WEBVTT - What is Arduino? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.760 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:19.840 Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulett, and 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:22.200 I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:24.520 here across from me, as always, his senior writer, Jonathan 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:32.120 Strickland binary solo that that was a short quote. Yeah, 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.240 it helps balance help the epic quote I did a 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:39.080 couple of episodes ago. That's true. That's true. Today, we 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.960 wanted to talk about a topic that a couple of 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.440 people have brought up to us in the past, and uh, 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.680 we just sort of tabled it for a while. Um, 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.800 but we're both sort of interested in it, and UM, 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:52.959 I think it's time we, uh we pulled this one 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.080 out and give it a give it a try. Yeah, 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.000 it's the ard we know, which is a an open 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:03.000 source platform, both of hardware and software. Yeah, that's uh, 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.720 that's kind of interesting to mention. When we talk about 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.640 open source a lot, we are often referring to software, 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.480 and by open source we mean uh, when they release 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:18.240 in this case, the software, Um, it's made public to everybody. 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:20.520 What the code is behind the software, so that other 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:25.360 people want to make contributions or look for vulnerabilities, or 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:29.200 find ways to improve it, ways to incorporate parts of 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.920 that software and other software. They're welcome to dig in 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.480 and get to work. But you don't often see that 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:38.720 with hardware. Yeah, it's a little trickier to do. For 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.440 one thing. Um Also, Yeah, if you're if you're looking 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:45.000 at your general kind of hardware, let's say a microprocessor, 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.800 you're looking at your your general microprocessor, you tend to 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.920 um to have a prop proprietary right like Intel doesn't 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:59.320 publish it's micro architecture and complete detail to the entire world. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.400 That's that's for prietary knowledge, because that's that's what Intel's 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:06.160 business is built upon. To go open open sources to 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.800 kind of um uh, well, just to take the veil 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.440 away and say this is exactly how this is put together. 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:16.280 This is what each component of this thing. You know, 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:18.800 how it works and what it does. And if you 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:21.480 want to build your own you are more than welcome to. 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:25.200 Or if you want to take this and modify it 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.680 and and evolve it in some way, you're welcome to 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.920 do that too. There are a little there's some guidelines there, 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:32.720 but we can get into that. I mean, it's just 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:38.400 sort of very simple kindelines really. But in the case 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.480 of the the Art we know system, it's kind of 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:47.960 a a tool for people to get familiar with electronics 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.880 and to learn how electronics work and how to not 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.720 just design the hardware, but to to program electronics so 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.800 that they do what you want them to do. Yeah, 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:02.440 it's it's funny too. You may should Intel, because of 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.440 course they are. It's really not even arguably the leading 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:11.880 my microprocessor manufacturer in the world. UM. But you know, 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:16.600 when when somebody like Intel or Apple or Google or 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:21.160 somebody else who has a worldwide reach comes up with 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.440 a new product UM, in a lot of cases they 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.760 come up with focus groups and marketing efforts to try 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.120 to come up with cool names for this product because 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.519 they wanted to to sell UM an open source that 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.480 might be a little different. Actually, this this all came 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:41.240 about around two thousand five. I was reading UM, an 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:43.480 issue of Make magazine that came out a few months 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.920 ago UM from the time we're recording us UH. In 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.280 the piece by Dale Doherty, who who wrote the welcome 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:53.480 to that issue, said this all started in two thousand 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:58.760 five UM and it came from an Italian institute, the 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:02.480 Interaction Design Instant Toute Ivrea. I'm if we have any 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:07.000 Italian listeners, please correct me on my pronunciation, but it's 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:11.360 near Milan in Italy. Basically, uh, some of the art 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:16.200 students there and an associate professor named Massimo Bonzi came 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:21.360 up with UH an idea to come up with electronics 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.080 boards that you could program yourself, but it was for 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:30.320 artists and people who weren't programmers. Yeah. The the goal 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:35.440 is to use this this basic foundation to build really 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:40.480 anything that you can imagine as an electronic device. Really, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:45.760 you're limited by your budget and your creativity and your 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:51.559 comfort with working with electronics. Uh. I was sorry before 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:53.240 before we get into the details, I just wanted to 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.280 add this a little trivia. Think it's fun. Yes, the 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:58.280 name because like I said that, you know, you come 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:01.839 up with these hyphil names that are supposed to indicate 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.280 some kind of coolness factor or do we know, Actually 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.919 it's it's got sort of a coolness factor too, because 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.800 Bondsi has suggested the name of the bar that they 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.719 used to go to discuss these things as the name 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.440 for the board, and are do we know is what's stuck. 