The Arduino Guy

Last weekend I finally got to blow the dust off my Arduino and do a bit of hacking. I went over to a friends house and we spent the entire Saturday messing around with Arduino’s. I decided to try and get a 320x240 Kent display (e-Ink) I bought last year up and running. After a lot of messing around I managed to get it to display images. I intend on using this for a low power fridge display one day to display weather information, upcoming diary dates, birthdays, etc.

The display has no graphics driver of any kind so fonts will have to be done entirely in software. This display is crying out to have a library written for it, but I am not sure how popular the display is.

I also got a 320x240 colour TFT display up and running using some demo code I found online. This display requires a LOT of pins. In fact, all 20 digital pins on the Arduino Uno were used and there were still some pins on the display left unused. It would be better with a Mega.

I finished off with getting a Thermopile to work. Very interesting little non-contact temperature sensor. I may use it for another incarnation of my Cloud Sensor project one day. Overall it was a great day of Arduino Hacking.

Wel, another year gone and Christmas Day is nearly upon us. December has been a very busy month for Earthshine Electronics. As expected, the Christmas rush has been crazy and we have been sending out kits all over the world in time for Christmas.

In 2012 we will be making some further tweaks to the kits and our product lines to bring you the best possible options. Our Arduino Starter Kit is still the best on the market anywhere in the world. Just look at the parts you get and the price and compare it with anyone else’s kit and you will see what I mean.

Some new tutorials are on the way including an update to our Beginners Guide to the Arduino, which has now been downloaded over 100,000 times since launch.

My book, “Beginning Arduino” is still selling extremely well on sites like Amazon and is still one of the best Arduino books available on the market. We are now onto the second print run!

Anyway, signing off now. All of us at Earthshine Electronics wish every one of you a very merry Christmas and all the best wishes for 2012.

Mike McRoberts
December 2012

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post guys. It’s been really busy with Earthshine Electronics as schools and colleges have been making lots of orders of Arduino Starter Kits. It’s nice to see the Arduino being used seriously in eduction nowadays.

We will shortly be selling the new Revision 3 of the Arduino Uno with the revised pin outs. Our Arduino Starter Kits have also had a minor revision with the dot matrix displays replaced by 2 x 7-segment displays instead. These are a lot more useful for beginners and easier to use.

We’ve been running Arduino Workshops and are planning another one for January. In 2012 we will also be introducing Advanced Arduino Workshops to those that want them. In 2012 we will introduce a whole new set of tutorial pages to the website that will be ideal for the beginner.

On a personal note I hope to finish soon my High Altitude Balloon project and get it launched. Finding the time to work on it though is proving difficult.

If anyone wants further info. on any of the above then I’ll be happy to oblige.

Mike McRoberts
November 2011

I will be running another Arduino Workshop at London Hackspace again in August. This will be the weekend of 27th & 28th August 2011. The two days costs £50 and you will need an Arduino and various components. A full kit of parts can be purchased in our store. Contact me if you want further details. But hurry, tickets go fast for these courses!

I’m currently planning another Arduino Workshop at London Hackspace for August. I was intending on doing one this month but my weekends are now fully booked up plus I want to totally redo the course material.

The courses at LHS have proven very popular and spaces go very quick so contact me to pre-book.