Arduino

Articles related to lessons learned or projects built using Arduino devices or Arduino-compatible devices. This page lists all posts in the category, in reverse chronological order.

• Note: An AI Generated pill displayed in the list below indicates that the post description displayed on the page was generated from the post content using Generative AI (GenAI). The post content itself was written by a human (me).

• Flame Throwing Pumpkin

  Posted Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at 07:34 PM  in Arduino, Internet of Things (IoT)
  

  Back in 2019, I decided to finally start work on a Flame Throwing pumpkin project for Halloween. I saw some projects like this in the past, and I wanted to do my own version. Some projects do some pretty sophisticated things to make a flame thrower in a pumpkin (like using a solenoid to push down the nozzle of a spray can (hair spray or WD-40)) but others use a simple air freshener (short spurt) in front of a candle.

• Using UDP Broadcast to Synchronize Actions Across Arduino Devices

  Posted November 5, 2023  in Arduino, ESP32, Internet of Things (IoT)
  

  Describes a way to synchronize actions or activities across multiple Arduino devices using UDP (broadcast and receiver).

• Arduino UDP Broadcast Receiver

  Posted November 2, 2023  in Arduino, ESP32, Internet of Things (IoT), Flutter
  

  I created an Arduino sketch that implements an UDP broadcast receiver which allows me to control multiple Arduino devices simultaneously from a mobile app.

• Read Pin State Between Two Arduino Devices

  Posted November 1, 2023  in Arduino, Internet of Things (IoT)
  

  As I worked on my latest Halloween project, I realized that one of the things I wanted to do was read the pin state from a different/separate Arduino device. My project used two Arduino-compatible devices for different purposes and I wanted to be able to send a signal from one to the other. I looked around for a while and found a bunch of Forum questions on this topic and answers for the most part, but I couldn't find a post that actually described it in detail. This post does that.

• A Better Arduino MicroFogger Controller Redux

  Posted October 30, 2023  in Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino
  

  In my previous post, I demonstrated a better way to randomly generate smoke using the Vosentech MicroFogger 5 Pro from an Arduino sketch. That version was better because it didn’t block the main loop, instead it let other stuff while it generated smoke and waited.

• A Better Arduino MicroFogger Controller

  Posted October 29, 2023  in Arduino, Internet of Things (IoT)
  

  Describes a better way to control a Vosentech MicroFogger from an Arduino sketch. The example provided in the previous post blocked the sketch's `loop` function and this one doesn't.

• Controlling the Vosentech MicroFogger From An Arduino

  Posted October 28, 2023  in Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino
  

  Describes how to use an Arduino device to control the Vosentech MicroFogger.

• Glowing Pumpkin Project Refresh

  Posted August 30, 2023  in Arduino, ESP32, Internet of Things (IoT)
  

  Years ago I published a several Glowing Pumpkin projects: Arduino Glowing Pumpkin and Arduino Glowing Pumpkin (Adafruit Feather). Both projects used Arduino compatible devices plus either one of the Adafruit multi-NeoPixel devices or a NeoPixel shield. The shield approach was easy because I just had to solder some male and female headers to the boards and press them together into a unit. My first project used the NeoPixel Ring which required soldering wires and running them into an enclosure where the Arduino device resides.

• Arduino ESP32 Web Server on a Processor Core

  Posted August 27, 2023  in Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino, ESP32
  

  The second article in this series, describes in detail how to run a web server in an Arduino project on the Espressif ESP32 microcontroller.

• Arduino ESP32 Running Tasks On Multiple Cores

  Posted August 25, 2023  in Arduino, ESP32, Internet of Things (IoT)
  

  This article demonstrates how to assign different tasks to separate processor cores using the Arduino platform and multiple core microcontrollers. I always wanted to learn how to do this, but the examples on the web are so full of ads that I wanted to publish a version with no advertisements as a super clean example.

• Andy Doro Word Clock Update

  Posted August 10, 2021  in Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino
  

  I recently discovered Andy Doro's Word Clock and I love the project. I built one for my self then started looking at the code for ways to improve it. I made a bunch of changes to the code and, once Andy added a license to the project repository, forked it and published my own version of it.

• Using the Arduino NTPClient Library

  Posted July 18, 2021  in Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino
  

  I have a version of Andy Doro’s Word Clock running in my house. I had some issues with the real-time clock (RTC) keeping time correctly, so I decided to rebuild the clock using a Wi-Fi enabled device and the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to keep my clock’s local time synchronized with reality.

• Word Clock Time Issues

  Posted July 14, 2021  in Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino
  

  The clock's been running in our guest bathroom for more than a year now and I recently noticed that the clock wasn't keeping time very well. It was about 20 minutes fast. The original project is based on the Adafruit Trinket device which doesn't have a Wi-Fi connection, so it can't get it's time through Network Time Protocol (NTP). Instead, sets the clock to the compile date/time for the currently running sketch.

• Building a Better Light Timer

  Posted March 24, 2018  in Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino
  

  Describes a Arduino-based light timer that uses NTP to keep the internal clock accurate.

• Arduino Twinkle Lights

  Posted January 14, 2017  in Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino
  

  This project is an Arduino variant of the Pimoroni Firefly Light (https://learn.pimoroni.com/tutorial/sandyj/firefly-light) project. Basically you place two strings of battery-powered LEDs into a glass jar and use a microcontroller to fade one strand up while the other strand fades down. The fade up/down process repeats for as long as the microcontroller has power. You could even add 1 or more strands of lights to the project if you want.

• Arduino Powered Pinewood Derby Car

  Posted April 14, 2016  in Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino
  

  Dscribes an article I published in Make Magazine for an Arduino-powered pinewood derby car.

Header image: Photo by Sahand Babali on Unsplash