14
votes
Raspberry Pi or Arduino projects
So I've nearly finished my exams and am going to have a bunch of free time soon. I want to try and learn to do some electronics stuff. I already have an Arduino and Pi and have done the basic flashing lights projects, but want to try something a bit more interesting (but not too expensive either)
Part of my job is using Raspberry pi to build robots. You can buy stepper motors and do some seriously cool shit with them.
So my recommendation would be to build a robot that does cool shit. Or complete nonsense, the mascot of /r/shittyrobots made a career for herself that way.
That sounds like a cool idea! I've played around with Lego mind storms before and loved it.
If you've never done any arduino projects in the past and want a great introduction to it, I found this book really helpful when I was just starting out: https://www.esc19.net/cms/lib011/TX01933775/Centricity/Domain/110/make_gettingstartedwitharduino_3rdedition.pdf
If a TMP36 sensor is included in your Arduino kit, you can do some easy temperature readings. In my Electric Circuits class, we once made a closed-loop thermometer that would do absolutely nothing productive (it would essentially heat itself up, get the temperature readings along the way, and then shut off once it reached a critical temperature to give itself some time to cool down), but it was a good introduction to the Arduino Uno package.
[EDIT] Here is a link to some simple temp sensor Arduino code: https://learn.adafruit.com/tmp36-temperature-sensor/using-a-temp-sensor
Thanks for the suggestion, it sounds like an interesting intro to arduinoing. I'll make sure to give that a try (Im pretty sure I have a temperature sensor)
Maybe that’s not exactly what you’re looking for, but one option is to build your own OSHW (Open Source Hardware) laptop :D
Look into ESP8266 and ESP32.