In this episode, I show you a simple trick to move a sketch from a pdf into an Arduino sketch. He example is taken from Arduinos without Tears You can purchase this book from Addie Rose Press here as a pdf, kindle or paperback. This trick can turn any soft copy like a word doc or a pdf or even a blog post, into a code delivery vehicle. All we will do is literally, copy…
Category: Blog
The Hacking Physics blog
Episode 007 In the Lab with Eric: It’s Alive!
In this episode, I show you the next experiment to try after Blink, giving your Arduino a heartbeat. This is covered in, Arduinos without Tears You can purchase this book from Addie Rose Press here as a pdf, kindle or paperback. If you can write a sketch to make your Arduino Blink, you can do this experiment: make the on-board LED flash like a heartbeat. Instead of making the on-board LED flash off and on,…
Episode 006 In the Lab with Eric: Arduinos Without Tears
In this episode, I introduce you to my new book, Arduinos Without Tears You can purchase this book from Addie Rose Press here as a pdf, kindle or paperback. As an ebook, you will have access to the video links and can copy the code from the ebook and paste it into blank sketch. This is the simplest and lowest cost starting guide to the Arduino. It doesn’t get any easier than this. I designed…
Episode 005 In the Lab with Eric: Getting Started with the AD2 Scope
In this episode, I walk you through a quick start using the Digilent Analog Discovery 2 scope to measure a few Arduino signals. Here is the scope we will use today. The first step is download the Digilent Waveforms software from here. When you start up the waveforms software with no scope attached, you can use your sound card in your PC as a scope to analyze sound signals. See this article I wrote in…
Episode 004 In the Lab with Eric: A simple way of testing LEDs
In this episode, I show you a simple way of direct driving an LED with Arduino pins that won’t harm the Arduino and won’t harm the LED. It is very useful when checking to see if the LED is really working and what color it might be if clear. This experiment requires the following parts: Arduino DMM 9 V supply Jumper cables Check the links to see my recommendations where to purchase these. You can…
Episode 003 In the Lab with Eric: A simple to use low-cost digital panel voltmeter
When I build a solderless breadboard, I like to have an indication of when power is applied, and even better, what the voltage is when the supply is connected.
A Low Cost Ultra-bright LED kit.
If you love LEDs, and who doesn’t, you sometimes want the brightest you can find. For less than $2, you can purchase this assortment of 100 ultra-bright LEDs in five colors, from AliExpress.
A Must-Have Kit- LED Accessories
Every experimenter should have this LED accessory kit. The typical price is about $2.50, shipping included. They are so cheap and useful, I always have a few of them in my lab ready to grab for quick experiments. When I am looking for an LED or switch or jumper wire, this is my goto kit.
Observing Log, UCAO Friday Aug 30, 2019
I spent a few hours at the UCAO with Aiden and George Allman. Skies cleared around 9 pm and we got 2 hours of good viewing before we called it quits. Sky viewing quality was not great. After the storms passed, there was still a lot of turbulence in the atmosphere and some haze. We could see the lightning flashes from the storm to the west echoing across the whole sky from the residual…
A spectacular double rainbow
I first learned about the physics of rainbows in 8.03, sophomore physics, which I took from Walter Lewin. I have never looked at rainbows the same way since. You can watch Prof Lewin’s complete 8.03 lectures on YouTube here. Rainbows are based on dispersion, that the speed of light in water depends on its frequency or wavelength. Dispersion and internal reflection contribute to the very specific set of conditions to see a rainbow. The ray…