Practical Arduino: Cool Projects for Open Source Hardware [Paperback]

Create your own Arduino-based designs, gain in-depth knowledge of the architecture of Arduino, and learn the user-friendly Arduino language all in the context of practical projects that you can build yourself at home. Get hands-on experience using a variety of projects and recipes for everything from home automation to test equipment.

Arduino has taken off as an incredibly popular building block among ubicomp (ubiquitous computing) enthusiasts, robotics hobbyists, and DIY home automation developers. Authors Jonathan Oxer and Hugh Blemings provide detailed instructions for building a wide range of both practical and fun Arduino-related projects, covering areas such as hobbies, automotive, communications, home automation, and instrumentation.

• Take Arduino beyond "blink" to a wide variety of projects from simple to challenging
• Hands-on recipes for everything from home automation to interfacing with your car engine management system
• Explanations of techniques and references to handy resources for ubiquitous computing projects

Supplementary material includes a circuit schematic reference, introductions to a range of electronic engineering principles and general hints & tips. These combine with the projects themselves to make Practical Arduino: Cool Projects for Open Source Hardware an invaluable reference for Arduino users of all levels. You'll learn a wide variety of techniques that can be applied to your own projects.

What you'll learn

• Communication with serial devices including RFID readers, temperature sensors, and GPS modules
• Connecting Arduino to Ethernet and WiFi networks
• Adding synthesized speech to Arduino
• Linking Arduino to web services
• Decoding data streams from commercial wireless devices
• How to make DIY prototyping shields for only a couple of dollars

Who is this book for?

This book is for hobbyists and developers interested in physical computing using a low-cost, easy-to-learn platform.

Jonathan Oxer, who has been labeled "Australia's Geekiest Man," has been hacking on both hardware and software since he was a little tacker. He is a former president of Linux Australia, and founder and technical director of Internet Vision Technologies. He is author of a number of books including How to Build a Website and Stay Sane, Ubuntu Hacks, and Quickstart Guide to Google AdWords. He has been surgically implanted with an RFID chip and is set to host an upcoming TV show called SuperHouse (www.superhouse.tv) featuring high-tech home renovation, open source automation systems, and domestic hardware hacking. Jonathan has appeared on top-rating TV shows and been interviewed on dozens of radio stations about his home automation system. He was technical supervisor for the first season of the reality TV show The Phone, has connected his car to the Internet (www.geekmyride.org), and is also a member of the core team of Lunar Numbat (www.lunarnumbat.org), an Australian group working with the European team White Label Space (www.whitelabelspace.com) on an unmanned moon mission for the Google Lunar X-Prize (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Oxer).

Hugh took a radio apart when he was about eight and never recovered. From this start and an interest in Ham Radio an early career doing hardware and embedded software development followed back when 68HC11's were the latest and greatest.

Hugh has been working on Free software since the mid-90's for fun and as a (still fun!) paid gig since 1999. He was co-author of the gnokii project and developed kernel device drivers for the Keyspan USB-serial adaptors. He worked at IBM's Linux Technology Centre as a Open Source Hacker in the Canberra based OzLabs team for just shy of eight years doing everything from first line management to Linux kernel porting for embedded PowerPC platforms.

He now works on Ubuntu Linux at Canonical in the kernel team but remains firmly of the view that any day that involves a soldering iron, a 'scope and emacs is a good day.