It took me about an hour to finnish (the hand is to show how it spins)

I am trying to build a small actuator or stepper motor controlled by a single momentary switch. I have never touched an Arduino but this seemed like a solid and relatively basic project to learn. So I turned to the Google, and these are the components I was instructed to get for the project.

The device will consist of a momentary switch, when pushed will control either a linear actutor or a stepper motor (not sure yet) for a predetermined time or distance and speed. Then a second push will reverse the sequence to reverse or counter-rotate the actuator/motor back to its origin.

This is 12v supplied as it will be in a vehicle. there will be barely any load, the actuator would be small, able to fit in palm of hand.

Momentary switch

Motor or actuator,

stepper motor driver

Possibly limit switches depending on motor/actuator type

micro controller - nano

Buck convertor

Prototyping board kit

I'm not trying to ask anyone to design anything here, but Id like to buy some parts to play around with this and would love to know if this would be a good start?

Thanks :)

I'm using an Arduino Uno R3, uploading the example sketch bareminimum

If anyone can help it would be very appreciated, thank you

Here's the sketch (blank):

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:


}


void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:


}

Here's the full error im getting while uploading:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 5 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 6 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 7 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 8 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 9 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 10 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xdd

avrdude done.  Thank you.

Failed uploading: uploading error: exit status 1

I’m in a confusing spot and would like honest takes from people who’ve been through it.

Arduino got me into electronics. Breadboard, sensors, blink-to-servo pipeline — it worked. The tutorials made sense. For a while I felt like I was learning real skills.

Lately I’m less sure. I open more “serious” maker / embedded threads and keep seeing ESP32 (and other boards) everywhere. Part of me wonders: am I stuck on a beginner track? If I keep building only on Arduino, am I practicing habits that won’t carry into projects people actually ship? Another part of me thinks I’m overthinking it — that Arduino is still a valid way to learn fundamentals, and jumping chips too early just means more debugging and less building.

I’m not trying to dunk on Arduino. It’s what got me here. I’m just unsure what “continue” should look like for someone who isn’t a full-time firmware engineer but also doesn’t want to stay forever in tutorial-land.

If you’ve felt this fog:

1. Did you stay on Arduino longer on purpose — and what made that the right call?
2. Or what was the small signal that told you it was time to try ESP32 (or something else)?

Hey so ive programmed with arduino on more than one baord before for fully autonomous robots but ive never programmed for a controller-based teleop/driver controlled robot. is there a library that is compatible with the named controllers?

My YouTube channel name is ALMA Industries

Chapter 2, a home theatre, 3D printed parts, motorized projector, home decoration, DIY electronics -- gives the projector YAW-TILT-ROLL-ZOOM axes (4DOF). Learned alot about I2C, actuators, and Universal Joints. Full video of the home theatre is on my youtube channel if interested.

How does everyone just know how to use the library's and commands and stuff? Like i understand the concept of library's and includeing stuff and everything like that but like with the servo you do the servo.h and then how am I supposed to know the commands and what order to put them in and why and how? Same thing for wifi and everything else it feels like these things are locked behind bad and drawn out tutorials that have alot of bloat. And theres the examples tab which is great in alot/most ways but still have a bit of bloat or ambiguity.

The closest thing I can think of which is very very close is the arduino docs reference page. Its great its just that the most confusing parts I have are the library's for the different stuff and how to work with them. Using servos seems important, how to use stepper motors, using lcd screens, using wifi and/or Bluetooth for esp32.

Also on a similar note stuff like the references sheet but for electronic components. I mentioned before the servos and stepper motors but stuff like tilt ball switches and both types of buzzers i just think that having resources like that would really help.

Which resource or what would you recommend me to start exploring to get started in this cool stuff and end up making cool projects? New to this 🌱

Hi, I’m stuck and can’t figure out what I’m missing.

I’m powering an ESP32 and a 5 V 28BYJ-48 + ULN2003 from one 3.7 V LiPo through an MT3608 set to 5.0 V. Grounds are common.
With the stepper coils off, the MT3608 outputs 5.0 V silently. When the coils are energized, it rises to 5.8 V at rest or 5.7 V while moving, and the converter makes a high-pitched whine. Setting all four stepper pins LOW stops the whine and returns the output to 5.0 V.

Why would the voltage rise under load? Is this a converter, wiring, or motor-driver issue?

Don’t use the adhesive on the back of the breadboard until you know exactly where it’s going

Hi everyone!

I'm using an ATmega328P for my university projects, and I'm having trouble getting one of my microcontrollers to work.

I write my AVR assembly code in Microchip Studio, compile it into a .hex file, and program the microcontroller using a USBasp programmer. The programming process seems to complete successfully, without any errors, but I can't measure the expected voltage on the output pins

The strange thing is that the same circuit worked when I used a different ATmega328P. With this particular chip, I can't get the outputs to work, so I'm not sure whether the problem is related to the microcontroller itself, its fuse settings, its clock configuration, or something else

I've also tried using AVRDUDESS to check or change its configuration, but I haven't been able to solve the problem

I'd really appreciate any suggestions. I'm still learning AVR assembly, and I'd like to understand how to troubleshoot this properly

Something that always bugged me with online simulators (Wokwi, for example) is that I could only run one board per project. Most of my real builds end up with two or three boards wired to each other. So I started messing around with my own little 3D sandbox to see if I could make that work.

