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Hacking LEDs and Arduinos: Instant LED Projects

Most LED projects involve some wiring, some resistors, a solderless breadboard, and a bunch of jumper wires. Not this one! You can create bright, stunning colors by literally just plugging LEDs directly into the Arduino pins. No wiring, no resistors. Just your Arduino and a handful of LEDs. The is the absolute simplest and lowest cost way to get started manipulating light and color. I’ll show you how to do it safely in this article.

An Introduction to the Parallax Propeller 2

This article gives an easy preview and shows you how some of the neat new features in the long-awaited Propeller 2 can be leveraged in your applications.

The Dr. Duino Explorer — A Review

Stop spending hours fighting your breadboard! With the Dr. Duino Explorer, you’ll save a ton of time on your next Arduino project. Whether you’re a novice or experienced Arduino user, the Explorer offers an array of commonly used sensors and modules with the ability to connect and disconnect what you need at will. It has a novel mechanism for routing digital and analog I/O pins to wherever you need them.

A Real-Time Operating System for the Arduino

An RTOS (Real Time Operating System) is a software component that lets you rapidly switch between different running sections of your code. Think of it as having several loop() functions in an Arduino sketch where they all run at the same time.

REVIEW: Dr. Duino’s Starter Kit for the Arduino Uno

In addition to making breadboarding easier, the new Dr. Duino Starter Kit can be a useful tool in learning Arduino hardware and software design. Getting into microcontroller development for the first time can be a daunting undertaking and anything that can simplify the process will be welcomed by many. Plus, there are many other possibilities for how this kit can be used.

Build a Configurable Clock/Timer

This project implements a clock/timer device with several handy features other than just a simple alarm. It utilizes a 16-bit PIC, the MPLab Code Configurator, and a serial LCD.

Build a Digital Light Saber

Want to “paint with light?” This article explains in detail how you can build a low cost (<$100) microprocessor-controlled LED light saber that provides as much or more capabilities than professional light wands.

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Microcontrollers