Thanks for the link. Nice one to add to my phone.

There's a thread on the forum here to do with sending text to an LCD screen via the web that might be helpful, don't forget to read all the entries  

 I had a look at these a while ago but didn't have my Arduino then, so thanks for reminding me. The gauges were written in Flash, so that is one option available. Another option is to use PHP and the GD library to build the images. Either way you are in for a learning curve.

I had fun for this for a while. Then I cam across another similar topic and someone mentioned using PortMon to view the output to the serial port. In the log was a reference to 7 character encoding which appears to be the default for the php_serial.class library. The simple approach is to add:
      $serial->confCharacterLength(;
to your php script so it becomes:

<?php
require("php_serial.class.php"); //the one widely available on the Net

function writeToArduino($str){

      $serial = new phpSerial();
      $serial->deviceSet("COM2");
      $serial->confBaudRate(9600);
      $serial->confCharacterLength(;

      $serial->deviceOpen();
            for ($i=0; $i<strlen($str); $i++){
                  $serial->sendMessage($str[$i]);
            }

      $serial->deviceClose();


}

$tmptext = "12345ABCDE";
writeToArduino($tmptext);

?>

The usual recommendation is buying LED Christmas lights in the New Year when the stores are desperate to get rid of them. Mind you ,you then have the hassle of removing the LEDs from the wiring and the limited colours available.  

I only ever got to have the motors and gearbox from one, they are magnetically clutched to help it go in a straight line when both motors are running, which can also be a bit of a pain when trying to run them separately. Still makes for a convenient robot chassis that's easy to get hold of.

Hi,

Much as I would love to come to this, I'm afraid I'll have to give it a miss.
I hope all goes well for all concerned and look forward to hearing how it went.

The spec for the boards doesn't advise going above 12V because of the risk of the on board voltage regulator overheating but it can go up to 20V, so you should be okay.

Welcome from another newbie!

Whilst not a suggestion of components, a good place to get them cheap is to see if any local amateur radio clubs are having fairs. My local group have one every year and there are usually lots of stalls selling components and equipment at budget prices.

Don't knock your contributions. Helping others is one of the best things a person can do, I wish I was in a position to do ha;f as well.

My parents were quite good about it. When they discovered I was using my lunch money to buy electronics magazines (not sure which was more worrying for them, the fact that I was hiding the fact that I was buying them or that I wasn't buying "Gentlemans magazines" ), they just upped my pocket money and said to spend my lunch money on lunch
I guess it helps if you have a father who, whilst not into electronics was an engineer and keen to support any interest along those lines.

The new Sherlock series was brilliant. I nice modern variant on the stories, without ruining the stories.

I didn't think we needed reminding
Thanks, he's been my avatar for a good few years, I have something of a soft spot for Kosh. I must admit that yours looks brilliant.

The one thing I'm not keen on is when the American versions of British shows are shown over here in the UK, they always seem to lack something, probably the dark humour we seem to like over here.