A while ago I purchased an Ardweeny kit, but hadn’t put it together and tested it until now. The Ardweeny is a small, breadboard friendly Arduino clone. In fact, it is the smallest Arduino clone that I know of, and the tiny board is backpacked on top of the ATMega chip.

Here are the parts laid out before I put the Ardweeny together: PCB, ATMega, headers and 7 parts. Tip: double check that you received the correct parts; I received a 470K Ohm resistor (yellow-violet-yellow) instead of a 470 Ohm (yellow-violet-brown) one.

The assembly manual that comes with the Ardweeny is illustrated in color, and explains how to put it together in great detail, step-by-step. It is a very easy kit to put together, perfect for a beginner. There isn’t a lot of soldering involved, either. (There are only 7 parts after all!)

Here is the final product, assembled and ready to go! Isn’t it tiny? The Ardweeny comes preloaded with the “Blink” sketch. In order to program it you will need an FTDI breakout board and USB miniB cable. Upon hooking it up for the first time the green LED should blink.

To test it I put together a simple circuit connecting a LED bar graph display and a variable resistor to the Ardweeny. Turning the dial on the trimpot lights the LEDs on the bar graph display accordingly. Here’s the setup:

Here’s the schematic showing how the circuit was wired:

Here’s a quick video of the Ardweeny in action.

And here’s the sketch:

// www.TheElectronicsHobbyist.com/blog
// Natalia Fargasch Norman
// Trimpot display using LED bar graph

// loop variables and trimpot reading
int i, j, val;

void setup() {
  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    pinMode(i, OUTPUT);
  }
}

void loop() {
  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    digitalWrite(i, HIGH);
  }
  // trimpot connected to analog pin 0
  val = analogRead(0);
  // analogRead returns number
  // between 0 and 1023, scaling
  // for the 10 LEDs in the bar graph
  j = val / 100;
  for (i = 0; i < j; i++) {
    // LED bar graph is common anode, LOW is on
    digitalWrite(i, LOW);
  }
}

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1. Solder wires to motor terminals and cover with heat-shrink tubing
2. Using a knife or sharp scissors, puncture a small hole (to fit the motor shaft snugly) on the center of the jar lid
3. Solder motor shaft to jar lid (if necessary use hot glue or super glue, as some surfaces won’t “catch” the solder easily)
4. Solder the RGB LED leads to long wires and cover the connections with heat-shrink tubing
5. Build the circuit on the mini breadboard using the schematic as your guide
6. Prepare the paper diffuser (use a hole puncher and punch a few holes to allow some light to shine through) and tape it around the jar lid using mounting tape




7. Mount the motor to the side of the breadboard using mounting tape
8. Tie the LED wires together and secure the wire bundle using a stick as prop (I used a lollipop stick in one of the holes on the breadboard); split the stick tip shaping it as a “Y” to help secure the LED wires in place(show finished picture)

Check the previous post if you need to see the sketch for the Arduino RGB LED night light again.

You might also enjoy:

1. Arduino RGB LED Spinning Night Light | Part 1
2. Arduino Motor Control for the Spinning Night Light | Part 3
3. Arduino RGB LED Control for the Spinning Night Light | Part 4
4. Arduino 2-Digit 7-Segment Display Counter: Circuit | Part 2

Whether your interest in an electronics hobby stems from the desire to build your own gadgets or to modify existing electronics devices so they perform better – or at least differently – it is important that you take the best approach possible in order to get the most enjoyment from your hobby.

When you are first starting out you should put together a kit of essential tools. A simple kit should have the following set of basic, good quality tools:

• Wire cutter and stripper
• Soldering iron and solder
• Soldering iron stand (optional)
• Desoldering tool (optional)
• Pair of small pliers – long nose pliers
  
• Screwdrivers – small straight type and medium cross point type
• Test equipment – multimeter (optional)

If possible you should get a wooden board/bench to use as a dedicated work area.

For introductory courses on electronics as a hobby checkout the website below:
http://www.hobby-electronics.info/links/courses.php

You might also enjoy:

1. Starting Out on an Electronics Hobby – Resources
2. Basic Hobby Electronics Vocabulary Part 1 of 4 (A-C)
3. Basic Hobby Electronics Vocabulary Part 2 of 4 (D-G)
4. Basic Hobby Electronics Vocabulary Part 3 of 4 (I-R)