Twitter to Auduino via USB

Projects General Guidance
1

Hey guys, love the forum and Arduino, I have run a search but couldn't see anything similar so sorry if this has been dealt with before.

I've recently purchased the Arduino starter kit from Cool Components (www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=50_75&products_id=596), and having no experience with electronics since my high school days, or programming apart from basic HTML have managed to get LED's lighting up etc...

What I'd love to know how to do is get the Arduino to monitor a Twitter account, and when a mention comes in, light up a LED. (eventually i'd like it to do more complex stuff but this will be a good start.)

So here's a couple of questions that i'd be most grateful if you could answer.

1.) Is this possible to accomplish with the starter kit over USB? And if not, what kind of extra stuff would I need to buy?

2.) If this was possible then would the programming be possible through the Arduino Sketch software or would I need to use something else?

Any help regarding the coding would be much appreciated!

2

You need an ethernet shield. Take a look at this tutorial for more info: Moving Forward with Arduino – Chapter 30 – twitter | tronixstuff.com

3

If you want to use USB you have to write some code for the computer to.
Python has many Twitter libs and it's easy to use with Arduino.
Google for "python twitter arduino" and you wil find lots of example code for both python and arduino.

4

I set this up for my self recently, complete code and walkthrough here Arduino Forum no extra hardware needed.

Good luck!

5

Thanks very much for your responses. bilbo's Tutorial is excellent, so will get cracking!