Microcontroller Discovery Workshops @Moorabbin
A MicroController Unit (MCU) is a tiny computer on a silicon chip. These incredibly versatile devices first emerged in the 70’s and 80’s, and today are to be found in virtually any everyday item that uses electricity. Your car contains several, at least if it is less than 30 years old. Your microwave has one or more. Your fancy video door bell, even your electric shaver (gentlemen only!). They are absolutely everywhere.
We are running a series of workshops at our Moorabbin clubrooms that will get you started with MCUs. In the hobby space MCUs make it possible to design and build many fun devices like robots, irrigation controls, clocks, radios, games, and ever so much more. There are thousands of fully developed designs out there that you can build, or you can develop your own unique gadget.
The Microcontroller Discovery Workshops are a series of standalone 2-3 hour sessions that will give you an overview of various things you can do with an MCU. We will cover a lot of different things, not in great depth, but more as a sampler. This is designed to give you a basic grounding, so that when you come to do a full-blown project you will feel reasonably comfortable with the various components and techniques. A typical MCU based project consists of the MCU itself plus one or more special function add-on modules such as sensors (temperature, proximity), user interface components (e.g. push buttons, touch screen) and output actuators (motors, lights). We will be using the ESP32 MCU, and cover add-ons like:
- Ultrasonic distance sensor;
- Audio (sound output);
- Push button inputs;
- Colour display;
- LED colour strips;
- Infrared remote controller and receiver;
- … and more.
All materials will be supplied (not to keep, though). You will need to bring a Windows laptop computer, and one requirement is that you have pre-installed the required free support software before you turn up. We are using the Arduino IDE V2.x and 3rd party ESP32 support. For more detail see The Absolute Basics topic page.
Each session will be run more than once, on different days and times, and is designed to allow a functioning result in 2-3 hours. That’s not enough time for a full-blown working product, but enough to give you a taste of what can be done. Most of the time you will be using pre-written program code, with maybe some modification.
Here are some of the planned topics. If there is a link on a topic it means it has been scheduled. You can go to the relevant topic page and find what future sessions are available to sign up to.
- The Absolute Basics;
- Ultrasonic range detection;
- A toy car boom gate with sensors;
- A colour LED strip with various patterns;
- An Internet based clock;
- An Internet radio;
- A remote controlled dolls house light;
The first of those, The Absolute Basics is where we ensure that everyone coming to the other “project” sessions is on the same page in terms of connecting the MCU to their computer, running the software, and all the other absolutely basic operations. It is essential that you have those skills before coming to any of the other, project oriented, sessions!
Each workshop (topic) will be run multiple time at different times and days of the week. They are all stand-alone, except they all rest on The Absolute Basics. Topics currently scheduled are:
About your guide
The workshops will be run by David Stonier-Gibson. David pioneered the use of microprocessors in industrial applications, with his first major project in the mid-1970s. Since then his whole career, and the business he started in 1981, was very MPU/MCU oriented. David will be supported by Bernd Wachs, who has extensive experience in electronics and telecommunications.
