News

Either for scientific curiosity or just some fun between friends, the following reaction timer project is a simple an interesting thing you can make in a few hours. Brought to us by Instructables member Saiyam the device gives each player in turn a countdown then sounds a buzzer and displays a confirmation to press the button.

The timer records the reaction time for each user and displays the winner for each round. There is a lot of leeway available in that you can use any Arduino or compatible board, a matching LCD with a few buttons and a buzzer so you could even make this with parts you already have.

This could be expanded with some larger external buttons for a more physical reponse for each user, however to get started with the orginal visit the timer's Instructable page. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

Looking for a rapid-use LCD for your Arduino or compatible development boards such as the example above? Save time and move forward with the Freetronics LCD & Keypad shield which contains a bright 16x2 character LCD and five buttons that can be read from only one analogue input pin:

Apart from having lots of fun you can also use LEGO as a medium for rapid protoytyping or holding various parts of a project together. One neat example of this has been demonstrated by Mathias Leroy whose Arduino-controlled demonstration of a solar tracker is integrated with the toy bricks.

The device has a light sensor on each corner of the square base - and the Arduino constantly measures the values from each sensor with which it can determine the direction of the strongest source of light - then rotates the "panel" using the two servos. This would be fun as a demonstration of a real solar tracker for a school science project or even adding to your own LEGO layout. Check out the following video for a quick demonstration:

For complete instructions to make your own version, visit the project page. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're looking to learn about Arduino development platform and how it interacts with external devices such as servos and light sensors -  you can't go past "Arduino Workshop -  A Hands-On Introduction with 65 Projects” by John Boxall.

Arduino Workshop takes the reader from having zero knowledge about the Arduino platform, electronics and programming and leaves them with the know-how and instructions on everything from blinking an LED, to robotics, wireless data, cellular communications, motor control, sensors, Internet connected systems and more. For more information including a sample chapter and table of contents, visit the book page.

Did you know you can generate composite video signals with an Arduino or compatible board? Doing so is very easy and gives you a quick way of displaying data or other information on a large scale - especially as large tube-style TVs can often be found for next to nothing.

All you need is a small external circuit with a couple of resistors and an RCA socket and a new Arduino library written by Arduino forum member uze45. The library allows you to display chracters, simple bitmaps and lines - with which you can create reasonable output as demonstrated below:

To get started you can download the library from here and more discussion is on the Arduino forum. 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.

Using a Raspberry Pi to capture, analyse and disseminate data is a great idea thanks to the ease of programming and connectivity options, however it does lack one major feature - an analogue to digital converted (ADC). Enthusiasts will often add their own using an external IC using the I2C or SPI bus.

However what if you need a lot of ADCs? Say 24 or more? This is possible with some creative digital circuitry and has been demonstrated by the MIkronauts website. They show us how to add three or more Microchip MCP3008 eight channel ADCs over the SPI bus. You may think this is not possible as only two GPIOs are available for the chip select line on each ADC chip, however more have been created with a 74LS138 3 to 8 multiplexer IC.

With the final example using 3 ADC ICs, the Raspberry Pi could log around ten thousand analogue samples per second - which could prove useful for all sorts of data-recording projects. For complete details about this excellent example, visit the Mikronauts website. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're looking for a neat way to add external circuitry to your new Raspberry Pi model A+, B+ or 2 model B then check out our new PiBreak Plus Raspberry Pi Prototyping Board:

This is a great way to add your own electronic components, circuitry, sensors or other devices to your Raspberry Pi model A+, B+ or 2 Model B - any of the current Raspberry Pis with a 40 pin GPIO header. The PiBreak Plus also includes a GPIO female header to solder yourself, and a pair of nuts, bolts, washers and spacers to ensure a a great fit.

And in the Freetronics fashion we've used a quality gold-plated (ENIG) PCB for durability, brought out all the power rails along with the GPIO next to the prototyping area to make adding circuits a breeze. Furthermore the pinouts are labelled on both the top and bottom of the PCB to save time referencing the right GPIO pins. For more information and to order - visit the PiBreak plus page now!

Enthusiast Jim Clark has found an interesting way to play three-dimensional Tic Tac Toe - with the use of an Android smartphone and a Freetronics RGB LED Cube and Bluetooth Shield. In this example the human plays the Android phone which is running a Java-based implementation of the game.

