I discovered Arduino four years ago, starting by buying an Experimenter’s Kit and self-teaching myself the basics of Arduino. The subject is a massive one and I have barely scratched the surface of it. There are many internet pages covering Arduino. The official company website is Arduino.cc - an Italian company.

Arduino is both hardware and software. An open-source electronics circuit board (hardware) plus the programming software (the IDE). The hardware comprises a microcontroller (very small integrated circuit package) plus associated electrical components and a USB port. There are many different boards available. I use an Arduino Nano Every which is very compact and costs about £14. There are also copies of Arduino boards made by other companies.

The picture of the Nano highlights the mini-B USB socket and the Microcontroller : an ATmega series chip. It also shows the analogue input and digital IO pins to which inputs and outputs are connected as needs be as well as other connectors.

The Arduino circuit board can read electrical inputs from wired “sensors”. In my boat-based programs these include a light sensitive resistor, microswitches, and servo output signals from

two channels of the radio control receiver. Using the instructions that I input to it, the Arduino interprets the sensor inputs and turns them into electrical outputs. I use my desktop computer with the IDE software and the Arduino circuit board plugs into it via a USB cable.

The software is also Open-source which means that the original source code is made freely and publicly available and can be shared and modified.

I have applied Arduino to four model boats so far : the Titan(barge), Isis(narrowboat), President (Steam narrowboat), and Kildare (Butty to President).

Titan was where I started with control of the speed of a radar (a broken servo repurposed). Currently I have seven Arduino development projects in Titan. These include radar, wheelhouse lights press button control, light sensing navigation lights, shift register controlled radar screen, interior addressable LEDs whose colours can be chosen via the radio control transmitter plus over-voltage protection for the LEDs. Also a switcher program to allow radio control of all of these. I also have one final big project to go for in Titan by which time I will have utilised almost all the available inputs and outputs on the two Arduinos in Titan.

I plan to follow up next month with an article illustrating how I developed my first project – a radar speed controller in the Arduino.

Arduino is very flexible in its use and it’s up to the individual to let their imagination dream up possible projects! Or failing that, Google some!