For many years people have played the game "Connect 4" - which involved aligning coloured discs in a vertical frame one at a time, taking turns with an opponent with the goal being to get a line of four of your own discs in a row. However after a few decades this has become somewhat outdated. Until now - as Ryan Maksymic has brought Connect 4 into the 21st century with his "Connect 4000" project.
With Ryan's version the frame is replaced with a large board that allows for small balls to roll from a repository into one of seven vertical chutes, with a servo-controlled arm used to direct the path of each ball into the game. The interesting part is the fact that the arm is controlled by an Arduino and thus controlled over a PC with a web-browser. By loading the ball repository with alternate colours two people can then control and play the physical game - for example:
That's an interesting take on the original classic game, and well worth exploring. Find out more from the project page. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
If you'd like to learn about Arduino, servos and how to control them - but not sure how to start - then the best way to learn is with our Experimenter's Kit for Arduino:
The package includes a wide variety of parts, sensors and modules including: a servo motor, lights, buttons, switches, sound, sensors, breadboard, wires and more. Furthermore a Freetronics Eleven Arduino-compatible board is included to make this an extensive hobby experimenter, inventor and starter kit.
However we don't leave you alone to figure it all out, included is a great project and instruction booklet, plus access to a supporting web page and software examples. In other words - this is everything you need to get started for a fun range of electronics and Arduino related projects! So to get started or for more information and to order, check out the product page.
