How to assemble Amarino Evaluation Shield

SEE ALL THE PHOTOS ON FLICKR This post shows you how to build the Amarino evaluation shield.

When you buy the shield package, you will get the following components.

Fully assembled kit is now available on buildcircuit.net.

The PCB:

PCB clearly shows the pin and component names, so, it should help you to get idea of connections of components to Arduino. If you just follow the names of components on the PCB, it is possible to assemble the whole kit without reading the rest of this post. However, I have shown all the important steps.

Step 1: Always start with the smallest component. So, start with resistors. Fix resistors 220R.

Step 2: Then fix 10k resistor.

Step 3: Then, fix LDR and 5mm white LED.

Step 4: Fix tactile switch

Step 5: Fix LM35.

Step 6: Fix RGB LED. It is common cathode type RGB LED.

Step 7: Solder all the female headers.

Step 8: Solder 10k variable resistor and 1 position DIP switch,

Step 9: Fix 16×2 LCD. While soldering the header the 16×2 LCD, the longer part of header should be on the upper side of PCB. Please see the picture below:

When you purchase the kit, you may get a slightly different LCD that needs to be fixed in the following way:

Step 10: Solder 4 pcs of male headers on the PCB to stack the shield over the Arduino.

Your shield is ready 🙂 .

Stacking adapter: You can stack either BlueSMiRF mate silver or general Bluetooth adapter over the shield. See the following pictures how they are stacked.

First Experiment: Test if the LCD is working- source code   Download source code  Watch the video to know how to change the contrast level of LCD. Move the 10k variable resistor screw in the clockwise direction to increase the contrast level. After you confirm that the LCD is working, modify the source to test RGB LED, LDR, LM35DZ and 5mm LED. Check the schematic and circuit layout.


Check out all the experiments with Amarino Evaluation shield


try this also

Fully assembled kit is now available on buildcircuit.net. Watch all the videos (Playlist):

try this also

Bluetooth adaptors supported by Amarino Shield

BT adaptor

 In Amarino shield version 3.0, there are headers for 3 different bluetooth adapters.

a. General Bluetooth Adapter – Cheapest adapter available at www.buildcircuit.net. RECOMMENDED !

b. BlueSMiRF– Bluetooth Mate Silver– More expensive adapter available on sparkfun.com.

c. BlueSMiRF Gold – The most expensive adapter available on sparkfun.com.

Bluetooth Modules for Amarino shield– Whichever Bluetooth adaptor you are using, the baud rate of Bluetooth adapter should match with the Serial Monitor’s baud rate. For example, if your Arduino source code has

Serial.begin(57600);

then, the baud rate of Bluetooth adapter should also be 57600. The default baud rate of BlueSMiRF module and general adapter is 9600. The shield works excellent with 9600. However, if you want to change the baud rate of BlueSMiRF module, here’s a tutorial.

We don’t know if we can change the baud rate of general Bluetooth adapters with the process mentioned on this tutorial. You can try it.

– This project has been tested with BlueSMiRF module as well as general Bluetooth adapter module and it works well.

Bluetooth Mate Silver

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

BT adaptor
Bluetooth Serial Adapter

Related tutorials:


You can purchase this versatile Amarino shield at buildcircuit.net. The store is owned and operated by the team which operates buildcircuit.com.

Amarino shield in use (2)Buy now button


Assembly Tutorial of Amarino Nano 1.0

Amarino Nano 1.0

Please visit this page first to know about Amarino Nano.

Assembly process of this kit is very easy. If you have basic soldering knowledge, you can assemble the board within half an hour.

You can directly visit BuildCircuit’s Flickr page and see all the assembly steps.

If you look at the PCB, you will see that the silkscreen labels are enough to guide you to solder the components properly.

PCB

Before you start, make sure that you have all the required components.

Here’s the list of components:

  • 1 x Arduino Nano
  • 1 x Bluetooth adapter
  • 1 x Amarino Nano PCB
  • 2 x 15 pin female headers
  • 1 x 4 pin female header
  • 1 x Red Color 1P DIP switch
  • 1 x LM35DZ temperature sensor
  • 1 x 5mm LED
  • 1 x RGB LED- common cathode
  • 1 x photo resistor
  • 4 x 220 Ohm resistor
  • 1 x 10K Ohm resistor

Now, follow these steps:

1. Always start with the small components. So, solder all the resistors first. Solder 220 Ohm resistors.

Step 2- Solder resistor that connects to D11

2. Solder 10K Ohm resistor and the photo resistor

Step 3- Solder 10K Ohm resistor

3. Solder LM35DZ temperature sensor.

Step 5- Solder LM35

4. Solder 1P DIP switch, the one in RED color. This switch has to be turned off while uploading the Arduino sketch.

Step 6- Solder 1P DIP switch

5. Solder 5mm white LED

Step 7- Solder 5mm LED

6. Solder common cathode RGB LED

Step 8- Solder RGB LED Step 8.2- RGB LED top view

7. Solder 4 pin female header for Bluetooth moduleStep 9- Solder 4pin female header

8. Solder 2pcs 15 pin female header to stack the Arduino NanoStep 10- Solder 15 pin female headers

9. Stack the Bluetooth module and the Arduino Nano on the correct female headers. Your Amarino Nano board is ready to use. Visit this page for experiments.

Step 11- Fix Arduino Nano and Bluetooth Module

10. Connect a mini USB cable to operate the kit.

Connect USB cable and use the kit

See the following links:

1. About Amarino Nano 1.0

2. Experiments with Amarino Nano 1.0– You will get all the Apps and Arduino sketches on this page.

3. All the images on Flickr


Where can you buy this kit ?

The kit is available at BuildCircuit Store (www.buildcircuit.com.au- Free Shipping in Australia)

Amarino Nano-1-1Buy now button

Amarino Nano 1.0

Amarino Nano 1.0

amarino nano

[mpc_vc_quote quote=”Amarino Nano 1.0 kit facilitates communication between Arduino Nano and Android applications via Bluetooth. “]

Amarino Nano Output

Amarino Nano is a very simple kit for experimenting with Amarino toolkit– a quick prototyping application based on Android. However, you don’t essentially need Amarino toolkit to experiment with this kit.

It works with many other apps made for Android-Arduino communication via Bluetooth. You can also use this as a simple shield for Arduino Nano.

Amarino Nano is based on: 

  1. Arduino Nano– You need an Arduino Nano for Amarino experiments.
  2. Amarino toolkit application: Amarino toolkit is an Android application. Read more…

amarino app

3. Bluetooth communication medium: You will need a Bluetooth adapter module to make communication between Arduino Nano and Amarino toolkit.

What can Amarino Nano do: 

Like any other Amarino kits (Amarino DIY shield, Amarino evaluation shield), Amarino Nano 1.0 basically facilitates interaction between Arduino and Android via Bluetooth communication medium.

