30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius

In short - If you have an arduino, you will enjoy this book. The book is organized by project. Each project has a parts list, schematic, breadboard layout, code, pictures, and build instructions. The instructions explain and teach along the way. So, you cannot really ask for more in this layout. It is a fun book to read. It includes intro on Arduino hardware and programming language. The projects range in skill level. So this book can be enjoyed by beginning and intermediate levels, but also there are some projects that push the envelope and show advanced use.Read a 500 page computer book lately? Sifted through dozens of random quality web links for answers? Tried to thumb through an ebook? Contrary to this, the form factor of this book is enjoyable. It reminds me of the old service manuals. You can open it up, and let it lie flat while you read or reference a page. It is a great size, with less than 200 large 8.5 by 11 pages. The cover, paper, and printing are also nice quality, so is a good book to keep. It is not one of the cheaper quality "read and throw away" computer books.It is also a good book to use when teaching arduino programming - because they can make the breadboard look exactly like the one in the pages, etc.

The first publication of this book disappointed me for a number of reasons. However, the updated issue, available now, has fixed certain errors and gone a long way to improve the book. It makes a good primer for neophyte hobby users of the Arduino. Whether I think there's evil genius afoot might encounter my debate. I was hoping for 30 very clever uses for the tiny microcontroller which is highly capable. While I envisioned projects like self-balancing two wheeled robots or ultrasonic or infrared personal radar, the book contains a progression of introductory experiments from lighting a single LED to operating an LED matrix and a few stops between. But if you are new to the electronics field and are wanting to engage in some educational fun, this book makes a good avenue on which you can get started. That being the case, I would name the book "30 Projects for the Aspiring Evil Genius." Googling the words arduino and tutorial will produce even more ideas --once this book has gotten you started, of course.

I recently purchased this book and I have learned so much about Arduino programming in just a few short days. After reading the Amazon preview, I went ahead and ordered a few electronic components (Arduino Duemilanove, LEDs, breadboard, wires, resistors) so that I could get started right away. So far, everything in the book has been very well explained and actually gets you into applying programming instead of just teaching you theory. Monk starts off simply by explaining how to blink an LED, and quickly moves into advancing the code and making cooler projects. So far, I'm just about finished with the LED portion of the book and I have enjoyed every bit of it.As a note for all of you that are as eager to program an Arduino as I was / am, please be advised that you will need to purchase new equipment to do each project. As you probably already know, the Arduino board can be re-used, along with many of the LEDs and resistors. However, it may be a good idea to glance ahead once your book arrives so you can go ahead and order the parts for the upcoming projects. I quickly went through the first few, and now I'm having to wait until my new parts come ;)Overall, I don't have any complaints about the book. All of the necessary codes are given, along with wiring diagrams and actual product pictures. This book is helping me, and I'm sure it will help you too.

One of the best I have read of the Evil Genius series. No previous Arduino or programming experience is required. All the Arduino code can be downloaded, and is of good quality and modular, can easily be reused in your own projects. You don't need to know any programming but a class in Java or C certainly wouldn't hurt if you want to understand everything going on. One of the things I liked immediately about this book is that it goes into detail about why and how you choose a certain electronic component and calculate its value. A simplified non-standard circuit schematic notation is used that makes it easy to wire the circuits. The projects are breadboarded but one of the projects is how to make "shields", soldered add-on boards from any of the projects that can be plugged in as a module above the main Arduino board. The author seems to have struck an excellent balance between cool projects and inexpensive components. So you won't find projects that use $30-60 ultrasonic sensors or 6-DOF accelerometers. But it does have a project that communicates with an LCD module. All the basics are here in this book that will prepare for more complex projects in robotics, art, and musical instruments.

I am a beginner with arduino and until a couple months ago, had never written a computer program, so I am hardly an "evil genius" but this book caught my interest. I admit that I did not do sufficient research to determine that this book used the arduino Uno board, I made a bad assumption and that is on me, but you should know that this book uses older boards, not the Uno. The projects are simple enough but I have not been able to make any of them work as yet. I am sure that the code/pin configurations could easily be modified to work with the uno by someone more experienced. I think I am done with arduino for a while and will go back to the archaic world of building transistor radios and TTL circuits where I am more comfortable... Not a bad book though...