My son's room has a spaceship theme. We are building a simulator "control panel" from an Arduino Mega, a waveshield, a liquid crystal display, an M1 Abrams tank joystick, several analog gauges, some lit buttons, a siren, a strobe light and some other misc things. We keep having more ideas and that mega still has more pins!
I'm new to Arduino (got a Duemilanove on Christmas day, ordered the Mega the day after Christmas), but I'm learning quickly. I LOVE how fast I can prototype with an Arduino!
I never dreamed it would be this ambitious, but we just keep going.
I probably spend 75% of the time working by myself, but I keep him informed so he can join me when it interests him. I know that if I force it on him he won't learn OR want to do it. Once it is running in his room full time, I think we will spend LOTS more time together on the programming side - especially since I'll be doing the coding and testing in his room
Nice project! It would be cool to setup a projector screen on the window and build a shaking seat - perhaps interface arduino to drive an old "powerplate" ! Best wishes, P
Great, it reminds me of when I was a kid and played at "space". I used to get a load of old war surplus radios, lots of dials and switches and make consoles. Of course nothing actually worked, this is so much better. Lucky lad.
He's 9, so I figure I have 3 or 4 more years MAX where he will hang out with me and work on stuff
Yes but when he comes "out the other side" it can happen again.
One of my favourite quotes normally attributed to Mark Twain:-
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
Great, it reminds me of when I was a kid and played at "space". I used to get a load of old war surplus radios, lots of dials and switches and make consoles. Of course nothing actually worked, this is so much better. Lucky lad.
When I was a kid, I practically LIVED at the Orlando Science Center. They had a space capsule (can't remember which one) and I could lay in that thing for hours running missions in my head. Hadn't thought about that...maybe it is genetic
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
While I was well aware of the concept, I have never seen it stated so well. I can only hope he feels that way at 21 and I don't have to wait until he is 30
Love your "geekification" work on your kid! From your video it looks like you can just put in a Warp Core and your boy is ready to go. Great Job!
I am trying to do the same with my kids and am working to get my 11 year old to do a few sketches. That blinking LED is a lot of fun and "Hello World" even more. The Arduino has made it real easy for non engineers to get into the wonderful world of micro controllers.
Well my son is 3 months old, so i guess if i get started now, i can build an Arduino based "beam me up Scotty" device and probably have it working when he's around 11.
I'd resisted it for a number of years, but after he decided to save his allowance for most of 2009 to buy himself a laptop, I figured he was headed that way.
He hasn't gotten into the coding yet, and I'm not going to push him. I'm here when he asks how stuff works, and usually that is a much better experience than me forcing him to pay attention when I want to tell him about what I think is important
Thanks for the comments guys!
BTW, did you all see the other projects in the Tom's Guide article? - some of that stuff is pretty amazing!
