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"  You don&amp;#039;t have to be a programmer or an electrician to make your do-it-yourself projects smarter and more interactive. Arduino, the open-source microcontroller platform, was originally designed with creative laypeople in mind, and it may be just the right tool to generate some new home and garden projects. What Is Arduino? A microcontroller is a small computer, generally about 1/1000 as powerful as the average laptop, and in this case, with a USB port and a series of pin connections. If you plug a sensor such as a switch or motion detector into one of these pins, it delivers information about the world to the microcontroller. Based on that information and the instructions of a simple program, the microcontroller can send signals to actuators, such as lights or noisemakers, which are plugged into other pins. That&amp;#039;s how the microcontroller can interact with the physical world. Arduino was originally designed to make this sort of tinkering more accessible to artists and designers without a background in electronics. That same philosophy makes it an equally accessible tool for do-it-yourself enthusiasts. Setup and programming are fairly simple, and the platform deliberately keeps as much as possible of the complex programming and electronics out of sight. For instance, if you want a light to flash every time a motion sensor detects movement, just plug an LED into one of the output pins and a motion sensor into one of the input pins. Learn how to write a short set of instructions in the platform&amp;#039;s simple programming language, which is designed for people with no coding experience. Plug the microcontroller into your computer with a USB cable, then upload the instructions to the microcontroller. Bang\u2014motion sensor. Project Ideas Depending on the sensors and actuators you use and how you combine them, this fairly simple concept can do some surprisingly complex things. (We covered some in a recent roundup from the book Arduino Workshop.) For example, a light sensor plugged into a microcontroller might activate a plant light when darkness falls, and then turn the light off again at a set time. Expanding on this concept, a college student named Clover designed and built an automated greenhouse (and posted the plans on instructables.com). Sensors measure light, temperature, and soil moisture in her garden. Based on this input and her instructions, her Arduino microcontrollers control artificial lights and watering systems. Indoors you might want to install your own motorized window blinds that open at daylight and close at night, or with the push of a button. Maybe your hall closet needs some motion-activated ceiling lights. On the other hand, maybe it isn&amp;#039;t a matter of need. You may just want to building something fun and silly like a tweeting cat door. Getting Started Arduino lends itself very well to a hands-on learning style, so pick up some basic equipment, work through a few tutorials, and then tackle some fun beginner projects. To get started, you will need: \u2022 An Arduino microcontroller; the Uno is a simple, learner-friendly model \u2022 A solderless breadboard for connecting your circuits, which should come with some precut wires \u2022 A few sensors to experiment with, such as push buttons, photo detectors, or tilt switches \u2022 A basic selection of resistors (check the instructions for your starter projects for their requirements) You can find most of these supplies at electronics or hobby stores such as Radio Shack or Maker Shed, and the Arduino software is free to download from the platform&amp;#039;s website. Just like learning to use any other tool, you will need a firm grasp of the basics before you are successful at more complicated projects. Getting Started with Arduino, by Massimo Banzi, offers an accessible introduction. The platform&amp;#039;s official website is a good source of tutorials, help, project ideas, and interaction with other users. You can also find tips and project ideas on sites such as Makezine and Instructables. Once you tackle a few beginner projects, you&amp;#039;ll be ready to use Arduino as the heart of more ambitious efforts, such as PopMech&amp;#039;s Build Your First Robot plan. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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