Welcome to Architectural Design 3: Unit 3. Throughout the course, should you have any questions about Arduino programming, get in touch with Digital Development. Follow the setup below and bookmark this page for future reference.

Setup

Hardware

  • Arduino

    To get started, first you are going to need an Arduino. Arduino UNOs are available at the ECA bookit stores across campus.

  • Sensors

    Sensor kits are also available from the BookIt store. As the semester progresses, you will need to look for sensor that can get the data you need. If you aren’t sure which sensor you need, email Digital Development

Software

  • Arduino IDE

    To start programming the Arduino, you will need the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE). There are tons of tutorials available. It is also worth bookmarking the Arduino Reference

  • GitHub Repository

    The AD3 GitHub repo contains a few more advanced examples as well as an up to date version of the FireFly Firmata. Download the Repository or Sign-up for GitHub, download the GitHub Desktop App. Git is a great way to manage your code especially if you need help debugging.

    If you don’t want to sign-up for Github, you can simply clone the repository using git in command line. If you are on Windows, follow the setup at the bottom of the page

Resources

Arduino

Rhino / Grasshopper / Firefly

Previous Master Student Henri made up some documentation for using the Firmata and Rhino / Grasshopper / Firefly. Some information is out of data, but the rest is still useful.

Re-Use

We would encourage you to use waste materials as much as possible. There are all manner of components to be stripped out of old electronic equipment such as buttons, sliders, knobs and so forth.

Check out the Free-Use Hub at the Firestation for some interesting finds.

Where to Buy Components

If you absolutely must buy some sensor or components, the the following are reputable suppliers that deal in RoHS compliant materials. Of course, it never hurts to ask if we have something already.

Where can I work with Electronics?

If you want to go beyond using a breadboard and need some workshop space there are some facilities available in the University and the wider city of Edinburgh. We wouldn’t encourage students to use there own soldering irons, so there are some facilities available on request.

Out of hours and outside the university there are some facilities available for electronic prototyping

Git for Windows

Video Tutorial

  1. Download the Git for Windows installer.
  2. Run the installer and follow the steps below:
    1. Click on "Next" four times (two times if you've previously installed Git). You don't need to change anything in the Information, location, components, and start menu screens.
    2. Select “Use the nano editor by default” and click on “Next”.
    3. Keep "Use Git from the command line and..." selected and click on "Next". If you forgot to do this programs that you need for the workshop will not work properly. If this happens rerun the installer and select the appropriate option.
    4. Click on "Next".
    5. Keep "Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings" selected and click on "Next".
    6. Select "Use Windows' default console window" and click on "Next".
    7. Click on "Install".
    8. Click on "Finish".
  3. If your "HOME" environment variable is not set (or you don't know what this is):
    1. Open command prompt (Open Start Menu then type cmd and press [Enter])
    2. Type the following line into the command prompt window exactly as shown:

      setx HOME "%USERPROFILE%"

    3. Press [Enter], you should see SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.
    4. Quit command prompt by typing exit then pressing [Enter]

This will provide you with both Git and Bash in the Git Bash program.

You can now clone the repository with

git clone http://github.com/Edinburgh-College-of-Art/architectural-design-unit-3