Websites for the hobby electronics community

I recently started playing with hobby electronics, and so far I have found a few places to be absolutely invaluable, at least towards my current slant of projects. I got hooked looking at all the DIY Hack websites available, and currently look to see what others are doing on a regular basis at www.hacknmod.com, www.hackaday.com, and www.hackedgadgets.com. These website have plenty of ideas and examples of projects for hobby guys to play with. I eventually ran across www.UcHobby.com, where there are contests, and great giveaway programs to encourage the hobby community.

David Fowler of www.UcHobby.com is an excellent source of information and encouragement for the hobby electronics craft-person. I wrote my first article (also linked to here) for the electronics community for his giveaway program. What an encouragement to get free stuff for a little time investment that I was going to do anyway to learn more about the hobby I am getting into. The Bare Bones Board from www.moderndevice.com is a very capable arduino clone, aka freeduino, and is wonderful because it plugs into most breadboards fairly easily.

The open source nature of the item makes it very easy to learn and use if you have even the slightest knowledge of C or similar programming language. I am looking forward to the continued gain in knowledge that this hobby will bring me, and I hope to contribute back to the community as well.

Charles Stutzman
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Article number 2 at UcHobby.com

Here is the link to the second article I wrote at www.uchobby.com, about integrating PING, Servos, and using Pointers in the Arduino IDE. Again I will post the whole article over here soon...

Charles Stutzman
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Article 1 online

Here is a link to the first hobby electronics article I wrote for a website. The website www.uchobby.com is dedicated to serving the hobby electronics community. The owner of the site is a intelligent man and has giveaways and contests on a regular basis. Here is the link to the article. The article is about scrounging for parts on an old small business phone.

Later on I will post the article on my blog as well, as soon as I get more time to learn all the ins and outs of the software.

Charles
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Arduino Contests

I just finished my submission to the BricoGeek.com Let Arduino Play contest. A digital version of the Whack-A-Mole game from the carnivals. I submitted it last night, and am now waiting to see the outcome. This development platform is a fun and addictive hobby. I have been scrounging parts from old electronics, and trying ot learn as much about the small computer electronics platforms as I can. I have integrated PING))) sensors with motors, LEDS, and the Serial monitor. I am still baffled by interfacing with an HD44780 compatible LCD. I have yet to try just attaching it straight to the Arduino and sucking up all the available Pins on the board, but I may have to do that to figure any more out. I am still working on a few other projects related to this board, and hope to make more progress soon. Meanwhile the kids love to play with the random Electronics that I have for them to interact with routinely.

More later,

Charles Stutzman
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