Arduino Projects For Dummies

I got this so I can explore ideas by example before creating my own. This look like a good book to help me do that. I have the other arduino for dummies book so I'll make a start on the projects in this book soon but reading through them I can see they are ideal for anyone who can do with a helping hand to get things started. If you are already fairly technical you may be able to get ideals going with left of a detailed walk through. To me I don't mind the simple approach.

I've got a few books for the raspberry Pi and Arduino. This one is by far the most useful as it has a good range of projects and steps you through theme enough that you can then either adapt them or start to make progress with your own ideas. Buy it with an Arduino Uno kit then get soldering!!!

I enjoyed the parts which I was able to read it appears to be a very good book of reference I just need more time to read some more.

This, like most of the DUMMIES series is a well put together and presented book. It has some very good projects in but you should be aware that you will of course need to buy some extra shields (add on boards) and components otherwise you'll get no where beyond flashing the odd LED or two. At present I am awaiting the arrival of the GPS shield to construct the GPS datalogger project. None of the projects are overly complex involving mostly the linking up of boards via wires on a breadboard along with a few other fairly basic electronic components. Now , as a techky I tend to build on breadboard to test something and then reconstruct it in a stand alone form but, should you wish you can simply box up the entire project on the breadboard and bung it in a box. Overall a very good and interesting book guaranteed to trigger some great ideas of your own.

Great book, I'm leaning loads.

A way to prevent mistakes, hopefully.

There are some interesting basic projects in the book which will definitely give newcomers to the Arduino world an idea of what they can do with these micro controllers, but there are some flaws. I was interested in building the 3x3x3 LED cube, for which you need to download the code as it is too long to be included in the book. This wasn't a problem as the download was straightforward, but it turns out the sketch uses commands that are no longer current with recent versions of the Uno and wouldn't compile. The problem isn't insurmountable, as the solution can be find with a search on the internet, but it's disappointing when it doesn't work first time. An even bigger disappointment was not being able to find the LED cube pattern generator which is referred to in the same chapter. Programming animation patterns for a cube can be quite intensive, even for a small 3x3x3, so the possibility of generating the required code from an online resource was eagerly anticipated, except the link given in the book doesn't take you to it, and I couldn't find it using other searches on the internet. So, to sum up, not a complete waste of time, but as good as it could be either.

Typical "Dummies" publication.. but users will need at least a basic grasp of programming to best understand what the book is telling you.

Great book and is easy enough to understand. I was even able to contact the author and ask specific questions and I received a prompt response from him.

My 4 th Adrunio book. This was written very well, the one project on inputting from multiple temperature an light sensors at Sam time, made it worth my time and money. These projects are eye and mind openers that give me enough of a begging that I can create much more complex projects. I have the kindle version as it is always with me in my iPad May sound expensive for a book, but this is not entertainment, it is real education! 4.5 stars.

As described

the book was excellent as expected. the author, Brock Craft has done a lot work in preparing this book. it has a lot of details in basic electronics, programing in the arduino IDE, making several projects to gain experience and then making a new project entirely. there was however one thing I didn't like, THERE WAS NO BOOKMARK!!!! please try to supply a bookmark, Amazon.

I've completed the projects described in chapter 4-7 without any problems and have learned a lot. I especially appreciate the author's detailed description of the code. I just completed the project described in chapter 8, and I found some minor errors, which for a newbie like me may result in some head-scratching. The schematic diagram on page 161 has an incorrect resistor value for R2 (220 ohm), or at least it's not consistent with the text which says itshould be 33 kohm. In figure 8-6 on page 163, it is difficult to determine the orientation of the relay and the Max IC. Going by this diagram, you should have the notches in both components facing to the left. In the same diagram, it shows the diode with the stripe on the right side. If you examine the schematic (figure 8-4), it appears the stripe of the diode should be closest to pin 2 of the relay, and in fact it does work that way. Long story short, on figure 8-6, orient the diode so the stripe is on the left side. The circuit diagram has you power the Arduino with 12V from a power supply. My Arduino heated up and was eventually unusable when I did this. I'm not sure if I did something wrong, or whether Arduino can tolerate 12V. Maybe someone else can help me with this? I replaced my Arduino and kept the 12V rail for operating the lock, and powered the ARduino with the USB, and it worked fine. The code for this project is missing #include <SPI.h> so you can use the SPI library. Put it in the first line of the code. Finally, I used the lock specifically mentioned in the instructions, item #5192 from SmartHome.com. It's supposed to be 12V DC, but there's a sticker on it that indicates it's 8-16V AC. So I referred back to the description on the SmartHome website, and it describes it as accepting either AC or DC voltage: "Unlike other electric door strikes, which require either AC or DC voltage at a specific rate, the Mortise-Type Electric Door Strike will accept either AC or DC voltage at variable rates." I ran 12V DC straight from my power supply, and it didn't work. I took a peek at the online user manual for the lock, but it wasn't obvious to me what changes to make to allow it accept DV volts. Again, I'm new to this, so maybe there's an obvious solution that I'm missing? Again, all the other projects leading up to this one have gone without a hitch, and I plan to continue with chapter 9. HTH!