Introduction

There are many ways of remotely-controlling your Arduino or compatible hardware over the Internet. Some are more complex than others, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your level of expertise. Lately we’ve become more interested in this topic and have come across Blynk, which appeared to be a simple solution – and thus the topic of our review.

What is Blynk?

From their website: “Blynk is a Platform with iOS and Android apps to control Arduino, Raspberry Pi and the likes over the Internet. It’s a digital dashboard where you can build a graphic interface for your project by simply dragging and dropping widgets. 

It’s really simple to set everything up and you’ll start tinkering in less than 5 mins. Blynk is not tied to some specific board or shield. Instead, it’s supporting hardware of your choice. Whether your Arduino or Raspberry Pi is linked to the Internet over Wi-Fi, Ethernet or this new ESP8266 chip, Blynk will get you online and ready for the Internet Of Your Things.” Here is the original launch video:

 

Blynk started off as an idea, and raised initial funding through Kickstarter – which was successful and the system has now launched. Blynk comprises of an app on your smartphone (Android or iOS) inside which you can add widgets (controls) to send commands back to your development board (Arduino etc.).

For example, you can add a switch to turn a digital output on or off. Furthermore, data from sensors connected to the development board can be send back to the smartphone. The data passes through the Blynk Cloud server, or you can download and run your own server on your own hardware and infrastructure.

How much does it cost?

Right now (September 2015) the Blynk system is free. We downloaded the app and experimented without charge. We believe that over time there will be payment required for various functions, however you can try it out now to see if Blynk suits your needs then run with it later or experiment with other platforms.

Getting Started

Well enough talk, let’s try Blynk out. Our hardware is an Android smartphone (the awesome new Oppo R7+) for control, and a Freetronics EtherTen connected to our office modem/router:

You can also use other Arduino+Ethernet combinations, such as an Arduino Uno with an Ethernet shield. First you need to download the app for your phone – click here for the links. Then from the same page, download the Arduino library – and install it like you would any other Arduino library.

For our first example, we’ll use an LED connected to digital pin 7 (via a 560 ohm resistor) shown above. Now it’s time to set up the Blynk app. When you run the app for the first time, you need to sign in – so enter an email address and password:

Then click the “+” at the top-right of the display to create a new project, and you should see the following screen:

You can name your project, select the target hardware (Arduino Uno) – then click “E-mail” to send that auth token to yourself – you will need it in a moment. Then click “Create” to enter the main app design screen. Next, press “+” again to get the “Widget Box” menu as shown below, then press “Button”:

This will place a simple button on your screen:

Press the button to open its’ settings menu:

From this screen you can name your button, and also determine whether it will be “momentary” (i.e., only on when you press the button) – or operate as a switch (push on… push off…). Furthermore you need to select which physical Arduino pin the button will control – so press “PIN”, which brings up the scrolling menu as shown below:

We set ours to D7 then pressed “Continue”. Now the app is complete. Now head back to your computer, open the Arduino IDE, and load the “Arduino_Ethernet” sketch included with the library:

Then scroll down to line 30 and enter the auth key that was sent to you via email:

Save then upload the sketch to your Arduino. Now head back to your smartphone, and click the “Play” (looks like a triangle pointing right) button. After a moment the app will connect to the Blynk server… the Arduino will also be connected to the server – and you can press the button on the screen to control the LED.

And that’s it – remote control really is that easy. We’ve run through the process in the following short video:

Now what else can we control? How about some IKEA LED strips from our last article. Easy… that consisted of three digital outputs, with PWM. The app resembles the following:

… and watch the video below to see it in action:

Monitoring data from an Arduino via Blynk

Data can also travel in the other direction – from your Arduino over the Internet to your smartphone. At the time of writing this (September 2015) you can monitor the status of analogue and digital pins, and widgets can be added in the app to do just that. They can display the value returned from each ADC, which falls between zero and 1023 – and display the values in various forms – for example:

The bandwidth required for this is just under 2 K/s, as you can see from the top of the image above. You can see this in action through the video below:

Conclusion

We have only scratched the surface of what is possible with Blynk – which is an impressive, approachable and usable “Internet of Things” platform. Considering that you can get an inexpensive Android smartphone or tablet for under AU$50, the overall cost of using Blynk is excellent and well worth consideration, even just to test out the “Internet of Things” buzz yourself. So to get started head over to the Blynk site.

