Arduino Lessons / Demos

This section provides details on more components included in your Arduino kits, as well as some other sensor types could be useful when designing musical controllers. As previoiusly noted, you may be able to get free samples of various sensors directly from manufacturers.

Student Demos

Students will work in class (for about 10-15 minutes) in groups on one of the following lessons from the Elegoo kit and then make short demonstrations to the class.

• LCD Display: Lesson 14
• Temperature and Humidity: Lesson 11
• Photocell, Thermistor: Lessons 15 / 18
• Stepper Motor: Lesson 23

Air Pressure Sensors

• There are various air pressure sensor types, including capacitive (one plate moves in response to pressure changes), inductive (a coil or core moves in response to pressure changes), and piezoelectric (a piezo crystal deforms in response to pressure changes)

• The MPX family of pressure sensors from Freescale are easy to use and integrate with an Arduino, coming in a variety of packages and types (gauge or differential).

  

• The MPXV5010GC7U outputs an analog voltage and thus can simply be read using an analog input pin (MPXV5010GC7U Pin 2: +5V, Pin 3: GND, Pin 4: Vout).

• Note that an applied negative pressure will produce a voltage lower than that output for the ambient pressure level.

Accelerometers

• Various accelerometers are available for dynamic and/or static (tilt) measurements in one, two and three dimensions and with analog or digital outputs.

• The Analog Devices ADXL family of accelerometers consist of a micro-machined mass-spring system on top of silicon wafer.

• Acceleration is proportional to displacement of the mass: a = k x / m

• These devices use a differential capacitor setup, which is proportional to x for small displacements

• Acclerometers that output voltages can be read with analog pins on an Arduino.

• Some specific accelerometer development boards include:
  • LIS302DL Triple Axis Accelerometer, Arduino program, SCL to Analog Pin 5, MOS1 to Analog Pin 4, Vcc to 5V, Gnd to Gnd.
  • MMA7260Q Triple Axis Accelerometer, read variable output voltage from X, Y, or Z pins into any analog pin, Vcc to 3.3V, GS1 and GS2 to Gnd (for 1.5g), SLP to 3.3V.