Features: 

  1. Control RGB LED: You can control an RGB LED from your Amarino application. In this experiment, you transmit control signals from Android to Arduino. Watch this video. See all the steps.
  2. Display LDR sensor data on Sensor Graph: You can see light sensor data and a simple graph on your Android phone interface. The sensor data is transmitted from Amarino Nano 1.0 kit to the phone. In this experiment, you transmit sensor signals to your Arduino and vice versa. Watch this video
  3. Display temperature sensor data on phone: You can see temperature sensor data (from LM35) on your Amarino application interface. In this experiment too, you transmit temperature sensor signals to your Arduino and vice versa. Watch this video.
  4. Control 5mm LED : You can control a 5mm white LED present on the kit. You can simultaneously control the LED and see sensor data. In this experiment, you transmit and receive signals from Android to Arduino and vice versa simultaneously. You can see in the experiment no.3.
  5. Use as Arduino Nano Shield: You can use this kit to experiment with Arduino Nano. You don’t need any Android app for that 🙂 .
  6. Test any Android app for Arduino: You can test any Android App made for Android-Arduino communication via Bluetooth. You can find several apps on Google Play.
[mpc_vc_deco_header type=”h6″ align=”left” text=”What does the kit package include”]

Amarino Nano 1.0 Assembled: 

Amarino Nano 1.0 “assembled version” has all the components assembled on the PCB board. In addition to the circuit board, you will get the following:

1. Bluetooth adapter module

2. Arduino Nano 1.0 (Chinese version with CH340G chipwith mini USB cable

Amarino Nano 1.0

Amarino Nano 1.0 DIY kit:

Amarino Nano 1.0 comes with all the components required to build the kit. With basic soldering knowledge you can easily build the kit.

You will get the following components:

  1. 1 x PCB- Click on the link to see how the PCB looks. You will get all the direction for soldering by seeing on the PCB. It’s very easy.
  2. 4 x 220 Ohm resistors: These resistors are current limiters for RGB and 5mm white LEDs.
  3. 1 x 10K Ohm resistor: This resistor is connected to LDR (photo resistor, light sensor) forming a voltage divider network.
  4. 1 x Light dependent resistor(LDR)/ Photoresistor: This sensor is used for sensor graph experiment.
  5. 1 x LM35 temperature sensor: This temperature sensor is used for transmitting temperature data to the Amarino application.
  6. 1 x 1P DIP switch: This switch is used for switching on/off the Bluetooth module while programming the Arduino Nano. It is not a power on/off switch.
  7. 1 x 5mm LED
  8. 1 x RGB LED: This is used for RGB lamp experiment. You can control the LED with RGB Amarino application.
  9. 1 x 4 pin female header: This header is used for stacking the Bluetooth adapter module.
  10. 2 x 15 pin female headers: These headers are used for stacking the Amarino Nano.
  11. 1 x Arduino Nano with USB cable: You will get a Chinese version of Arduino Nano with a mini USB cable. It has CH340G chip.
  12. 1 x Bluetooth adapter module: This Bluetooth module facilitates communication between Arduino Nano and Amarino kit.

amarino nano

How to assemble the DIY version of Amarino Nano 1.0: 

  1. You can get the assembly tutorial on this page.
  2. You can see all the image on Flickr and get soldering idea.

Applications and Libraries

Before you begin your experiments with Amarino Nano 1.0, you need to download the following:

amarino app

  • Download Amarino Library for Arduino and move it to the Libraries folder. You can check here if the Amarino team has upgraded the library. It’s always good to use the updated version :) .  If the link does not work, you can download the library from this link. 
  • Other applications:

a. RGB LED Control application This application is for controlling the RGB LED.

multicolor lamp

If you need the source code, download it from here. The source code is optional and useful only for Android programmers. If the link does not work, download it from here.

b. Sensor graph application: This application is for getting LDR sensor signals from Arduino board. Source code for this application can be downloaded from here.

sensor graph

c. LM35 temperature sensor application:  With this application, you can transmit LM35 temperature sensor data to your Amarino application.

temperature sensor

Source code for this application can be downloaded from here.

Experiments:

As you can see from the schematic, the pins of Arduino Nano which are connected to the sensors and other components:

Analog Pins: 

A1: Connected to Photoresistor

A0: Connected to LM35DZ temperature sensor

Digital pins:

RGB LED: D3: Red, D5: Blue, D7: Green.

D11: 5mm White LEDAmarino Nano1

1. RGB LED Control experiment: In this experiment, you control the RGB LED with the RGB multicolor lamp application.

2. Sensor Graph: In this experiment, you can fetch the light sensor data on your Amarino interface. The Arduino sends sensor data to your phone.

3. Temperature sensor data on your phone: In this experiment, you can fetch the Lm35 temperature sensor data on your Amarino application interface. The Arduino sends sensor data to your phone and your phone can control the 5mm LED present on the Amarino Nano kit.

Where can you buy this kit ?

The kit is available at BuildCircuit Store (www.buildcircuit.com.au- Free Shipping in Australia)

Amarino Nano-1-1Buy now button

Experiments with Amarino Nano 1.0

If you have come to this page from a search engine, please read this page first, you will eventually come back to this page again. The first page gives you the idea of Amarino Nano 1.0 and its features.

Steps for experiments: 

Before you start the experiment, stack the Arduino Nano and Bluetooth modules on the headers of Amarino Nano. This is how you do that:

Amarino Nano-1-1

Then connect it to your computer for programming using the provided USB cable. Please remember that you need to turn off the RED colored 1P-DIP switch while uploading your sketch to your Arduino.

For all the experiments, you have the following things in common:

Step 1: Amarino Toolkit MAIN application: This is the main Amarino application to be installed on your Android phone. There are other applications which work only after installing the main application. If the link does not work, download the application from here.

Step 2: Amarino Library for Arduino: Download it and move it to the Libraries folder. You can check here if the Amarino team has upgraded the library. It’s always good to use the updated version :) .

If the given link does not work, you can download the library from this link. 

After installing the Amarino main application and Amarino library, we move to the following steps:

Step 3: Pair up the Bluetooth adapter module with the Bluetooth of your Android phone. The pairing code is 1234. 

After installing the Bluetooth adapter on the Amarino Nano kit, switch on the Bluetooth function of your phone, open the Amarino application and connect each other using the pairing code 1234. You can see the MAC ID of the Bluetooth adapter on the Amarino application interface. On the image shown below, you can see that there are two Bluetooth adapters with two different names and IDs registered on the application. Pressing the “Connect” button connects the application to the chosen adapter. You can connect only one adapter at one time.

Once the adapter is paired up, you don’t need to pair it again. 

Amarino Interface

A low cost general Bluetooth adapter is enough for this shield. You can purchase one at www.buildcircuit.com.au.

Look at the schematic before you start:

On the schematic given below you can see how the components are connected to Arduino Nano. Seeing the schematic you can expect the output of your projects.

Amarino Nano1

Experiment 1- RGB LED Control: watch this video.

Amarino Nano-1-1

This is how you stack Arduino Nano and Bluetooth modules on the headers.

Remember to turn off the RED color 1P DIP switch while uploading your Arduino sketch.

RGB LED is connected to digital pins 3(RED), 5(GREEN) and 6(BLUE).

RGB control application multicolor lamp

  • Open the application and control your RGB LED. As you move the slider, the color on the RGB LED changes. Remember to switch on the 1P DIP switch, otherwise, it won’t work. 

The multicolor lamp application

Experiment 2: Sensor Graph display

Switch off the RED color 1P DIP switch while uploading your Arduino sketch.

The photoresistor/LDR is connected to A1 and the 5mm white LED is connected to D11.

  • Download the sensor graph application and install it on your phone.
  • Download the Arduino source code and upload it to your Arduino Nano. NOTE: You need to switch off the 1P DIP switch while uploading the sketch. After uploading switch it on again.
  • Set Bluetooth MAC ID. It is different for all Bluetooth modules. My Bluetooth module has MAC ID: 98:D3:31:70:3A:98, so, I used that. You will have a different MAC ID for your module.

Sensor Graphsensor graph

  • Open the application and see the sensor data on your phone. You may also control the 5mm LED simultaneously. Remember to switch on the 1P DIP switch, otherwise, it won’t work. 

sensor graph (2)

Experiment 3: LM35 temperature sensor data display

Switch off the RED color 1P DIP switch while uploading your Arduino sketch.

LM35 temperature sensor is connected to A0.

temperature sensor log intemperature sensor

  • Open the application and see the sensor data on your phone. You may also control the 5mm LED simultaneously. Remember to switch on the 1P DIP switch, otherwise, it won’t work. 

temperature sensor datatemperature sensor


Where can you buy this kit ?

The kit is available at BuildCircuit Store (www.buildcircuit.com.au- Free Shipping in Australia)

Amarino Nano-1-1Buy now button

Cosmarino- A DIY kit for Android-Arduino communication

Cosmarino

“Cosmarino is a kit for experimenting Android-Arduino communication via Bluetooth.”

Features: 

  • Control RGB LED with Android phone
  • Display photoresistor sensor data on a graph on Android phone
  • Transmit LM35DZ temperature sensor data on Android phone
  • Control 5V relay with Android phone
  • Control 5V relay and LED with any infrared remote control

This is Cosmarino- A simple DIY kit for facilitating communication between Arduino Nano and Android via Bluetooth communication medium. The kit also has a TSOP4838 infrared sensor which offers you the possibility of controlling the kit with a normal infrared remote control.

The kit has been designed to support particularly Amarino toolkit Android application, but we have tested the kit with many other applications made for Arduino-Android communication via Bluetooth and all have worked properly.

The kit package includes:

  1. Cosmarino kit- Available in fully assembled and DIY versions
  2. Bluetooth module
  3. Amarino Nano– Chinese version with CH340G chip
  4. Infrared remote control

Cosmarino has the following features:

  • Android app controlled: The Cosmarino kit can be controlled with several Android applications made for controlling Arduino or communicating with Arduino via Bluetooth. We have used Amarino toolkit and many other Android applications for testing different features of the kit.
  • Bluetooth support: The control signals from Android phone are sent to Arduino Nano via Bluetooth. There is a Bluetooth module connected to the circuit board that facilitates communication between Android and Arduino.
  • TSOP4838 infrared sensor: There is a TSOP4838 infrared sensor on the circuit board which allows you to control Cosmarino with any kind of TV/DVD remote control. However, the kit package includes an Infrared remote control also.
  • Fully programmable: The kit is fully programmable because it has Arduino Nano.

Experiments:

You can do several experiments with Cosmarino. Some of the interesting experiments have been listed below.

1. RGB LED control: You can control the common cathode RGB LED with your Android smart phone.

multicolor lamp

2. Relay control- Relay on the kit can be controlled with the phone or any remote control.

3. LDR/photoresistor sensor data- Cosmarino can transmit LDR sensor data to your phone. You can receive LDR sensor data and control the 5mm LED at the same time.

This feature is available with Amarino toolkit application only.

sensor graph

5. LM35 temperature sensor data- The kit transmits LM35 temperature sensor data to your phone. You can receive the sensor data and control the 5mm LED at the same time.

This feature is available with Amarino toolkit application only.

temperature sensor

 Schematic: (Click on the schematic to enlarge)

cosmarino

As you can see on the schematic the components have been connected to the Arduino Nano in the following way:

1. OUTPUT- RGB LED: R= D3, Blue= D5 and Green= D6. All these digital pins have Pulse Width Modulation function.

2. OUTPUT- 5mm LED connected to Digital pin D11

3. OUTPUT- 5V relay connected to Digital pin D2

4. INPUT- LDR/Photoresistor connected to Analog pin A1

5. INPUT- LM35 temperature sensor connected to Analog pin A0

6. INPUT- TSOP4838 infrared sensor connected to Digital pin D7

Related documents:

Where can you buy ?

buildcircuit

Cosmarino Assembly Tutorial

If you have come to this page from a search engine, please check this page first, you will eventually come to this page again.

About Cosmarino

The assembly process of the Cosmarino kit is very straight forward. You just need to follow the silkscreen labels to get the idea of assembly. A basic knowledge in soldering is enough for assembling the kit.

To be quick, you can see all the assembly images on Flickr. 

Step 1: Solder all the 220 ohm resistors

Step 1- Solder 220 Ohm resistors

Step 2: Solder 330 Ohm and 10K ohm resistors

Step 2- SOlder 330 Ohm and 10K Ohm resistors

Step 3: Solder 1N4001 diode.

Step 3- Solder 1N4001 Diode

Step 4: Solder LDR/ photoresistor.
Step 4- Solder LDR

Step 5: Solder BD139 NPN transistor
Step 5- Solder BD139 NPN transistor

Step 6: Solder LM35DZ temperature sensor
Step 6- Solder LM35 temperature sensor
Step 6.1- LM35 temperature sensor

Step 7: Solder TSOP4838 infrared sensor
Step 7- Solder TSOP4838 infrared sensor

Step 8: Solder 1P DIP switch
Step 8- Solder 1P DIP switch

Step 9: Solder 5mm white LED
Step 9- Solder 5mm White LED

Step 10: Solder RGB LED
Step 10- Solder common cathode RGB LED
Step 10.1- RGB Common cathode LED

Step 11: Solder 2pcs 15 pin female header
Step 11- Solder 4 pin and 15 pin female headers

Step 12: Solder 3 pin screw terminal
Step 12- Solder 3 pin screw terminal
Step 12.1- 3 pin screw terminal

Step 13: Solder 5V relay
Step 13- Solder 5V relay

Step 14: Stack Bluetooth module and Arduino Nano
Step 14- Stack Bluetooth module and Arduino Nano

The kit is ready to use
Step 15- Use Mini USB cable to program Arduino Nano - Copy


Cosmarino Experiments


 

Related documents:

Where can you buy ?

buildcircuit   ebay   etsy

How to program Amarino lamp

Recommended app

To know about Amarino lamp, visit this page. 

Amarino lamp is fully programmable. The kit package consists of FTDI basic breakout board, you can use it to program the lamp. The lamp is based on Arduino.

Connect the FTDI basic breakout board to the lamp, open the Arduino programming interface and upload your sketch.

REMEMBER: Turn off the red colored 1P DIP switch 1-position-2p-side-style-dip-switch-redwhile uploading sketch(if the Bluetooth module has been stacked over the 4 pin female header)

programming

Documents: 

  1. About Amarino Lamp
  2. Assembly Tutorial
  3. Amarino Lamp- Light sensor
  4. Lamp test with different phone sensors
  5. How to program Amarino lamp

Where can you buy ?

buildcircuit    etsy

Cosmarino Experiments

If you have come to this page from a search engine, please visit this page first, you will eventually come back to this page again.