And finally a plug for our own store – tronixlabs.com – which along with being Australia’s #1 Adafruit distributor, also offers a growing range and Australia’s best value for supported hobbyist electronics from DFRobot, Freetronics, Seeedstudio and much much more.

As always, have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our forum – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website.

The post Control your Arduino over the Internet using Blynk appeared first on tronixstuff.

Introduction

A few weeks ago I found a DIODER LED strip set from a long-ago trek to IKEA, and considered that something could be done with it.  So in this article you can see how easy it is to control the LEDs using an Arduino or compatible board with ease… opening it up to all sorts of possibilities.

This is not the most original project – however things have been pretty quiet around here, so I thought it was time to share something new with you. Furthermore the DIODER control PCB has changed, so this will be relevant to new purchases. Nevertheless, let’s get on with it.

So what is DIODER anyhow? 

As you can see in the image below, the DIODER pack includes four RGB LED units each with nine RGB LEDs per unit. A controller box allows power and colour choice, a distribution box connects between the controller box and the LED strips, and the whole thing is powered by a 12V DC plugpack:

The following is a quick video showing the DIODER in action as devised by IKEA:

 

Thankfully the plugpack keeps us away from mains voltages, and includes a long detachable cable which connects to the LED strip distribution box. The first thought was to investigate the controller, and you can open it with a standard screwdriver. Carefully pry away the long-side, as two clips on each side hold it together…

… which reveals the PCB. Nothing too exciting here – you can see the potentiometer used for changing the lighting effects, power and range buttons and so on:

Our DIODER has the updated PCB with the Chinese market microcontroller. If you have an older DIODER with a Microchip PIC – you can reprogram it yourself.

The following three MOSFETs are used to control the current to each of the red, green and blue LED circuits. These will be the key to controlling the DIODER’s strips – but are way too small for me to solder to. The original plan was to have an Arduino’s PWM outputs tap into the MOSFET’s gates – but instead I will use external MOSFETs.

So what’s a MOSFET?

In the past you may have used a transistor to switch higher current from an Arduino, however a MOSFET is a better solution for this function. The can control large voltages and high currents without any effort. We will use N-channel MOSFETs, which have three pins – Source, Drain and Gate. When the Gate is HIGH, current will flow into the Drain and out of the Gate:

A simplistic explanation is that it can be used like a button – and when wiring your own N-MOSFET a 10k resistor should be used between Gate and Drain to keep the Gate low when the Arduino output is set to LOW (just like de-bouncing a button). To learn more about MOSFETS – get yourself a copy of “The Art of Electronics“. It is worth every cent.

However being somewhat time poor (lazy?), I have instead used a Freetronics NDrive Shield for Arduino – which contains six N-MOSFETs all on one convenient shield  – with each MOSFET’s Gate pin connected to an Arduino PWM output.

So let’s head back to the LED strips for a moment, in order to determine how the LEDs are wired in the strip. Thanks to the manufacturer – the PCB has the markings as shown below:

They’re 12V LEDs in a common-anode configuration. How much current do they draw? Depends on how many strips you have connected together…

For the curious I measured each colour at each length, with the results in the following table:

So all four strips turned on, with all colours on – the strips will draw around 165 mA of current at 12V. Those blue LEDs are certainly thirsty.

Moving on, the next step is to connect the strips to the MOSFET shield. This is easy thanks to the cable included in the DIODER pack, just chop the white connector off as shown below:

By connecting an LED strip to the other end of the cable you can then determine which wire is common, and which are the cathodes for red, green and blue.

The plugpack included with the DIODER pack can be used to power the entire project, so you will need cut the DC plug (the plug that connects into the DIODER’s distribution box) off the lead, and use a multimeter to determine which wire is negative, and which is positive.

Connect the negative wire to the GND terminal on the shield, and the positive wire to the Vin terminal.  Then…

• the red LED wire to the D3 terminal,
• the green LED wire to the D9 terminal,
• and the blue LED wire to the D10 terminal.

Finally, connect the 12V LED wire (anode) into the Vin terminal. Now double-check your wiring. Then check it again.

Testing

Now to run a test sketch to show the LED strip can easily be controlled. We’ll turn each colour on and off using PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) – a neat way to control the brightness of each colour. The following sketch will pulse each colour in turn, and there’s also a blink function you can use.

