A Year of Learning - Arduino Programming

A couple of Birthdays ago JD got me this Arduino starter kit. I've been meaning to give it a try ever since. Well, March is the time!

You can read more about Arduino here, if you're interested. But it's an open source programming system that's accessible to everyone and supposedly easy to learn. As I understand it so far, which is not very much! :D

I used to work in an electronics factory years ago so a lot of the components in the kit look familiar but I've no idea what I'll be doing with them.

I'm following along with a series of tutorials by Paul McWhorter on YouTube. I really like the clear instructions and explanations in this video series. It's well made.

The first lesson was exciting. It was using this UNO R3 board and I programmed it (picture above) to blink an LED light on and off at varying speeds. I'm a programming genius already!!

I'm on lesson 8 now and I've learned to do various things including making a circuit on this bread board. I've moved on to blinking 2 LEDs, alternating them and  assigning different voltages to the LEDs to vary the brightness.

It's been mostly learning the basics of the programming code so far. I'm enjoying it but I'm also keen to build the bread board up a bit more with my box full of components!

Lesson 11 and I've just been learning about Ohm's Law and Potentiometers! This circuit allows me to change the voltage using the potentiometer which has a turnable knob on top of it. I'm getting the hang of the programming language now so I could write code that let me read the voltage through the Serial Monitor. The next lesson is making a dimmable LED using the potentiometer!

I'm on 24th March now and my latest Arduino project is this circuit that lets me measure distance with a Supersonic Sensor and display the distance on an LCD Module. It's not incredibly accurate but it works! As I move the pad away from the sensor the distance in inches goes up.

For the last project of the month I decided to try make a motored fan spin controlled by a joystick. I got it all set up, wrote out my code and pressed the joystick expectantly and nothing! It didn't move. I spent more time re-checking the connections and looking up a schematic to check my wiring against. It was all good. I double checked my code, all good too. It was very frustrating!

After reading some Arduino forums I decided I might have a faulty bridge motor drive (pictured below).

I took it out to inspect it and noticed that I had it in upside down. I replaced it the correct way and...

I've enjoyed my month of learning Arduino programming. It's a really fun way to play around with circuiting. There's lots more I could do with the kit I have if I had more time so it's well worth the price of £30 to get started.

The part of Arduino I've enjoyed the most is the problem-solving when something doesn't work. Going through the code to make sure all the semi-colons and curly brackets are placed correctly and re-checking schematics to make sure all the wires are where they should be.

It's a pretty cool way to get into programming. Give it a try!


Previously on A Year of Learning:

Smartphone Photography

Breadmaking

Hob Griddle Review

JD bought me a cast iron griddle for my birthday and we've been experimenting with it to see how well it works. Here's what we think of it so far!

It looks like robot face!

We've got an electric hob and it sits on there quite well. There's a ridged side for those fancy griddle marks and a flat side for pancakes and such.

The first thing we made on there was burgers. It's perfectly sized for 4 burgers and 4 rashers of bacon. It worked well but produced more smoke than cooking burgers in a frying pan. The back door had to be opened but the burgers were delicious!

We eat homemade curry quite often so also make naan breads to go with it. We usually grill the naan breads but they were great griddled. Look at those griddle marks!

A common lunch item in our house is the cheese toastie/grilled cheese sandwich. The griddle does a great job of these!

JD enjoyed making us some American pancakes for Pancake Day this year. He made 6 small ones at a time and we could hardly keep up with eating them as he made them. Which is certainly a result :D

Pizza paninis are also easily made on the griddle. Yum!

I made the Thai dish Moo Satay on the griddle. It was all sizzling and made lovely griddle marks on the pork skewers.

I think it's fair to say we've put our hob griddle to the test with a variety of foods. It's got it's good and bad points.

Good:

Heats up quickly

Cooks food quickly

Much larger cooking space than a frying pan

Fancy griddle marks on food

Bad:

Produces smoke easily

Not as easy to control the temperature of it

Takes a while to cool down after cooking

Not the easiest thing to clean

Overall I think it's a great addition to our kitchen. I've enjoyed making foods that can be griddled and it's nice to have more space for things like cheese toasties. It can be easily stored vertically behind the hob so it doesn't take up any precious counter space. It's staying!

Harrogate Cheap Eats: Starling Independant Cafe

Starling Independent Cafe is situated on Oxford Street next to the Oxfam book shop. It always looks busy when I walk past but there's plenty of seating upstairs so don't be put off. The menu is quite varied which includes vegan or gluten free options. They sell a good range of craft beers, gins and other alcohol but also have a water dispenser for us non-alcoholics. We both had some cucumber infused water.

Lots of things on the menu were within our £7.50 per person cheap eats budget. Soup of the day (£5), Philly Fries (£5.50) and the Meatball Sandwich (available on white bloomer, sourdough or in a pizza pocket for £7) all caught my eye. They also do brunch items like mushrooms on sourdough and pulled pork on sourdough until 2.30pm.

We decided to split a pizza and chose the Big Apple (£9.50) with pastrami, pickles and mustard. There were lots of nice pizza options plus you can order half pizzas too. We also shared a portion of Poutine (£4.50). Both were really tasty but the poutine was the best. The curd cheese melted all over the fries, it was delicious! This gave us a Cheap Eats total of £14, perfect!

We sat upstairs and because of the large windows the cafe has a lovely light, airy feel. It's nicely decorated with especially nice starling stencils on the walls and up the stairs. (No picture, sorry!) Starling is well worth a visit, the food is freshly made and delicious. Plus it won't break the bank (unless you opt to have a gin or two with your lunch) :)


Previously on Harrogate Cheap Eats:

Burgers & More

Little Breads

Santar Deli

Cafe M

Harrogate Grill & Pizza

Nutrition Joe's

Tak Yan

Drakes Fish & Chips

I Am Doner

Cafe Rita

Palm Court Cafe

Cheeky Burger 34: Yorkshire Pudding Burger

As a Yorkshire Lass I should've made this burger much sooner! It's a regular cheeseburger but with yorkshire puddings instead of a bread bun. Crazy stuff!

When I went to make the burgers I felt paranoid that the mince smelled weird so JD dashed to the shop for burgers instead. I cooked them on my new griddle (expect a blog post about it soon :D).

When they were nearly ready I popped some ready made frozen Yorkshires in the oven and chopped some cheese and tomato for toppings. When they were done I slightly flattened the puds and used them to sandwich up the burgers adding bacon, cheese and spinach adding tomato for JD.

We were both surprised how well Yorkshire Puddings work as a bread bun on a burger. They held together great and tasted really good. Medium sized puds were the perfect size for the burgers we'd bought. We're planning on having this again with the kids as chicken burgers. Yorkshire puddings seem less filling than bread buns too so it's a lighter meal. Very nice!

Ratings: JD - 4, Emma - 3