I’ve spent a lot of time making a high quality 12-part tutorial teaching Arduino from scratch. I’ve tried to explain everything very logically. There is also a free 91-page book to go along with the videos. You can find the playlist here: https://youtu.be/rBKeaMoVSLs
The tutorial is intended to be used with the EZA Board but you can also use a regular Arduino board.
My EZA board makes it Easy to learn Arduino. It allows beginners to get started programming right away because all components are already installed; no wiring required. This eliminates a lot of frustration.
Please let me know what you think of the tutorial.
In the first half of the video, the computer screen blacks out frequently. At first, I wasn't sure if it was an intentional choice in line with the product's cyberpunk aesthetics, but the blinking screen was quite distracting. It seemed to get better in the second half of the video, so perhaps your projector had stabilized by then. I would recommend trying to avoid the screen blackouts if you are going to produce videos for the remaining 11 lessons.
I watched this without sound, so I cannot give my full impressions, but I do like the approach you take in the written tutorial (which the video seems to follow).
Thanks for your feedback on the video and the book.
The blinking is not intentional. The screen is actually not a projector but a disassembled and modified TV without backlight. The control board is inside the desk and I had to extend the cables to the LCD panel. They are routed through the curved pipe. The blinking could be due to the increased impedance of the lengthened cables. It seems to be better when the rooms warms up for some reason.
Fixing the TV is on my list but I imagine it could be quite difficult or nearly impossible since the circuit wasn’t designed to push the signals through longer lengths of cable. I hope it isn’t too distracting.
That is an interesting idea. I might actually be able to fix it in my editing software by repeating a section of a few of the previous frames before the screen went blank. That could work as long as I am not typing at the time or pointing at something. Thanks for the idea.
I don't know what you are using for recording and editing the videos, but you can get recording software that records your screen at the same time that it records from a camera. Camtasia is the one I'm familiar with, but I'd be surprised if this functionality isn't fairly standard in other video recording/production apps (e.g., Adobe). You would then be able to use an overlay of the screen video superimposed on your main video — this would significantly improve the image quality of the displayed code, but it would unfortunately not permit you to use your hand to point to items on the screen (you'd have to overlay some kind of pointer graphic); it would also change the aesthetic of the video.
Your idea of repeating nearby frame (or just the portion of the frame that includes the screen) may be the best solution. The blinks are so quick that I don't think there will be issues related to typing or pointing — it would certainly be an improvement over the flickering screen, which I did find to be quite distracting.
Indeed I could record the screen natively on my Mac and insert it into the video but as you accurately pointed out it also has its downsides.
Repeating the screen contents for a few frames might work. I’ll give that a try today.
I upload all my videos first to Odysee, which is a YouTube alternative. One of the great things about Odysee is that you can replace a video file after the video has been published. Replacing the video file will retain the views, comments, and likes. So if I am able to fix the screen issue I could update the video to not have the distracting blackouts.
