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 Another example of controlling an Arduino's digital I/O pins has recently appeared - the "iArduino" application for Apple iPod, iPhone and iPad devices. It is a two-part procedure, you need the software on your Apple device and also the matching sketch uploaded onto your Arduino+Ethernet shield combination board (or EtherTen). You add the IP address for your Arduino in the sketch, then enter this and the port number into the iDevice and away you go. Here's a long video running through the process:

So if this is of interest to you, click here for more information and the software links. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

When putting together your next Internet-enabled Arduino project - save time, space and money with the Freetronics EtherTen. Apart from being fully Arduino Uno-compatible, it has onboard Ethernet, microSD socket, full USB interface (so you don't need a costly FTDI cable just to upload a sketch!) and supports optional Power-over-Ethernet.

 It is no secret that creating links between an Arduino board with various sensors and the Internet can be difficult in some situations. To counter this, another example of bringing the Arduino platform into the "Internet of things" world has been introduced - called APDuino. It takes away the requirement to write your own sketch, as you download and flash the board directly with the APDuino code. Due to the size of the code this only works with Arduino Mega2560 and compatible boards with an Ethernet shield (or built-in, such as the Freetronics EtherMega). Then using an online service you can set rules to control or receive data from the board. 

At the moment a limited range of sensors are supported by the service, however this includes temperature and humidity sensors. If you're going to try this system, be sure to have an understanding of flashing the microcontroller on your board, and how to re-load the Arduino bootloader if you change your mind. However read more at the project page here. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

 Although it seems the default display strategy for most Arduino projects is to use an LCD display, there still remains a need for numeric LED displays - they're cheap, robust and can be read in light levels that can often wash out an LCD. However using them without external shift registers can burn up your digital I/O pins quickly. Therefore this tutorial by Instructables user 'edl1' will be of interest. They have explained the process of "Charlieplexing" - or using multiplexing to reduce the number of required output pins to drive four seven-segment LED displays. 

The theory and practice is explained and demonstrated - and this method also translates well for making LED matrices. So click here to get started, and for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If this type of project interests you and you're new to the Arduino world, check out our new Experimenter's Kit for Arduino:

 For a first-time project this is pretty impressive - Arduino forum member Apolikamixitos has published details of his open-source Facebook status notifier. It will alert you to new messages, notifications or friend requests using Facebook PHP code and Tinkerproxy. Although it uses LEDs for notification, you could easily create motorised devices, sound effects or other devices to get your attention. In the following video you can see a full run-down of operation:

And you don't need an Ethernet shield as it all works through USB, so click here to find out more. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're looking to make your own notifier, consider our Freetronics RGBLED: full colour module. It includes a bright RGB LED on the top of the board and a WS2801 constant-current, addressable, multi-channel LED driver on the back. This smart module can be daisy-chained, so you can connect a number of these together in a string and drive each of the module colours individually from your microcontroller. For more information and to order, visit the product page.

 Once more Emmanuel Turner has ported another game to work with an Arduino and our LCD Keypad Shield. In this instalment he brings us the classic game "Defuse". In this game you travel around an imaginary area of 100 levels with 100 zones in each level. Armed with only a bomb detectors and twenty attempts, you have to move around the area to find and defuse the bomb. It's a lot of fun and reminds me of programming it in BASIC all those years ago. Here it is in action:

To get started, click here for Emmanuel's project page. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

Instead of building your own LCD module onto a breadboard, save time and move forward with the Freetronics LCD & Keypad shield which contains a bright 16x2 character LCD and five buttons that can be read from only one analog input pin:

 If you find the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment comfortable, you now have another way to program your Arduino boards. The "Visual Micro" plug-in for Visual Studio is now available and claims to provide 100% compatibility with Arduino IDE versions 0023 through to 1.0.2. Visually (!) it's an appealing IDE and also allows for some debugging - with a beta update you can alter Arduino variables  during operation. Interesting.

So if you enjoy Microsoft IDEs click here to get started. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

Version 1.1 of the Experimenter's Kit Project Guide is now available as a PDF. This is the version that will be in the next batch we produce, but in the meantime it's also useful for anyone who already has the kit.

Changes include:

• Layout diagrams made much bigger to make them easier to follow
• Position of GND and 5V jumpers changed on layout diagrams to match the markings on the breadboards included in the kit
• Colour codes given for both 5% (4-band) and 1% (6-band) resistors
• Expanded resistor colour code guide

You can grab it from the link near the bottom of the Experimenter's Kit page:

http://www.freetronics.com/expkit

Have fun!

 Once again Duane B from the rcarduino blog has shared another audio project based around an Arduino. In this example he builds upon the concept of the Illutron Synthesiser - a device which can generate a wide variety of sounds (and perhaps music) using direct digital synthesis. Construction is very easy, and only requires a few dollars worth of parts apart from the board itself - and the results are very good:

For more information and the instructions, click here. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

If this type of project interests you and you're new to the Arduino world, check out our new Experimenter's Kit for Arduino:

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 Nixie tubes - the displays from the previous century. Although they can be considered as hopelessly out of date, and somewhat tricky to drive - they're having a resurgence in popularity especially with the DIY crowd. One example of this is by Australian Arduino forum member 'randyrob' who has used ex-Soviet IN-12 numeric tubes and an Arduino-compatible to create a clock from the past. The clock is operational however the housing is a work-in-progress - for example:

However building such a clock is rewarding, and it's nice to watch the digits glow - so click here for complete details and notes. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

When making your own clock - don't skimp on timing accuracy - so consider using our real-time clock module based on the DS3232 - with a temperature-controlled oscillator it is highly accurate, and has an onboard backup battery for when the power dies and 236 bytes of non-volatile memory for user data.

 Controlling Arduino-connected devices via Android is certainly possible however not for the absolute beginner (though don't let that stop you!). In some cases you may just want a specific task - such as controlling a light. In this example you can use a free or paid Android app to control a Bluetooth-equipped Arduino board - which then controls individual red, green and blue LEDs for various lighting effects. The code is available under a GPL3 open-source licence, and the results are very good - for example:

Getting started is very easy, so click here to check it out. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're looking to make more creative designs with LEDs, consider the Freetronics RGBLED: full colour module. It includes a bright RGB LED on the top of the board and a WS2801 constant-current, addressable, multi-channel LED driver on the back. This smart module can be daisy-chained, so you can connect a number of these together in a string and drive each of the module colours individually from your microcontroller. For more information and to order, visit the product page.