 5 Resistors 1 kOhms
• 5 Resistors 4.7 kOhms
• 20 Resistors 10 kOhms
• 5 Resistors 1 MOhms
• 5 Resistors 10 MOhms

You will also learn how to program Arduino using Processing programming language. The fun projects: Love-O-meter, Zoetrope, motorized pinwheel helps you build skills gradually. The first simple projects could form the basic model for your more complex electronic projects in the future.

I highly recommend buying the Arduino Starter kit. It is not cheap at USD $99.90.

Keep watching this space for more reviews of Arduino kits and books.

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Buying Electronics Components in Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Hong Kong and Shenzhen are mecca for hardware enthusiasts. In my previous blog post I shared about buying Arduino in Hong Kong. Let me share some more information about sourcing electronic components in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Dim Sum Labs Hong Kong's hacker space maintains a local guide to buy electronics on their Resources page.

View HK/SZ DIY Computer, Electronics (Hackjam/DSL) - Google Maps in a larger map

The Scoutbots projects aims to explore and protect the Oceans with Open Technologies. They maintain a comprehensive list of material suppliers in Hong Kong and Shenzhen here https://sites.google.com/a/scoutbots.com/wiki/home/references/material-suppliers-in-hong-kong-shenzhen

Happy shopping!

Buying Open Hardware in Nairobi

Getting open hardware components in Nairobi is expensive. It is worth buying internationally and try to ship them to Kenya. That does takes time and more resources. So if you need that crucial component for your project Nerokas.co.ke is your best bet. They stock most open hardware boards such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, various electronic components and sensors.

• Emko Plaza, Garissa Road
• Thika, Kenya
• P.O Box 18936-00100,
• Nairobi, Kenya
  
• Telphone:(+254) 020 813 8956 /
  0706 246 248

Happy Hacking!

Open Hardware Shopping in Taipei

Getting anything shipped into Vietnam is difficult. During my travels, I hunt the local markets for hackable hardware. In Taipei I visited the Guang Hua Digial Plaza on tip-off from Mike.

This multistory shopping mall is packed with small electronic stores. Hidden in this huge market, there are two shops that sell open hardware such as Arduino boards, Raspberry Pi and various senors, robotics kits. You might find the prices are better than online shopping.

You'll find this first store on the fourth floor in a corner.

The second store is on the next floor. It has kits from dfrobot and books about robotics.

Here are the business cards. Have them handy if you want to find them quickly.

And don't forget to check out the Taipei Hackerspace. Happy Hacking!

Drone Technology in Social Projects

Amazon plans to use drones for making deliveries. They are not the first to use drones for transport of materials. Oppikoppi music festival attendees can order a beer using a mobile phone app. The DarkWing Beer Drone use the mobile phones GPS location to drop a beer straight into their hands or mostly onto their heads. Made this video of the beer drone demo at Tech4Africa 2013.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commonly referred as drone will be more prevalent in the future.The United Nations (UN) is deploying drones in Congo. The cost of this technology is still prohibitively high. But social projects such ConservationDrones.org are trying to bring down the cost by using Open Hardware and Open Source Software. They are already using drones for field surveys in Indonesia. You can learn more about Conservation Drones here.

Do you know of any interesting use of Drones in social projects. Please do share it by leaving a comment below.

Draw Electronic Circuits with Conductive Ink

To bring electronic circuits to life by drawing them is an amazing experience. You can use the good old pencil on paper. Bare Conductive developed a non-toxic paint to draw electronic circuits on any surface. You can pick up a tube of Bare conductive paint at your local RadioShack.

Andy tweeted this Circuit Scribe Kickstarter project that lets you create circuits with a conductive ink pen. Things just got interesting. :)

Buying Arduino in Hong Kong

Didn't expect it would be so hard to buy Arudino open source prototyping platform hardware in Hong Kong. On a brief stopover in Hong Kong to attend Gnome Asia 2012. It would take a lot of time to hunt for Arduino boards in Hong Kong's famed electronics markets. It would be wise to do some homework before hitting the markets.

