Halloween Mechatronics

Status

Done: Thursday, October 13, 2016 6:30 PM

Overview

Learn how to add motors, sensors and intelligence to your Halloween projects.

Prerequisites/Cost

• Cost: free.
• Bring projects you have to get help and advice on if you have one, or even just an idea.
• Basic programming skills will be helpful, but not assumed.
• Recommend bringing laptop per person/group.

Content

• Overview of microcontrollers and mechatronics
• Differences between Arduinos, raspberry Pis, PICs etc.
• Setting up the Arduino IDE and programing the board
• Controlling motors, lights and relays.
• Reading Sensors (range, light, position etc)
• Lab sessions to try the pieces and free time to work on a project of interest with help available.

From Meetup

Halloween Mechatronics with Microcontrollers

Have you ever wanted to bring life to your Halloween costumes or decorations? This class will teach you the basics of how to add motion, lights and sound to your Halloween creations. The class will teach you different ways of detect people or objects as they approach to trigger your spooky fun. You will also learn how to control motors or servos to have objects move on command, how to create sound effects and control lighting.

This class will focus on the technical challenges and will leave the creative applications to the students' imaginations. The class will begin with a short-moderate length lecture covering the different devices and how they work and then transition to a hands on session where the students can experiment to make their own implementation and seek advice from the instructor and others with experience.

There will be a recommended equipment list provided on the meetup site prior to the class containing the recommended microcontroller and accessory boards. Students will be encouraged to share or work in groups during the hands on portion, so sharing of equipment will definitely be possible.

If you have any projects in the works, you are encouraged to bring them. During the lab portion you may demonstrate or receive assistance with them.

About the instructor. Sam Fladung is an electrical engineer at Teledyne Marine Systems in East Falmouth. He has B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University. Sam ran the Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle team and has over 12 years of experience using various robotic and microcontroller platforms both as a hobbyist and professionally.