Arduino Information

My arduino was bought at a swap meet, with no manual.  To learn about it, I did some web searches.  In the process, I found some interesting sites:

To start:
   www.arduino.cc  The Arduino home page!  Click on the link for "learn Arduino".   This page explains how to set one up.  (What software to install, etc.)  There is a list of arduino boards in the upper right corner.  Clicking on the name of your arduino board, will take you to a page with more setup info for your Arduino board.

Arduino Lessons:
  http://www.toptechboy.com/arduino-lessons/  I like the way he describes things here.  Made it easy to understand how to setup a circuit and write a simple program to control it.  Very cool!



Arduino Libraries
  https://www.arduinolibraries.info/libraries  A cool site with links to lots of libraries for the Arduino.

Infrared control
  https://learn.adafruit.com/using-an-infrared-library/sending-ir-codes  Setting up an infrared circuit.

Decoding the old Lego Infrared communications
  http://ofalcao.pt/blog/2017/decoding-old-lego-infrared-protocol  He has quite a bit about the old Lego infrared communications.

Arduino Bluetooth Basics:
  https://www.hackster.io/user206876468/arduino-bluetooth-basic-tutorial-d8b737  Here he shows how to setup an HC-05 Bluetooth Module to an arduino, and a simple programming to control it from a smart phone.

Using the Arduino Uno and HC-05 Bluetooth Module:
https://www.hackster.io/tenerdz-group/using-the-arduino-uno-and-hc-05-bluetooth-module-576f3d
  I like this one more than the previous circuit.  Here the Bluetooth module has a simple voltage divider . (A pair of resistors to limit the voltage to the HC-05).


With this info in hand, I can start designing my Don's Electronic Thing!

Legos

About 16 years ago, I collected some Lego sets.  A small variety, the Robotics Invention System 1.5 and 2.0, a couple of Droid Developer kits, a darkside kit, some misc. blocks, the Bionicle Manas set.

Recently, I thought about upgrading my lego micro computer blocks the something newer.  The Lego NXT, and EV3, sets seem kinda beyond my current budget...So I thought about what else can I do?  What do I have available? 

   RCXs: 2 (a 1.5, and a 2.0)

   Spybot: 1

   Bionicle Manas: 2 (one set)

   Microscouts: 3

I also have:

  Android phones: 2 (plus one I use everyday).

  Android Tablets: 2

Maybe I can program the RCXs to accept commands from my android devices...

On the Android devices, I do write some programs in a language called: RFO Basic!  It is on the play store.  We also have a forum on tapatalk.  HERE   Do check it out!  (Before you laugh, this is a fully modern BASIC that can access the sensors on your android phone.  Really cool!) 

My current idea:

  I could write control programs in RFO basic, which would use bluetooth to talk to an Arduino, and it would use IR to talk to the RCXs/etc.  It could also use small LEDs to control the microscouts...

Where did the time go?

Hi there!  Sorry for the really really long wait...I got busy...had to move, find a new house, wade through the paperwork, and seemingly endless inspections..(oy!)  Move in to the new place, wait for things to settle down...Didn't seem like three years!  (wowzers!)

I did find some time for a couple of projects.  I (mostly) built a "retro computer", and am currently fiddling with a Raspberry PI, and an Arduino Uno computers.  I will have to upload some pictures...

I have decided to expand my blog to cover some of my other hobbies.  Which include:  Lego (yes I am AFOL -- thats a lego fan in joke.), Science Fiction books/movies/etc.,  Computers, Old versions of BASIC -- my favorite programming language.

Keep watching this space...(Hopefully I won't take so long!)