My Blog

Author: haroonkhan

  • Let’s Build a Trick Switch

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

    When you press the pushbutton switch on this device, the LED turns on. The capacitor will begin storing electrical energy from the +5VDC power supply circuit of the Arduino. Releasing the pushbutton switch cuts off the flow of electricity from the source, but the energy stored in the capacitor keeps the Arduino running for a…

  • Parts List

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

    TECH NOTE You can create your own electrical circuits and test them using diagrams with an online simulator called Circuit Lab.

  • Introduction

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

    Resistor-Capacitor Timing Basics In electronics, sometimes we want to keep a device on for a certain amount of time even when an electrical switch is turned off. Ordinary pushbuttons used to turn electronic devices on and off can easily be operated by a timed delay switch. How awesome would it be to create such a device…

  • How to Get Help Online

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

    If you are stuck, don’t spend days running around alone—ask for help. One of the best things about Arduino is its community. You can always find help if you can describe your problem well. Get into the habit of cutting and pasting things into a search engine and see whether somebody is talking about it. For…

  • Other Debugging Techniques

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

  • Identifying the Arduino COM Port on Windows

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

    Connect your Arduino Uno to your computer via a USB cable. Open the Device Manager by clicking the Start menu, right-clicking Computer (Vista) or My Computer (XP), and choosing Properties. On Windows XP, click Hardware and choose Device Manager. On Vista, click Device Manager (it appears in the list of tasks on the left of the…

  • Problems with the IDE on Windows

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

    If you get an error when you double-click the Arduino icon, or if nothing happens, try double-clicking the Arduino.exe file as an alternative method to launch Arduino. Windows users may also run into a problem if the operating system assigns a COM port number of COM10 or greater to Arduino. If this happens, you can usually convince…

  • Problems Installing Drivers on Windows

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

    Sometimes the Found New Hardware Wizard fails to locate the proper driver. In this case you might have to manually tell it where the driver is located. The Found New Hardware Wizard will first ask you whether to check Windows Update; select the “No, not at this time” option and click Next. On the next…

  • Isolating Problems

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

    Another important rule is to find a reliable way to reproduce a problem. If your circuit behaves in a funny way at random times, try really hard to identify what seems to cause this. Does it happen only when you press a switch? Only when an LED lights up? Whenever you move a jumper? (Many…

  • Testing Your Breadboarded Circuit

    —

    by

    haroonkhan
    in

    The next step is to check for short circuits between 5V and GND on your project. Connect your Arduino to your breadboard by running a jumper from the 5V and GND connections to the positive and negative rails of the breadboard. (Notice we are following the “divide and rule” principle by connecting only these two…