A few years back I bought an Arduino Uno after stumbling upon some magical YouTube videos that highlighted the possibilities of the microprocessor. Basically, an Arduino is a tiny computer, capable of unending functions based on code inputs and attached hardware. I’ve got some mind blowing projects in mind that will really add to the functionality and data logging of our homestead.
For example, I’d like to have temperature and humidity sensors logging data from our chicken coop, solar wood kiln, greenhouse, our house, and the outdoors. This can remotely be sent to a data center so that I can make our own weather station tailored to our needs. To go even further, we can then transmit all of that data to a web based app so that I can get alerts and check the real time data in case our temperatures are fluctuating to the extreme.
Also, I can set up a system which gathers soil and nutrient data from our gardens so I know exactly what composition of compost to apply to balance the soil. Oh, and we can set it to automatically water the gardens as they need, not based on when it’s convenient for us.
The nerd in me is in love with the possibilities that an Arduino can achieve. Unfortunately, it’s not super simple – as you might expect. You have to learn some basic coding which is a lot easier in the Arduino IDE, the program that you write the language that the Arduino interprets. It’s a lot easier than other programs, but it still takes practice and experience to perfect it and understand what makes it do the things you want.
Furthermore, you also have to learn how to wire all of the pieces together to safely achieve your intended results. Again, this just takes practice and experience.
The more complex the project, the more wiring and coding are required. But as they say, you’ve gotta learn how to crawl before you can run. So with that in mind, I’m beginning this new series on Arduino projects to hopefully learn as much as I can in order to achieve these aforementioned projects.
I figured that with winter now upon us, the rest of my projects around the homestead should be slowing down. I’ll still be making some furniture around the house as time permits, but I thought that this winter would be an excellent time to start my journey towards Arduino literacy.
With that said, I bring to you project 1: an LED wave. This project, as well as many more to come, are directly from the book Arduino Workshop. If you’d like to follow along with me, I encourage you to pick up a copy as well. Let’s get started!