Learning the Arduino Is an Adventure!

The world is abuzz with Makers moving from scripting to physical computing using the Arduino platform. The Arduino, for those that don’t know, is a microcontroller prototyping board based on the Atmel line of controllers. GeekDad’s own James Floyd Kelly and Harold Timmis make learning how to make the jump to physical computing with the Arduino an adventure in their new book, Arduino Adventures: Escape from Gemini Station.

I love the idea of story based teaching, very a powerful technique. Arduino Adventures: Escape from Gemini Station uses the idea of story telling to teach the user how to use the Arduino. The book is divided into eight distinct adventure chapters and each chapter is followed by three additional chapters. The first following chapter gives the reader the theory behind the solution that they will be working towards. The chapter after that guides the reader in building a hardware solution. Finally, the last chapter before the next adventure walks the reader through the software development involved in the solution. Each section builds on itself from simply reading a potentiometer in the first section, to reading sensors and controlling motors, finally ending with a full fledged robot.

Arduino Adventures: Escape from Gemini Station is a delight to read and will now be one of my go to books for people that want to learn how to build things using the Arduino. If the Arduino is a the gateway to the world of physical electronics builds for many people then Arduino Adventures is the key that unlocks that gate and makes it very fun, very fast.

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