If you examine the range of motorised toys, robots and educational kits from various retailers, after a few moments it becomes obvious that modifying them for your own control methods would be much more fun than their original purpose. Especially the robotic arm kits available from electronics retailers and other sources abroad. To do so isn't that difficult at all thanks to a detailed tutorial by UK enthusiast "Lucky Larry" who has documented how to control DC motors (basic motors, not stepper motors) using a simple H-bridge ICs such as the SN754410 or L293.
Armed (!) with this knowledge you can better control those toys, cards and other inexpensive robot items. To get started visit Larry's interesting website. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
If you found the project above interesting - but not sure how to start with Arduino - 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.