// Controlling IKEA DIODER LED strips with Arduino and Freetronics NDRIVE N-MOSFET shield
// CC by-sa-nc John Boxall 2015 - tronixstuff.com 
// Components from tronixlabs.com

#define red 3
#define green 9
#define blue 10
#define delaya 2

void setup() 
{
  pinMode(red, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(green, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(blue, OUTPUT);
}

void blinkRGB()
{
  digitalWrite(red, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(red, LOW);
  digitalWrite(green, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(green, LOW);
  digitalWrite(blue, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(blue, LOW);
}

void pulseRed()
{
  for (int i=0; i<256; i++)
  {
    analogWrite(red,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
  for (int i=255; i>=0; --i)
  {
    analogWrite(red,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
}

void pulseGreen()
{
  for (int i=0; i<256; i++)
  {
    analogWrite(green,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
  for (int i=255; i>=0; --i)
  {
    analogWrite(green,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
}

void pulseBlue()
{
  for (int i=0; i<256; i++)
  {
    analogWrite(blue,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
  for (int i=255; i>=0; --i)
  {
    analogWrite(blue,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
}

void loop()
{
  pulseRed();
  pulseGreen();
  pulseBlue();
}

Success. And for the non-believers, watch the following video:

Better LED control

As always, there’s a better way of doing things and one example of LED control is the awesome FASTLED library by Daniel Garcia and others. Go and download it now – https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED. Apart from our simple LEDS, the FASTLED library is also great with WS2812B/Adafruit NeoPixels and others.

One excellent demonstration included with the library is the AnalogOutput sketch, which I have supplied below to work with our example hardware:

#include <FastLED.h>

// Example showing how to use FastLED color functions
// even when you're NOT using a "pixel-addressible" smart LED strip.
//
// This example is designed to control an "analog" RGB LED strip
// (or a single RGB LED) being driven by Arduino PWM output pins.
// So this code never calls FastLED.addLEDs() or FastLED.show().
//
// This example illustrates one way you can use just the portions 
// of FastLED that you need.  In this case, this code uses just the
// fast HSV color conversion code.
// 
// In this example, the RGB values are output on three separate
// 'analog' PWM pins, one for red, one for green, and one for blue.
 
#define REDPIN   3
#define GREENPIN 9
#define BLUEPIN  10

// showAnalogRGB: this is like FastLED.show(), but outputs on 
// analog PWM output pins instead of sending data to an intelligent,
// pixel-addressable LED strip.
// 
// This function takes the incoming RGB values and outputs the values
// on three analog PWM output pins to the r, g, and b values respectively.
void showAnalogRGB( const CRGB& rgb)
{
  analogWrite(REDPIN,   rgb.r );
  analogWrite(GREENPIN, rgb.g );
  analogWrite(BLUEPIN,  rgb.b );
}



// colorBars: flashes Red, then Green, then Blue, then Black.
// Helpful for diagnosing if you've mis-wired which is which.
void colorBars()
{
  showAnalogRGB( CRGB::Red );   delay(500);
  showAnalogRGB( CRGB::Green ); delay(500);
  showAnalogRGB( CRGB::Blue );  delay(500);
  showAnalogRGB( CRGB::Black ); delay(500);
}

void loop() 
{
  static uint8_t hue;
  hue = hue + 1;
  // Use FastLED automatic HSV->RGB conversion
  showAnalogRGB( CHSV( hue, 255, 255) );
  
  delay(20);
}


void setup() {
  pinMode(REDPIN,   OUTPUT);
  pinMode(GREENPIN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(BLUEPIN,  OUTPUT);

  // Flash the "hello" color sequence: R, G, B, black.
  colorBars();
}

You can see this in action through the following video:

Conclusion

So if you have some IKEA LED strips, or anything else that requires more current than an Arduino’s output pin can offer – you can use MOSFETs to take over the current control and have fun. And finally a plug for my own store – tronixlabs.com – offering a growing range and Australia’s best value for supported hobbyist electronics from adafruit, DFRobot, Freetronics, Seeed Studio and much much more.

As always, have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our forum – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website.

The post Experimenting with Arduino and IKEA DIODER LED Strips appeared first on tronixstuff.

Introduction

A few weeks ago I found a DIODER LED strip set from a long-ago trek to IKEA, and considered that something could be done with it.  So in this article you can see how easy it is to control the LEDs using an Arduino or compatible board with ease… opening it up to all sorts of possibilities.

