This is quite good for inspiration.

http://www.freeduino.org/

Or you could buy my book

http://www.arduinoevilgenius.com

Me too, although I wish they would make the bands a bit wider, my eyesight just isn't up to the job these days.

It is a good exercise though. My son also tested them with the multimeter when he wasn't sure, so now he knows the difference between 'precision' and 'accuracy' as well!

Anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch might like to try out OhmEE. Color code lookup and Ohm's law calculator.

Cruel Dad that I am I had my son go through my unsorted resistors with it. He enjoyed it really! I did pay him too

Doesn't it bruise them? They must get bashed about a bit. Or is part of the spec to make the washing machine more gentle?

UltraMagnus, Sorry you didn't like it.

I may regret this, but anyone else out there bought it?

If so, what did you think?

Yeah - sorry - both

This forum's dead threads are still a great resource for people.

30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius. by Simon Monk.

http://www.arduinoevilgenius.com

But I am biased.

Flowcharting, how quaint!

I love hearing electronic engineers talk about programming

Actually for the few dozen lines of code you can squeeze into an Arduino, its fine. Minimal quantities of classes, and no multiple threads of execution to worry about (apart from the occasional interrupt).

Its a useful way of expressing thoughts, other useful ways that 'real' software engineers use are: state diagrams, sequence diagrams and use cases. Have a look at UML for lots of other nice thinking tools.

Can I feel the flames flickering around my feet?

Sock and antenna is good, because the sock could be blown out quickly, while a short delay for posing would allow the antenna to catch up and provide rigidity.

Or,

How about this - instead of a cloth 'sock' how about one made of thin polythene, blown out under pressure.

However, the slightest puncture could lead to a certain lack of rigidity, and the last thing any Jedi wants is a limp light sabre.

I may have gone too far here..

Maybe an electric car antenna, with a disk on the end with a circle of narrow angle LEDs (or laser modules) facing back towards the handle.

You'd still need a a smoke machine to see it though. But that would allow for 'boffering'

I like the fan and cloth idea. The fan could reverse to suck it back in ! Schwuuup.

The holy Grail of toys has to be the 'real' light sabre.
How could such a thing be made?

Lasers are no good because they don't just come to a halt after a few feet, and they are difficult to see unless you have a smoke machine.

Some kind of jet of hot gas or plasma might work, but may be a bit too realistic and incendiary.

Something that would give the turning on effect of appearing from the handle would be great!

Any ideas! There must be some pre-cgi special effect way of doing it.

You might be able to use one of those motors for pointing satellite dishes in different directions.

Sensing that the TV is on, you could experiment with a little wire antenna on a floating analog input.

I would expect the TV to emit a lot more electrical noise when it's on than when its off.

Thanks everyone, thats actually a real help.

Sounds like the US is more like the UK than I thought with using both systems.

Its too late for the 30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius. In that I mostly did inches with mm in brackets after it.

But for the sequel (the book I was referring to), I don't think I'll worry as much about it. I think perhaps mm for drill bits, LEDs, anything kind of scientific or requiring a degree of accuracy and inches with cm in backets for dimensions of wood and box sizes etc.

It kind of sounds like most of you would be more or less ok with that.

Hi, I'm writing a book for the American market, and my understanding is that you guys don't really use the metric system.

In the UK, we kind of use both in everyday life, in a mad sort of mixture. We buy petrol (gas) in Litres, but we buy drain pipes and wood mostly by the foot and cloth by the yard.

Anything technical is likely to be in metric units. So drill bits etc are in mm.

I have a question for you Americans. To what extent do you use mm. Do I have to convert every measurement into mm and ounces, or are you happy seeing things in a book in mm and grams?