NEWB / help appreciated very much, ty

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Hello. I’m patrick. My SIK is en route. I’m trying to learn as much as I can before it gets here. Reading tutorials. Was reading a book today on Arduino for beginners.

I found out a ‘sketch’ stays on the board until another is uploaded? Do these take up memory, or does one replace the other? Ok, so if I do the 1st project, lighting up an LED on the breadboard, when I upload the sketch, that turns it on? How does it turn off? Or doesn’t it, until I physically remove the circuit? And the sketch remains until replaced?

Where does one get the sketches :lol: Do the 1st 15 projects come with the sketches?

I’m so overwhelmed and I haven’t even got my kit yet :shock:

wondering if my new kit has the dreaded ‘red breadboard’? I heard they will be coming with white soon.

do Moderators answer questions in here. The forum looks to be quite active, that’s great. I was over at Adafruit’s forum and they are very, very, accomodating there. I’m so grateful…

thank you to all who reply, it helps…

patrick

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A sketch is Arduino-speak for your code, or program, that you load onto the the Arduino. The microcontroller “brain” of your Arduino has 3 types of memory in varying amounts. Flash (like a USB stick) memory is what stores your sketch. It is non-volatile meaning whatever is in it stays even after power is removed or the Arduino is reset. So your sketch stays and will rerun until you erase or replace it. SRAM is where there variables your code uses reside. It is volatile and is emptied after power is removed or when the Arduino is reset. EEPROM is another type of non-volatile memory where your code can store data you wanted saved after power is removed or when the Arduino is reset.

I believe the SIK comes with links to where you can find and copy the sketch for each lesson, as well as a printout you can read. You will find that the various lessons will show you how to use an Arduino to control LEDs, small DC motors, RC servos and other things.

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saypat:
Hello. I’m patrick. My SIK is en route. I’m trying to learn as much as I can before it gets here. Reading tutorials. Was reading a book today on Arduino for beginners.

I found out a ‘sketch’ stays on the board until another is uploaded? Do these take up memory, or does one replace the other?

The sketch stays until you upload another one. Yes it takes up memory. The amount of memory it takes up is dependent on the sketch compile size. The IDE will inform you of the amount of memory it will use. Also note that the bootloader takes up memory as well.

Ok, so if I do the 1st project, lighting up an LED on the breadboard, when I upload the sketch, that turns it on? How does it turn off? Or doesn’t it, until I physically remove the circuit?

The sketch (program/code) tells the circuit when to light up the LED or turn it off. You will need to download the Arduino IDE from here http://arduino.cc/en/main/software. Read everything on the Arduino site and also get familiar with their forums.

Here is the LED Blink sketch. Read the comments (.//Comments are after slashes)

/*
  Blink
  Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.
 
  This example code is in the public domain.
 */
 
// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards.
// give it a name:
int led = 13;

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {                
  // initialize the digital pin as an output.
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);     
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
}

Do the 1st 15 projects come with the sketches?

Yes, there is literally thousands of tutorials for Arduino and some example sketches. Just use Google to find out what you want to do. I would advise using Google before asking generalized questions, because most of the time, that’s where we will send you anyway.

do Moderators answer questions in here. The forum looks to be quite active, that’s great. I was over at Adafruit’s forum and they are very, very, accomodating there. I’m so grateful…

It’s rare to see employees from Sparkfun reply to threads on here, but it does happen on occasion.

4

This forum is really for posting about stuff you’re building. If you want help getting a Sparkfun product to work, the “Sparkfun Product Questions” forum is better.

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just want to say THANK YOU for your replies. My kit arrives on Tuesday. I’ll be taking advantage of the tech support phone number after that :sunglasses:

patrick

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LMAO, why not just buy a completed item…

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Codlink, I don’t understand your question about buying a completed project?

I don’t know what the attraction is with this Arduino, but I have it for some reason. I know zero about electronics but the idea of building a little circuit, loading some code from a computer into a controller and seeing it produce a physical result, has grabbed me. The wearable electronics and smaller, wearable controllers, is novel.

I’m still considering sending back my kit unopened when it arrives. That would save me some $ and who knows how many hours, phone calls, forum posts, etc. I mean, I would complete the 15 starter kits, THEN WHAT?

Reminds me of when I got the ‘flashlight bug.’ There are forums of flashlight geeks who are addicted to that, some having as much as $40,000 invested. I got bit by that bug and it makes no sense. I told myself to STOP after buying my 3rd light. I have a logical brain and this wasn’t logical. I now have about 35 flashlights and close to $400 or so spent.

help

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saypat:
…

I’m still considering sending back my kit unopened when it arrives. That would save me some $ and who knows how many hours, phone calls, forum posts, etc. I mean, I would complete the 15 starter kits, THEN WHAT?..