This is not the most original project – however things have been pretty quiet around here, so I thought it was time to share something new with you. Furthermore the DIODER control PCB has changed, so this will be relevant to new purchases. Nevertheless, let’s get on with it.

So what is DIODER anyhow? 

As you can see in the image below, the DIODER pack includes four RGB LED units each with nine RGB LEDs per unit. A controller box allows power and colour choice, a distribution box connects between the controller box and the LED strips, and the whole thing is powered by a 12V DC plugpack:

The following is a quick video showing the DIODER in action as devised by IKEA:

 

Thankfully the plugpack keeps us away from mains voltages, and includes a long detachable cable which connects to the LED strip distribution box. The first thought was to investigate the controller, and you can open it with a standard screwdriver. Carefully pry away the long-side, as two clips on each side hold it together…

… which reveals the PCB. Nothing too exciting here – you can see the potentiometer used for changing the lighting effects, power and range buttons and so on:

Our DIODER has the updated PCB with the Chinese market microcontroller. If you have an older DIODER with a Microchip PIC – you can reprogram it yourself.

The following three MOSFETs are used to control the current to each of the red, green and blue LED circuits. These will be the key to controlling the DIODER’s strips – but are way too small for me to solder to. The original plan was to have an Arduino’s PWM outputs tap into the MOSFET’s gates – but instead I will use external MOSFETs.

So what’s a MOSFET?

In the past you may have used a transistor to switch higher current from an Arduino, however a MOSFET is a better solution for this function. The can control large voltages and high currents without any effort. We will use N-channel MOSFETs, which have three pins – Source, Drain and Gate. When the Gate is HIGH, current will flow into the Drain and out of the Source:

A simplistic explanation is that it can be used like a button – and when wiring your own N-MOSFET a 10k resistor should be used between Gate and Drain to keep the Gate low when the Arduino output is set to LOW (just like de-bouncing a button). To learn more about MOSFETS – get yourself a copy of “The Art of Electronics“. It is worth every cent.

However being somewhat time poor (lazy?), I have instead used a Freetronics NDrive Shield for Arduino – which contains six N-MOSFETs all on one convenient shield  – with each MOSFET’s Gate pin connected to an Arduino PWM output.

So let’s head back to the LED strips for a moment, in order to determine how the LEDs are wired in the strip. Thanks to the manufacturer – the PCB has the markings as shown below:

They’re 12V LEDs in a common-anode configuration. How much current do they draw? Depends on how many strips you have connected together…

For the curious I measured each colour at each length, with the results in the following table:

So all four strips turned on, with all colours on – the strips will draw around 165 mA of current at 12V. Those blue LEDs are certainly thirsty.

Moving on, the next step is to connect the strips to the MOSFET shield. This is easy thanks to the cable included in the DIODER pack, just chop the white connector off as shown below:

By connecting an LED strip to the other end of the cable you can then determine which wire is common, and which are the cathodes for red, green and blue.

The plugpack included with the DIODER pack can be used to power the entire project, so you will need cut the DC plug (the plug that connects into the DIODER’s distribution box) off the lead, and use a multimeter to determine which wire is negative, and which is positive.

Connect the negative wire to the GND terminal on the shield, and the positive wire to the Vin terminal.  Then…

• the red LED wire to the D3 terminal,
• the green LED wire to the D9 terminal,
• and the blue LED wire to the D10 terminal.

Finally, connect the 12V LED wire (anode) into the Vin terminal. Now double-check your wiring. Then check it again.

Testing

Now to run a test sketch to show the LED strip can easily be controlled. We’ll turn each colour on and off using PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) – a neat way to control the brightness of each colour. The following sketch will pulse each colour in turn, and there’s also a blink function you can use.

// Controlling IKEA DIODER LED strips with Arduino and Freetronics NDRIVE N-MOSFET shield
// CC by-sa-nc John Boxall 2015 - tronixstuff.com 
// Components from tronixlabs.com

