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There is a certain satisfaction that can only be found when enjoying a well earned beer. However, not even this compares to the satisfaction of enjoying a beer that you worked hard to brew yourself! With this Arduino powered home brewing system from Arzaman, you can autonomously brew your beer using equipment you have also designed and made yourself.

The home brewing system allows you to fully automate the beer production process using an Arduino Uno, and a shield that connects the Arduino to the heating element, pump and LCD menu system. The system can be configured to provide you with an easy to follow brewing set up process, and then will automatically brew your beer, prompting you along the way if you need to do something manually. Furthermore, you can easily customise important parameters and save recipes for future use. The entire project is open source and is known as Open Ardbir.  To find out more check out the following link.  This project is a great showcase of the diverse capabilities of Arduino.

If you are looking for an Arduino to use in your home brewing system, 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 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!

Already have a home brewing system? Planning on building a new one? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

Are you sick of your boring old wooden coffee table? With this fantastic interactive coffee table designed by DanNixon, you are never going to be bored with your living room furniture ever again! The table incorporates a LED Matrix for cool lighting effects, an inbuilt bluetooth connected audio system and LCD’s to display useful information such as weather or RSS feeds.

This is an excellent project that will teach you about all sorts of awesome things you can do with Arduino. To get started checkout the following link or the video below of the table in action!

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!

Do you spend hours in front of your computer each day? With this clever monitor stand from Seeed Studio you can not only raise your monitor to protect your back, but also be provided with useful statistics about how many hours you have been spending in front of the computer. The project uses an ultrasonic distance sensor to determine if someone is sitting at the computer, and a OLED display to provide feedback to the user.

There are lots of possibilities for extra functionality that can be added into the monitor stand, but even in its current form it is a great project that will help you to develop your maker skills, whilst still providing you with a very useful end product! To get started on this fantastic project, check out the following link.

If you are attempting this project why not check out the Freetronics OLED Shield LCD Adapter. The adaptor is designed to work with the Freetronics Eleven and will allow you to easily connect a 128X128 pixel OLED module to the Eleven so that you can easily interface between your Arduino and OLED module. Check out the product page to find out more.  

Know someone that spends far too much time in front of their computer? Let them know about this project in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.   

At Freetronics we love it when other people take our products and add something to them that makes them even better! Manufacturer Allstar Plastics has done just that with their display case for the Cube4. The case is very professional looking, sturdy enough to ensure that it will protect the delicate electronics in your Cube4 and importantly still allows you to show off your spectacular cube lighting displays! If you like the look of the display case get in contact with Allstar Plastics to find out more.  

If you're interested in making your own Cube4, check out our CUBE4: RGB LED cube kit:

It's easy to construct and use, and with an onboard Arduino-compatible board the cube can be used to display all sorts of data or create visual effects. You can easily control the Cube4 via simple text commands via the USB port - or even write your own Arduino sketch. It's incredibly customisable and there's so much more that you can do with your Cube4. For more information and to order, visit the CUBE4 page.

Love this display case? Created your own add-on to a Freetronics product? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

Have you ever wondered exactly how an Arduino works? Do you wish you could make your own Arduino microcontroller so that you can have the flexibility to adapt it into any project? Welcome to Skill Sunday! This week we are going to learn how you can create your own Arduino on a breadboard.

Although this might appear quite complex, it is actually quite simple. All you will need to get started is an ATmega328P, a resistor, some capacitors and a crystal. To get started building your own breadboard Arduino check out our full tutorial.

As this breadboarded Arduino doesn’t have a USB socket, you are going to need a USB Serial Adaptor so that you can upload a sketches and facilitate serial communications with your new microcontroller. If you're looking for a serial adaptor why not check out the Freetronics USBserial module:

It offers much more than the typical FTDI-based adapter. Apart from dual-voltage USB-serial support, it's also a full ATmega16U2 breakout board with all I/O pins arranged for easy access. For more information including our quickstart guide and to order visit the USB Serial product page.

Inspired to make your own breadboard Arduino? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.   

