arduino practice

To practice more with leds and the Arduino and have faded in and our red and green leds.

I hope experimenting with leds will help me with connecting leds with Twitter.
I think it would be interesting to have different colored leds light up every time "Happy Holidays" or a similar phrase is used on Twitter. I could also make the Arduino send a tweet to twitter every time something changes on a sensor attached to the Arduino.

I am also researching ThingSpeak with Twitter in order to use ThingSpeak to work with Twitter for this project.

final project tests

Over the last couple of days I have been trying to figure out how to get an led on the Arduino to blink when a specific hashtag is used on Twitter. I have also been trying to get an led to light up when I send a tweet to Twitter. I have not been successful so far, but I know for sure for my final project I want to connect Twitter and the leds on the Arduino for my final project.

final progress

I have been researching and experimenting with trying to get the Arduino rgb led to light up a certain color when a specific hashtag is presented in Processing. I am not familiar with any of the Arduino coding so I do not know where to start with coding myself, so I have been trying to find code to help me online and reading so I could possibly figure something out. This is challenging for me because I have no prior knowledge of electronics and this kind of coding.

send a tweet with Processing

I am experimenting with Twitter and Arduino, and I recently was able to send a tweet from Processing to my own Twitter account. I plan on exploring Twitter with Processing and Arduino more. I want to be able to search Twitter and have an led blink whenever a certain user sends a tweet, and possibly have Processing send a tweet to my account notifying my followers when the user tweeted.

import twitter4j.conf.*;
import twitter4j.*;
import twitter4j.auth.*;
import twitter4j.api.*;
import java.util.*;

Twitter twitter;

void setup()
{
    size(800,600);

    ConfigurationBuilder cb = new ConfigurationBuilder();
    cb.setOAuthConsumerKey("");
    cb.setOAuthConsumerSecret("");
    cb.setOAuthAccessToken("");
    cb.setOAuthAccessTokenSecret("");

    TwitterFactory tf = new TwitterFactory(cb.build());

    twitter = tf.getInstance();
}

void draw()
{

}

void tweet()
{
    try
    {
        Status status = twitter.updateStatus("This is a tweet sent from Processing!");
        System.out.println("Status updated to [" + status.getText() + "].");
    }
    catch (TwitterException te)
    {
        System.out.println("Error: "+ te.getMessage());
    }
}

void keyPressed()
{
    tweet();
}

final project progress

I have not worked with electronics or Arduino before, so since we received the Arduino I have been doing the tutorials and other simple projects I have found online in order to get a feel for the Arduino and gain a better understanding of electronics and coding. I have been thinking about what I want to do for my final project, and while I do not have a finalized idea yet I am finding out what I like and find interesting about the Arduino. I like the rgb led I found in the kit and I have been testing out what I can do with it, as well as with the green and red leds as well.

Above I have the code and video of a simple project with the rgb led. If you click on a color in the processing sketch the color you click on should appear from the led. I found that the led had some struggle reaching certain colors, but I did find it very interesting that I could change the color upon click. I tested the code with other pictures of my own and had similar results.

Now that I know how the Arduino and Processing can work with the rgb led and other leds I am thinking about how I can work further to come up with a final project idea.

final project ideas

Have Arduino trigger a camera to take an image every minute or when something happens on a sensor or the server

• Send a tweet whenever a sensor on the Arduino detects a change in something
• movement
• light (shadows)
• temperature
• send Tweet to printer

• Update the location of the Arduino to a site
• Tweet location
• print location on a printer

• Possibly something with the Arduino finding images, Arduino tweets location then a site finds images from the location with a Google search, then puts them on a site

• Arduino triggers a camera to take a picture from it's location

Edit 11/8:

Send a tweet when something hits or passes a senor on the Arduino

Send a tweet on a set interval ex. every hour