xii 30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius
Arduino button or spend some time with your
favorite search engine or an online auction site to
find lower-cost alternatives. In the next chapter,
step-by-step instructions are provided for installing
the software on all three platforms.
There are, in fact, several different designs of
Arduino board. These are intended for different
types of applications. They can all be programmed
from the same Arduino development software, and
in general, programs that work on one board will
work on all.
In this book we mostly use the Arduino
Duemilanove, sometimes called Arduino 2009,
which is an update of the popular board, the
Diecimila. Duemilanove is Italian for 2009, the
year of its release. The older Diecimila name
means 10,000 in Italian, and was named that after
10,000 boards had been manufactured. Most
compatible boards such as the Freeduino are based
on the Diecimila and Duemilanove designs.
Most of the projects in this book will work with
a Diecimila, Duemilanove, or their clone designs,
apart from one project that uses the Arduino
Lilypad.
When you are making a project with an
Arduino, you will need to download programs onto
the board using a USB lead between your
computer and the Arduino. This is one of the most
convenient things about using an Arduino. Many
microcontroller boards use separate programming
hardware to get programs into the microcontroller.
With Arduino, it’s all contained on the board itself.
This also has the advantage that you can use the
USB connection to pass data back and forth
between an Arduino board and your computer. For
instance, you could connect a temperature sensor
to the Arduino and have it repeatedly tell your
computer the temperature.
On the older Diecimila boards, you will find a
jumper switch immediately below the USB socket.
With the jumper fitted over the top two pins, the
board will receive its power from the USB
connection. When over the middle and bottom
pins, the board will be powered from an external
power supply plugged into the socket below. On
the newer Duemilanove boards, there is no such
jumper and the supply switches automatically from
USB to the 9V socket.
The power supply can be any voltage between
7 and 12 volts. So a small 9V battery will work
just fine for portable applications. Typically, while
you are making your project, you will probably
power it from USB for convenience. When you are
ready to cut the umbilical cord (disconnect the
USB lead), you will want to power the board
independently. This may be with an external power
adaptor or simply with a 9V battery connected to a
plug to fit the power socket.
There are two rows of connectors on the edges
of the board. The row at the top of the diagram is
mostly digital (on/off) pins, although any marked
with “PWM” can be used as analog outputs. The
bottom row of connectors has useful power
connections on the left and analog inputs on
the right.
These connectors are arranged like this so that
so-called “shield” boards can be plugged on to the
main board in a piggyback fashion. It is possible to
buy ready-made shields for many different
purposes, including:
■ Connection to Ethernet networks
■ LCD displays and touch screens
■ XBee (wireless data communications)
■ Sound
■ Motor control
■ GPS tracking
■ And many more
You can also use prototyping shields to create
your own shield designs. We will use these
Protoshields in some of our projects. Shields
usually have through connectors on their pins,
which means that you can stack them on top of
 Introduction xiii

each other. So a design might have three layers: an Most of the projects in this book can be
Arduino board on the bottom, a GPS shield on it, constructed without the need for soldering; instead
and then an LCD display shield on top of that. we use a breadboard. A breadboard is a plastic
block with holes in it with sprung metal
connections behind. Electronic components are
The Projects pushed through the holes at the front. These are
not expensive, and a suitable breadboard is also
The projects in this book are quite diverse. We
listed in the appendix. However, if you wish to
begin with some simple examples using standard
make your designs more permanent, the book
LEDs and also the ultra high-brightness Luxeon
shows you how to do that, too, using the
LEDs.
prototyping board.
In Chapter 5, we look at various sensor projects
Sources for all the components are listed in the
for logging temperature and measuring light and
appendix, along with some useful suppliers. The
pressure. The USB connection to the Arduino
only things you will need in addition to these
makes it possible to take the sensor readings in
components are an Arduino board, a computer,
these projects and pass them back to the computer,
some wire, and a piece of breadboard. The
where they can be imported into a spreadsheet and
software for all the projects is available for
charts drawn.
download from www.arduinoevilgenius.com.
We then look at projects using various types of
display technology, including an alphanumeric
LCD message board (again using USB to get Without Further Ado
messages from your computer), as well as seven-
segment and multicolor LEDs. The Evil Genius is not noted for their patience, so
in the next chapter we will show you how to get
Chapter 7 contains four projects that use sound
started with Arduino as quickly as possible. This
as well as a simple oscilloscope. We have a simple
chapter contains all the instructions for installing
project to play tunes from a loudspeaker, and build
the software and programming your Arduino
up to a light harp that changes the pitch and
board, including downloading the software for the
volume of the sound by waving your hand over
projects, so you will need to read it before you
light sensors. This produces an effect rather like
embark on your projects.
the famous Theremin synthesizer. The final project
in this chapter uses sound input from a In Chapter 2 we take a look at some of the
microphone. It is a VU meter that displays the essential theory that will help you build the
intensity of the sound on an LED display. projects described in this book, and go on to
design projects of your own. Most of the theory is
The final chapters contain a mixture of projects.
contained in this chapter, so if you are the kind of
Among others, there is, as we have already
Evil Genius who prefers to just make the projects
mentioned, an unfathomable binary clock using an
and find out how they work afterwards, you may
Arduino Lilypad board that indicates the time in an
prefer, after reading Chapter 1, to just to pick a
obscure binary manner only readable by an Evil
project and start building. Then if you get stuck,
Genius, a lie detector, a motor-controlled swirling
you can use the index or read some of the early
hypnotizer disk, and, of course, the computer-
chapters.
controlled-servo-guided laser.