After the 15th starterkit your brain should (almost automaticaly) invoke the builtin sketch it has, called “creative_computing”. It has a tendency to run iteratively, and also recursively. So you may get alot of ideas on your stack (or sometimes called heap memory), for which you will have insufficient execution time. But don’t worry. They will come back to you as in flash memory. :wink:

9

would someone please translate Valen’s post to a language I can comprehend?

I purchased this starter kit in one of my manic phases.

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I think it’s time to see a therapist.

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saypat:
would someone please translate Valen’s post to a language I can comprehend?

I purchased this starter kit in one of my manic phases.

I used some artistic license in my choice of words. Using many computer/programming-lingo words. Basically I meant to say that once you have tried some examples and have personally seen how this microcontroller stuff works, eventually you’ll start to get flashes of curiosity and ingenuity and want to try stuff on your own. Just look around in your household and see if things could use a bit more automation.

But stay away from mains powered appliances, will you please!!! (serious face)

BUT, you might come up with things to try out which might be way over your head in complexity. If you suffer from manic episodes then this may be a serious possibility. Try to do every thing in baby steps. And keep things simple and contained. Or you’ll hit a brick wall and feel depressed and down, and start thinking of abandoning everything. That’s something you must try to avoid. It will probably happen anyway (and to anyone sometime), but try to delay this.

Keep your cool :wink: And nobody will rush you, so you can take your time.

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I tried a therapist, it didn’t help…

Valen, you have been at this a long time, no? You have a keen grasp. Thank you for your insights. My kit arrived this morning. The 7 day wait was irritating. I have not opened the kit, I am having reservations. Perhaps I have hit that brick wall already. I won’t mind doing the projects ,that interests me. It’s the ‘what after that’ thing. I am totally clueless as far as that code stuff - how very complicated. I have seen postings from supposed beginners, but they make me look like major dunce as they seem to know what they are doing. Is it worth a hundred bucks to be busy for a few days? After that I would most likely box it up and put it aside with the 35 flashlights, the remote helicopter, the GoPro, Colorstrip Mini light, all the other things that satisfy on a temporal basis. My bicycle is probably my best investment. Thousands of miles, thousands, exercise, health, endorphins, and only $250.

You say ‘baby steps’? I have a songwriter friend. He wrote a song, one lyric says “I’m taking bay steps in grown up shoes.” That would be me, I’m 62. I have invested probably 15 hours in researching all this Arduino stuff, I might as well open the kit and enjoy myself, challenge myself, have some fun.

Thanks Valen for your thoughts. Ok to PM you if something comes up, or not?

patrick -

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saypat:
I tried a therapist, it didn’t help…

Valen, you have been at this a long time, no? You have a keen grasp. Thank you for your insights. My kit arrived this morning. The 7 day wait was irritating. I have not opened the kit, I am having reservations. Perhaps I have hit that brick wall already. I won’t mind doing the projects ,that interests me. It’s the ‘what after that’ thing. I am totally clueless as far as that code stuff - how very complicated. I have seen postings from supposed beginners, but they make me look like major dunce as they seem to know what they are doing. Is it worth a hundred bucks to be busy for a few days? After that I would most likely box it up and put it aside with the 35 flashlights, the remote helicopter, the GoPro, Colorstrip Mini light, all the other things that satisfy on a temporal basis. My bicycle is probably my best investment. Thousands of miles, thousands, exercise, health, endorphins, and only $250.

You say ‘baby steps’? I have a songwriter friend. He wrote a song, one lyric says “I’m taking bay steps in grown up shoes.” That would be me, I’m 62. I have invested probably 15 hours in researching all this Arduino stuff, I might as well open the kit and enjoy myself, challenge myself, have some fun.

Thanks Valen for your thoughts. Ok to PM you if something comes up, or not?

patrick -

Well, I’m afraid appearances can be deceiving. I have no Arduino experience myself. If I said anything about it here on the forum then I looked it up on the net just before. I have a pet project, which is a small robot of german design (Asuro). It is based on the Atmega8, which is similar to alot of Arduino microcontrollers. But that’s about it. I’ve been insatiably curious about electronics since childhood, but my experience in making circuits myself is pretty limited. I self-tutored myself alot by reading the library section and the net until I got a headache. But the experience in actually making something is something that has yet to come. There are people that know about it, and they teach it. And then there are people that understand it and they do it. PM-ing me is fine, I’ll help if I can. If I don’t I’ll say it. And I might not be the most practical guy. So I would much rather have you open up a new thread so many other forum visitors can bud in. More know more than one. I’m big on the group thing. So let’s all hug. :wink:

BTW I’m only 37

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@ the OP:

  1. Are you a “solution person” ? That is if you see an un-answered question, a problem not solved, that you must find that answer, that solution ? If you’re not then when you’re done w/the SIK projects, you’ll not likely to pick it up again.

