News

 Once again Freetronics customer Mark Wilson has published another in his great series of Arduino-based projects. In this instalment he has shown us the "MatrixClock". As you can see in the following video, the time is displayed using the LED matrix in a unique method. An accelerometer is used to detect movement, and the clock's modes and settings are changed by physically moving it about. Furthermore there's a light sensor to control dimming of the display.

Kudos to Mark for such a great project and we look forward to his next works of art. For more videos and images of the clock, click here - and the sketch can be found here. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

Have you created a project using Freetronics equipment? We'd love to hear about it - you can post details in our Project Showcase forum.

 There are many ways to control an Arduino board with an Android device - for example via bluetooth or direct connection with our USBdroid board. However Abdulrahman Alotaiba in Qatar has created another way of doing so - by creating a TCP server in python that waits for commands from any device connected to it (in this case his Nexus S phone) and then sends serial commands to an Arduino. Check out the following demonstration:

A great wireless solution and also open-source. To get started click here. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

For a direct Android interface or other applications that require a USB host shield - consider our Freetronics USBDroid:

The USBDroid combines the functionality of theFreetronics Eleven along with a USB host-mode controller and a microSD memory card slot all merged together into a single, integrated board that is 100% Arduino compatible. This is the ideal platform for developing peripherals or projects based around Android devices with ADK (Android Developer Kit) functionality, but without requiring a USB host controller shield stacked onto an Arduino. Connect your Android phone for all kinds of controller and networking features, and other USB devices like game controllers, Bluetooth dongles, digital cameras, etc. For more information and to order - click here!

 Instructables user Alan Chatham has described an interesting method of creating customised user input - with a pencil drawing. Using his method you can create a capacitive touch sensor with an Arduino, a couple of parts and a drawing created with a graphite pencil. Although it's simple - you could create all sorts of images and diagrams with a pencil, cover with clear adhesive film and have a custom-made touch interface. Watch the following video for a great demonstration:

For more information and instructions click here. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

This is a great project to show younger people what is possible with an Arduino-type board. And a great starting board is our Freetronics Eleven - the Arduino-Uno compatible with low-profile USB socket, onboard prototyping space and easy to view LEDs:

 Prolific technology book author Simon Monk has created an interesting method of one-way communication over the Internet. Using our Freetronics EtherTen as the base, Simon has programmed a small web server which accepts a short message from the user, then blinks it out in Morse Code using a bright LED on the EtherTen side of things.

This is really neat, and could be used as a fine one-way paging system using Internet-connected devices. For more information and to get started, check out Simon's blog here. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

Again - the Freetonics EtherTen can be found in another Arduino-Internet application: 

 Technologist and self-proclaimed geek Dr Michael Kroll has created a simple thermometer and humidity-reporting device that can be polled via bluetooth to retrieve the current sensor values. The hardware is based on his low-energy bluetooth shield and our Freetronics Eleven board. Operation is by sending ASCII characters from an iPhone via bluetooth, which then receives the required data and displays it on the iBLE application on the iPhone. 

For more information and code, check out MIchael's page here. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're looking for a sensor to measure temperature and humidity - check out our HUMID: humidity and temperature sensor module. Designed around the DHT22 sensor, it only requires one digital pin and power - and is easy to use with out Quick Start guide. With a temperature range of -4°C to +125°C with +/-0.5°C accuracy, and humidity at 0-100% with 2-5% accuracy you're ready to measure. For more information and to order, click here. 

 The team at Thingspeak have been experimenting with the Freetronics Eleven and Ethernet shield, and also published a great tutorial that interfaces an IObridge web gateway module with our gear to create a device that parses Google weather and tells the user if the weather is bad enough to wear a jacket. The Arduino sketch is very simple due to the thingspeak API, and it is available for download. A simple tutorial, however a great starting point.

For more information about this project, click here. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

 Technology enthusiast and product developer John Sloane has published a detailed account of (in his words) "how Arduino gets from power up to executing my software, a long and involved process whose explanation I found to be widely distributed and not easily forthcoming". To make others' lives easier John has described it in detail, and also working with the microcontroller itself, including fuse bits, the bootloader, uploading code with AVRdude and more. 

 Kudos to John for such a detailed article, so click here to get started. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

So what is an EtherMega anyway? Quite simply the most fully-loaded Arduino-compatible board on the market today. Apart from being completely Arduino Mega2560-compatible, it includes full Ethernet interface, a microSD card socket, full USB interface, optional Power-over-Ethernet support and still has a circuit prototyping area with extra I2C interface pins. So if your project is breaking the limits, upgrade to the EtherMega today.

 Using the X-Y display mode of an oscilloscope and digital-to-analogue circuitry created with an R-2R ladder, Kapil Gupta has made a simple and effective analogue clock display for the oscilloscope. He has also added a temperature display which uses a thermistor for measurement. The circuitry fits neatly on a protoshield, as you can see in the following detailed demonstration video:

If you have an oscilloscope, this would make a fun and quick project. To get started, click here. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

 For those who are comfortable with using or are interested in MATLAB - the "programming environment for algorithm development, data analysis, visualization, and numerical computation" - instructables user rmagtibay has published a collation of information on interfacing an Arduino board with the software. With this combination you can receive data from an Arduino for analysis and also control it. A quick demonstration is show below:

However for many more links and notes, click here. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If Arduino is new to you - you will want to get yourslef a solid board for your projects - and the ideal board for all-round work and beginners is our Freetronics Eleven - the Arduino-Uno compatible with low-profile USB socket, onboard prototyping space and easy to view LEDs: