Workshops/Arduino for beginners/Planning

What shall we do?

• Build an arduino from scratch? - not a bad idea but could be tricky and perhaps require more knowledge, time and bits | I agree, possibly not for a beginners class, but would be a great addition to an intermediate/advanced class --Solexious 18:42, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
• Offer backup for the workshop. Big problem with workshops - especially ones where you bring your own project - is that you sometimes fail to complete it in the time available. The hackspace can offer a USP of continuing support to allow completion (suggest a month's access to the space outside of weekly meetings) . This also acts as a taster session and may result in full membership.--Artag 07:33, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Thoughts on a Lesson Overview

• Start with a general overview of hacking with respect to art, home automation, circuit bending, etc, presented as a short lecture to introduce

the arduino and similar

• go into a setup for people with helpers wandering around making sure the software is installed correctly (java and all that)
• Pull up some more slides with setup for the basic programs; maybe go with the simple blinking light example
• coffee break
• Move into a more complicated example using output only
• lunch
• Lecture on basic electronic theory such as V=IR and similar. introduce buttons and other inputs
• go through an input example - e.g press a button to turn on or off a set of LEDS
• modify this example with perhaps a buzzer instead.
• Mention briefly, processing and how to use a POT to create a nice interactive graph (this was the demo Tinker used)
• Once that demo is complete, depending on time, finish with a short lecture on where to get equipment, suppliers, advanced topics and cool things that have been made with Arduino.