Hi Guys,

I got a new toy! I bought an Arduino microcontroller board! I've been watching videos about it all morning....looks like lots of fun!

Any good ideas for beginner projects?

Annie

I looked at that link and those projects do look fun! I love technology!

I love to hear that you love technology

Originally Posted by ericgibbs

hi,
IIRC you play the guitar, why not a electronic guitar tuning project.
I know that some OP's have asked in the past.

Now THAT is an interesting idea! I'm gonna look into it!

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

In various of my daughters bands (she plays mostly bass) the guitarists have passed their guitars over for tuning mid-gig, as she can do it by ear far faster than messing about with tuners

Annoying thing is, her first bass came with a tuner, and I bought her a better one a bit later - then she stopped using them totally years ago

I don't thing you can learn to tune by ear, I think you can either do it, or you can't.

Oh I disagree, Nigel! I have taught lots of people to tune by ear....there is an easy trick...once you get it, you are good to go....you gotta listen to the harmonic frequencies....they shake...the farther away two strings are from being in tune, the faster they shake....when you get in tune, they stop shaking.....easy as pi!

Okay, now I am REALLY having fun! I know most of you guys are light years beyond what I do with my little circuits, parts and ideas, but I swear I feel like a kid! I just wrote my first little example program for the Arduino....I just copied the code from a book....it blinks an LED....the language is called Processing, I think....it's based on C, I believe. I've taken programming classes and goofed around with Python and Javascript before so I'm not completely in the dark about programming...

Anyway, I fired up the Arduino for the first time, wrote the little program, compiled it, uploaded it to the board and bada bing! A blinking LED! Now I can move on to more advanced stuff, lol.....

Ahhhhhhh, the little things in life!

Originally Posted by Tucson Annie

..

Anyway, I fired up the Arduino for the first time, wrote the little program, compiled it, uploaded it to the board and bada bing! A blinking LED! Now I can move on to more advanced stuff, lol.....

The Arduino is a great choice, and a nice complement to op amps. Use the op amps to condition the inputs, or buffer the oputputs. I have been teaching some about Arduino and have a long interest in op amps.

Some posting that may be of interest:

Microcontrollers for Beginners - Open Circuits
Arduino Links - Open Circuits
OpAmp Links - Open Circuits
Basic Circuits and Circuit Building Blocks - Open Circuits

Would you say you are Up in the Sky over the Arduino?