Got a lucky break while digging through the Dimsum Labs facebook page. Found the Candy Chan's shop address in Sham Shui Po in Kawloon. The shop's website lists all the Arduino boards, shields and various electronic components. Navigating the maze of shops in Sham Shui Po is not for faint hearted. You won't have any problems finding these shops with the direction given below.

• Tell How Technologies

• G37, Wonder Building, 161-175 Fuk Wa Street, Shamshuipo, Kawloon, Hong Kong
• Phone: 27427881 / 68085307 / 86-15012528870
• Email:tellhow37 (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) hk
• Website: www.tellhow-tech.com

Take the MTR to the Sham Shui Po station, exit through Gate D2 on to Fuk Wa street. You will find yourself facing the Golden Computer Center, the Wonder building is on your right. You will find the shop on the ground floor of this building.

Stumbled upon Man Wai-Yun's shop that offered a large collection of sensors, kits from DFRobot.com. You need to wait few days for the components to be shipped in from Taiwan.

• Rainbow Computer Peripherals

• LG No.60, Golden Building 146-152 Fuk Wah Street, Kawloon, Hong Kong
• Phone: 2728-1819
• Email: info (at) abcde (dot) com
• Website: www.rcpcomputer.com

The shop in the basement level of the Golden Computer Center. The best way to find the shop would be to ask the guard at security desk to guide you to the shop No. 60.

It is easy to find open hardware online but finding a shop that stocks them would be really hard. Next time I'll buy the open hardware online at DealExtreme.com .

Getting Started with Arduino in Hanoi

Spent the weekend learning basic electronics with Arudino open source prototyping platform. La 4uatrieme creative lab organized a two day Arduino workshop in Hanoi.

Designer and teacher Eoin Kinsella delivered a very interactive workshop. We learnt basic electronics, Arduino hardware and software environment by tinkering examples from the popular Getting Started with Arduino book. We spent the day building simple prototypes with sensors, switches and LED's on solderless breadboard and programed it using Arduino development environment.

The Arduino IDE on Linux is not well tested. During the workshop I found a minor bug in Arduino package in Ubuntu and fixed it right away.

The inexpensive Arudino hardware makes it easy to build interaction design and physical computing prototypes. With 3D printing services such as Shapeways you can now bring your ideas to life much faster than ever.

You can buy Arduino hardware in Vietnam from Soatec (www.sotatec.com) in Ho Chi Minh city.

Watch Arduino The Documentary (2010)

Arduino workshop in Hanoi (May 2012)

La 4uatrième: Arduino workshop 12th/13th May at la 4uatrieme//Hộ...: Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

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Affordable Braille Display ?

Steve talks about some of the frustrations working with braille displays in this live journal entry Bring On The Braille. I think he speaks for all of us. He writes,
I've been on a constant lookout for affordable braille display technology. For years, this stuff's been anything but. Spending over $2000 for a measley 12 cells is something I would never justify, and the price-to-cell ratio doesn't get much better with the more costly units. Prices have actually come down over the years, and it looks like it may be happening again.

The price is a big barrier. Why can't we have a device that is affordable to all. Braille displays isn't rocket science it is simple enough to build one with a arduino toolkit, I think Edward Rogers(does anyone have his email address?) has built one such device. What do you reckon ?

Prayas The Tinkerer

Ran into Prayas the tinkerer while in Bangalore. He introduced me to two of his really interesting projects.

CANOPY: temporary roofs for tea-shops

CANOPY is a series of temporary (flexible, mobile, sturdy), multi-purpose roofs for shops on Indian streets.
The first set of canopies are for tea-shops in Chandni-Chowk (New Delhi) and will attempt to have these features:

1. water collection (rain, dew, fog)
2. space for growing vegetables
3. space for sleeping
4. LIVE solar mobile charging
5. storage
6. marking (creating an identity for the tea-shop through art on the canopy)

MausamChowk: a set of local weather stations that help you decide where to go

SMS a query to a local weather station. Receive a reply with the temperature, humidity and noise levels of the space. Decide if you want to go there or someone else. This project uses the arduino