Getting going turned out to be quite easy, which was a relief as starting from pretty much no knowledge (I learned some basic electronics at school a long time ago but that's about it) is usually a pain. A huge thanks to Neil for answering some of my very basic questions. I'm intending to write a few "getting started with hardware stuff" posts as I continue learning and I'll write up some of what he taught me in the hope it will help others get going.
Box moving in a rectangle
My first creation of interest was a box moving in a rectangle on an LCD screen.This was mostly a programming exercise as wiring up the circuit was just a case of following a diagram exactly but it was useful to learn the basics of syntax and how to push a program to the Arduino.
Building blocks to make this:
Button switches between LEDs
Next up, a circuit which switched from a red light to a green one while a button was depressed.This was the first circuit I designed myself, using the knowledge gleaned from a few other tutorials.
Building blocks to make this:
Bouncing box game
Finally, I was challenged to make a simple pong-style game. The box travels left to right. If the button is pressed as it reaches the end, it bounces back and the player gets a point. Repeat until the button is not pressed correctly and the game resets.A more complicated circuit here, requiring a second breadboard and many of the Arduino's pins.
Quite a lot of work went into coding the logic of this game. The initial version allowed the player to keep the button pressed down and the box would bounce indefinitely so I changed it to have the game reset if the button is pressed too early as well as too late.
Building blocks to make this:
