If you just got your hands on a shiny new Android phone and are looking for a fun project to try out, you might want to check out this simple Arduino exercise that [Mike Mitchel] put together. Everyone needs a starting off point for hacking, and [Mike] thought that combining and Arduino and Android handset together for the purpose of temperature sensing and light metering would be a great place to begin.
The prerequisites for this project are a bit beyond a simple breadboard and a few ICs, requiring an $80 Android ADK board to go along with your phone and Arduino. If your focus is going to be on interfacing your phone with microcontrollers however, it’s purchase you’ll make sooner than later anyhow.
The setup is pretty simple as you might expect. A photocell and TMP36 temperature sensor are connected to the Arduino, then with a bit of code and USB host magic, the Android app shows the temp and amount ambient light present in the room.
[Mike] has made all of his easy to read and well commented code available online, so be sure to check it out if you have been thinking about (but putting off) playing around with the Android ADK.
I’d do this kind of stuff but my ADK came with a “TinkerKit!” Shield and i cant find diddly squat on it. :<
You should have embedded the video!
What is the difference between the ADK boards linked in the article and the IOIO for Android?
– Robot
I was curious myself so I did a little research.
The Android ADK you can use without having to program in Java. With the IOIO, you do have to know Java.
Sources:
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10745
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10748
Android phones/tablets/media players are so cheap at dx.com that maybe it is time to start using them as user interfaces to our projects. I mean, glue one to your project and have touch screen UI with graphics display.. 🙂
Amazon has the Arduino MEGA ADK board for $70 w/ free shipping
Android are a kind of “Ardunio” of the Smartphones 🙂
I am using cheap ($6) Bluetooth serial modules with my hardware boards and Android 🙂
Alternatively you could just buy a USB Host Shield (http://www.circuitsathome.com/products-page/arduino-shields/usb-host-shield-2-0-for-arduino) if you already own an Arduino. It’s only 25$ – way cheeper than an Arduino ADK.