Hello. Total noob here so please be gentle. I am working on a project and decided that Arduino was my best option to control it all. Problem is I know nothing about Arduino. I understand basic coding, mostly from scripting in Second Life, I am just unfamiliar with the language used for Arduino and the boards and shields I will need.
So here is a rundown of what I need to happen, if anyone can point a noob in the direction to get it done. Thanks.
Project
When Arduino is powered on I need it to immediately play a sound, (alarm), flash a light, wait a few seconds then trigger Fog machine #1, (seen here Fog Machine Breakdown and Hacking for Arduino Control - YouTube), wait a few more seconds and trigger fog machine #2, wait a few seconds then stop everything.
@headmouse11279 sorry but you misunderstood what Beginners tutorials mean. It is a place for people to post tutorials suitable for beginners. It is not for your questions, so I have moved your post here.
If you know nothing about Arduino, and just want to get the job done, post on the Jobs and Paid Consultancy forum section.
If you want to learn, a good place to start would be to buy an Arduino Uno and work your way through the provided examples, plus on line tutorials, to become familiar with the programming language and some of the special features of the Arduino itself.
The project you mention requires some knowledge of basic electronics and soldering. Unless you have the exact same fog machine as shown in the video, little to nothing seen in the video will apply.
Entirely doable with any Arduino board. As JRemington said, buy a "sensor kit" which will have a bunch of various sensors and maybe a servo motor and some LEDS and most important a prototyping board. If it doesn't come with one, and Arduino Uno. Run the example programs in the IDE and then you will feel comfortable enough to start your project.
Post your attempt what you assume how it would be coded in c++.
Posting this code will illustrate your knowledge-level of programming.
This is an important information for adjusting answers to your knowledge-level and to be able to post links that fit to your needs and your knowledge-level.
If you feel totally unable to give it a try in c++
write it down in the scripting-language you know.
then You should post code by using code-tags
There is an automatic function for doing this in the Arduino-IDE
just three steps
press Ctrl-T for autoformatting your code
do a rightclick with the mouse and choose "copy for forum"
paste clipboard into write-window of a posting
For this copy to forum-function the Ardunio-IDE-editor don't cares about the content.
best regards Stefan