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We frequently receive requests for helping people use motors with their Freetronics Eleven or other Arduino-compatible board - and the solution is usually our Dual Channel H-Bridge Motor Driver Shield. It's quick and we also have a neat tutorial with some demonstration code that shows how to use both DC motors or a stepper motor.

Taking this explanation one step further is Mr Hobbyelectronics, whose latest video is an introduction to the Freetronics Dual Channel H-Bridge Motor Driver Shield and shows us how easy it is to control DC or stepper motors in no time at all. Check out the following video to learn more:

For this and other interesting videos related to the Arduino, Raspberry Pi and technology world - subscribe to Mr Hobbyelectonics' YouTube channel. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're looking into starting with Arduino and robotics, such as controlling a stepper motor (or DC motors) from your Arduino or compatible, check out our HBRIDGE: DC/stepper motor shield.

Based around the powerful Allegro A4954 H-bridge driver IC you can control two DC motors with complete ease, or one bipolar stepper motor. With connections for external power management, a complete beginners' guide and documentation - motor control couldn't be any easier. For more information and to order, visit the HBRIDGE: page.

Next in the line of interesting and different clock projects is a functional replica of the "Berlin Clock". The Mengenlehreuhr as it is know in German is the first clock in the world to display the time using set theory. The lamp at the top blinks for seconds, then the next two rows down denote the hours, then the following two rows for minutes.

This is certainly a different way of displaying the time, and once fitted inside an enclosure would make an interesting talking point for any home or office. Constructing your own is easy thanks to the creator Marc Deloor, who also simplified the LED control by using a MAX7219 LED display driver. Although only in prototype form below, you can see how unique it is:

To make your own version, check out the project page. And to learn about the original Berlin clock, visit Wikipedia. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

There are many uses for our large DMD Dot Matrix Displays, and we're always excited to see new ways of interfacing with and controlling these super-bright display units. An excellent example of this has been demonstrated by Patrick Catanzariti who shows how easy it is to control a DMD with an Arduino and Node.js on a host PC.

The combination of Arduino and Node.js is used to decode a .png image file, and send the image data to the display. As you can see from the image below you can convert any image with a size of 32 x 16 pixels, and thanks to Patrick's code you can recreate this yourself.

Furthermore the article includes a neat explanation of how the DMDs are controlled with the Arduino sketch so you will have a mastery of the subject in no time at all - so click here to get started. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

If you would like to have fun with node.js and a large LED dot matrix display - check out the Freetronics Dot Matrix Displays. They're simple to use, yet very bright for indoor and outdoor situations. Available in various colours, the 32 x 16 LED matrix can display text and graphics quite easily - and can be daisy-chained together for extended displays. For more information, see our range of Dot Matrix Displays here

For those of you lucky enough to have a motorised desk at the workplace that allows control of the height at the push of a button - it's now possible to create your own heigh controller that can give the uninitiated the view of seeing you move a large object with only the wave of your hand.

The hardware to make this possible has been documented by Joakim Christoffersson, who hacked the motorised desk height controller by adding an ultrasonic distance sensor and an Arduino to the mix. The sensor is enclosed in a neat case, and detects the distance between itself and the user, which is then used to control the desk motors. And thus you can then be seen to control the desk with "The Force" - as shown in the following video:

 Certainly something different and a lot of fun. To learn how to make your own version, check out Joakim's project page. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you need to add external hardware or devices to your next Arduino project, you'll need a protoshield to mount the external circuitry. In doing so, consider our range of ProtoShields. From the tiny LeoStick to the Mega we have a wide range to suit your application.

With some Arduino-controlled automation you can make photography much more interesting, and a great example of the synergy between the two has been documented by Frederick Ford with his camera slider device. His slider is a dual-rail horizontal device which is mounted upon a camera tripod and gives the user much more control of the camera's position.

The slider uses an Arduino-controlled stepper motor and timing belts to move the camera along as required. This enables some interesting photography, and in conjunction with time-lapse exposures - the results are breataking... consider the following video of examples:

For details on making your own version of the slider, visit Frederick's instructable page. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

 If you're interested in using an Arduino or compatible board for motor control  - check out our  HBRIDGE: DC/stepper motor shield. Based around the powerful Allegro A4954 H-bridge driver IC you can control two DC motors with complete ease, or one bipolar stepper motor. With connections for external power management, a complete beginners' guide and documentation - motor control couldn't be any easier. For more information and to order, visit the HBRIDGE: page.

