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Although it is fairly straight forward to upload a sketch to your Arduino by plugging it into your computer, there are certain times when this can be very inconvenient. For example, imagine you have an Arduino under your house collecting temperature and humidity values and you need to push a bug fix to your board. It can be a real hassle to get under your house with a laptop and updated your firmware! This is where uploading to you Arduino via a network comes in. With the help of a protocol called the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) you can easily upload sketches to Arduinos that are connected to your home network right from the comfort of your computer. To get started learning this useful skill checkout the following link.

If you are looking to for an Arduino board with network capabilities why not checkout our EtherTen. The EtherTen is a 100% Arduino compatible board that can talk to the world. Do Twitter updates automatically, serve web pages, connect to web services, display sensor data online, and control devices using a web browser.

The Freetronics EtherTen uses the same ATmega328P as the Uno and the same Wiznet W5100 chip used by the official Arduino Ethernet Shield, so it's 100% compatible with the Ethernet library and sketches. Better still it even includes a micro SD card so that you can store content and log data. To find out more about the fantastic EtherTen checkout the product page.

Did you learn something new this Skill Sunday? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Do you ever get up from your desk to go to the bathroom only to find that it is occupied? With this cool project from hassaku you can use a number of sensors, a buzzer,  and a Spark Core to create a toilet vacancy sensor.

The Spark Core interfaces with a Google Chrome extension which allows you to see in a quick glance if your bathroom is occupied. To get started on this unique project checkout the following link.

If you're looking for a buzzer module to use in this project check out our sound and buzzer module:

It can be used as a noise-maker driven by your microcontroller for audible feedback of events, and it can also be used as a knock-detector input to sense events and react to them. Includes a built-in 1M resistor to allow the piezo element to detect shocks. For more information and to order, please visit the product page.

Planning on making your own toilet vacancy sensor? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Although you can buy your own calculator very cheaply you can learn a lot by building your own. Kale_3d has developed an Arduino based calculator that uses a keypad and an LCD display to your calculations.

The project is very well documented, including instructions on how to build the case, full code examples and a wiring diagram. This is a great project to learn about electronics assembly and coding and learn how to develop something more than a blinking LED! If you are keen to get started building your own calculator checkout the following link.  

If you are looking for a rapid-use LCD for your Arduino or compatible projects why not check out the Freetronics LCD & Keypad shield. The shield contains a bright 16x2 character LCD and five buttons that can be read from only one analog input pin:

Did I mention that you can play games on your LCD Shield? Check it out!

If you live in a remote area it is possible that you are not serviced by a mains gas connection. If this is the case you are probably relying on a propane tank. Wouldn’t it be great if you could reliably track the amount of gas remaining in your tank so that you could schedule a top up and not risk running out of gas?

This project from Julio Aguirre you can turn your propane tank into a solar powered IoT device that sends you up regular information about your propane tank. Not only does it provide you information but it also automatically emails or SMS’s your gas supplier to arrange a new delivery when you are running low. Even if you have a mains gas connection you could use this to keep track of the gas levels on your BBQ so that you never run out of gas at an inconvient time ever again! To get started on this project check out the following link.

Looking for a temperature sensor to use in this project? Why not check out the Freetronics Humidity and Temperature Sensor Module?

The module only requires three wires: GND, power and data. This means that it is very easy to get started recording temperature and humidity data! The find out more visit the product page.  

Know someone who should start working on this project? Let them know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

If you have managed to blink an LED using an Arduino you should be able to easily build this project! ToughRocket52 has put together a fantastic instructable which teaches you how to build your own Arduino controlled disco lights. Not only do these disco lights look fantastic, but you could very easily modify the project to make disco lights in any shape or form! To find out more check out the following link.  

If you are looking for an Arduino board to work on this hack why not check out the Freetronics “Eleven” Arduino Compatible Board.  

The Eleven is just like an Arduino Uno (and 100% compatible), however the Freetronics team have made a number of improvements to the Arduino Uno design such as adding in a prototyping area, using a micro-USB connector and many more. These improvements mean that the Eleven is as easy to use as possible and is of the highest quality! To find out more about the fantastic Freetronics Eleven check out the following link. The Eleven has just come back into stock so order soon to avoid missing out!