This allows for the use of the phone as a colourful game controller - which sends the display commands via a serial Bluetooth link to the RGB LED cube which displays the moves of the human and Android player. A quick demonstration is shown in the following video:

Kudos to Jim for such a neat project, and the Java code can be found in his github page. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

As part of the Arduino and Bluetooth experience you'll need a Bluetooth device for your Arduino projects, and to meet this need we've released our new Freetronics Bluetooth Shield:

We've made it simple to use - the Bluetooth Shield acts as a serial link between the other Bluetooth device. Furthermore there's a wide range of jumpers allowing you to select which digital pins to use for data transfer, increasing compatibility with other shields. And with our Quick Start guide it's easier than ever.

Our Bluetooth Shield for Arduino is now in stock and ready to ship, so for more information and to order - visit the shield's product page.

If you need to control a higher voltage or current from your Arduino or compatible board - you can use our N-MOSFET module which can switch up to 60V at 20A. However what if you need a few at once? We now have the solution with our new N-Drive shield for Arduino:

The Freetronics N-Drive shield for Arduino gives you the power to control up to six separate high-power loads - such as high-intensity LEDs, lamps, motors, and relays. The N-Drive shield incorporates six N-channel MOSFETs, each capable of switching up to 60V DC at 20 Amps. That's enough to drive massive loads such as 30W and 60W RGB LEDs capable of burning your eyeballs right out of year head!

Each MOSFET is connected to an Arduino pin with PWM capability, so you can vary the power delivered to each load individually. The N-Drive shield for Arduino is easy to use and fully-assembled with terminal blocks so no soldering is required to access the MOSFETS. And the shield is available right now from our online store for only $19 including GST.

For more information about our new N-Drive shield for Arduino, open-source design files for your perusal and more - visit the product page. And to keep up with new products, news and more - follow us on facebook, twitter and Google+.

A Peltier, otherwise known as a thermoelectric cooling unit is an interesting device that can transfer heat across their surface as an electrical current is running through it. These can be used as a way of reducing hea from an object, or keeping something warm at a certain temperature in conjunction with a thermostat circuit.

However the amount of current required to run a Peltier is much more than an Arduino can supply, so the use of a MOSFET is required. This can easily be switched by an Arduino's digital output or controlled with PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) to increase or decrease the rate of temperature change in the Peltier. This has been demonstrated by the GarageLab website whose example uses the Serial Monitor as a control interface.

To learn more about thermoelectric cooling, visit Wikipedia - and for more on the Arduino tutorial - visit the project website. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

You can replicate all sorts of commerical products with an Arduino or compatible board and some external hardware, and an excellent example of this has been demonstrated by Instructables member smching whose queuing system could be built for much less than the cost of a retail unit.

The system is split into two parts each with their own Arduino. One side controls a large Freetronics DMD display to show those waiting for service the upcoming number, and the other Arduino accepts input by counter staff using a numeric keypad and also has a small LCD to show the system status. The two partrs communicate with each other via UART serial using Cat5 cable. Finally a doorbell IC is used to generate a neat chime to alert the person at the top of the queue.

For complete details on how to make your own version, visit the project's Instructable page. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

As used in the project mentioned above, 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. 

You don't have to have a lot of hardware to create interesting projects, and an example of this has been demonstrated by Richard Glew whose "Snake" sketch mimics the gameplay of the original with only a normal HD44780-compatible LCD. 

By taking advantage of custom LCD character creation the "snake" itself has some personality, and is programmed to circle around the screen eating and growing longer. It's a neat and simple animation that could be used as an effect in other projects with an LCD, such as a clock or countdown timer. A demonstration is shown in the following video:

With a larger LCD such as a 20 x 4 character version this could offer the animation required to make a real "snake" game. In the meanwhile, for more information including the Arduino sketch, visit Richard's project page. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

Looking for a rapid-use LCD for your Arduino or compatible development boards such as the example above? Save time and move forward with the Freetronics LCD & Keypad shield which contains a bright 16x2 character LCD and five buttons that can be read from only one analogue input pin:

Users of the crypto currencies such as BItcoin, Litecoin or Dogecoin will be more than aware of the fluctuations of these alternative currencies and wish to keep an eye on their value compared to the dollar as much as possible. A fun and easy way to do this is to used a networked Raspberry Pi to retrieve pricing data and display it on an LCD.

You can make your own device to do just that with the help of Make: who have described an easy weekend project that you can finish in a few hours. A typical HD44780-compatible LCD is used with a degree of wiring, however a serial OLED could reduce the work even further. The folks from Make: give an animated demonstration of their project in the following video:

For the complete instructions visit the Make: project page. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.