#define red 3
#define green 9
#define blue 10
#define delaya 2

void setup() 
{
  pinMode(red, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(green, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(blue, OUTPUT);
}

void blinkRGB()
{
  digitalWrite(red, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(red, LOW);
  digitalWrite(green, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(green, LOW);
  digitalWrite(blue, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(blue, LOW);
}

void pulseRed()
{
  for (int i=0; i<256; i++)
  {
    analogWrite(red,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
  for (int i=255; i>=0; --i)
  {
    analogWrite(red,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
}

void pulseGreen()
{
  for (int i=0; i<256; i++)
  {
    analogWrite(green,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
  for (int i=255; i>=0; --i)
  {
    analogWrite(green,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
}

void pulseBlue()
{
  for (int i=0; i<256; i++)
  {
    analogWrite(blue,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
  for (int i=255; i>=0; --i)
  {
    analogWrite(blue,i);
    delay(delaya);
  }
}

void loop()
{
  pulseRed();
  pulseGreen();
  pulseBlue();
}

Success. And for the non-believers, watch the following video:

Better LED control

As always, there’s a better way of doing things and one example of LED control is the awesome FASTLED library by Daniel Garcia and others. Go and download it now – https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED. Apart from our simple LEDS, the FASTLED library is also great with WS2812B/Adafruit NeoPixels and others.

One excellent demonstration included with the library is the AnalogOutput sketch, which I have supplied below to work with our example hardware:

#include <FastLED.h>

// Example showing how to use FastLED color functions
// even when you're NOT using a "pixel-addressible" smart LED strip.
//
// This example is designed to control an "analog" RGB LED strip
// (or a single RGB LED) being driven by Arduino PWM output pins.
// So this code never calls FastLED.addLEDs() or FastLED.show().
//
// This example illustrates one way you can use just the portions 
// of FastLED that you need.  In this case, this code uses just the
// fast HSV color conversion code.
// 
// In this example, the RGB values are output on three separate
// 'analog' PWM pins, one for red, one for green, and one for blue.
 
#define REDPIN   3
#define GREENPIN 9
#define BLUEPIN  10

// showAnalogRGB: this is like FastLED.show(), but outputs on 
// analog PWM output pins instead of sending data to an intelligent,
// pixel-addressable LED strip.
// 
// This function takes the incoming RGB values and outputs the values
// on three analog PWM output pins to the r, g, and b values respectively.
void showAnalogRGB( const CRGB& rgb)
{
  analogWrite(REDPIN,   rgb.r );
  analogWrite(GREENPIN, rgb.g );
  analogWrite(BLUEPIN,  rgb.b );
}



// colorBars: flashes Red, then Green, then Blue, then Black.
// Helpful for diagnosing if you've mis-wired which is which.
void colorBars()
{
  showAnalogRGB( CRGB::Red );   delay(500);
  showAnalogRGB( CRGB::Green ); delay(500);
  showAnalogRGB( CRGB::Blue );  delay(500);
  showAnalogRGB( CRGB::Black ); delay(500);
}

void loop() 
{
  static uint8_t hue;
  hue = hue + 1;
  // Use FastLED automatic HSV->RGB conversion
  showAnalogRGB( CHSV( hue, 255, 255) );
  
  delay(20);
}


void setup() {
  pinMode(REDPIN,   OUTPUT);
  pinMode(GREENPIN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(BLUEPIN,  OUTPUT);

  // Flash the "hello" color sequence: R, G, B, black.
  colorBars();
}

You can see this in action through the following video:

Control using a mobile phone?

Yes – click here to learn how.

Conclusion

So if you have some IKEA LED strips, or anything else that requires more current than an Arduino’s output pin can offer – you can use MOSFETs to take over the current control and have fun. And finally a plug for my own store – tronixlabs.com – offering a growing range and Australia’s best value for supported hobbyist electronics from adafruit, DFRobot, Freetronics, Seeed Studio and much much more.

As always, have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our forum – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website.

DIY Jukebox is a project made by Mario Pucci to show how Arduino Uno, NFC Shield and Python can be used to build a real jukebox. NFC means Near Field Communication and the NFC shield can perceive objects attached to little chips called NFC tags containing specific messages. In this project, Marco programmed each chip to play a different music genre when the tag is inserted in the cardboard jukebox:

You can download the file of the cardboard Jukebox at this link and the sketches here.

The steps of the tutorial are in italian but you can use google translate if needed! Enjoy the sound of music

It takes 14 steps, a Prusa i3 3D printer and a lot of soldering to build Spider Robot v3.0, a quad robot running on Arduino Pro Mini.  That’s what told us  RegisHsu, a maker who shared his project’s tutorial on Instructables and the 3d printable files on Thingiverse.

