LightBlue Bean

Day 1 playing with LightBlue Bean,  a low energy Bluetooth Arduino microcontroller I got at SF Hardware Startups Meetup the other day :)



Using Bluetooth 4.0, it can be programmed wirelessly, runs on a coin cell battery, and can be used for smartphone controlled projects.

LightBlue Bean website

Main Site: https://punchthrough.com/bean/
User Guide: http://punchthrough.com/bean/arduino-users-guide/

Video

Spec:

3-axis accelerometer
Temperature sensor
RGB LED
CR2032 coin cell battery
ATmega 328p
8 MHz clock speed
3V operating voltage
6 digital I/O pins, 2 analog pins
Bluetooth LE Peripheral
Wireless programming
Support on OS X, iOS, Windows 8

Controlling LightBlue Bean from Mac:

Installed Arduino app, OSX bean loader and associated the 2 in the setting and connected with my Bean.

Hello world! Blinked my Bean from Arduino app.

Cool, I've got the Bean blinking in red, blue and green rotation.

Acceleration LED- changed LED color based on accelerometer.

Controlling LightBlue Bean from cloud (using Node-RED):

Tweet sentiment to LED using Node-RED

Used Node-RED to set the color of the LightBlue Bean’s LED based on the sentiment of a Twitter feed.

OK... so grabbing some small Twitter stream was hard to tell if anything is happening so grabbed all of tweets and the sentiments of the Twittersphere was going nuts with "great", "neutral" and "awful" :)



Email temperature warning system using Node-RED

Used Node-RED to send an email whenever the temperature drops below or exceeds a threshold. Node-RED connects to the LightBlue Bean once a minute, requests the temperature and sends an email if the temperature is outside the set interval. Install Node.js, install Node-RED and run it.

I think it's running but my room temperature is too stable... maybe I need to put the Bean in refrigerator? ;P

Other example projects: http://punchthrough.com/bean/examples/

Controlling LightBlue Bean from Android:

Installed BeanLoader Android app. 

In the app, there are lots of sample apps. For example:

AccelerationLED > Changing LED color based on accelerometer
BeanBlink > Changing LED color rotating among red, green and blue

Basically you select the sketch, verify the sketch and upload it to the Bean. You can also export the code to editor to read and edit the sketch. 

  

Pin layout:

System view:

I need to think about what to create with this :D

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki

Tutorials for Arduino

Tutorial 01 for Arduino: Getting Acquainted with Arduino

Post: Tutorial Series for Arduino: It begins

-Getting acquainted with the arduino uno

 

Tutorial 02 for Arduino: Buttons, PWM, and Functions

Post: Tutorial 2 for Arduino: Now with more Blinky Things!

-How to read a push button, debounce its input using software, how to create a function in the Arduino programming environment, and how to change LED brightness using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). 



Tutorial 03 for Arduino: Electrical Engineering Basics

Post: EE Basics in Tutorial 3 for Arduino

-Ohm’s Law, current-limiting resistors,pull-down and pull-up resistors, voltage dividers, potentiometers, analog inputs, and voltage regulators.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki

Building Arduino

"Let's Build an Arduino!" says my electronics teacher, Tim. Initially I thought he meant we're building something USING Arduino, but he really meant it- we were BUILDING Arduino. I guess this is the process of understanding what Arduino is, the hard way ;)

First, we plugged in Atmega328- Arduino bootloader-programmed chip on our breadboard.

Then the resonator

Added wire for the power.

Connected the resonator.

Inserted resistor

Inserted LED

"OK, let's test. Remove the chip from your Arduino board, and connect this."

My initial reaction was: EXCUUUUUSE ME? What do you mean remove the chip from my Arduino board???? But that's what we did. Pulled out the chip from Arduino board. I thought I might break it, but OMG it works!

LED blinking, and the chip on Arduino board is not there, so the cabley things on my breadboard actually works!



OK... next we are doing the same thing on a proto board, so that we can build something semi-permanent. This time, we need to do soldering.

First, we soldered the resistors.

Then we soldered the wires.

Socket for IC.

Then the LED.

Soldered resonator.

Lastly, serial wires.

Front... I need to practice getting the right length...



Back... I need to practice soldering more...  But it works!!



Thanks to Tim Hatch for teaching me!!

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki

Created Theremin Using Arduino

I created a Theremin using Arduino.

For the first stab, I used photocell as frequency for the buzzer.

 

 Next, I used IR distance sensor as frequency for the buzzer.

 

 Then I used a 4-digit 7-segment display to display the frequency value.

 

Library:
Adafruit LED Backpack library
Adafruit GFX library

Adafruit Learning Systems' Materials for Android

Thanks to Aaron Wheeler, Alex Kauffmann and Jan Monsch for teaching me!

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki