Read Online 30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius Second Edition Simon Monk 8601400013991 Books

Product details Series Evil Genius Paperback 224 pages Publisher McGraw-Hill Education TAB; 2 edition (May 27, 2013) Language English ISBN-10 9780071817721 ISBN-13 978-0071817721 ASIN 0071817727

30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius Second Edition Simon Monk 8601400013991 Books Reviews

• If you're like me, going through example projects for things like the Arduino is a bit like drinking from a firehose -- you don't know what's good to start with, and when you're done, you haven't really done much and don't know what to do next. The "Evil Genius" conceit is a bit silly, but it does insure that the 33 projects (not 30 -- evil geniuses are liars, we all know this) in this book are generally at least somewhat useful when you're done with them.
  
  To start with, the current edition of the book focuses mainly on the Uno and Leonardo boards, with one additional project based on the LilyPad purely for the aesthetics (it's the exposed "movement" of a binary wall clock). There's almost no soldering required in most of the projects, apart from a Protoshield, the binary clock, and a couple of peripheral boards. There's even one project (building the business end of an oscilloscope) where the book delves into one of Arduino's parent projects, the Processing IDE, to provide graphical display output that the Arduino serial monitor can't. Finally, the three added projects at the end take advantage of the Leonardo CPU's direct USB support to demonstrate its use as an input device, as both a keyboard shim and an accelerometer mouse. Mercifully, you don't need to know much about electronics beyond the basics of how to read a schematic and recognize specific components, and the longest code listings are no more than three full pages, so they're fairly easy to understand and modify.
  
  As I said above, the projects themselves all shoot for being at least somewhat useful -- a SAD light to keep your murderous impulses under control during the dark times of the year, an LCD thermostat to keep the lasersharks warm, a hypnosis wheel to make your opponent's dark side  turn on them, an infrared remote to TURN OFF THAT FRAKKING MUSIC -- sorry... *twitch* sorry... I was saying... what was I saying?
• I bought this as a gift for a friend who just started out with an arduino and I took a look at it before wrapping it. I am an engineer, familiar with these devices and feel that this is a great book for everyone from intermediate users looking for fun projects, to advanced users looking for ways to integrate smaller components into a larger project.
  
  If you are a beginner, I don't feel that this book is out of your range, but you may want to become more familiar with the device first, using a "Beginners" book or a beginners course.
• The first publication of this book disappointed me for a number of reasons. However, the updated issue, available now, has fixed certain errors and gone a long way to improve the book. It makes a good primer for neophyte hobby users of the Arduino. Whether I think there's evil genius afoot might encounter my debate. I was hoping for 30 very clever uses for the tiny microcontroller which is highly capable. While I envisioned projects like self-balancing two wheeled robots or ultrasonic or infrared personal radar, the book contains a progression of introductory experiments from lighting a single LED to operating an LED matrix and a few stops between. But if you are new to the electronics field and are wanting to engage in some educational fun, this book makes a good avenue on which you can get started. That being the case, I would name the book "30 Projects for the Aspiring Evil Genius." Googling the words arduino and tutorial will produce even more ideas --once this book has gotten you started, of course.
• In short - If you have an arduino, you will enjoy this book. The book is organized by project. Each project has a parts list, schematic, breadboard layout, code, pictures, and build instructions. The instructions explain and teach along the way. So, you cannot really ask for more in this layout. It is a fun book to read. It includes intro on Arduino hardware and programming language. The projects range in skill level. So this book can be enjoyed by beginning and intermediate levels, but also there are some projects that push the envelope and show advanced use.
  
  Read a 500 page computer book lately? Sifted through dozens of random quality web links for answers? Tried to thumb through an ebook? Contrary to this, the form factor of this book is enjoyable. It reminds me of the old service manuals. You can open it up, and let it lie flat while you read or reference a page. It is a great size, with less than 200 large 8.5 by 11 pages. The cover, paper, and printing are also nice quality, so is a good book to keep. It is not one of the cheaper quality "read and throw away" computer books.
  
  It is also a good book to use when teaching arduino programming - because they can make the breadboard look exactly like the one in the pages, etc.