Are you a huge fan of The Simpsons or any other TV show? Thomas Amberg has created a humorous “Homer” puppet which automatically turns on the TV anytime The Simpsons is scheduled to be on.

The project works using an Ethernet connected Arduino which automatically checks an online TV program and then uses IR LEDs to turn the TV on. You could very easily adapt this project to turn it into a less Simpsons centric smart TV remote. To find out how you can build your own smart Homer checkout the following link.   

Looking for an Ethernet connected Arduino compatible board? Then check out our EtherDue:

It's the Arduino Due-compatible board with Freetronics additions including Ethernet network connectivity, MAC address chip, microSD storage, optional PoE, upgraded power supply and more. For more information on this powerful board, check out the EtherDue product page.

Think that you would find a smart TV remote useful? Working on a cool project you think we should know about? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

With Christmas fast approaching it is time to start thinking about what kind of gifts to get your kids, spouse, parents or friends. Fortunately, electronics is a great hobby for people of all ages. Whether your gift recipient is an electronics expert or has never done any electronics before we have the perfect gift for them. Many of of gifts are Arduino related, if you don’t know what Arduino is it might be worth visiting our “what is Arduino” page.

For the Aspiring Inventor (Age 10-99)

 For someone interested in getting started with programing and electronics, our Experimenter’s Kit is the perfect introduction. The kit includes a wide range of parts including a servo, sensors, lights, buttons, a sound module and more. Importantly, a Freetronics Eleven Arduino-compatible board is included to ensure that the kit contains everything you need to get started with Arduino. All these great parts would be useless without some form of instructions which is why we have developed a comprehensive project and instruction booklet to get you started. Check out the product page to find out more.

For someone looking for a very straight forward approach to get started with Arduino our Thinker Shield is a great option.  The shield is ideal for beginners and includes a number of buttons, a buzzer, LEDs and more so that you can get started making all sorts of cool projects! Not only this, but you can find a fantastic project guide on our website! Checkout the product page to find out more.

For the Robotics Nut

For robotics related gifts check out the robotics section of our online store. Included are all sorts of motors, sensors, motor controllers and more!

For the Arduino Power User

For an experienced Arduino user looking for more power, our EtherDue is the perfect gift.  Our EtherDue is fully compadible with the Arduino Due but has a few Freetronics additions including Ethernet network connectivity, a MAC address chip, microSD storage, optional PoE, an upgraded power supply and more. For more information on this powerful board, check out the EtherDue product page.

On behalf of the team at Freetronics we wish you a very merry Christmas. If you have any product or Arduino related questions don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter or via our email (support@freetronics.com).

Sometimes it can be really handy to quickly access information such as the current temperature, humidity and light level. It can be very interesting to collect this kind of data from your home or office and to observe trends over time and in different spaces. One effective way of collecting this kind of data is to build a simple home environment monitor as Brian has done.

Brian’s home environment monitor uses a Particle Photon to collect data from a number of sensors. The Particle Photon and the sensors are all housed in a very tidy looking 3D printed case! If this project interests you, check out the following link to get started.  

Looking for a temperature sensor to use in this project? Why not check out the Freetronics Humidity and Temperature Sensor Module?

The module only requires three wires: GND, power and data. This means that it is very easy to get started recording temperature and humidity data! The find out more visit the product page.  

This week on Skill Sunday we will be learning about using arrays with Arduino. Using arrays in your code can make your code faster and much more readable. For example, rather than defining a new variable for each pin used in your Arduino code, having an array allows you to assign these all to one array. To access each pin in the array you simply define which address of the array you would like to access. If you would like a more thorough explanation of how Arduino arrays work to implement them in your code make sure you checkout the following link.

If you are thinking about getting started with Arduino, but don’t know where to get started, our Experimenter’s Kit is a great way to learn the basics.

The kit includes a wide range of parts including a servo, sensors, lights, buttons, a sound module and more. Importantly, a Freetronics Eleven Arduino-compatible board is included to ensure that the kit contains everything you need to get started with Arduino. All these great parts would be useless without some form of instructions which is why we have developed a comprehensive project and instruction booklet to get you started. Check out the product page to find out more.

It is already possible to easily control devices in your house using an app on your phone, but what if you could turn on the lights or open the blinds with a simple movement of your hands? This is exactly what Joaquim has done using an MYO gesture control armband.

Joaquim has explained the details of his project in great detail, but the results certainly have to been seen to be believed. To find out more and read the full details check out the following link.

Fundamental to almost all home automation project is the ability to connect devices to the internet. If you are wondering how to connect your Arduino to WiFi, why not checkout the Freetronics ESP-01 WiFi Module shield for Arduino:

Our new shield has a socket that's perfect for the ESP-01 module (a very common and cheap WiFi module), and addresses all the needs of the ESP8266 including supplying the correct power and connections to your Arduino. Don't fiddle with jumper wires or sub-standard power supplies - order your Freetronics ESP-01 WiFi Module Shield today! They're in stock right now for only $14.

