Might as well use this thread to try and introduce myself, although I'm having major trouble with the site today.
I don't think it's just me as isup.me says arduino.cc is down to. I either get timeouts or 10 second+ page load times.
Anyway, Hello, I'm Jon, based in mid-Wales, interested in making products for people with visual impairments.
I had a great training course recently at BCA in Birmingham with Arduino-evangelist Garry Bulmer who was running an excellent one-day course.
I was so enthused I bought an Arduino Uno kit on the spot and was chuffed when, two evenings later with nothing more than the Uno, 1 switch, 1 resistor, 1 speaker and 3 bits of wire, I had the Uno saying "ready" and then "button up" or "button down" depending on the state.
Having never done MCU fiddling before, and my programming knowledge limited to PHP, I was quite pleased. Next project is to see if I can make a light activated chicken-run door opener for under £20 using one of those £10 Mini Light's.
Things I want to do to start with to get going before the “proper” stuff...
- Make a kitchen countdown timer that rings a little handbell for a few seconds.
- Make a chicken door opener. Both for under £10 each.
Eventually I want to....
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Build a data logger which will intercept and log the NIBE heat pump status and running time data from the external F2015 unit to the SMO 05 controller which runs on a CAT5 cable (once I’ve found out the data protocol!).
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Interface with the IR interface “eye” of my electricity meter and log hourly readings of the actual energy usage (as opposed to the highly inaccurate but cheap clamp-the-wire monitors).
In fact, it turns out someone's already doing an Arduino project for the latter! Well, I'm here, I'm learning, I hope I can contribute one day.