Customer Reviews

Practical Arduino: Cool Projects for Open Source Hardware (Technology in Action)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a beginner to the Arduino, and received this book just a few days ago with my shipment of a Arduino Duemilanove starter kit. In short, this book is not for beginners.

My background is that of a mechanical engineer, so I'm more technically inclined than most. I have not programmed, or coded, anything in the last 10 or so years, and I have not programmed in C.

This book should really be entitled ADVANCED Arduino. It is lacking some basic overview chapters or appendices to get a beginner up and running. Another very useful reference would be a Programming Language appendix that really covers the programming structures available and suggestions on how to get the most out of the language. For that, I found a useful PDF reference by Brian Evans on the web.

I was hoping this book would have covered some interfacing with motors. An overview on interfacing with different types of motors, including DC Brush, Brushless, hobby servos, and servo motors with encoders or larger motor types would be very helpful. One of my first projects that I am tackling is using an Accelerometer, but I need the resolution via a digital interface. A project including an SPI data interface would have also been appreciated.

I'm sure I will be referencing this book in the future. Some of the projects are quite amazing. I've never thought about interfacing the Arduino to an automobile for real time telemetry!

The authors have well and truly delivered what they've outlined as their goal in the Introduction section, namely "We want you to take these projects as inspiration and examples of how to apply a variety of handy techniques and then adapt them to suit your own requirements, coming up with new ideas that put ours to shame". Frankly I'm impressed with what Jonathan and Hugh have achieved. They've packed in an incredible amount of information in over 400 pages using 14 broad coverage real-world projects demonstrating how to put the Arduino to practical use. Importantly, they've included some succinct and relevant background information on basic electronic theory and implementation that will save readers days of frustration in getting their circuits working. Nothing kills off the excitement of working on projects than not being able to find why something won't work as intended. With Arduino projects, there is the added difficulty that 'bugs' could be in the software and/or hardware. Excellent title - Practical. Says it all.

I like the Contents at a Glance page in addition to the detailed Contents. Use the former to get you quickly to a project of interest or the detailed Contents to quickly search out techniques relevant to your latest brainstorm.

The included source code easy to read and well explained. Great to see it is also available on line - an essential requirement for this type of book.

Circuit diagrams (schematics) clear are easy to read. I support the authors' approach in encouraging readers to develop skills in reading these.

A useful index - I find it very annoying when books that are likely to be used as a reference omit one.

Do yourself a favour and read the Resources chapter first. Rather than a list of Internet references, this 27 page chapter contains practical tips on interfacing the Arduino with the outside world. An excellent walk-through on how to create an Arduino Library is also included to encourage you to share your solutions in accordance with the Open Source philosophy of the book and the Arduino platform.

The only disappointment was the quality of reproduction of many of the photographs; I assume the muddy contrast is the result of a compromise in the printing process. That said, the book price really is very good value for the range of material covered.

I have over a decade of experience in electronics design and manufacture with an international electronics company (Philips) and many years of experience in Engineering and IT Project Management. While I've enjoyed working with PCs as a hobby for nearly 30 years, I've only dabbled in programming. The Arduino has enabled me to rediscover the fun of electronics and develop my programming skills - I've been having fun with Arduinos for just one year. This book will give me inspiration for years to come.

Neil Matthews
B. Tech. Electronic Engineering, MBA

I've been teaching programming for almost 25 years, mostly in C, and have been a licensed amateur radio operator for over 50 years so I know enough electronics to be dangerous. As an author myself, I know how hard it is to write a book on programming. I can't even imagine adding hardware descriptions to the task. As daunting as that might seem to me, Oxer and Blemings have done a wonderful job of covering both elements in Practical Arduino.

Chapter 1 begins with a discussion of very basic electronics (e.g., Ohm's Law, capacitance, etc.) and elementary safety issues. It also covers the minimal tools one needs to build each project that forms a chapter in the book. There are 16 chapters in the book, and 14 of those chapters discuss a project you can build. Most of the projects can be built with the ATMega128 or 328 CPU, although the last project (a telemetry system for an automobile) requires the horsepower of a 1280 CPU.

