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Arduino for Beginners: Essential Skills Every Maker Needs

Arduino for Beginners: Essential Skills Every Maker Needs

by John Baichtal
Publisher: Que
Release Date: December 2013
ISBN: 9780133416725
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Book Description

ARDUINO for BEGINNERS

ESSENTIAL SKILLS EVERY MAKER NEEDS

Loaded with full-color step-by-step illustrations!

Absolutely no experience needed!

Learn Arduino from the ground up, hands-on, in full color!

Discover Arduino, join the DIY movement, and build an amazing spectrum of projects… limited only by your imagination!

No “geekitude” needed: This full-color guide assumes you know nothing about Arduino or programming with the Arduino IDE. John Baichtal is an expert on getting newcomers up to speed with DIY hardware. First, he guides you gently up the learning curve, teaching you all you need to know about Arduino boards, basic electronics, safety, tools, soldering, and a whole lot more. Then, you walk step-by-step through projects that reveal Arduino’s incredible potential for sensing and controlling the environment–projects that inspire you to create, invent, and build the future!

·         Use breadboards to quickly create circuits without soldering

·         Create a laser/infrared trip beam to protect your home from intruders

·         Use Bluetooth wireless connections and XBee to build doorbells and more

·         Write useful, reliable Arduino programs from scratch

·         Use Arduino’s ultrasonic, temperature, flex, and light sensors

·         Build projects that react to a changing environment

·         Create your own plant-watering robot

·         Control DC motors, servos, and stepper motors

·         Create projects that keep track of time

·         Safely control high-voltage circuits

·         Harvest useful parts from junk electronics

·         Build pro-quality enclosures that fit comfortably in your home

Table of Contents

  1. About This eBook
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents at a Glance
  5. Table of Contents
  6. About the Author
  7. Dedication
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. We Want to Hear from You!
  10. Reader Services
  11. Introduction
    1. What’s in This Book
    2. Who Can Use This Book
    3. How to Use This Book
  12. 1. Arduino Cram Session
    1. Arduino Uno: A Rookie-Friendly Microcontroller
    2. Other Arduino Products
    3. Electronics
    4. Safety Rules
    5. The Next Chapter
  13. 2. Breadboarding
    1. Assembling Circuits Using Solderless Breadboards
    2. Project: Breadboard Blink
    3. Project: Laser Trip Beam
    4. Alt.Project: Infrared Detector
    5. The Next Chapter
  14. 3. How to Solder
    1. Gathering Soldering Supplies
    2. Soldering
    3. Desoldering
    4. Cleanup
    5. Project: LED Strip Coffee Table
    6. Building the Enclosure
    7. LED Strip Code
    8. The Next Chapter
  15. 4. Setting Up Wireless Connections
    1. XBee Wireless Modules
    2. XBee Breakout Boards
    3. Anatomy of the XBee
    4. Competing Wireless Modules
    5. Project: Wireless LED Activation
    6. Wireless LED Code
    7. Project: Bluetooth Doorbell
    8. Wireless Doorbell Code
    9. The Next Chapter
  16. 5. Programming Arduino
    1. The Arduino Development Environment
    2. The Blink Sketch
    3. Learning from Example Code
    4. More Functions and Syntax
    5. Debugging Using the Serial Monitor
    6. All About Libraries
    7. Resources for Learning Programming
    8. The Next Chapter
  17. 6. Sensing the World
    1. Lesson: Sensors
    2. Know Your Sensors
    3. Project: Mood Light
    4. Alt.Project: Kerf Bending
    5. The Next Chapter
  18. 7. Controlling Liquid
    1. Lesson: Controlling the Flow of Liquid
    2. Mini Project: Make a Pressurized Reservoir
    3. Project: Plant-Watering Robot
    4. The Next Chapter
  19. 8. Tool Bin
    1. Maker’s Ultimate Toolbox
    2. Working with Wood
    3. Working with Plastic
    4. Working with Metal
    5. Maker Spaces
    6. Software
    7. Electronics Tools and Techniques
    8. The Next Chapter
  20. 9. Ultrasonic Detection
    1. Lesson: Ultrasonic Detection
    2. Mini Project: Make an Ultrasonic Night Light
    3. Project: Cat Toy
    4. Lathe 101
    5. Lathe Safety
    6. The Next Chapter
  21. 10. Making Noise
    1. Noise in Electronics
    2. Mini Project: Pushbutton Melody
    3. Project: Noisemaker
    4. The Next Chapter
  22. 11. Measuring Time
    1. Time Server
    2. Mini Project: Digital Clock
    3. Project: Indoor Wind Chime
    4. Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Tools
    5. The Next Chapter
  23. 12. Safely Working with High Voltage
    1. Lesson: Controlling High Voltage
    2. Mini Project: Making a Fan Controller
    3. Project: Making a Lava Lamp Buddy
    4. The Next Chapter
  24. 13. Controlling Motors
    1. How to Control Motors
    2. Powering Your Motor Using a TIP-120
    3. Alt.Project: Stepper Turner
    4. Project: BubbleBot
  25. Glossary
  26. Index