My Arduino Project Concept

A colour changing cubic display.

This cube will be made out of the white sheet of paper.
The colours emitting will come from the combination of coloured light driven by the Arduino mini. The brightness released by each LED will have to vary. The analog output ports on the Arduino Mini now comes in useful.

This is a simple display.
This project diverts a little away from the orginal concept of my recycled Coca-Cola can designed fan.
This Arduino mini can also help to drive this motor for my can designed fan! Therefore, coming up after the cubic display, I will expand the project to a display making use of the motor, my recycled Coca-Cola can.

Setting Up Arduino Mini

Step 1:

Mount Arduino Mini 04 and mini USB adapter onto the breadboard.

(*Note: Be sure you are aware of the wiring underneath the breadboard. )

Step 2:

Wire up the Arduino Mini with the mini USB adapter as follow :

- Wire the GND pin (ground) of the mini USB adapter to a common ground on the breadboard. [In the picture, the ground pins are wired up with black wires running from adapter]

-Wire the +5V pin to a common Vcc on the breadboard. [As show with red wire running from adapter]

-Wire the Tx pin(transmit) of the mini usb adapter to the Tx pin of the Arduino mini. Do the same thing for the Rx pin (receive). [As how with the green wires]

-Wire up the GND pin of the Arduino mini to the common ground used for the USB mini adapter.

[As shown with black wires running from the Arduino Mini]

-Wire up the +5V pin of the Arduino Mini to the common Vcc(voltage supply). [As shown with red wires running from Arduino Mini]

-Lastly, set the reset pin to HIGH by wiring it with the Vcc. Alternatively, a button can be set up here to for ease of resetting.

Step 3:

Download and install the Arduino software environment . Choose the one that works for your operating system.

Now, the basic set up is done.

Arduino Project Materials

Things Needed:








- Breadboard

-Wires







- Resistors









-LED (Red, Green, Blue)




Lastly,
- A piece of A4 size white paper

Mini USB Adapter Pin Layout

The is the adapter I was given. There are some with slight difference in the way the chips are mounted but the pin layout is generally similar.

Arduino Mini 04 Pin Layout

Arduino Mini

I was given an opportunity to work with Arduino Mini.

This is a fairly simple to code and use micro controller. It has basic functions like the digital and analog ports which is sufficient for usage for an interactive object.

Problem Faced

I spent quite a fair bit of time trying to allow my pc to communicate with the board. Limited information on the troubleshoot was available. The Arduino Mini did not respond despite repeated attempts to reset and uploading of instructions was made impossible.

I went through the list of similar problems faced by Arduino Users seeking for help.

Nothing helped till i meddled with the jumper switch on the Mini USB adapter.

Uploading was finally possible and i managed to get my codes uploaded. ^_^