About Cosmarino 

Cosmarino is a versatile kit that facilitates communication between Android and Arduino in a simple way.

We can do several experiments with this kit. In this tutorial we have shown experiments related to Amarino only. However, you can test the kit with several other Android app available at Google Play.

Before you start the experiments, please know how the components are connected to the Arduino Nano.

1. OUTPUT- RGB LED: R= D3, Blue= D5 and Green= D6. All these digital pins have Pulse Width Modulation fuctionality.

2. OUTPUT- 5mm LED: Digital pin D11

3. OUTPUT- 5V relay= Digital pin D2

4. INPUT- LDR/Photoresistor= Analog pin A1

5. INPUT- LM35 temperature sensor: Analog pin A0

6. INPUT- TSOP4838 infrared sensor= Digital pin D7

Steps for Amarino experiments: 

Amarino_logo-W490

For all the experiments, you have the following things in common:

Step 1: Amarino Toolkit MAIN application: This is the main Amarino toolkit application to be installed on your Android phone. There are other applications which work only after installing the main application. If the link does not work, download the application from here.

amarino main app

Amarino Nano (1)

Step 2: Amarino Library for Arduino: Download it and move it to the Libraries folder. You can check here if the Amarino team has upgraded the library. It’s always good to use the updated version .

If the given link does not work, you can download the library from this link. 

meet android

Step 3: Connect the Bluetooth module to the circuit board. Please note how the Bluetooth module has been stacked over the 4 pin female header. After you stack it on the circuit board, you will see a red LED blinks on the Bluetooth module.

bluetooth module  Bluetooth module

Step 14- Stack Bluetooth module and Arduino NanoNote how the Bluetooth module has been stacked over the board.

Then, activate the Bluetooth function of your phone.

Amarino Nano (2)

Step 5: After you see an LED blinking on the Bluetooth module, open the Amarino Main application, you see the following interface:

Amarino Nano (1)

On the Amarino main application interface, touch Add BT Device. That will display the Bluetooth module close to your Android phone.

Amarino Interface

Select the linvor Bluetooth module. Remember to note down the MAC ID also. In this example, the MAC ID is 20:13:05:09:15:39. It is unique for all the modules. You will need this MAC ID in the next step. Note that the MAC ID is unique for all modules. It is never same for any two Bluetooth modules.

Pressing the “Connect” button display a text box(for the first time), where you need to enter the pairing code, which is 1234. This connects the application to the chosen adapter. You can connect only one adapter at one time.

Pairing code: 1234

Once the adapter is paired up, you don’t need to pair it again. 

Now we can move to the experiments below:

 Experiment 1- RGB LED Control: 

RGB LED is connected to digital pins 3(RED), 5(GREEN) and 6(BLUE).

  • Download the RGB LED control application and install it on your phone.
  • Download the Arduino source code and upload it to your Arduino Nano. NOTE: You need to switch off the 1P DIP switch while uploading the sketch. After uploading switch it on again.
  • Set Bluetooth MAC ID. It is different for all Bluetooth modules. For example, my Bluetooth module has MAC ID: 98:D3:31:70:3A:98, so, I used that. No two Bluetooth modules can have the same MAC ID. You will have a different MAC ID for your module. Enter the MAC ID that you had noted down in the previous step.

RGB control application

  • As soon as you open the application, the app will connect to the Bluetooth module and you can simply control your RGB LED. As you move the slider, the color on the RGB LED changes. Remember to switch on the 1P DIP switch, otherwise, it won’t work. 

The multicolor lamp application

RGB LED control using “Arduino Bluetooth RGB LEDs” android App:

Cosmarino app

There are several Android applications that can control Amarino Nano kit. Here’s one application that we have tested:

You can then simply connect Bluetooth of your phone to the external Bluetooth module and control the Amarino Nano kit.

Experiment 2: Sensor Graph display

The photoresistor/LDR is connected to A1 and the 5mm white LED is connected to D11.

  • Download the sensor graph application and install it on your phone.
  • Download the Arduino source code and upload it to your Arduino Nano. NOTE: You need to switch off the 1P DIP switch while uploading the sketch. After uploading switch it on again.
  • Set Bluetooth MAC ID. It is different for all Bluetooth modules. For example, my Bluetooth module has MAC ID: 98:D3:31:70:3A:98, so, I used that. You will have a different MAC ID for your module.

Sensor Graph

  • Open the application and see the sensor data on your phone. You may also control the 5mm LED simultaneously. Remember to switch on the 1P DIP switch, otherwise, it won’t work. 

sensor graph (2)

Experiment 3: LM35 temperature sensor data display

  • Download the LM35 temperature senor display application and install it on your phone.
  • Download the Arduino source code and upload it to your Arduino Nano. NOTE: You need to switch off the 1P DIP switch while uploading the sketch. After uploading switch it on again.
  • Set Bluetooth MAC ID. It is different for all Bluetooth modules. For example, my Bluetooth module has MAC ID: 98:D3:31:70:3A:98, so, I used that. You will have a different MAC ID for your module.

temperature sensor log in

  • Open the application and see the sensor data on your phone. You may also control the 5mm LED simultaneously. Remember to switch on the 1P DIP switch, otherwise, it won’t work. 

LED control app interface

Relay control

There is a 5V relay on the Cosmarino kit. You can control the relay using your phone application or a normal infrared remote control.

Control the relay using general Android application and Infrared remote control

There are hundreds of applications on Google Play that have been made for Arduino and Android application. You can pick up any of those apps and control the kit.

In this example, we have picked up this application which transmits text ‘h’ every time the green button is pressed. We have programmed it in such a way that the relay is switched on if the Arduino gets an ‘h’.

TIP: If you want to know what text a random Android app sends to Arduino, you can check out this tutorial. The tutorial shows you what Arduino receives from the phone and what Arduino sends to the phone. See this video also.

The kit is fully programmable. Please remember to switch off the red DIP Bluetooth switch while programming, otherwise, the Arduino Nano cannot be programmed. You should switch it back again after the kit has been programmed.

Step 1: Install this Android application from Google Play.

external app

Step 2: Upload any of these sketches:

If you intend to control the relay with infrared remote control, then, you need to download the library and copy it to the libraries folder of Arduino.

Download Infrared sensor library from the original link 

Step 3: Open the Android application and search for the Bluetooth module stacked on the circuit board. Pair up the module with your Android application(to be done only once). Pairing code= 1234. You need to pair up with the module only once.

Step 4: Switch on/off the relay with the application. You can simultaneously control the lamp with your infrared remote control also if you have uploaded this sketch.

