I've collected some of the best online resources for a variety of physical computing topics. If you find any others you like, please let me know, and I'll add them!
Arduino
The main Arduino site, in addition to the pages for downloading the software and purchasing boards, has the following two very useful sub-sites:
- Learning — an extensive set of tutorials covering nearly every aspect of working with the Arduino.
- Reference — a complete reference for the Arduino programming language (the C language plus a set of Arduino-specific functions).
For a more compact quick-reference, see the
cheat sheet I maintain
[
direct link to the PDF]
— adapted from work by Gavin Smith and others.
Documentation for Parts & Kits
Every kit and component we have in the lab has documentation online. In many cases, the documentation includes full tutorials and examples of how to use the part. I've included some of the major pieces we have in lab here, but the rest are all a simple web search away.
- Sparkfun Inventor's Kit — the description, documentation, and comments are all full of useful information, and the links to pages for each individual part included in the kit will have further information about that part.
Building Circuits in Lab
- We'll be building lots of circuits on breadboards, and it's important to understand how they work and how to use them. Some good descriptions of breadboards and how to use them to build circuits:
- Fritzing [installed on the computers in CNS E201] is free software that aids in the design of electronic circuits. Among many other features, it has a tool for laying out circuits on a breadboard. You can work out a good layout for a design before wiring it up in the lab or reproduce a circuit you've built already in a clean, digital format.
Drawing Circuits
If you want to draw circuits with the highest quality and the most control, I recommend using one of several programs that are focused on schematic capture (drawing circuit diagrams) directly. These will do handy things like maintaining wire connections between parts as you move them. A few good free options are:
- Fritzing (Cross-platform) — As mentioned above, this could be quite useful for planning breadboard layouts of your circuits before building them. It has a circuit schematic mode that can produce clean circuit schematics (with simple image export functionality) as well.
- TinyCAD (Windows only) — Use "File > Export as image file..." to get an image for your lab report. Again, please crop the image to avoid wasting space.
- Logisim (Cross-platform) — Installed in the CNS labs, this is a great tool for simulating, testing, and understanding digital logic circuits in addition to its fairly good schematic capture. Use the "File > Export Image..." function to get an image you can use in your lab report. Crop the image to only include the circuit in your lab report and avoid wasting space.
Fritzing is probably the best option of these, but feel free to try out the others as well.
Additionally, you may consider using a more general drawing program, not circuit-specific. There, I strongly recommend using a vector graphics editor (such as Inkscape, which is free, open-source, cross-platform and excellent) as opposed to a raster editor (like MS Paint or Adobe Photoshop). Vector graphics will let you copy, move, and generally edit your circuit with far more flexibility than a raster graphics program can.
Electronics / Circuit Concepts
We have a few books about electricity and electrical circuits in our class library. The school library also has several more. The following sites give decent overviews of the major topics.
- Multimeters
- Oscilloscopes
- Beginner Oscilloscope Tutorial [pdf] — a clear, simple, two-page tutorial on the basics of using an oscilloscope.
- XYZs of Oscilloscopes [pdf] — a much more detailed primer on oscilloscopes from oscilloscope manufacturer Tektronix. This is a great resource for learning a lot of the terminology related to oscilloscopes and what they measure.
- Soldering
Electronic Components (Resistors, Motors, etc.)
Number Systems
- The Binary Number System — a very quick explanation of how binary numbers work, including fractions. There's a slightly longer explanation from a different perspective here.
- And common powers of two are worth memorizing whenever dealing with binary. Knowing 28 = 256, 216 = ~65,000, and 232 = ~4 billion off the top of your head will be very useful.
Blogs, Etc.
The following are great sources for up-to-date information on what is being done across the world of physical computing, Arduino, etc. Pick at least three to follow daily (subscribe in an RSS reader like
- The Arduino Blog — Great projects, posts about Open Hardware, self-congratulatory links... it's all there.
- Adafruit Blog — The designer/seller of many of the parts we have in lab; a mix of cool projects with new products they sell in their store.
- Arduino Hacks at Hack-a-Day — Projects, projects, and more projects. Full of great ideas.
- MAKE Blog: Arduino category — The wider blog (and magazine, community, store, etc.) covers the entire Maker movement fairly well. The Electronics category often has physical computing projects (much overlap with the Arduino category), though reaches into other areas as well.
- Vimeo Physical Computing Group and Vimeo Videos Tagged with "arduino" — Several new videos posted each day, almost all exhibiting a new Arduino / Physical Computing project. Think about posting your own project here at some point!
- Two Pinterest boards about wearable computing: 1 and 2 — If you're interested in wearable computing, these might be good ways to get an overview (though I don't think they're updated enough to be considered "recent" information each day).
Forums
There is a huge, widespread online community for the Arduino. These are the major forums where people congregate to discuss, ask, and answer questions about building things with the Arduino. Consider asking questions here for help with your own work!
- Arduino Forum — On the official Arduino website. There are a variety of boards dedicated to specific topics.
- Sparkfun Arduino Forum — Sparkfun sells many of the parts we have in lab; this is their forum dedicated to the Arduino.
- Adafruit Arduino Forum — Very similar to Sparkfun's forum... but at Adafruit!
