Book Image

Arduino for Kids

By : Rishi Gaurav Bhatnagar, Vijay Varada
Book Image

Arduino for Kids

By: Rishi Gaurav Bhatnagar, Vijay Varada

Overview of this book

The mission of this book is to integrate technology with the tools that children already use for crafts so that they feel that the technology is an extension of their playtime. We use coding, sensors, and micro-controllers integrated with art and craft supplies, origami, and Playdough. There are 10 fun-filled chapters that talk to children directly, and give clear instructions for non-technical parents too. We use Arduino as the controller of choice due to its easy availability and large community. By the end of the book, children will comfortably be able to set up their Arduino, read and understand code, manipulate code, and ultimately write their own code for projects. They will also be able to use basic sensors and know how components connect to each other. All the learning takes place with lots of colorful pictures and the circuits are neatly presented using wiring.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Arduino for Kids
Credits
Foreword
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Psst...come closer...


Before we move on to breaking this project into blocks, let's look at this new sensor that we are dealing with. As discussed earlier, a sensor is a device that gives an input to the Arduino, and tells it some kind of information about its surroundings.

An Ultrasonic Proximity Sensor, is a kind of sensor that gives the Arduino information about how close someone or something is to the sensor. It works by using very high frequency sound waves also called as ultrasonic waves, having frequency above 20,000 Hz. How this sensor can figure out the closeness of an object is similar to how bat's use their screeches to navigate while flying or hunting. You can visualize it by having a look at the following image:

Image source: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/572731277582697045/

A bat emits a sound wave which travels through air and then bounces off of an object. The reflected sound or echo is then picked up by the bat's large ears.

Depending on how long it took for the sound to reflect...