Blog
Build logs, project notes, and write-ups from the workshop.
- Arduino Lite Brite Clock: Why the Black Paper Background Matters A short but important build step — cutting the black paper insert to fit behind the Lite Brite pegboard and why without it the LED display reads as a muddy wash of ambient light.
- Arduino Lite Brite Clock — Diffusing the LEDs Why you need to diffuse the LEDs in a hand-built LED matrix clock, and how to do it with sandpaper. Short time-lapse of sanding 46 LEDs for the Lite Brite Clock build.
- Arduino Lite Brite Clock: The Concept and How to Multiplex 46 LEDs on 15 Pins The engineering brainstorm behind the Lite Brite Clock — how a Lite Brite toy becomes the chassis for a 7-segment-style LED clock, and why multiplexing makes 46 LEDs possible with just 15 Arduino I/O pins.
- Arduino Lite Brite Clock: Parts List and What Everything Is For Everything you need to build the Arduino Lite Brite Clock — 46 LEDs, two flavors of resistors, a Lite Brite, a push button pair, and the tools to put it all together.
- Sainsmart LCD Keypad Shield for Arduino — What It Does and What It Costs You The Sainsmart LCD keypad shield stacks a 16×2 LCD and five navigation buttons onto an Arduino Uno in one click-together unit. The tradeoff: it consumes 8 pins and blocks access to D11–D13. Here is what you get, what you give up, and when it makes sense.
- ClusterBot — HC-SR04 Arduino Obstacle Avoidance Live Demo Watch ClusterBot, an Arduino-powered robot, avoid obstacles in real time using an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor. Covers how the sensor works, the obstacle-avoidance sketch logic, and what makes this a good first robotics project.
- ClusterBot — First Test Run of the Arduino Robot The first drive test of ClusterBot: forward, spins, a turnaround subroutine, backward, and a hard brake. What a hard brake actually does on the Toshiba motor driver versus a rolling stop, and what comes next.
- ClusterBot Build — Installing the Battery Pack (The Hard Part) Getting a two-AA battery pack into the ClusterBot Arduino robot chassis. Covers why 3V is marginal for Tamiya motors, the physical installation challenge on a small chassis, and the case for 4×AA instead.
- ClusterBot Build — Finishing the Robot Frame Final physical assembly of ClusterBot, an Arduino obstacle-avoidance robot on a Pololu round chassis. Covers Arduino mounting, breadboard layout, the balance problem that named the robot, and the wiring that ties it all together.
- ClusterBot Build — Assembling the Pololu Round Robot Chassis First steps of the ClusterBot Arduino obstacle-avoidance robot: assembling the $25 Pololu round robot chassis from Robotshop. Covers what comes in the kit, what to watch for, and how it fits into the overall build.