Essentially, each chapter begins with short description of the components you need to complete the project. Early in the book they even tell you several places to purchase specialized parts that might not be available at your local Radio Shack or equivalent. By the way, eBay has a bazillion electronic components for sale at very low prices. Amazon is also a good place to look, especially for the Arduino and the tools. If nothing else, they're a good way to discover what you should be paying for components.

Each chapter then proceeds to walk you through the construction of the project for that chapter. The topics were selected to highlight major tasks often encountered when using microcontroller (e.g., sensors, controllers, serial communications, etc.). None of the topics are the "blinky LED" type. All are serious projects and are designed for real work.

Actually, I purchased the book for a very specific problem I was having building a project that required multiplexing. Since that word didn't even exist when I started dabbling with electronics, I hoped this book would provide some answers...which it did, and then some. Not only did I learn how to multiplex an Arduino, I learn how to Charlieplex a circuit! In most cases, the authors not only tell you how to do something, but also why you are doing it. That's an admirable goal for any book that is trying to teach something to the reader and they've done it very well.

While I bought the book to address a single, specific problem, I ended up reading it from cover-to-cover. There are little nuggets of knowledge hidden in each and every chapter...each worth ferreting out. Each chapter also discusses the software necessary to drive the project. Software issues are also discussed, mostly using C code that is easy to follow. While the code is not C++ or purely Object Oriented, if you're into OOP like I am, it's a simple step to make the code OOP-friendly.

I've probably read a half dozen books now on the Arduino, but this is the one that has really answered my questions. It has a useful index, which is always a good sign of a well-written book. If you can only afford one book on the Arduino, make it this one...you won't be disappointed.

This is the best book for Arduino Accomplishment!!! Other pamphlets and freely available websites and literature, describe the Arduino in terms of hobbyist and artist physical computing experimentation--This 422 page mammoth illustrated book takes the user from simple Hello World experiments in hardware and software to accomplishment in engineering Professional-level Commercial and Real-time Research Systems. While this book about the inexpensive yet powerful Arduino Open-Source Physical Computing platform can be read and understood by anyone, regardless of their previous experience with software and hardware development, it is unlike any previous attempt to describe the Arduino System in that it carefully illustrates the Design, Development and Construction of Professional-Level Products for Industry, Automotive Applications and Real-Time Systems. Even the skills needed for Professional-level Packaging of the Arduino-based Product are carefully described--so that the powerful Physical Computing projects you build will look and feel as Professional as Commercial Products. The only slight criticism I would have of this excellent, necessary and one-of-a-kind volume is that some of the black and white illustrations would benefit from higher contrast printing.


Careful yet easily understood text describes the theory, development and fabrication of each project, electronic schematics are given along with photographic illustrations of the components and procedures one must follow to construct these projects and develop your own skills to develop sophisticated, functional and attractive systems. This is a valuable and very necessary book for anyone who deals with the Arduino, whether as a hobbyist, electronics consultant or academic and it is the first of its kind carrying the hobbyist to a professional level. I give it a well-deserved five-star review.

--Ira Laefsky
MSE/MBA Engineering and New Product Consultant

The first thing you notice when you open this book is that it seems to've been printed on recycled Charmin. After that, you'll notice right away how much trouble the authors and publishers took on the photos, i.e. just about none whatsoever. Instead of color photos, we are treated to the exciting world of monochrome. Ah, but not just any monochrome. No sir! The authors evidently went to all the trouble of finding one of Matthew Brady's original cameras, last used to photograph Civil War battlefields. They do provide lots of dim, dark, nearly zero-contrast photos, many of which are almost adequate. The publishers then took these lovely photos and reproduced them with what appears to've been a 1970's copier, still using the original toner cartridge I think. To economize on all that expensive recycled Charmin, the authors have painstakingly avoided any white space and have given us pages that have all the readability of medieval German.

THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR BEGINNERS. The title should have used the word "Advanced" instead of "Practical". There are no easy introductory projects in this book, not one. Also, they seem to be horrified by the idea of easy-to-use breadboards and instead invite us to spend endless hours with a soldering iron, hoping that we can interpret those murky photos and not make any mistakes. As to the quality of the information so densely provided, it may be that once you have struggled through it all, you will have gotten really useful data from this book. I think you'll need to be a real Arduino expert though and extremely patient to boot. To me, the whole thing is spoiled by being so poorly presented. However, if you're one of those people who think form and style count for nothing, I'm sure you will truly appreciate this book. Good luck.

Update as of 10/15/10: Now that I have read the comment attached to this review by one of the authors, I feel sorry for them. Evidently the poor presentation was mainly the fault of the publishers, who appear to have been churlish and unresponsive. I would really like to know what the book would've looked like had the authors had their way. I naively assumed that the publishers took exactly what the authors gave them and simply reproduced it en masse. Evidently it is critically important to select the right publishers; a book that would otherwise have been well received and useful to its buyers might well end up being skewered by heartless reviewers like me.

I've been playing around with the Arduino for about a year now and bought this book to look for some new projects. I found the book to be quite readable with excellent discussions of all aspects of the various projects and well commented sketches. I found the extensive discussion of each sketch really helpful, probably as programming isn't my strong point. Although I probably won't build any of the projects as shown in the book I did learn a lot of great tips and ideas for current and future projects. I would definitely recommend this book to novice users but probably not complete neophytes. I also found the associated website quite useful.

The book is a good introduction to the use of the open-source Auduino hardware and software for building electronic projects that interface with a computer. I recommend it for persons interested in such projects.
I was surprised at the use of parts notations that are evidently in common use in Europe and Australia, but not in the United States, where the book was published. For example, 680 ohms is denoted as 680R, whereas I usually see it as 680 [Greek capital omega]. Forty seven hundred ohms (4.7 thousand ohms)is written as 4k7, whereas I usually see it as 4.7k. It is explained in the book, but to a North American reader, it seems strange. (One of the authors is Australian.)
Most of the photographs are too dark and of low contrast. It is an annoyance, but not a major problem.
To really use the book, you will want to get the associated Arduino hardware and to download the open source software free of charge, to use with either Windows, OSX, or Linux.

I hesitated to buy this book because of the negative comments regarding the images. However, I went ahead and purchased as I was buying it for my Kindle/Computer. I have downloaded and installed via the PC computer Kindle reader, and the pictures are not a problem. I can't speak for the printed book, and as yet I have not used on the stand-alone Kindle, just the PC Kindle reader, and there aren't any problems.

I agree completely with the top rated reviews that say that this book covers a lot of detail on Arduino. Even though I am not interested in building most of the projects in the book, there are still numerous resources to be found in those chapters. For example, I was just reading the chapter on building an oscilloscope using Arduino to pass data to a computer for display. In this section, there is a detailed explanation of how Arduino does analog and digital reads, the amount of time these reads take, and how to "overclock" the analog read process for greater resolution in reads. This kind of information goes way beyond the basic "connect the green wire to the third connector" and gives you an understanding that transfers to other projects.

For those complaining that the book isn't for beginners, I would disagree for the reason that almost all of the code is well explained. The parts that are not well explained are generally related to extremely low-level hardware interfacing, an example being the code to overclock the analog reads. Even this is explained in enough detail to be able to use it in any project, but not adapt the low-level commands to other functions. I understand fully why this choice was made, given the limitations of the book. Even if there is a section of code that cannot be understood from the instructions, you can just copy-paste it into a project and it will likely work.

Great Book. Looking forward to building and modifying some of the projects. This book could be read and used by a novice but having some experience with the Arduino and some smaller projects would be of benefit. Book was clear, only got bogged down in a couple of spots, just reread the section and got it figured out. Not a big problem. This title is packed with lots of information, offers variations to the basic projects and cause one to think about how it could be altered to meet your own needs. The programming gets a little heavy later in the book, that is where it would help to have at least a bit of experience with the device and basic programming. Highly recommend this book for anyone pursuing a more in depth knowledge of the Arduino.