Resistors are used everywhere in schematics. Since I did not know in advance which values I would need, I ordered a pack with 50 different values. The result was 1000 unlabeled resistors in the mailbox, packed per 20. Now I know why I bought a multimeter.
Component description
What?
Metal film resistor 1/4W assortment kit 5% 1000 pieces, 50 values
Why?
We need resistors to reduce the current through e.g. LEDs
I received 1000 unlabeled resistors by the mail (similar resistors were packed together, but still there are 50 packs). But I am not an electronic engineer, so I looked for an easy tool to determine the resistor values. This websites offers an easy way, just enter the colorcodes and the tool shows the resistance value.
The light version of Cadsoft Eagle Cad is a free tool to draw electronic circuits. This tool is available for Windows, OSX and Linux. It allows you to draw electronic schematics and design PCB boards.
So I do have LEDs, potentiometer, Arduino shield, but I also need wires and a breadboard. Luckily I already had an old breadboard. But today a new one arrived with jumper wires included.
Component description
What?
840 Pin Breadboard + Jumper Wire Kit
Why?
Without a breadboard and wires we can not build any experiment at all.
The wp-syntax plugin is very useful. Unfortunately the wp-syntax plugin does not support the processing language which is used for Arduino programming. This website offers the arduino.php file for the wp-syntax plugin. Simple upload the arduino.php file to the wp-content/plugins/wp-syntax/geshi/geshi folder.
I started my first sketch with this tutorial. The tutorial describes how to install the Arduino environment and how to run your first Arduino sketch which is a blinking LED. In this sketch pin 13 is used because according to this page the Arduino board already has connected a resistor to this pin. The LED is not necessary since the Arduino has a build-in LED for pin 13. In the video you can see this red LED blinking as well.
Last, but not least, the most important package I expected: the Arduino Uno board itself. Without this board all the other components stay useless. I chose for the UNO since this is the most recent version of the Arduino board. The company delivered a free USB cable as well. Specs:
As you could have read in one of my previous post about Arduino, I decided to compose my own Arduino Starter Kit. Today the first component arrived by the mail: the potentiometer.
Component description
What?
5K OHM Linear Taper Rotary Potentiometer 5KB B5K
Why?
A potentiometer is a variable resistor, which could be useful as control in a game. To set the speed of led blinking etc.
Before I could start developing my Arduino projects, I needed a multimeter. There are plenty of them in the market which makes the choice even harder. Luckily Quintin pointed me to the multimeter shootout at EEVBLOG.