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:21.680 So there we go, and they're they're programming language is 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.320 of course called the ard we know programming languages based 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.839 on an older programming language called wiring, which is another 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.880 open source programming language, which I think is a little 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.840 weird because if you're not if you're just doing your 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:37.120 preliminary research on our do we know? You might say wiring? 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.600 What kind of wiring? Yeah, that's just the programming language 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:42.320 name threw me a little, but yeah, if you if 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.640 you take a look at this, if you were to say, well, 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:46.560 let me, let me see what you're talking about, you 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:50.280 would you would be looking mostly at circuit boards, and 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.000 you wouldn't necessarily know just by looking at it what 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.320 the circuit board does. And the reason for that is 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.040 because the circuit board is that, you know, they've designed 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:02.440 the circuit board to be as flexable as possible, uh figuratively, 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:04.800 not literally, you're not gonna you're not gonna bend this, 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.840 but flexible as possible so that it can perform as 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.200 many different functions um as you can come up with 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:16.240 in theory. Anyway, by by using programming it properly and 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:18.680 linking it to the other parts of hardware that you 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:20.680 would need to do whatever it is you're going to do. 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:22.600 So this is kind of a you can just call 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.080 it a micro controller. Really, Yeah, that's what most people 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.600 seem to refer to the ard We know and it's uh, 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:34.919 wouldn't say competitors similar products. Yeah, there are other open 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.200 source micro controller products out there, and some of them 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.680 are a little more limited. Uh, some of them are 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.840 are really they've done a lot of the engineers behind 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:47.200 it have done a lot of the work for you. 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.360 For example, there are modular computing systems out there, or 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.840 modular electronics systems out there where you can create an 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:59.800 electronic device by purchasing the the various modules you would 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.480 need need and then linking them all together. It's almost 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:07.080 like legos, right, Like you've got all these these electronics legos, 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.040 and if you put the right Lego bricks together, suddenly 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.440 you have, you know, whatever device it is that you 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.840 were looking for, like an accelerometer. It's funny you would 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.920 mention legos UM. The make issue that had the Arduino 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:26.560 and it um listed several different types of controllers UM, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.440 including io boards like pico board and fidgets p h I, 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:35.760 d G, e T s UM and some others UM 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.600 the net duino, which is very similar to Arduino controllers 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.920 like the pick axe and propeller um. And then programmable 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.960 modules including basic Stamp two and Lego mind storms. So 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:50.560 these are all related to I mean, the similar kinds 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:55.520 of devices to the Arduino but um. But yeah, Arduino 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.880 has gotten really popular I think because of its open 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.640 source Yeah, and and again because of its flexibility. Uh 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.480 you can you can program and our Dwino based device 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.600 to be essentially self contained where it's going to follow 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.600 it's it's programming and uh, you know, you have to 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:15.920 set it up with power and everything like that. You know, 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.120 it's not just like it's some magical device that can 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:20.920 work on its own. But but the you you can 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:22.840 have it where it's a self contained device, or you 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.880 can have it where it's a connected device, where you 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.280 could connect it to a computer and you run uh 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.480 software off your computer to the circuit board to make it, 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.240 uh do whatever it is you plan like. I'll give 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.319 you an example. Let's say that you you have your 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:43.079 Arduino circuit board UM that you've purchased, and you can 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.679 actually build these yourself if you want to they do 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.959 have the the directions on how to build one. Uh 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.839 most people I think would probably be a little intimidated 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.320 by building a circuit board and would be more comfortable 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.000 purchasing and a completed one. And remember, a complete circuit 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.440 or it's still pretty much a blank slate. That's just 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:04.719 the foundation for you to build whatever it is you 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.440 want to build. Uh. Well, let's say you've got your 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:12.320 circuit board and you get an LED uh so, and 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.120 you connect that to your circuit board in the proper place, 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:17.560 and you program your circuit board in such a way 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.520 so that when it receives a particular kind of information, 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.160 the light goes on. And you program it so that 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.520 every time you get a new email, a little light 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.160 comes on. And then you plug it into your computer 