Related documents:

Where can you buy ?

buildcircuit   ebay   etsy

Amarino LED Lamp

Amarino Lamp is a versatile programmable LED lamp based on Arduino. The lamp has an inbuilt Arduino as its controller. PWM signals from Arduino are fed into UNL2003A and this chip controls the LED lamp. You can also simultaneously control the lamp with an infrared remote control. It has the following features:

  • Android app controlled: The LED lamp can be controlled with several Android applications made for controlling Arduino or communicating with Arduino via Bluetooth. We have tested the kit with Amarino toolkit and many other Android applications.
  • Bluetooth support: The control signals from Android phone are sent to the lamp via Bluetooth. There is a Bluetooth module connected to the circuit board that facilitates communication between Android and Arduino.
  • TSOP4838 infrared sensor: There is a TSOP4838 infrared sensor on the circuit board which allows you to control the lamp with any kind of TV/DVD remote control.
  • Fully programmable: The lamp is fully programmable because it has an inbuilt Arduino. You will need an FTDI breakout board to program the chip on the board. The kit package includes the FTDI basic breakout board.
  • Resettable PTC fuse: The lamp has a resettable PTC fuse which protects the circuit board from over current flow. In this kit, if the circuit tries to draw more than 500mA of current (if you have a bad short for instance) the PTC would ‘trip’ (by heating up). The increased resistance (trip state) would break the circuit and allow only a small leakage current.

Specification of lamp(according to the manufacturer): This is not the specification of whole circuit.

lamp image

MR16 4W LED Lamp
Lamp base MR16
Power 4W
Voltage 12V AC/DC
Lumens 400-500LM
Beam angle 45°
Dimension diameter 48mm x 61mm high
Weight 37g
Life time more than 50000 hours
Color temperature Cool white:5700-6300K

The kit package includes:

android lamp- main-small

The kit package includes everything that you need to build the LED lamp. On the assembly tutorial page you will get the list of components.

“The kit package does not include 12V/500mA power supply. You need to buy it separately”.

A 12V power supply with 500mA or 1A output is enough for this lamp.

You can buy similar to this one: 12V DC Power Adapter Supply 2.1mm 1A, CCTV

We do not sell that because different countries have different plug standards, so, we cannot stock that for all countries, not even Australia.

List of components is available on the assembly tutorial page.

About ULN2003:

Download datasheet

The ULN2003A is a high-voltage high-current darlington transistor array. The chip consists of seven npn darlington pairs that feature high-voltage outputs with common cathode clamp diodes for switching inductive loads. The collector-current rating of a single darlington pair is 500mA.

Because ULN2003 can drive 500mA, we chose MR16 4W LED lamp that can be driven easily by ULN2003A.

Schematic:

Smart phone lamp

How does it work ?

“You can simultaneously use Android phone application and IR remote control to operate the LED lamp.”

Bluetooth mode: 

The Bluetooth module on the kit is paired up with the Bluetooth of phone and control commands are sent from the phone application. The commands are interpreted by the Arduino UNO microcontroller and ULN2003 is driven to operate the LED lamp.

Infrared mode:

Infrared signals are sent from the infrared remote control and those signals are interpreted by Arduino UNO chip and control commands are sent to the ULN2003 to drive the LED lamp.

Using Amarino toolkit application

You can try several Amarino related experiments with this lamp.

Amarino_logo-W490

Step 1: Download Amarino main application from Amarino website(www.amarino-toolkit.net) and install it on your Android phone. Optional link (use this if the previous link does not work)

amarino main app

Step 2:  Download Meet Android Library and copy it to the Libraries folder of Arduino. Optional link

meet android

Step 3: Upload this sketch to the Atmega328P-PU Arduino UNO chip that’s on the circuit board. You will also need a library for remote control function, download the library and copy it to the libraries folder of Arduino.

Download Infrared sensor library from the original link 

Step 4: Connect the Bluetooth module to the circuit board. Please note how the Bluetooth module has been stacked over the 4 pin female header. And remember to SWITCH ON the circuit board. After you switch on the circuit board, you will see a red LED blinks on the Bluetooth module. Use a 12V (500mA/1A) power supply to power up the lamp.

bluetooth module  REMEMBER: Switch ON the 1P DIP RED color switch also. This switch:1-position-2p-side-style-dip-switch-red. Turning it on makes connection between the Bluetooth module and the microcontroller. But, this switch should be turned off while uploading a sketch.

Step 18- Fix a Bluetooth module over the 4 pin female headerSee how the  Bluetooth module has been stacked.

Then, activate the Bluetooth function of your phone

Amarino Nano (2)

Step 5: After you see an LED blinking on the Bluetooth module, open the Amarino Main application, you see the following interface:

Amarino Nano (1)

On the Amarino main application interface, press Add BT Device. That will display the Bluetooth module close to your Android phone.

Amarino Nano (3)

Select the HC-06 Bluetooth module. Remember to note down the MAC ID. In this example, the MAC ID is 98:D3:31:70:35:94. You will need this MAC ID in the next step. Note that the MAC ID is unique for all modules. It is never same for any two Bluetooth modules.

Now, you need to pair up your phone with the Bluetooth module. So, your phone will prompt a box for entering the pairing code. Pairing up with the Bluetooth module is a one time task.

Amarino Nano (9)

Enter the pairing code: 1234

After entering the pairing code, you will see the Bluetooth module listed on the Amarino application.

Amarino Nano (5)

Press Connect button to make Bluetooth connection between your phone and the Bluetooth module. As soon as the phone and module are connected, the red LED on the module stops blinking.

Step 6: Install this application for controlling the LED lamp.

LED lamp

Step 7: Enter the MAC ID of the Bluetooth module that you noted down in the previous step. In this example, it is 98:D3:31:70:35:94. Then, press Set Device ID.

Android Lamp (2)

Step 8: After you enter the MAC ID of the Bluetooth module, you will reach to this interface. Bluetooth module will be connected automatically to the Bluetooth of your phone.

Android Lamp

Step 9: Control the LED lamp with the slider and simultaneously control it with ANY remote control.

Watch the video below:

Where can you buy ?

buildcircuit      etsy

Control the lamp using general Android application

There are hundreds of applications on Google Play that have been made for Arduino and Android application. You can pick up any of those apps and control the LED lamp.

In this example, we have picked up this application which transmits text ‘h’ every time the green button is pressed. We have programmed it in such a way that the LED lamp is switched on if the Arduino gets an ‘h’.


TIP: If you want to know what text a random Android app sends to Arduino, you can check out this tutorial. The tutorial shows you what Arduino receives from the phone and what Arduino sends to the phone. See this video also.


The lamp is fully programmable. So, you can use your regular Arduino programming interface to program the lamp in anyway you want. Please remember to switch off the red DIP Bluetooth switch while programming, otherwise, the chip cannot be programmed. You should switch it back again after the chip has been programmed. 

Step 1: Install this Android application from Google Play.

external app

Step 2: Upload this sketch to your Arduino. This sketch is for controlling the lamp with Android app and infrared remote control at the same time. If you want to exclude the infrared sensor, you can upload this sketch. You can use an FTDI basic breakout board to program the kit. The breakout board is included in the kit package.

If you intend to control the lamp with infrared remote control, then, you need to download the library and copy it to the libraries folder of Arduino.

Download Infrared sensor library from the original link 

Step 3: Open the Android application and search for the Bluetooth module stacked on the circuit board. Pair up the module with your Android application. Pairing code= 1234. You need to pair up with the module only once.

Step 4: Switch on/off the lamp with the application. You can simultaneously control the lamp with your infrared remote control also.

