Arduino/RPi/Etc + Glowforge projects

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One thing that I’ve found out that might be helpful for once your son is done with his kit is that there are plenty of parts that you can buy on their own that can expand what you’ve got with very little cost. It gets really easy once you figure out how to use libraries that people have put together to make programming these things as simple as pie. Not mincemeat pie. More like apple pie. Simple like that.

I didn’t buy a kit. I’ve just bought a thing here and there. The video above was an Arduino, some wires, and an ultrasonic sensor ($4). The (8) relay module ($8.49) came later and can be wired to an extension cord to control anything that plugs in to the wall. You might not want him playing with 120V, but it handles lower voltages just as well.

I also ended up picking up an Infrared Module for $5-$6, a piezzo element for $2.50, and a little breadboard for $10 once I learned Radio Shack was still a physical store in my area. They closed the two closest ones after the whole bankruptcy thing, so I didn’t know for a while. I’m sure you could find some of these things even cheaper online. I was just excited to find a Radio Shack.

So, currently, I have the IR module pressed into the breadboard and wired to power and one wire to a digital pin (11). I pulled out a bucket full of old remotes that my dearly departed father collected over the years and, using this IRremote library and one of it’s included example sketches, I can get the serial monitor to spit back HEX codes for the buttons that I press. That means that I could, for instance, tell it to play different notes out of the piezzo element depending on what HEX code is sent from a particular button on the remote. An IR remote piano from an Arduino, three wires, the IR module, and an old remote!

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I’m sure to many of the smart people on this forum, that is not too terribly impressive, but I’ve never been able to do stuff like that before. Also, I know using libraries sort of takes away from a chance to understand how the code is making stuff happen exactly, but it does help with getting a “thing” built and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Also, you can always go through the library’s code to see.

Anyway, after all that rambling, has your son had much time to go through his kit? What’s he think of it?

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Depends on the library and your approach. A library is “just” a bunch of code snippets that if you are lazy you can just make calls to or if you are ambitious you can study the code and make it and it’s algorithms your b#tch.

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It depends on what level you’re interested in working at. Sure, you could code everything by inserting electrons one by one with a screwdriver, but it you’re building a multi-layer gadget, libraries are probably the only way to get something done in a reasonable time. Unless you’re really good.

I pretty much always start by stealing, er, re-using example code from somewhere else and then modifying it until it does what I want. Otherwise I get hung up solving the same problems that other people have already solved.

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I’m impressed. It’s not trivial to do these things just following directions, no matter how detailed they are.

As to coding modules and libraries, I first used these when I was installing an open source library management system. At that time you had to install many of the modules individually. It seemed like once I got one module installed, then it said I needed the next one. It was pretty interesting to get this all figured out that all the heavy lifting had been written in these available libraries, especially the text processing modules.

It made me understand just how interconnected modern technology is. There are so many people working all over the world making bits and pieces of the software we use on a daily basis. That’s when I started participating in the software forum regularly. I couldn’t contribute from the coding stand point, but I could contribute my little knowledge I gained from converting 8,000 biblios so that the new system could read it. It helps that books have a well-established data framework (albeit somewhat archaic). That’s where I first learned out to use sed to rapidly process texts. Even though I was able to use a free program to do some mass conversions and biblio editing, there were quite a few that just didn’t go through and would through things off.

This is one of the reasons I’m so active on the forum here and documenting even the most minor projects. I have never paid for computer education (sometimes that shows) but I have received so much through the years. I just hope others can learn and do things that they didn’t think they could and be inspired by my projects.

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Bravo! You have given back and I have benefited. Thank you @marmak326…thank you. - Rich

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I started coding way too late in life to ever be a natural code monkey so yes, you have come across the same way I do it. I can almost always find a snippet that can be rewritten to work.
I have come to call this Darwinian programming as there is no sixth-day creation thing, just little changes until it works for me.

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I guess it’s all in how you wish to use it. I don’t feel the need to raise a garden to enjoy a salad. I started in the days of waiting to get my Compute! magazine so I could type in manually the machine code of the latest great program. Then I started coding myself until I found that in most cases someone had already did most of it better than I probably could have. (Along about the timeeting AL Gores invented the internet) So I guess I’ve learned at times to “call the man” rather than learn plumbing or roofing. While I could, I know how, yet I’d rather be creating.

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“Stealing” is a a great way to learn. That’s how I learned HTML (and plenty of other things). Back around 1994 or so I found a webpage I liked and copied the source. I started changing parameters one by one to see the result. I eventually published that as my first webpage and it was not at all recognizable as a derivative of the original work because I made so many changes.

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ALWAY ALWAYS ALWAY… use libraries if you can. it is simply foolish not to.

as you get more adept, you’ll learn far more and make even better things.

once I get done putting 1100 square feet of LVP in my house my daughters and I will be working with our Rpi’s and arduinos in anticipation of our 'Forge.

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. While I could, I know how, yet I’d rather be creating.<<<

exactly. I was on a tool mailing list years ago. these guys would be going on about how they bought the cheap harbor freight portable bandsaw.

putting in new bearings doing all of this work to make a cheap piece of junk “useful”. while I plunked down 300 bucks for the porter cable saw, and actually MADE stuff. while these jokers were dinking around with the tool.

I told my wife our daughters will be able to fight over who gets this saw decades from now. and I was building the things I needed, not futzing around with a tool.

kinda sad really.

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I learned long ago (from my dad) that a good quality tool will save you money in the long run. That still is with me…I bought a GF Pro…upgraded tube, cooling, and optics; longer life and warranty. Go :glowforge: - Rich

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Here is a cool display add-on for your Arduino.
He just updated the engrave files with a double line, it looks amazing.

Software Link:

Hardware Link (build you own):

Hardware Link (pre-order):

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