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.760 and you've logged into your email client, and whenever you 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.199 get a new email, it sends the signal because you've 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.040 programmed it this way and you've programmed it to interact 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.679 with your computer. The there's a signal sent from your 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.920 computer to the electronic board and the little light goes on. Now, 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.520 that's just a very simple application of the art we 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.200 know board. Right, That's just one tiny little example, but 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.280 that's the sort of thing you could do if you 0:09:55.320 --> 0:10:00.360 wanted to. Yes, yeah, if you uh, if you're listening 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:02.600 to the podcast to this point and you're you're sort 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.440 of trying to get an idea, um, you you would 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:09.200 basically see the same kind of thing. If you're you know, 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.200 if you haven't actually seen an ARD we know board yet, 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:16.640 you if you popped open a remote control or really 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.960 you know, any kind of electronic portable electronic device, popped 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.840 it open and looked at the guts of this, that's 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.600 basically more or less what an RD we know is. 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.640 It's the board that has um all kinds of whatever 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.880 the components are that needs to run that device. Um. 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:35.520 But in the case that ARD we know, it's a 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.280 do it yourself type thing. So it comes to the 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.719 basic the board like the ARD we know you know, 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.199 which is I would I would guess probably the most basic, 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:49.000 you know, multi purpose, very popular board, although there are 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:53.000 again many others. Um, you know, it comes with certain 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.880 things pre installed on it. But though that's by no 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:57.839 means you know, that's really just sort of to get 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.480 you started, I think, but really, um, it's not very 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:03.120 if you're not the kind of person that likes to 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.920 take stuff apart or built stuff from scratch. This may 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:08.640 not be very interesting to you might look at it 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:10.560 and go, I don't care. I want it to be 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.400 what I wanted already. The thing is, uh, you know, 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.880 for people who like to do a little hacking and 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.719 getting into uh some programming, this can be a lot 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.920 of fun because you can do It's sort of like, um, 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.040 this is sort of like the physical representation of a 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.000 programming language, I would say, because it takes. What it 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.199 does is you can hook things into it to receive 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:34.960 inputs and then hook other things up to it to 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:38.680 give you an output. Um. They're all kinds of projects 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:43.040 on the web. Um. I've seen games for it. UM, 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.120 I've seen you know, different kinds of input detectors, like 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.000 you were talking about the the email when it comes in, 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.440 things like that where it says, okay, when you get information, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.400 send me a signal somehow. Yeah, And I mean you 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:58.240 can do almost anything with it really really. In order 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.400 to do these things, you have to hook up other 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:05.000 circuitry to the arduino. Uh. They are two, like I 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.640 says it, that's that's the board. It's just the foundation. 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.200 And you have to you have to provide the other 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.200 bits that are going to build into whatever electronic device 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.880 you're designing. So here let's give a couple of other 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:21.079 just examples of devices you could you could create with this. UM. 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.520 I found a site called hacken mod h A c 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:28.240 K N m O D and it had a list 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.840 of the top forty Arduino projects on the web, and 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:34.160 it was an interesting list. There were a lot of 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.640 different applications and these are just things that hobbyists thought, Hey, 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:39.880 you know what I want to build such and such. 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:42.559 The cool thing with our dwino is that, let's say 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:44.360 that you have come up with an idea for an 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.360 electronic device, but you're you know, you don't you don't 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.640 know any way of going about and doing it without 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.080 without starting from scratch. Well, the Arduino might serve as 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.200 the foundation for your device, and you can even create 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:00.320 devices that you can go on to sell in the market. 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.200 Uh that that use our two as the basis for 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:09.000 the electronics. That's perfectly fine with the the Creative Commons 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.560 license that they've used to to license this stuff. UM. Now, 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:14.800 there are cases where if you're going to make modifications 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:19.280 to the hardware, you need to publish those those changes 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:23.040 so that other people can benefit from your work and um, 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.160 and you stay true to the license. But anyway, some 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:31.320 examples include I read about collision avoiding robots. So in 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:35.080 other words, you're using that circuit board as the brains 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:39.400 for lack of a better term of this of this robot. Yeah, 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.720 and and so you have to attach the right sensors 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:47.319 that will detect any sort of obstacle in the way 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:52.080 of the robot. And you have to connect the the 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.319 other wires over to the various motors in the robot 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:59.760 so that the the robots able to process the information 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:03.080 that it it pulls in and act on it. So 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.640 that's an example of what the artwino could be used for. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:08.280 But you can also do other things. Like I said, 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:12.440 there's accelerometers. I came across a guitar pedal that was 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.199 using the artwino as the main circuit board for the 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:21.600 guitar pedal. It's just a hobbyist made it key tars. Hey, Yeah, 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.160 you want to bring those eighties days back? You wanna 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:28.240 have your keytar out? Uh that This is one that 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:32.040 I thought was really a great idea. Someone used the 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:36.960 ardwino as the basis to create a turn signal biking jacket. 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.000 So yeah, it's a jacket that has turned signals built 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.480 into it. Yeah, and uh and this, you know, these 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.440 are these are just kind of neat ideas that that 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.560 people came up with and they tooled around with the 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.160 Ardwino and various other electronic components and made them. There 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.120 are others as well. There are radio control device devices 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.520 I've seen. I've also seen a gaming devices like there 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:04.200 was one it was essentially called an open source game boy. Yeah. 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:06.200 So the idea of being that, you know, using the 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.000 Arduino as the main circuit board, you could create a 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.680 gaming device. Now again, you still have to have all 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:14.640 those other components and you have to hook them up. Now, 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:16.840 for a lot of these devices, people what they do 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.440 is they just went to an electronics store and bought 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:24.040 the individual components, went back home and then started to 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.920 hook them up to the Arduino in the proper configuration. 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:28.880 And then you know, then you have to program it. 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.240 And like I said, the programming language that's you know, Ardwino. 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:38.600 Uh uh give makes that available to so you can 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:42.040 learn how to program your electronics device through the Arduino 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:46.920 system and actually you know, create the parameters that your 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.960 device needs to follow in order to execute whatever actions 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.080 you want it to do. Um, and you can you 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.600 don't have to use the Ardwino language either, you can 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.760 use others, but you would still have to uh create 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.480 the halfway from it to go from whatever programming language 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:06.160 you were using into the art programming language. That would 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:10.640 add an extra step. But um, but it is a possibility. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:14.000 And I've seen there are a lot of tutorials on 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:16.360 the web as well on how to use are we 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.680 on how to program? Aren't we know? Yeah? Actually the 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:24.280 language is expandable using C or C plus plus according 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:29.040 to make and that's that's pretty standard, um, you know, comparatively, 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.560 for example, net net we know uses C sharp as 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.360 it's programming language. Um. And that's one of the things 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:38.680 that they saw as a downside to that if you're 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.440 not comfortable programming and see, it might be a little 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.640 daunting at first. Um, but you really don't need all 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.360 that much if you want to get started with that. 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.640 Of course, as we were saying before, you know, it 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.840 does take uh some cash to get started to buy 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.200 the uh the main controller board, whichever board you decide 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:02.840 to choose. There are several UM and I have some listed. UM. 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.680 You would also need some stuff to go with it, UM, 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:12.320 led s, potentiometers, accelerometers, speakers. Yeah, you definitely need a 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.520 USB cable because you have to attach the board to 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.359 your computer to program it. UM. Then one of the 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.200 nice things about it is that it works with Windows, 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.600 Mac and Linux. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's one of the 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.520 things that sets it apart from a lot of other 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.800 of these micro controllers that you can purchase. A lot 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:34.240 of them are our platform specific, most mostly Windows, because 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:38.239 of course that's the the most popular operating system out there. 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:41.560 You have the dominant operating system, and so that does 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:45.879 set it apart. Um. So yeah, that's that's one of 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:47.639 the things that I really liked about our Twino is 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.800 that it's it's you know, platform agnostic. It doesn't doesn't 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:55.359 align itself with a specific platform. Although those of us 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:57.960 with amigas are still out of luck. Those of you 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.159 with a megas, I'm amazed that they even run. I 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.080 have to be fair, I haven't plugged it in quite 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.399 some time. UM. So yeah, if you if you, it 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:11.320 doesn't really matter if you've got one of the predominant 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.840 operating systems out there. Even the smaller ones. Um. Then 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.359 you're welcome to go ahead and dig in. Um. You 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.120 just need to, you know, figure out what it is 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.000 that you want to do. Uh. Some of the you 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:29.320 can find kits online from a number of different stores 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.680 that will give you the basics to get started with 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.120 some easy projects, sort of get your feet wet with it. 