A water leak can often be a warning of imminent catastrophic failure with many appliances such as a washing machine or dishwasher. With this simple water detection system not only could you quickly detect appliance faults, but you could also set the system up to notify you if it is raining and you have left washing on the line. The possibilities are endless. This project uses a Particle Photon, although it could work with any microcontroller, and exploits the conducting properties of water to easily detect when water is present somewhere it shouldn’t be! To get started with this project check out the following link.

Thinking about making your own water detection system but don’t know where to get started with electronics? Our Experimenter’s Kit is a great way to learn.

The kit includes a wide range of parts including a servo, sensors, lights, buttons, a sound module and more. Importantly, a Freetronics Eleven Arduino-compatible board is included to ensure that the kit contains everything you need to get started with Arduino. All these great parts would be useless without some form of instructions which is why we have developed a comprehensive project and instruction booklet to get you started. Check out the product page to find out more.

Recently here at Freetronics we have had trouble keeping up with demand for a number of our popular products. Our Experimenter’s Kit and EtherDue board have been particularly popular. We are currently producing more of these boards, but we thought we should give you a chance to reserve an EtherDue or Experimenter’s Kit from the upcoming production run so that you don’t miss out! Even better, we are expecting the Experimenters Kit and EtherDue to arrive just in time for Christmas! You can preorder the Experimenter’s Kit here, and the EtherDue here. Haven’t heard of the EtherDue or Experimenters Kit?

Our EtherDue is the Arduino Due-compatible board with the Freetronics additions including Ethernet network connectivity, MAC address chip, microSD storage, optional PoE, upgraded power supply and more. For more information on this powerful board, check out the EtherDue product page.

Our Experimenter’s Kit is the perfect introduction into the world of electronics and programming. The kit includes a wide range of parts including a servo, sensors, lights, buttons, a sound module and more. Importantly, a Freetronics Eleven Arduino-compatible board is included to ensure that the kit contains everything you need to get started with Arduino. All these great parts would be useless without some form of instructions which is why we have developed a comprehensive project and instruction booklet to get you started. Check out the product page to find out more.

Have you ever stuck an Arduino in a hard to get place such as under the house and then realised that you want to upload a firmware revision? This can be a very frustrating situation, however, with the simple addition of a Bluetooth module it is possible to avoid this problem. Amazingly it is possible to program an Arduino over Bluetooth. For added flexibility there is even an Android app, “Bluino Loader” which allows you to upload a sketch to an Arduino from your smartphone. For step by step details of how this is possible, checkout the following link.

If you are looking for an easy way to add Bluetooth connectivity to your Arduino why not check out the Freetronics Bluetooth Shield?

Our Bluetooth Shield plugs right in to your Arduino and lets you send and receive data and commands from your sketches. You don't even need to do anything fancy in your sketches, because the Bluetooth link acts as a serial port: you just pair it with your computer, then you can simply use "Serial.read()" and "Serial.write()" as normal! The Bluetooth Shield can operate as a Bluetooth master or slave and is packed full of useful features. To find out more check out the Freetronics Bluetooth Shield product page.

What did you think of this project? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to sense and track lighting strikes using Arduino? Typically lightning detectors are very expensive, however, runtimeprojects has developed a cheap system for detecting lighting using only an Arduino Uno and a few resistors. Impressively the circuit can detect lightning as far away as 20km! At a basic level the lightning detector works by detecting changes in electromagnetic radiation using a small antenna which picks up fluctuations in the electromagnetic spectrum, particularly at around 7kHz. If you want to find out more about this impressive project checkout the following link.

If you are thinking about making your own lightning detector, but don’t know where to get started with Arduino, our Experimenter’s Kit is a great way to learn the basics.

The kit includes a wide range of parts including a servo, sensors, lights, buttons, a sound module and more. Importantly, a Freetronics Eleven Arduino-compatible board is included to ensure that the kit contains everything you need to get started with Arduino. All these great parts would be useless without some form of instructions which is why we have developed a comprehensive project and instruction booklet to get you started. Check out the product page to find out more.

Considering making your own lightning detector? Working on a cool project you think we should know about? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.  

Although the Freetronics dot matrix displays are already very large and very bright, the ability to chain these displays together means that they are perfect for building an outdoor scoreboard. This is exactly what Freetronics customer joevpt has done. The scoreboard uses 24 DMD displays which are controlled by 6 Arduino boards.

Impressively the scoreboard updates automatically from an iPhone app which is used to keep track of the scores at joevpt’s rugby club. If you want to read more about this project checkout this thread on our forum. 

If you are impressed by this project and want to build your own scoreboard, why not checkout our range of displays. They are simple to use, yet very bright for indoor and outdoor situations. Available in various colours, the 32 x 16 LED matrix can display text and graphics easily, and can be daisy-chained together for extended displays. For more information, see our range of Dot Matrix Displays.

Working on a project you would like us to feature on this blog? Think you would could use a scoreboard at your local sports club? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.