  2. Are you curious to know the details of how something works … or is it enough that they do ? If you’re the latter, you’ll not likely to pick up the SIK again.

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Mee_n_Mac is a wise person. I believe what you have written here and can probably confirm it.

I decided to keep and play with my SIK instead of return it. It did NOT bode well for me. I could not load and open the Arduino software! That should be the easy part, huh? I downloaded the right one, it just wouldn’t unzip, nor open. I have done this many , many, times on my Macintosh before. I called tech support, twice. Neither could help me, they tried but they said they were not Mac people. I am really not being critical here as communication so far has been most EXCELLENT! I have an older operating system on my Mac - OSX 10.5.8 Most everything works well on 10.6 and beyond. I Googled 'Android/10.5.8 and found many others not being able to open the software. Seems Android ain’t really supporting that OS, it’s a Java issue ultimately. If tech support can fix the problem I will keep and use my SIK. If not I shall return it. Not off to a great start. I enlightened Sparkfun as to an issue with 10.5.8 on a Mac. Sort of surprised it never popped up before. Maybe they should post a disclaimer thingy under Mac compatibility.

I’m 62. These components are tiny, I was very surprised! My eyes aren’t great. And that red bread board is very difficult to see!!! Can someone please tell me if larger breadboards have the same size holes for connection, are they all compatible? I need a bigger white one 8)

not likely to continue on after completing the projects -

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Sucks to be on the un-development side (Mac user). Still I am surprised, the Arduino IDE is Java based. I thought OS-?? supported that.

As far as Arduino goes … it’s a learning tool, an intro to embedded solutions via microcontrollers. If you’re a solution person the end uses will appear as a bottomless canyon.

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  1. all breadboards are designed to a standard, 0.1" spacing on holes…

  2. I would go the Arduino forum and ask the question of the Mac issue. Their are a ton of people over there that could help. But I will say that the first thing they will say is to upgrade your OS.

  3. I am 34 yrs old and self taught of the art of electronics. I too was curious about electronics and robotics since childhood. 2 years ago I found the Arduino. I was shocked to see how many people were helping and teaching about eletronics. 2 years ago, if someone were to ask me what Microcontroller was, I could only give a vague definition as I do have common sense. Now I find myself with a entire room devoted to Microcontrollers. I really wish I would have found Arduino sooner, hell, by now I would be apart of the Italian design team. There is one thing that keeps me from doing so many things with Arduino, the coding. I can do simple lines of code, but the more complex a program has to be, the harder it gets. I have several C++ books, but they read like a 1st grader trying to read and understand a Physics book.

18

this stuff and me is not a good fit! I downloaded an older version of Arduino last night, and started in again, only to come across another issue. I need some drivers on my computer! Easy enuf to download, but installing is another beast, just look at this:

3.2 Installing D2xx Drivers

Download the driver to the MAC as per section 2 of this document.

Start a Terminal session (Go > Applications > Utilities > Terminal)

Copy libftd2xx.0.1.7.dylib to the /usr/local/lib directory (cp Desktop/D2XX/bin/libftd2xx.0.1.7 /usr/local/lib)

Change directory to the /usr/local/lib (cd /usr/local/lib)

Create a symbolic link to the library (ln -sf libftd2xx.0.1.7.dylib libftd2xx.dylib)

The driver is now installed.

way beyond what my puny little brain can process!. I originally thought I would load the software, and do the projects. That hasn’t begun to happen yet. This ain’t for me. I requested an RMA this morning to return the kit for a refund.

I think Sparkfun is a great company, with good support and communication. I think I’ll stick to less mind numbing things like riding a bike.

By the way, last night I attempted to build the 1st circuit, the led. I could not have imagined how difficult it would be to SEE and PLACE the parts on that red breadboard, what were they thinking? I had a magnifying glass, spectacles,light. Definitely for a younger person…

thanks for listening, and replying…

patrick

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Go here http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?board=2.0 and register and post about the issue of installing on a Mac. They will help you as that is Arduino’s support forum.

Also, alot of answers to your questions can be found easily with a Google search.