20 January 2011
Introductions; The Basics
- Intro to the course
- course description
- who are we & what are we interested in?
- what's expected of students in this course:
- come to every class
- work/play/experiment at least 4-5 extra hours every week
- share/collaborate/discuss freely
- do all assignments & participate fully -- this class is as important as any other
- do an ambitious and inspired final project
- room access & signup
- door codes
- building access: I need your CUIDs so that you can get in the building!
- grading policy
- Intro to Processing
- We will download and install Processing
on everyone's laptop. If you don't have a laptop with you, please install
Processing on your machine ASAP.
- We will run a couple example applications to give you a feel for how it's done.
- Intro to Arduino
- We will talk very generally about microcontrollers and electronics, and specifically
about the Arduino platform.
You are strongly encouraged to purchase an Arduino and perhaps an electronics
starter kit ASAP.
Here's a good Arduino starter kit with components:
Arduino Starter Pack
- See 'materials and components' below for more resources.
- If there's time we'll make some LEDs blink and some motors whiz. If there's not time,
don't worry, that's what we'll do for the rest of the term as well!
Assignment: DUE Jan 26th
Do some reading on Processing and the Aruduino platform. Post a short message on the Courseworks bulletin board
describing something you think you might be interested in investigating with these tools this semester.
Class Resources
- books
- Physical Computing by O'Sullivan & Igoe
- Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking by Nicolas Collins
- Make: Electronics by Charles Platt
- Making Things Move by Dustyn Roberts
- Various Processing books
- materials and components
- Herbach and Rademan: surplus motors, mechanical components, power supplies
- All Electronics: surplus electronics, small motors, batteries
- Digikey: new electronic components, tools
- McMaster-Carr: new mechanical components, tools
- Adafruit: Lady Ada's DIY electronics & kits
- Sparkfun: kits, sensors, microcontrollers
- Many Radioshack locations have a limited stock of components, wire, tools, etc., in
little chests at the back of the store. The staff will not know anything about these things,
but they're there! There are at least three locations with electroncs components within 10 blocks
of main campus.
- communities, examples, downloads, etc.