As a follow up on our earlier robot competition recap and video we thought we should celebrate the achievements of the winning teams. Each of the winning teams received a number of Freetronics goodies including a StepDuino, GPS module and a number of FreePixels. Congratulations to the following teams on their fantastic achievements in the recent robot building competition!

First Place:
Second Place:

Third Place:

If participating in, or reading about this awesome robotics competition has inspired you to start creating your own robots why not check out our 2WD Robot Chassis Kit. This kit can provide a solid base for you to begin building whatever sort of robot you like! The lazer cut chassis includes mounting holes so that you can attach your own parts and design your robot to be exactly as you like it! To find out more or to order visit the product page.

Inspired to build your own robot? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and stumbled around trying to turn on your light only to end up painfully bumping into things? With this project from Peter Javorsky you can build your own night light which will turn on with a simple knock.

The project uses a piezo sensor to detect a knock and power a white LED strip meaning you can quickly and easily turn on or off your night light! The project comes with full schematics and code examples so there is nothing to stop you getting started. Checkout this link to find out more.  

If you're looking for a piezo module to use in this project checkout our sound and buzzer module:

It can be used as a noise-maker driven by your microcontroller for audible feedback of events, and it can also be used as a knock-detector input to sense events and react to them. Includes a built-in 1M resistor to allow the piezo element to detect shocks. For more information and to order, please visit the product page.

An oscilloscope is a must have tool for any electronics enthusiast. Typically oscilloscopes are extremely expensive costing upwards of $600 meaning that price can be a real barrier to owning your own. With this fantastic project from BramMylemans you can use an Arduino to create your own oscilloscope very cheaply!

Not only is it great to be able to build your own oscilloscope, but this project will cost next to nothing as it only requires an Arduino Leonardo and a few capacitors, diodes and resistors. To get started building your own oscilloscope check out the following link.

If you are looking for an Arduino Leonardo compatible board why not checkout our LeoStick. The LeoStick is very similar to an Arduino Leonardo, however it comes in a compact, convenient USB stick style format! It comes packed with heaps of features and would be perfect to use when building your own Arduino oscilloscope. You can see the LeoStick in action in the video below:

If you want to find out more about the LeoStick checkout the product page.

Does your WiFi router frequently drop out and need rebooting? This can be a very frustrating problem! However, like many problems, it can easily be solved with Arduino. This awesome project from Sameer sets up an Arduino which monitors your wifi connection, whenever the wifi is down a warning buzzer sounds and then a relay turns the router off and boots it back up again a few seconds later, just as if you had rebooted it yourself! This is an extremely useful project, and best of all it shouldn't be too hard either. To get started checkout the following link.  

If you're looking for a buzzer module to use in this project checkout our sound and buzzer module:
It can be used as a noise-maker driven by your micro controller for audible feedback of events, and it can also be used as a knock-detector input to sense events and react to them. Includes a built-in 1M resistor to allow the piezo element to detect shocks. For more information and to order, visit the product page.

Planning on making your own Arduino WiFi rebooter? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Do you ever struggle to get your kids out of bed in the morning? With this awesome hack from Jamie Dixon you can modify an old adjustable hospital bed so that you can control it over the internet, from anywhere in the world. With a simple push of a button on your phone or computer you can tilt the bed from a comfortable horizontal position into a vertical position sending the occupant of the bed flying out of their bed and hopefully waking them up without causing any serious injuries!

The eject a bed is controlled by Raspberry Pi 2 which talks to a servo and an Arduino. This is a really great project for learning how to control things over the internet and is sure to be lots of fun as well. For more information check out the following link or the video below.

If you are working on a projected such as this one which requires interaction between an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi you should check out our PiLeven board.

The PiLeven is an Arduino-compatible board based on the Arduino Uno that fits right on top of a Raspberry Pi using the Raspberry Pi's expansion headers. The PiLeven also has a high-current switchmode power supply, so you can plug in anything from 7V to 18Vdc using the standard 2.1mm jack and even use it to power the Raspberry Pi. The serial communications on the PiLeven are linked through to the Raspberry Pi, so your Pi can upload new sketches straight to the PiLeven or send/receive data and commands.

The PiLeven is fully compatible with standard Arduino shields adding a huge amount of potential functionality to your Raspberry Pi. For more information, tutorials and to order, visit the PiLeven webpage.

Are you thinking of making a project that requires interaction between Arduino and Raspberry Pi? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.