Arduino

Anyone with even a small amount of tech experience may have heard of something called Arduino. It's a family of microcontrollers that can be programmed using C or C++.

Pictured: An early version of the Arduino board.

Sounds like mumbo-jumbo? It's basically hardware, or a board, that can be programmed with a computer to accomplish a variety of tasks, depending on what is attached to the board. If we attach LEDs to the board, we can program the board to flash the lights in patterns that we've pre-determined. Sound boring? What if we made a clock out of that? Or attached a LCD display to display text? What if we attached a small speaker to play a music file every time a button is pressed or an event occurs? The possibilities are starting to seem endless.

I was reminded that such a thing existed last week by a classmate in my Digital Logic Design class. I decided it was a good idea for my career (and hobby-life, which has recently dulled) to explore into it.

The boards themselves are very cheap (part of the orignal purpose of the Arduino designers to make them accessible). Electronic parts and components are usually not super expensive either. I'm currently deciding whether or not to spring for the below starting kit:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151183574145

I'll update this post if I do indeed purchase the kit (or get it as a Christmas gift. Hint hint.)

(Reader's thoughts are welcome.)