The goal of phase 1 of this project was to familiarize myself with the Arduino Uno board by reviewing the Arduino documentation and then completing nine projects from the Arduino Projects Book. After completing this phase I feel that I am well on my way to becoming a maker and I believe I have begun to lay the foundation for understanding what this community and mindset is all about.
I would first like to start off by applauding the Arduino organization for putting together such amazing documentation. From a designer’s perspective the design of the book, packaging, and documentation are of the best that I have seen in the technology world. From the moment I opened the box I was drawn in. They make use of minimal patterns and gender-neutral colors, and the consistency throughout is like a work of art.
Arduino Starter Kit
The project book, whose primary audience is new users like myself, is organized well and their use of minimal vector graphics helped me to break down new, complex subjects. For example, traditional circuit drawings are done in Schematic view, which is an abstract diagram of a breadboard that illustrates how components are connected. The Arduino book also included a second, more realistic view called the Breadboard view, which looks similar to the tools we are using and also shows where components are placed relative to one another. I found that this additional view allowed me to jump into projects much quicker. The Breadboard view is also helping me pick up how to read the Schematic view, which I think is an important skill to have. As I progressed through projects I tried to put more effort into reading both views.
Photo of a page from the Arduino Projects Book which shows the breadboard view and schmatic view that came with each project.
At this point, I have completed the following projects from the Arduino Projects Book:
- Get to Know Your Tools (Getting started)
- Spaceship Interface (beginner)
- Love-O-Meter (beginner)
- Color Mixing Lamp (beginner)
- Mood Cue (beginner)
- Digital Hourglass (intermediate)
- Motorized Pinwheel (intermediate)
- Touchy-Feely Lamp (advanced)
- Tweak the Logo (advanced)
For each project I took notes about questions that came up, difficulties, and “a-ha” moments. I also took a picture and/or recording of each finished project for documentation purposes. These recordings can be accessed through Box.
I’ve been fortunate not to run into too many issues, and this is in part due to the great documentation that the Arduino organization provides. I rarely needed to look outside of the book itself to answer any questions that came up. The only exception to this was actually on the first day that I used the Arduino!
To set the Arduino up, you must first download the Arduino Software IDE so that your computer can communicate with the Arduino board. I followed the instructions step-by-step, but was unable to communicate with my board or run any of the example projects. To troubleshoot, I first turned to the Arudino website where a forum exists for each project in the book, but unfortunately I could not find anyone who had the exact same issue that I was having. I then decided to start going through “getting started” guides outside of Arduino and see if there were any additional steps that I had missed. While doing this I found that FTDI drivers were supposed to be installed automatically on my board, but some users were finding that it was not always the case. After reading into the issue quite a bit, I found instructions on learn.sparkfun.com that showed how to manually install these drivers. I was very hesitant to download and install something outside the Arduino site before I had even completed my first project, but I decided that taking chances was an important part of this journey so after carefully reading into it, I decided to go for it. Fortunately, this did end up being my issue, and everything has worked great since!
Working with the community
The goal of this phase was to get familiar with the tool, and because of the great documentation that the Arduino organization provided; I had very little need to interact with other members of the community for help. By reading comment threads from other beginners I have learned that the community is there for help, but they are not there to answer simple questions that are outlined in the standard documentation. You still need to do your homework, which is what I feel I did in phase I. I am going into Phase II comfortable enough to ask questions.
One thing that I did notice from working alone on these projects is that my knowledge and skills progressed faster then my ability to actually verbalize what it was I was doing. I noticed this pretty early on when I tried to describe what I was doing to a close friend. To be honest, this scared me a little. I was worried I was going through projects too quickly and not taking enough time to reflect on what I was learning. In order to address this, I started to share each completed project with at least one other person and forced my self to describe the set-up to them. I also went back through each project to make note of the key terms and lessons learned. I found that leaving time to reflect and forcing myself to verbalize what I was learning has made me more confident in the material, although I still have a long way to go! I think this exercise has also better prepared me to start communicating with other makers.
Current opinion on the maker mindset
The first phase of this project has taught me that to be a maker, you must take chances. No matter how good instructions are there is almost always going to be something unique about your set-up and you need to be willing to look outside of the box to find solutions. I think it is important to be cautious and well informed, but a maker must also be willing to try things that are out of their comfort zone. Instructions should be used as a guide not a rulebook.
I also view the maker mindset as a sponge, always ready to absorb new knowledge. I’ve learned through some of the projects that there is almost always more then one way to do something. A maker should use good design thinking principles and be willing to continuously improve on what they know.
This project is great to me my work is done. https://www.myhealthatvanderbilt.net/