I am using this part of the website to store information about a sample of my Arduino projects, mostly just to keep a good record of the programs and circuits.

 

Arduino is open source which means that is a wealth of free material, how to videos, code examples etc out there on the net.  There are a number of arduinos that are suitable for different purposes.  I tend to use the Uno and Nano - I have a Mega waiting in the wings for a suitable project.

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There are clones available cheaper than the ones produced by the Arduino company.  

Arduino is an open source computer hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices and interactive objects. 

 

Most of my examples and ones I have seen involve sensors to control objects in the physical and digital world.

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My projects tend to be relatively simple, using a limited variety of sensors - dust concentrations, humidity, light levels etc.  There is a view that the next significant step in the use of technology will be involve wider and more creative use of real world sensors.  Managing the care and conditions of elderly and ill people in their homes has seen much interest,  The most useful one I have made is for automatic watering of plants in the greenhouse however I am not confident yet of connecting mains water to the system and pump from a large water butt which does restrict the time we can be away.  My least successful was to reprogram a cheap old Canon camera to fire when a PIR sensor connected to a uno detected birds at our bird table.  I found it almost impossible to screen out general background movement of leaves etc and also whenever it really was a bird, the camera always seem to take the rear end of the bird!  

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The language used is C++ which was never my favourite however I am getting used to it again.