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.000 And it kind of reminds me when we were talking 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.920 about radio in a podcast not too long ago, about 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.680 the crystal radio kits that you used to buy. This 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:46.119 is sort of like that. It doesn't require a whole 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.920 lot of soldering or anything like that. Uh, there are 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:50.440 you know, some of the other systems that I mentioned 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:53.280 earlier and others like them do It depends on whether 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:57.080 you're buying just a controller or controller board or an 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.359 input output board. You know, it sort of depends on 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.760 what you're working with. But the Arduino doesn't necessarily require 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.120 a lot of that kind of thing because it's it's 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:09.719 designed to be used in a variety of ways, so 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.600 you can you can hook it up with wires just 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.480 basically clipping the wires into place to see what it does. Yeah, 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:18.640 it's it's a teaching tool in a way. It's really 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.560 so that so that you can learn and experiment with 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:26.800 electronics so that you know you don't Also you don't 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:29.080 have to worry so much about if I what if 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:30.879 I made a mistake, What if I'm not supposed to 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.480 solder this wire to this contact point here? What if 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:36.399 that's the wrong one, and then I have to you know, 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.480 desauder and then resolder and then yeah, it's a it 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.920 could be a headache. So this is kind of a way. Yeah, this, 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:45.760 this is kind of a way to avoid that and 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.639 to have a little more flexibility and and not feel 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:51.600 as anxious every time you're about to make a connection. 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.919 Um as for the programming language are duo. Divides it 0:19:55.960 --> 0:20:01.200 into three different parts structure values, which are your variables 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:05.160 and your constants, and the functions. And it's the combination 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.160 of using these three parts that allows you to tell 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:11.919 the circuit board what you know, what information it's going 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:13.639 to receive, and how it's going to act on that. 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.080 So it's a neat idea I've and I do recommend 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:22.600 you check out the the hacken mod article on the 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:24.439 top forty because there are there are a lot of 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:28.800 really interesting applications there and also there are like you said, 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.560 there are some tutorials online that are pretty helpful. It's 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.600 funny because I found tutorials on two different sites and 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.119 they share something in common. Yeah, let's see if you 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:44.159 pick up on it. There's Ada Fruit Industries and Lady 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:50.040 Ada dot Net. Okay, so Lovelace there had a bit 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.960 of an influence on both of those, but both both 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:59.240 sites have um tutorials on the the the RD we 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.920 know micro controller, and we'll even go so far as 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:07.760 to walk you through the first couple of projects, like uh, 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:10.720 the Lady Eta one. The very first project that will 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.240 walk you through is the what they call the the 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:19.920 electronics version of Hello World. Hello World. If you aren't 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.760 familiar with this, Hello World is one of those very 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:27.080 basic basic programs. Yeah, you're supposed actually, it's a I 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:30.879 would put this in quotes. You're supposed to just, you know, 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.119 write your first program and have it say Hello World. 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:35.520 It's sort of it's it's sort of a tradition, a 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.600 programming tradition, but yeah, it's it's the whole idea is 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:42.880 that you pick something that's incredibly simple to accomplish, but 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:47.520 that that gives you the basis to learn the tool. 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:52.360 In this case, the programming language. Um, so with the 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.119 electronics version of Hello World, what that is is a 0:21:55.200 --> 0:22:00.600 blinking LED. So it's it's learning how to program the 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.720 art we know so that it will cause a an 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:10.240 LED to blink. Very nice. Yeah, you can't get really 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.600 any simpler than that. Yeah, it's about as easy as 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:16.640 it gets. But then that beyond that, the later tutorials 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:20.600 start to teach you how to incorporate things like sensors 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:24.280 and switches and buttons, things that we take for granted 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:29.560 as users of electronics. You know, you tend to forget, Oh, this, 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:33.919 this button that I'm pressing is actually interacting with this 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.879 electronic device in a fairly complex way. You know, you 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:39.639 just think I pushed the button and uh and and 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:41.720 Joel and the bots get the really bad movie of 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:51.160 the week movie sign ah good times. Yeah, just don't 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:54.920 as it a side note. Um, the founder of Ata 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:59.560 Fruit Industries actually was profiled on the cover of Wired 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:03.200 not too long ago. Uh, that's a neat article. She's 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.880 a she's an interesting person. Yes, yes, I remember that. Definitely. 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.440 The cover caused some some controversy, as I recall, yeah, 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:18.480 which was unmerited. Well anyway, Nonetheless, she and her company 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:21.760