Although using a Freetronics Eleven or other Arduino-compatible board is easy and quick, when it comes time to make a final project or product the entire board may seem like overkill. An alternative is to build your own circuit around a minimalist Arduino-compatible and this can be done with a solderless breadboard - as shown in our tutorial.

Taking this explanation one step further is Mr Hobbyelectronics, who has created a video introduction to the tutorial and strongly articulates how easy it is to make your own minimal Arduino-compatible in no time at all. Check out the following video to learn more:

For this and other interesting videos related to the Arduino, Raspberry Pi and technology world - subscribe to Mr Hobbyelectonics' YouTube channel. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

We never tire of Nixie tube clock projects, and another example by Ian Sparks uses a single digit tube mounted in an unorthodox fashion. Instead of building a clock that keeps the tube and high-voltage driver circuitry hidden from the end user, this clock is quite the opposite to the point where a PCB is not used.

The circuit is constructed using exposed copper wire which looks great but is also quite damngerous - thus the term "Deadly Nixie Tube Clock". Based arourd a bare Arduino-compatible circuit the clock is easy to modify and interfaces neatly with an accurate real-time clock IC. Furthermore, the result is quite a work of art, as shown below:

For more details including links to the code and more, visit the Arduino forum. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

Although controlling contemporary electrical devices with an Arduino or compatible board can be done quite easily, target devices with larger mechanical controls may seem out of reach. However with some thought and a 3D printer you can also control these older devices and this has been demosntrated by the team from Blue Leaf Software with their Arduino and Megunolink-controlled classic air conditioner.

An Arduino with a temperature sensor is used to measure the ambient environment, and sends the data back to a PC running the Megunolink software - which then determines in conjunction with user data when the air conditioner should be on or off. In this example the control panel for the air conditioner uses rotary knobs, and thus a 3D-printed servo bracket was created to fit over the control knob - and with a strong servo can be controlled by the Arduino.

This is a great demonstration of the Megunolink software and also interfacing older devices with an Arduino. To learn how, visit the project's website. And for more, we're on twitter, facebook 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:

There are many protocols available to get data from a networked Arduino or compatible board, and one of these is MQTT - "MQTT is a machine-to-machine (M2M)/"Internet of Things" connectivity protocol. It was designed as an extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport" (mqtt.org).

Thanks to the low bandwidth requirements MQTT works well with our Arduino-compatible equipment and a neat example of this has been demonstrated by Marek Kuziel whose weather station returns temperature, humidity and other data via MQTT. Marek's system is self-contained thanks to the use of our Freetronics EtherMega and the extra Power-over-Ethernet adaptor, which allows the hardware to be powered over the network cable - so a power supply isn't required on site.

Furthermore with Marek's example sketch you can see how to send data as MQTT messages which can then be subscribed to via a remote server, Android device and more. To get started, visit Marek's interesting website. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're interested in using an Arduino Mega with Ethernet, a microSD card and more - it's time to upgrade to the Freetronics EtherMega:

Quite simple the EtherMega is the 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.

You can have a lot of fun with an Arduino-controlled LED matrix, from displaying simple text and data through to playing games like Tetris or a Conway's "Game of Life" situation. And with a little effort you can make your own, as demonstrated by Instructables member vastsuperking.

They show us how easy it is to create an LED matrix with seven rows of twenty LEDs, for example:

With some careful planning and drilling, you can mount the LEDs in a neat and orderly arrangement and them manually solder all the LEDs  into the row/column system as you can see in the image above. The display is generated by controlling each row of LEDs in turn using a form of Charlieplexing.

For more information on this project and making your own LED matrix, visit the Instructable page. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

If you would like to have an LED matrix for your Arduino but not incllined to build you own - check out our Freetronics Dot Matrix Displays. They're simple to use, yet very bright for indoor and outdoor situations. Available in various colours, the 32 x 16 LED matrix can display text and graphics quite easily - and can be daisy-chained together for extended displays. For more information, see our range of Dot Matrix Displays here.