It took 12 months of work to build the robot and it reached the fourth generation of  design, that you can explore on his blog  if you are interested in its history:

This is my first project for the 4 legs robot and it took me about 1 year development.
It is a robot that relies on calculations to position servos and pre-programmed sequences of legs. I’m doing this is because of it could be fun and educational for 3D design/printing and robot control.

The robot allows cool customizations like adding IR detection:

We never rest, even during summer, to serve our community and we announce today that we’ve refreshed over 150 example pages and redesigned the Examples area, offering an updated support to the current Arduino Software (IDE) Built-in and Libraries examples

Our website is a living entity that everyday hosts a huge number of visitors. They are looking for software, information, guidelines, ideas and also the right tutorial to start tinkering with their new board on a specific issue or project.

The Reference is the place where everything is documented and explained, with dry and essential information that is also included locally with every Arduino Software (IDE) installation.

Our software also includes a number of built-in sketches that help our users to quickly understand how the various functions and libraries may be used and applied to specific projects and tasks. We all started with the famous Blink and at the end of this tutorial we all felt the power and the excitement of having tamed our board with the upload of our first sketch. Keeping all these examples in good shape and updated is essential to keep you users safe from troubles or difficulties.

These examples evolve, as the libraries also evolve, therefore the sketches may be updated, amended or added. Each of these examples is commented and has an introductory part that gives a description of the purpose of the sketch and – if necessary – the instructions to put together the circuit. We know that the information provided inside the IDE and the sketches is not enough and therefore we made an area of our website where each sketch is explained and documented.

Year after year, board after board and library after library, many “hands” contributed to this area, filling gaps and amending things to reflect the Arduino Software (IDE) status. It has been an ongoing process that inevitably brought the Tutorials area in a state where many styles and ways of explaining things merged. We have big plans for our www.arduino.cc website and it is important to clean and fix the existing areas before we add new contents. This is why my first task – as editorial manager – has been the refresh and overall alignment of our Examples and Examples from Libraries pages.

We have roughly 150 pages documenting our Examples for the current products and libraries and going through them all wasn’t exactly a piece of cake: many things were checked for each example and sometimes things were outdated or missing. We also have our sister brand Genuino that got its space in all the relevant example pages. Now contents, style, look and feel and links in this area are ready for new and fresh developments.

I would like to end this post adding that this task was also a very good opportunity to refresh my knowledge about the powerful capabilities of Arduino programming language and its libraries. I had a few doubts on how to do a few things in my own sketches and going through all the examples gave me the hints I was missing.

The plain list of examples available in the Arduino Software (IDE) is just made of the sketch names, conversely in our pages you find a brief description of each of them. I suggest that you wander through these descriptions: let them excite your curiosity and inspire you!

Tomas Amberg shared with us the link to an Instructable he published on how to build a Web-enabled, Arduino-based IoT Gauge with a REST API, and connect it to the IFTTT mash-up platform, via the Yaler.net relay service he founded.

The cool thing about this project is the connection with the Maker Channel  of IFTTT which supports custom Webhooks, to integrate DIY IoT projects: 

Inspired by WhereDial, a DIY Internet of Things classic, the IoT Gauge shows the current location of its owner. A bit like the Weasley Clock in Harry Potter. The design and code of the IoT Gauge is generic and could be used as well to display e.g. weather conditions. The logic resides in the Cloud, the gauge is just a servo with an API.

Check out the five-step tutorial and the ingredients you need at this link.

If you feel like experimenting with connected objects, a good idea could be to start from a funny project explained step-by-step in a tutorial. In the video below you can follow the instructions given by Dana, Documentation Hero at relayr, using an Arduino Yún, a gas sensor and relayr cloud to make a little Batman-shaped toy dance according to data:

I used a moisture sensor as an input and a servo motor as an output that I can control through a demo web application made using the browser-sdk.

The code in this repository will enable you to use your Arduino to build a prototype of a device and connect it to the relayr platform, much like the one created with the Particle.io Photon. It contains instructions and a demo app which will make your first few steps in the relayr-Arduino prototyping realm easy and fun!

 

 

NeoPixel Strip connection

The NeoPixel strip is rolled up when you first get it. You will notice that there are wires on both sides of the strip. This allows you to chain LED strips together to make longer strips. The more LEDs you have, the more current you will need. Connect your Arduino and power supply to the left side of the strip, with the arrows pointing to the right. (i.e. the side with the "female" jst connector).
 

NeoPixel Strip Wires

There are 5 wires that come pre-attached to either side of the LED strip.
 

