Beginning your Adventures in Electronics: Arduino

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Beginning your Adventures in Electronics Arduino

• Jaroslaw Lupinski
• NYCResistor Teacher Beyond Arduino

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The Recent Revolution

• Arduino has dominated the market
• Low-cost, easy to use
• Less hardware logic, more software
• Programmed in C

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What is the Arduino

• Easy to use platform
• Ease of programming
• Simple USB interface
• Modifiable IDE
• Many shields available

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Components of the Arduino

• ATMega168/328
• 16MHz crystal/filtering capacitors
• Onboard power regulators
• FTDI USB lt-gt Serial Chip
• Hardware

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Schematic
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Necessary parts for any circuit

• ATMega168/328
• The brains of the Arduino
• Program is loaded onto the chip
• Runs main loop until power is removed
• Thats it! All other parts are optional!

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Optional parts Timing

• 16Mhz Crystal
• The heartbeat of the ATMega chip
• Speed of crystal determines chip speed
• Possible to over/underclock depending on
  application
• ATMega series has onboard oscillator less precise

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Power Supply

• 5 Volt and 3.3 Volt Regulators
• Filtering capacitors
• Automatic switching between external and USB
  Power
• Leave it out if you have a filtered 5 Volt power
  supply

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FTDI USB Chip

• Allows your Arduino to communicate with your
  computer over a simple USB link
• Abstraction
• Only necessary for communicating with USB

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Hardware

• Circuit Board
• Headers
• USB port
• Sockets
• All optional, use them
• if you need them

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Two methods of using the Arduino

• Working with the Arduino to solve a problem
• Temporary solution
• One time only

• Prototyping with the Arduino to solve a need
• Preparing a product for market
• Mass production

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Phases of Circuit Design

• Arduino Approach
• Idea
• Sketch
• Read datasheets
• Gather materials
• Prototype
• Testing
• Optional ----------------gt

• Stand-alone approach
• Idea
• Sketch
• Read datasheets
• Gather materials
• Prototype
• Testing
• Refining
• Testing
• Release to manufacture

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Using the Arduino as a Prototyping Platform

• You can prototype using an Arduino, and skip many
  steps from the stand-alone approach
• Use the Arduino to develop your product
• When your planned circuit works, skip straight
  into stand-alone product testing

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Idea

• Problem to be solved
• Market need to be filled
• Necessity is the mother of all invention.

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Sketch

• Draw out what you need to do to solve your
  problem
• No need to get technical, rough ideas and
  abstractions will suffice
• Take constraints into consideration Size,
  budget, audience

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Optional step Present

• If the project requires substantial resources
  (funding, rare materials/components), you will
  need to create a presentation
• Venture capitalists
• Crowd-sourcing
• Material Sourcing

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Read datasheets/Gather materials

• Start turning sketch into reality
• Read about chips/parts that are available
• Examine options for unavailable/non-existent
  parts
• Order materials

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Prototype

• Using protoshield or long jumper wires, develop
  your solution
• Attach external chips, sensors, circuits
• Leave breadboarded or solder permanently
• Most hands-on part, usually taught in labs or
  dedicated classes

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Side-note How to learn to prototype

• Desire
• Choose a project that appeals to you
• Easier to rebuild an existing circuit, or have an
  experienced tutor for your first design
• Time-Cost/Experience tradeoff Premade kits are
  less expensive, but may teach less technical
  skills

• Example of good first projects to complete by
  yourself
• Digital Clock
• Basic Robot
• Good projects to complete with a tutor
• Nixie tube clock
• Advanced Robot

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Testing

• Does it fulfill its purpose?
• Can it be optimized?
• Can you add/remove features? (consider cost)
• Have friends, family, colleagues break it!
• Debugging

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Creating a Stand-alone Product

• Sketch out Arduino circuit
• Eliminate unnecessary/
• redundant components
• Add broken-down Arduino circuit back into design

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Side-Note Making your own shield

• Depending on your audience, you may choose this
  route
• Best of both worlds approach
• Assurance that it will work with any Arduino The
  Mac Approach
• Limited to Arduino-owning market

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Thats the great thing about Arduino

• Programming an identical chip with the same
  Arduino code will result in identical execution
• No need for complicated IDE, porting code

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Using EAGLE to design your circuit

• Powerful schematic capture tool
• Integrated circuit
• board design tool
• Free versions limitations are enough for a shield

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Lay out the circuit board

• Position components using electrical engineering
  principles
• There arent many, but there are a few critical
  ones
• Power supply splitting, Star Ground, Ground
  plane, EMI

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Take your time laying out the board

• Most designers spend 5-10 hours laying out a
  simple shield!
• Personal preferences, aesthetic appeal, ease of
  use, ease of manufacturing

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Send circuit board out for production

• Research fabrication houses
• Compare rates, lead times, shipping
• Consider assembly

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Marketing

• Kickstarter!
• Word of mouth
• Reach out to hackerspaces/hacker fairs
• Get people talking about it!

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Cost Analysis

• Determining costs is usually done at the idea
  phase
• Spreadsheets!
• Excel is your friend
• Understand that prices rise and fall, stock is
  depleted and replenished, and suppliers may fail
  to deliver
• The longer it takes to develop, the more
  variables will develop

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Start selling your product!

• Keep up to date on your products status
• Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, News
• Every product is 1 inspiration, 9 perspiration,
  and 90 marketing!

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Congratulations!

• You are now a marketable inventor!
• Consider patenting your idea if it is worth more
  than 10,000
• Open source alternatives
• Creative Commons

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Understand that your product will not always sell

• Many factors go into making a successful product
• Even if you did all the steps correctly, you may
  still fail to make a profit
• Engage the customers that you do bring in

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Questions/Comments

• Notes

• Contact
• Jaroslaw Lupinski
• jarek_at_soniktech.com
• AIM jarek319