Watch the video below:


Three interesting experiments:


Related documents: 

 Where can you buy ?

You can buy the lamp on www.buildcircuit.net, Ebay and Etsy.

buildcircuit      etsy

Amarino Lamp- Assembly tutorial

Recommended app

If you come to this page randomly from a search engine, please check this page first, you will eventually come back to this page.

About Amarino Lamp

This post shows you how to assemble the Amarino lamp. The kit package includes the following components. Click on the links of the components the components below to see how the components have been assembled on the circuit board.

You will need basic soldering knowledge to assemble the kit. The assembly process is very straight forward, you can easily guess which components to solder where on the PCB. The silkscreen labels are very clear and directs you to assemble the board properly.

  1. 1 x Bare PCB with silkscreen indicators. (click on the links to see the assembly images)
  2. 2 x 22pF ceramic capacitors  (step 1)
  3. 1 x 0.1uF ceramic capacitor   (step 2)
  4. 1 x 16Mhz crystal oscillator   (step 3)
  5. 1 x 1N4001 diode                  (step 4)
  6. 1 x 3mm LED                         (step 5)
  7. 1 each x 10K and 1K resistors (step 6) 
  8. 1 x TSOP4838 infrared sensor (step 7)
  9. 1 x tactile reset switch             (step 7)
  10. 1 x 500mA PTC resettable fuse (step 8)
  11. 1 x 1P DIP switch  and 1 x SPDT switch (step 9)
  12. 1 x 4 pin female header            (step 10)
  13. 1 x 28 pin DIL socket                (step 11)
  14. 1 x 16 pin DIL socket                (step 12)
  15. 1 x 6 pin male header for FTDI basic breakout board (step 13)
  16. 2 x 10uF electrolytic capacitor (step 14)
  17. 1 x DC barrel                             (step 15)
  18. 1 x LM7805 with heat sink       (step 16)
  19. 1 x LED lamp                             (step 17)
  20. 1 x Bluetooth module               (step 18) (you need to stack this Bluetooth module while using the kit)
  21. 1 x ULN2003 and 1 x Atmega328P with Arduino Bootloader (Insert these chips in the respective DIL sockets)

Documents: 

Where can you buy ?

buildcircuit   etsy

Using phone features with Amarino lamp

In this post…

“Make the lamp respond to orientation sensor, light sensor and phone call”


Amarino lamp responding to Phone call


About Amarino Lamp

Amarino toolkit is a versatile Android application for experimenting Android-Arduino communication via Bluetooth. You can test some of the features of the Amarino toolkit application with Amarino lamp also. For example, you can make the light turn on/off/dim based on the light sensor, orientation sensor, compass, battery level data of your phone.

You can also make the lamp respond to your phone calls and SMS.

There is a list of events on Amarino application that you can test with the lamp.

amarino events (8)

 Step 1: Upload this sketch to your Amarino Lamp. Remember to turn off the Bluetooth switch(the red color 1P DIP switch)

Step 2: Stack the Bluetooth module over the 4 pin female header on the Amarino lamp circuit board. Turn on the Bluetooth switch. You will see a red LED blinking on the Bluetooth module.

Android-Arduino Lamp

Step 3: Turn on the Bluetooth of your phone.

Amarino Nano (2)

 Step 4: Install and open the Amarino main application. 

amarino events (1)

Step 5: Select Add BT Device. It will display the Bluetooth module you have stacked over the Amarino Lamp.

amarino events (2)

Step 6: Select the MAC ID of the Bluetooth module. It will prompt a box for entering the pairing code. Enter 1234 for the pairing code. This code has to be entered only once.

Amarino Nano (9)

Step 7: You will then see the Bluetooth module listed on the Amarino application interface.

amarino events (3)

Step 8: Press one the list for about 2-4 seconds, it will display “Show Events”. Press Show Events. 

amarino events (5)

 Step 9: Then, you reach this interface. Press Add Event, you will see a list of events available with the Amarino application.

amarino events (6)    amarino events (8)

Step 10: Select any Event you like. For example, I select Light Sensor. When you press save, you will reach an interface that displays the light sensor sensed by the Amarino application.

amarino events (9)   amarino events (10)

 You can see that the Light sensor data is shown under ID: ‘A’. So, you Android sketch should also have code that responds to ID: A. You can check the Arduino sketch, you will see a line:

meetAndroid.registerFunction(valuesensor, A);

So, you cannot add another event unless you edit the Arduino sketch.

Step 11: If the light sensor data is not displayed, press the display for about 2-4 seconds, you will get message box, where you have to select, Force Enable.

amarino events (11)

After you press Force Enable, you will see something like this:

amarino events (12)

 Step 12: Go back to the Amarino interface where you see the list of Bluetooth module and press Connect.  As soon as the application connects with the Bluetooth module, the red LED on the Bluetooth module stops blinking.

amarino events (14)

Step 13: When you block the light falling on the phone, the LED lamp dims the light intensity. The lamp responds to the light falling on your Smart phone.

Watch this video and see the whole process for light sensor. 

Step 14: Again press on the light sensor data and press Remove and again add another event, for example, orientation sensor or Phone State or Compass Sensor. You will notice that the lamp responds to all the events on the Amarino application.

Watch the video for orientation sensor. 

REMEMBER: If you are using ID: A on the Amarino app, the Arduino sketch should also have ID: A on this line: 

meetAndroid.registerFunction(valuesensor, A);

If you are using ID: B, then the Arduino sketch should also have value ‘B’

amarino events (11)

Watch the video below: The following videos show the complete process on how to make the lamp respond to light sensor and orientation sensor of the phone.

Amarino Lamp responding to phone call

Arduino sketch for this experiment


Documents: 

  1. About Amarino Lamp
  2. Assembly Tutorial
  3. Amarino Lamp- Light sensor
  4. Lamp test with different phone sensors
  5. How to program Amarino lamp

Where can you buy ?

buildcircuit   etsy

Amarino Lamp- responding to phone’s light sensor

In this post…

“Make the lamp respond to light sensor of your phone”

About Amarino Lamp (See this article to know about Amarino lamp)

This tutorial is related to my previous article. 

You can use Amarino toolkit application to make a simple dark/light sensor and make the lamp respond to the light present in your room.

For this experiment, we are not describing all the steps because we have described everything on this post. We strongly recommend you to see the main article to know how to use the Amarino application.


“Program Amarino Lamp to respond to phone calls, sms and orientation sensor”


 

(more…)

Amarino Shield Experiment 3- LM35 temperature sensor and LED controller

Fully assembled kit (4)

This is one of the most interesting experiments that uses Amarino shield and Amarino toolkit application. If you have never heard of Amarino toolkit and the shield, we recommend you to go the following pages:

  1. About Amarino toolkit
  2. About Amarino shield

This experiment with Amarino shield is similar to our previous tutorials on Sensor Graph- basic experiment and Sensor graph & LED controller together.

tutorials Sensor Graph basic experiment and Sensor graph and LED controller together. – See more at: http://www.buildcircuit.com/amarino-shield-3-0-experiments-android-and-arduino/#sthash.hwn3GMIB.dpuf

You can get a list of other experiments with this shield at the end of this post.