Do you ever find yourself arriving home from work to a cold house? With this project from kohleick you can send your heating system an SMS while you are driving home, and arrive to a toasty warm house. The controller runs off an Arduino Uno and custom shields which control timing, temperature measurement and telecommunications. Kohleick has designed the controller to fit unobtrusively into a picture frame. The controller has full functionality including six operating modes, temperature measurement and full SMS control.  Additionally, the heating controller features a phone book which specifies which numbers can send commands to the heating system.

This is a great project to develop your maker skills and could potentially help you save big on energy bills. Although it is quite a complicated project, the instructions are well set out and explained. To get started check out the following link.  

If you are looking for an Arduino to use in your connected heating system, 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 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.

Already have an SMS enabled heating system? Planning on building your own? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

Do you spend a lot of time opening and closing your blinds each day? With this project from FreedomToCreate you can create your own automated blind controller which allows you to open or close your blinds based on a schedule, current temperature or outdoor light levels. The blinds are driven up and down by a stepper motor so that you can have precise control over the position. You can even have the added flexibility of controlling your blinds from your smartphone. Although it sounds like a relatively minor “chore” it is amazing how much time you could save across an entire year if you didn’t have to worry about your blinds! This is a really great project to develop your maker skills and learn how to create internet connected devices. To get started on this handy project check out the instructable.   

If you're looking to develop projects based on an Arduino that use stepper motors - simplify the process with our Freetronics StepDuino board:

The StepDuino is a complete, self-contained Arduino-compatible board with 2 onboard stepper motor drivers, 2 servo outputs, a 20x4 LCD, a micro SD card slot, and more! It's a fantastic general purpose board for any project that uses stepper motors. You can use it as the brain of your automated blinds!

The StepDuino uses the same processor architecture as the common Arduino Uno, so you can program it right from the Arduino IDE simply by selecting "Arduino Uno" as the board type. Everything simply works out of the box, just as it would with a regular Arduino - but now you can also drive steppers directly and display feedback on the huge LCD. For more information, tutorials and to order - visit the StepDuino page.

Considering automating your blinds? Have a project you would like us to feature in this blog? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

Electricity, gas and water are typically some of the largest regular expenses in any household. Having the ability to monitor trends in utilities usage means that you can easily notice discrepancies and pick up gas or water leaks promptly, saving you unnecessarily high bills! Plotting the daily electricity usage allows you to find out which devices or activities are inefficient and optimise your home accordingly, saving your even more money! This project from Chris Nafis uses an ethernet connected Arduino to send the information it collects from utility meter data packet broadcasts, onto the internet.  To get started lowering your utilities bill check out the following link!

An example of the results generated from this project:

If you’re looking for an Arduino Uno compatible board that can talk to the world and add connectivity to your projects, use our Freetronics EtherTen - the Arduino-Uno compatible board with built in Ethernet:

Have an idea for a project you would like us to feature? The team at Freetronics would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

Want to start gardening but don’t trust yourself to regularly water your plants? With the “Garduino” from Luke Iseman, you can program your Arduino to help you out! This project allows you to automate watering, supplementary lights, temperature warnings and more using a number of sensors. All of the parts used in this project are readily available and the instruction guide is sure to help you create plenty of juicy vegetables in no time (and with very little effort on your behalf). More information can be found at the following link.

If you are looking for a temperature sensor for your Arduino garden why not check out the freetronics temperature sensor module? The module is accurate to 0.5 ℃ and features a wide temperature range, mounting holes and comes with full code examples. To find out more about our fantastic temperature sensor check out the product page.

This is one of the most spectacular applications of Arduino the team at Freetronics has ever seen! The project allows you to use your smartphone to remotely trigger up to eight different fireworks. Not only is it awesome to be able to control fireworks from your phone, but the controller has the added benefit of enabling you to stand well clear of your fireworks when you launch them, drastically boosting safety.

At a basic level, an Android application sends commands over bluetooth to the Arduino controller, which then switches a relay. The relay provides power to the appropriate heating coil, igniting the firework! You can even use the Android application to pre program specific pyrotechnic sequences, so you can be running your own fireworks shows in no time! To get started with this project check out the following instructable from tominjose.  

Check out the following video to see the firework controller in action:

If you are looking for an Arduino board to power your fireworks controller 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 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!

Considering making your own fireworks controller? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.