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The Corroboree
Darklight

FOSS, Arduino, 3d printer revolution

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I've been interested in the concept of FOSS ( free, open source software ) such as Linux for years but couldn't work it out until the later versions of Ubuntu ( desktop OS ). Now I'm a convert, but not a contributor :(

Also very interested in Arduino, Raspberry Pi and the 3d printer Rep-Rap styles

Personally I reckon they're the groundwork for taking back some of our freedoms, making us less reliant on large corporations walling us in with limited consumer choices which come at the additional cost of our privacy. Hopefully they're also fun

But is this realistic? Are they such huge fields individually that it's like saying you're interested in 'Science' but don't know where to start? Should I narrow my focus for practicality's sake?

Also somewhat hamstrung by being rural and isolated- I don't have any local friends who share these interests and so getting a working crew, or any help with problems on the ground is pretty near impossible

Anyone have any ideas as to where to start? Aside from the obvious web searches and youtube pages I mean... I'd appreciate beginner's advice from anyone with experience in any of the above

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dhfghfgh

Edited by Teljkon

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Arduino has its own forum for help so you can easly get help with that as far as arduino is concerned it all runs on c++. I have some personal projects that i want to explore with arduino arduino is actually very cheap its about 30$ for the chip and all you need a is any computer to program it and a usb port truth is though i dont know much about programming amazon is your friend. Getiing programming books for cheap will help. rasberry pi and arduino seam to be very similar things but pi seems to run of a diffrent base OS so it may serve your purpose better to learn linux then you will know how to run both the pi and a linux computer.

Programming a program for linux and then say programming for say a little robot would be very diffrent tasks arduino raspery pi and rep rap though all seem very related since almost half of your interests are not on the software end of things but programming hardware that may be where you want to concentrate. realisticlally your talkng about learning a language one way or the other. The only reason i have not persude arduino at this stage is that i am trying to learn japanese so i decided that one language at a time is enough.

 

Hey thanks for this, I didn't realise that Raspberry Pi and Arduino were similar in that way, I guess I hadn't thought that one through.

I think I'll learn about Raspberry Pi some more as it seems more appropriate for the initial stuff I need to make, and I know a little bit of Linuxeze now. However I reckon the Arduino would be better for my plans to make a prehensile tail where movements are governed by a wireless trackpad

Would still love to find some IRL devotees, I learn better with a group of people

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Have you seen watertrades Arduino controlled still? http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=32302&hl=arduino&fromsearch=1

I'm attempting to create an automatic green house controller with arduino, finding the time amongst all my other projects is proving difficult though.

I've played with arduino a bit (I managed to get a string of 50 programmable leds flashing and chasing each other.) and have done bucket loads of programming, If you want to ask any questions I'll definately try to answer them for you! I'm pretty handy with linux too.

Its funny you mention a prehensile tail - I've been toying with the idea of making a dancing cactus. With an arduino, a few little servos (like they use in model airplanes to steer) a frame, some springs and wires to move the arms - basically like a puppet or marionette where the strings are pulled by servo. This would also work for your tail.

Maybe you, watertrade and myself should bump heads and share some tricks of the trade?

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cfghfhd

Edited by Teljkon

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Maybe you, watertrade and myself should bump heads and share some tricks of the trade?

 

that would be good. I was wondering if anyone else was playing with arduino or similar microcontrollers.

there are some good applications that relate to plant, mushroom growing.

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Wow, these are really cool. I study this sort of thing, but for some reason I've been too jaded to really notice that they can actually be useful, haha.

I think the best thing that someone should learn when doing a software project in a high level language (C++ for example) is the principle of object oriented programming. To sum it up, it's about putting things into "boxes", and giving "ownership" of information to the thing that it actually comes from. It's not the only way to program, but it is the most used method for general programming in that it allows you to solve any problem with the same approach (there's always a clear path from start to finish).

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OK, my questions are going to be really really basic. Like " Ooh, I got it plugged into the telly and it works! What do I do now? "

A couple of mates spent the afternoon tinkering and got their Pi to translate tweets into Morse Code. I has envy

When I say 'a little Linux-eze" I mean it. I fixed up a few driver probs with an earleir Ubuntu and needed to use terminal, and the world didn't end. Have done a couple of equally pitifully basic things since

However if you ever want to add in-vitro biologicals to the project I'll probably be indispensable

Edited by Darklight

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