Amarino shield 3

CONNECTION: In this experiment, the sensor signal from LM35 temperature sensor is fed to analog pin A0.

Check out the schematic of Amarino Shield 3.0

Steps:

a. Download Amarino and install on your Android Phone.

b. Download Amarino Library for Arduino and move it to the Libraries folder. You can check here if the Amarino team has upgraded the library. It’s always good to use the updated version 🙂 .

c. Download Temperature sensor (with LED controller) application and install on your phone. If you know Android Programming you can download the Android source code also.

d. Download Arduino code for this experiment  and upload to your Arduino. Here, you have to keep few things in mind:

POINT 1: In Amarino 3.0 DIY shield, you have to use the IC1 switch (1 P DIP switch) to switch off CD4094 while doing Amarino related experiments. If it is switched on, the CD4094 chip might affect your experiment.

POINT 2: The Arduino Sketch has its default baud rate set to 9600 bits/s. Therefore, your Bluetooth adapter should also have the same baud rate. Generally, the default baud rate of BlueSMiRF and general Bluetooth adapters is 9600 bps. However, if you want to change baud rate of BlueSMiRF module, follow this link. We have tested this experiment at 57600 bps and 9600 bps and it works perfectly well. You cannot change the baud rate of general Bluetooth adapters 🙁 .

e. Stack the Amarino shield over your Arduino and your Bluetooth adapter over the correct female header on the shield. The shield supports 3 types of Bluetooth adapters. Please check here to know which adapters are supported.

Test if Amarino application connects to the Bluetooth adapter: After installing the adapter on the shield, switch on the Bluetooth function of your phone, open the Amarino application and connect each other using the pairing code 1234. You can see the MAC ID of the Bluetooth adapter on the Amarino application interface. On the image shown below, you can see that there are two Bluetooth adapters with two different names and IDs registered on the application. Pressing the “Connect” button connects the application to the chosen adapter. You can connect only one adapter at one time.

Amarino Interface

A low cost general Bluetooth adapter is enough for this shield. You can purchase one at buildcircuit.net.

If you have never done any experiment related to Bluetooth adapter, we recommend you to try this one… CLICK HERE.

f. Keep the Bluetooth function of your phone alive, pair it up with the Bluetooth adapter using the pairing code: 1234 and note down the MAC ID of your Bluetooth adapter and type it on the text box of your Temperature sensor (with LED controller) application.

g. Connect to the Bluetooth adapter with your application and use the Temperature sensor (with LED controller) application to operate the 5mm white LED with PWM signals and see the temperature data on the application interface.

Amarino shield 3

Check out the following video:


Related tutorials:


You can purchase this versatile Amarino shield at buildcircuit.net and Etsy. The store is owned and operated by the team which operates buildcircuit.com.

Amarino shield in use (2)Buy now button buy at etsy


Amarino Shield Experiment 2- Sensor Graph and LED controller

Fully assembled kit (4)

This is one of the most interesting experiments that uses Amarino shield and Amarino toolkit application. If you have never heard of Amarino toolkit and the shield, we recommend you to go the following pages:

  1. About Amarino toolkit
  2. About Amarino shield

This experiment with Amarino shield is similar to our previous tutorials on Sensor Graph- basic experiment and Sensor graph & LED controller together.

tutorials Sensor Graph basic experiment and Sensor graph and LED controller together. – See more at: http://www.buildcircuit.com/amarino-shield-3-0-experiments-android-and-arduino/#sthash.hwn3GMIB.dpuf

You can get a list of other experiments with this shield at the end of this post.

sensor graph with LED controller

CONNECTION:

In this experiment, the sensor signal from LDR is fed to A1. You can also see A1 clearly on PCB.

Check out the schematic of Amarino Shield 3.0

Steps:

a. Download Amarino and install on your Android Phone.

b. Download Amarino Library for Arduino and move it to the Libraries folder. You can check here if the Amarino team has upgraded the library. It’s always good to use the updated version 🙂 .

c. Download Sensor Graph (with LED controller) application and install on your phone. If you know Android Programming you can download the Android source code also. You can also get the original Amarino source code. The original source code has the Sensor Graph interface only (which means… there is no LED controller slider on the application).

d. Download Arduino code for Sensor Graph (with LED controller)  and upload to your Arduino. Here, you have to keep few things in mind:

POINT 1: In Amarino 3.0 DIY shield, you have to use the IC1 switch (1 P DIP switch) to switch off CD4094 while doing Amarino related experiments. If it is switched on, the CD4094 chip might affect your experiment.

POINT 2: The Arduino Sketch has its default baud rate set to 9600 bits/s. Therefore, your Bluetooth adapter should also have the same baud rate. Generally, the default baud rate of BlueSMiRF and general Bluetooth adapters is 9600 bps. However, if you want to change baud rate of BlueSMiRF module, follow this link. We have tested this experiment at 57600 bps and 9600 bps and it works perfectly well. You cannot change the baud rate of general Bluetooth adapters 🙁 .

e. Stack the Amarino shield over your Arduino and your Bluetooth adapter over the correct female header on the shield. The shield supports 3 types of Bluetooth adapters. Please check here to know which adapters are supported.

Test if Amarino application connects to the Bluetooth adapter: After installing the adapter on the shield, switch on the Bluetooth function of your phone, open the Amarino application and connect each other using the pairing code 1234. You can see the MAC ID of the Bluetooth adapter on the Amarino application interface. On the image shown below, you can see that there are two Bluetooth adapters with two different names and IDs registered on the application. Pressing the “Connect” button connects the application to the chosen adapter. You can connect only one adapter at one time.

Amarino Interface

A low cost general Bluetooth adapter is enough for this shield. You can purchase one at buildcircuit.net.

If you have never done any experiment related to Bluetooth adapter, we recommend you to try this one… CLICK HERE.

f. Keep the Bluetooth function of your phone alive, pair it up with the Bluetooth adapter using the pairing code: 1234 and note down the MAC ID of your Bluetooth adapter and type it on the text box of your Sensor Graph (with LED controller) application.

g. Connect to the Bluetooth adapter with your application and use the Sensor Graph (with LED controller) application to operate the 5mm white LED with PWM signals and see the graph on the application interface.

The LED and LDR have been kept together so that LED light falls properly on the LDR and you can see the light sensor response clearly on the graph. If your room is highly illuminated, you can put a piece of paper for better results. The paper will block ambient light falling on the LDR.

Check out the following video and see how the sensor graph experiment looks


Related tutorials:


You can purchase this versatile Amarino shield at buildcircuit.net and Etsy. The store is owned and operated by the team which operates buildcircuit.com.

Amarino shield in use (2)Buy now button buy at etsy


Amarino Shield Experiment 1- RGB multicolor lamp using Amarino shield

Fully assembled kit (4)

This is one of the most interesting experiments that uses Amarino shield and Amarino toolkit application. If you have never heard of Amarino toolkit and the shield, we recommend you to go the following pages:

  1. About Amarino toolkit
  2. About Amarino shield

This experiment with Amarino shield is similar to our previous tutorials on RGB multicolor lamp using Amarino and RGB multicolor lamp with custom Bluetooth ID on Amarino Interface.

