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First Steps: Arduino

A project log for SmartCar

A bluetooth 4.0 device to open and close the doors, trunk and start the car.

ngolinenGoline 03/12/2014 at 15:440 Comments

I had a little PIC dev kit when I was younger and back then I made some basic projects that came with the kit. That was all my experience with electronics so far.

I bought some Digispark modules in their Kickstarter's campaign and I decided to use it in this project, but as I said before, my experience with Arduino was null.

As you may imagine, I made some poor connections between the Digispark and some leds using cables, laying in bed, not using a protoboard... I fried my 2 Digispark in one evening trying to accomplish an easy task.

So I bought an Arduino Clone, Garagino, that is compatible to a UNO and I began to use the best practices when it comes to prototyping. Which means: a ProtoBoard, a Multimeter, a Table, proper Protoboard wires and so on.

Done! I was able to connect to my Bluetooth module via Software Serial and exchange some comands with my Android phone using an App called "Bluetooth SPP PRO". I managed to blink some leds from the phone and it felt awesome!

The next step was to make an Android App to connect to the Arduino via Bluetooth. It should auto connect and warn my Pebble that it was in range, then I would press a button on my Pebble to open my car's door.

But things is not that easy as I will point in the next log.

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