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Arduino for Kids

By : Priya Kuber, Rishi Gaurav Bhatnagar, Vijay Varada

1 (4)

Arduino for Kids

1 (4)

By: Priya Kuber, 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.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. The World around Us

1. The World around Us

Solving problems - the best way out

The beauty of taking notes

The human body

Summary

2. Systems and Logic

2. Systems and Logic

What is a system?

What is code?

What is an algorithm?

Logic

What language does your Arduino Understand?

The Arduino IDE

Summary

3. Components and Connections

3. Components and Connections

Exploring electricity

Understanding Series and Parallel connections

What are sensors?

Physics behind sensors

Exploring common sensors

Making your own sensor!

Summary

4. The Magic Wand

4. The Magic Wand

Demystifying microcontroller

Coding the microcontroller - the process

Power supply

Let's use the IDE

Inside the working of a microcontroller

Open-source hardware and software

Summary

5. Hello World!

5. Hello World!

Hey Arduino! Let's get to work

Get the LEDs working

Testing an external influence on LEDs - pushbutton switch

Hi Computer, I’m Arduino! - Using serial communication to make your Arduino talk

Light sensitivity sensor - LDR

Summary

6. Safety Box

6. Safety Box

Don't touch my stuff!

What you will need

Let's get to work!

I/O pins

It's all about the logic

This is key!

The working

Make some noise!

The safe

Summary

7. Make a Friend

7. Make a Friend

Giving life to your toys

Psst...come closer...

Let's get to work!

Digging deep into Arduino libraries

Getting familiar with the sensor

Say hello to my little friend!

Summary

8. Save Energy

8. Save Energy

Automation? What's that?

Detecting light

Let's get to work!

Reading analog data

Wait, we need voltage!

Let there be light!

The hut that comes to life at night!

Summary

9. High 5!

9. High 5!

You deserve a high 5!

What you will need

Motors and movement

Let's get to work!

High five!

Summary

10. Plant, Meet Arduino!

10. Plant, Meet Arduino!

Making your plants talk

What you will need

I'm thirsty!

Measuring the conductivity of soil

Summary

Getting familiar with the sensor

It's now time to write the code for the sensor. Let's output the values of the sensor to Arduinos Serial Monitor and play around with the sensor a little. We are going to use the ping_cm() function from the NewPing library. Other functions of the library are listed at http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/NewPing.

According to the web page the function is explained as follows:

sonar.ping_cm(); Sends a ping, returns the distance in centimeters or 0 (zero) if no ping echo within set distance limit. There are other functions (also called Methods in some cases) that return the distance in inches, or the time it took for the eco to return, mentioned on the webpage.

Let's get coding for our sensor!

#include <NewPing.h> 
 
NewPing sonar(8, 9); 
 
void setup() { 
 Serial.begin(115200); 
} 
 
void loop() { 
  delay(50); 
  int dist = sonar.ping_cm(); 
  Serial.print("Distance: "); 
  Serial.print(dist); &...

CONTINUE READING

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