 
You don't have to use ALL FIVE wires, however you will need at least one of each colour: red, white & green.
 

 

Fritzing sketch

The following diagram will show you how to wire everything together
 

Arduino Power considerations

Please note that the Arduino is powered by a USB cable.
If you plan to power the Arduino from your power supply, you will need to disconnect the USB cable from the Arduino FIRST, then connect a wire from the 5V line on the Power supply to the VIN pin on the Arduino. Do NOT connect the USB cable to the Arduino while the VIN wire is connected.
 

 

Large Capacitor

Adafruit also recommend the use of a large capacitor across the + and - terminals of the LED strip to "prevent the initial onrush of current from damaging the pixels". Adafruit recommends a capacitor that is 1000uF, 6.3V or higher. I used a 4700uF 16V Electrolytic Capacitor.
 

 

Resistor on Data Pin

Another recommendation from Adafruit is to place a "300 to 500 Ohm resistor" between the Arduino's data pin and the data input on the first NeoPixel to prevent voltage spikes that can damage the first pixel. I used a 330 Ohm resistor.
 

 

Grove Ear-clip heart rate sensor connection

The Grove Base shield makes it easy to connect Grove modules to the Arduino. If you have a Grove Base shield, you will need to connect the Ear-clip heart rate sensor to Digital pin 2 as per the diagram below.
 

 

Completed construction

Once you have everything connected, you can plug the USB cable into the Arduino, and turn on the LED power supply. Attach the ear-clip to your ear (or to your finger) and allow a few seconds to allow the sensor to register your pulse. The LED strip will light up with every heart beat with an animation that moves from one end of the strip to the other in just three heart beats. When the ear-clip is not connected to your ear or finger, the LEDs should remain off. However, the ear clip may "trigger" a heart beat when opening or closing the clip.
 
Here is a picture of all the components (fully assembled).
 

 
 
 

However, if you do not have a google profile...
Feel free to share this page with your friends in any way you see fit.

 

NeoPixel Strip connection

The NeoPixel strip is rolled up when you first get it. You will notice that there are wires on both sides of the strip. This allows you to chain LED strips together to make longer strips. The more LEDs you have, the more current you will need. Connect your Arduino and power supply to the left side of the strip, with the arrows pointing to the right. (i.e. the side with the "female" jst connector).
 

NeoPixel Strip Wires

There are 5 wires that come pre-attached to either side of the LED strip.
 

 
You don't have to use ALL FIVE wires, however you will need at least one of each colour: red, white & green.
 

 

Fritzing sketch

The following diagram will show you how to wire everything together
 

Arduino Power considerations

Please note that the Arduino is powered by a USB cable.
If you plan to power the Arduino from your power supply, you will need to disconnect the USB cable from the Arduino FIRST, then connect a wire from the 5V line on the Power supply to the 5V pin on the Arduino. Do NOT connect the USB cable to the Arduino while the 5V wire is connected to the Arduino.
 

 

Large Capacitor

Adafruit also recommend the use of a large capacitor across the + and - terminals of the LED strip to "prevent the initial onrush of current from damaging the pixels". Adafruit recommends a capacitor that is 1000uF, 6.3V or higher. I used a 4700uF 16V Electrolytic Capacitor.
 

 

Resistor on Data Pin

Another recommendation from Adafruit is to place a "300 to 500 Ohm resistor" between the Arduino's data pin and the data input on the first NeoPixel to prevent voltage spikes that can damage the first pixel. I used a 330 Ohm resistor.
 

 

Grove Ear-clip heart rate sensor connection

The Grove Base shield makes it easy to connect Grove modules to the Arduino. If you have a Grove Base shield, you will need to connect the Ear-clip heart rate sensor to Digital pin 2 as per the diagram below.
 

 

Completed construction

Once you have everything connected, you can plug the USB cable into the Arduino, and turn on the LED power supply. Attach the ear-clip to your ear (or to your finger) and allow a few seconds to allow the sensor to register your pulse. The LED strip will light up with every heart beat with an animation that moves from one end of the strip to the other in just three heart beats. When the ear-clip is not connected to your ear or finger, the LEDs should remain off. However, the ear clip may "trigger" a heart beat when opening or closing the clip.
 
Here is a picture of all the components (fully assembled).
 

 
 
 

However, if you do not have a google profile...
Feel free to share this page with your friends in any way you see fit.