You can get a list of other experiments with this shield at the end of this post.

Multicolor lamp experiment

RGB LED and its connection on the shield:

We have used common cathode RGB LED for the multicolor lamp (RGB lamp) experiment. The connections are as follows

For Red: Digital Pin 3 has been used.

For Green: Digital Pin 6 has been used.

For Blue: Digital Pin 5 has been used.

Check out the schematic of Amarino Shield 3.0

Steps:

a. Download Amarino and install on your Android Phone.

b. Download Amarino Library for Arduino and move it to the Libraries folder. You can check here if the Amarino team has upgraded the library. It’s always good to use the updated version 🙂 .

c. Download multicolor lamp application and install on your phone. If you know Android Programming you can download the Android source code also. You can also get the original Amarino source code.

The multicolor lamp application

The multicolor lamp application

d. Download Arduino code for Multicolor Lamp and upload to your Arduino. Here, you have to keep few things in mind:

POINT 1: In Amarino 3.0 DIY shield, you have to use the IC1 switch (1 P DIP switch) to switch off CD4094 while doing Amarino related experiments. If it is switched on, the CD4094 chip might affect your experiment. 

POINT 2: The Arduino Sketch has its default baud rate set to 9600 bits/s. Therefore, your Bluetooth adapter should also have the same baud rate. Generally, the default baud rate of BlueSMiRF and general Bluetooth adapters is 9600 bps. However, if you want to change baud rate of BlueSMiRF module, follow this link. We have tested this experiment at 57600 bps and 9600 bps and it works perfectly well. You cannot change the baud rate of general Bluetooth adapters 🙁 .

e. Stack the Amarino shield over your Arduino and your Bluetooth adapter over the correct female header on the shield. The shield supports 3 types of Bluetooth adapters. Please check here to find out which adapters are supported. 

Test if Amarino application connects to the Bluetooth adapter: After installing the adapter on the shield, switch on the Bluetooth function of your phone, open the Amarino application and connect each other using the pairing code 1234. You can see the MAC ID of the Bluetooth adapter on the Amarino application interface. On the image shown below, you can see that there are two Bluetooth adapters with two different names and IDs registered on the application. Pressing the “Connect” button connects the application to the chosen adapter. You can connect only one adapter at one time.

Amarino Interface

A low cost general Bluetooth adapter is enough for this shield. You can purchase one at buildcircuit.net.

If you have never done any experiment related to Bluetooth adapter, we recommend you to try this one… CLICK HERE.

f. Keep the Bluetooth function of your phone alive, pair it up with the Bluetooth adapter using the pairing code: 1234 and note down the MAC ID of your Bluetooth adapter and type it on the text box of your RGB Lamp application.

g. Connect to the Bluetooth adapter with your application and operate the RGB LED using the installed Multicolor RGB Lamp application.

Check out the following video and see how the multicolor lamp experiment looks

Related tutorials:


You can purchase this versatile Amarino shield at buildcircuit.net and Etsy. The store is owned and operated by the team which operates buildcircuit.com.

Amarino shield in use (2)Buy now button buy at etsy


Amarino shield- CD4094 control with Arduino and Android Serial Emulator

Fully assembled kit (4)

This is the second experiment for Amarino shield. If you do not know anything about Amarino toolkit or this shield please click on the following links:

  1. About Amarino toolkit
  2. About Amarino shield

You can get a list of other experiments at the end of this post. Before you try this experiment, we recommend you to try experiment no. 1. In the experiment no.1, you will see how you can control the CD4094 and its corresponding LEDs without using Android phone.

In this experiment, you will see how we can convert a decimal number to its binary form using an Android serial emulator and Amarino shield. On the Amarino shield, you can see that there are 8 pcs of 3mm LEDs which represent the 8 bits. In your experiment, for example,  when you press 255?, you will see that all the LEDs are switched on representing 11111111 that results in actual decimal to binary conversion. Likewise, when you press 1?, you will see LEDs switched on in this pattern: 00000001, i.e. one LED is switched on and other are switched off.

For this experiment, you can use ANY KIND of Android emulator. Here are some examples of Android Serial Emulators. We have used BLUE TERM for this experiment. You can also search this application on your Android phone, it is available on Google Play Store.  Download source code of BLUE TERM(for programmers)

Experiment steps:

Step 1: Download the BLUETERM application or any other general Bluetooth serial emulator for your Android smart phone.

Step 2: DOWNLOAD ARDUINO SOURCE CODE and upload on to your Arduino.

Step 3: Stack the Amarino shield over your Arduino and connect a Bluetooth Adapter.

Please note that the Amarino shield supports 3 different types of Bluetooth Adapters, you can use any one of them. Check out the adapters supported by the shield.

For this experiment, we are using General Bluetooth adapter, the cheapest and the best one. 

The cheapest Bluetooth adapter is available at www.buildcircuit.net. BUY NOW.
Step 4: Connect your phone to Bluetooth adapter using Android Serial Emulator. If you are using the general Bluetooth adapter, the pairing code is 1234. For other adapters also, the pairing code should be 1234.

Step 5: Switch ON the IC1 -1 P DIP switch. If the switch is off, the 10pcs of LEDs connected to CD4094 will not work.

Step 6: Press a number from 0 to 255, and press ? , you will see LEDs responding as binary form of that number.

For example, press 1? glows one LED, i.e. the decimal to 8 bit binary conversion makes… 1= 00000001

or 255? glows all the LEDs, i.e. 255 = 11111111

or 3? glows only two LEDs, i.e. 3 = 00000011

Watch the video below and it will be more clear to you:

Related tutorials:


You can purchase this versatile Amarino shield at buildcircuit.net and Etsy. The store is owned and operated by the team which operates buildcircuit.com.

Amarino shield in use (2)Buy now button buy at etsy


Amarino shield- CD4094 control with Arduino- WITHOUT SMART PHONE

Fully assembled kit (4)

This is the first experiment for Amarino shield. If you do not know anything about Amarino toolkit or this shield please click on the following links:

  1. About Amarino toolkit
  2. About Amarino shield

You can get a list of other experiments at the end of this post.

This experiment has been derived from HEF4794_- Arduino_ Experiment.

This example makes the use of an LED Driver in order to control an almost endless amount of LEDs with only 4 Arduino pins. In this experiment, we use the CD4094 chip. Here, you can get the original version of this experiment: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/LEDDriver . The Arduino team has used HEF4794.

An LED Driver has a shift register embedded that will take data in serial format and transfer it to parallel. It is possible to daisy chain this chip increasing the total amount of LEDs by 8 each time. You need to refer to datasheet for connecting more CD4094.

The code example you see here is taking a value stored in the variable dato and showing it as a decoded binary number. E.g. if dato is 1, only the first LED will light up; if dato is 255 all the LEDs will light up.

NOTE:  Switch ON the IC1 -1 P DIP switch. If the switch is off, the 10pcs of LEDs connected to CD4094 will not work.

Arduino Sketch: LINK

Amarino shield in use (2)

Related tutorials:


You can purchase this versatile Amarino shield at buildcircuit.net and Etsy. The store is owned and operated by the team which operates buildcircuit.com.

Amarino shield in use (2)Buy now button buy at etsy


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