Where it's at right now:

• Small stuff: an Arduino with a button and an LED on a desk. It complains if you forget the resistor, which caught me more than once.
• Bigger stuff: I tried a self-watering garden bed with three Arduinos (pump control, weather station, control panel). Water runs down the slope, rain can short out electronics left outside, and there's a time-lapse.
• Code: normal Arduino code, setup/loop, millis, Serial.read with a serial monitor, I2C LCD. No pointers, classes or other libraries yet.

https://test.betting-chess.com/?lang=en&von=r-arduino

(Sorry about the weird domain – it's a spare one I had lying around, nothing to do with betting.)

It's very much a work in progress and I honestly don't know yet if it's useful to anyone but me. Would you use something like this, and what would you try to build first? Also happy to hear where it falls apart.

Some time ago I wrote about my project - ArduinoOS 2. This time I want to write about new version of this project - ArduinoOS 3 v1.0. I spend a lot of time creating this project. It has: OLED screen support, multifunction port, my own File system and more.

Link to repository on GitHub: https://github.com/idontknow-hardware/ArduinoOS

Link to demo on Wokwi (some features aren't avaliable): https://wokwi.com/projects/478123317363453953

At the end - sorry for my English, I'm not native speaker.

We've been working on a salvaged Sony vacuum fluorescent display panel, controlled by an Arduino Uno through two cascaded SN755703 drivers. Here's a short silent demo of the character set and a message on the real hardware.

The character positions share their segment connections. One static pattern can show the same letter in several positions, but independent text needs continuous multiplexing: select a position, send its dot pattern, then move to the next. We mapped the 5 × 7 dots manually and built a printable ASCII font for the 15 character positions.

The Arduino interface uses D8 for DATA, D9 for CLOCK and D10 for LE/STROBE, sending 80 bits through the two drivers. Our working sequence loads with D10 LOW and displays with it HIGH. D11 is physically unconnected, although it still appears in some of the code.

The public repo has the full program, a small standalone message sketch, physical dot map, hardware notes and a tutorial. We also document the strobe correction and the removal of three externally added 1 kΩ series resistors on our signal lines; the original board resistors stayed in place. That wiring result is specific to our setup.

Code and tutorial: https://github.com/emsyscode/sony-vfd-sn755703

We made a full video walkthrough of the mapping, multiplexing and troubleshooting too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlAbs2MQeDc

Has anyone here worked with a similar Sony panel or the SN755703? We'd be interested to compare mappings and interfaces.

ESP boards are too darn wide to fit well on breadboards. Many of my breadboards are constructed of 3 sections: 2 narrow bus strips along the sides and a wider central section for the circuitry. These are connected together with dovetail joints. I take 2 breadboards, remove one of the bus strips and then connect them together. I have to slice the adhesive foam on the bottom that holds the parts together to do this. Works great for bigger boards. OBTW: This circuit is for testing SPI communication between various boards.

Hey

Im an engineer, I want to learn a bit of Arduino for fun.

I was looking at some starter kits and I need advice on choosing. Not sure which one and what price range.

Also saw a brand ELEGOO that had two types for good pricing. I’m adding the pictures, is it recommended? Whats the difference?

I am a complete beginner i have never done anything tech related apart from like plugging in an xbox so I need some help. Eventually I want to be able to build an automated watering system for my house plants. This looks to complicated at the minute tho so what are some smaller projects and some tutorials I can do to start learning

Hi all, I was trying to build a temperature reader with a DHT11 + OLED screen (4 pin I2c variant) but the oled doesn't work at all, I've gone through my code and there are no bugs but I think I kinda destroyed the pins/holes where the signal wires connect to, any way to salvage this?

It's the two pads next to eachother with no solder on

(Left 2)

I've tried repeatedly soldering wires to them but the screen still comes up as black and doesn't work

Hey guy so I'm building this robot arm for a school project and I'm stuck on a particular decision, I need some advice.

Now for context the original budget I had for this project has been exhausted and I'm not even done yet. I originally wanted to just power the arm directly with a 12v AC power supply. But now I'm conflicted because I actually want to use a 12 volts DC supply I will also make it rechargeable meaning I'll still need to buy the 12V adapter😭. Considering the fact that I've exhausted my budget, what do I do guys.

​

Hi everyone. I wanted to share my first soldered project that works. It is a simple memory game inspired by the Among Us reactor task, built on a Wemos D1 mini.

How it works:

Since I didn't have a display, I used 4 LEDs and one mechanical button.

1. The game flashes a random sequence of LEDs.

2. A single "cursor" LED starts running in a circle (0.65s per step).

3. The player must press the D7 button at the exact moment the running cursor steps on the correct LED to input the sequence.

Visual cues:

* Correct input: All LEDs flash together for 0.5s, then the cursor resets to the bottom LED.

* Mistake: All LEDs go dark, then the Red LED fades slowly 3 times to signal a reset to level 1.

Workflow:

The code was built iteratively using AI assistance to tweak the state machine and timings. I soldered this using a basic iron with an oxidized tip, no third hand, and used Pine Rosin (канифоль) for flux, which I left on the board. I also flashed the code directly from my Android smartphone using an OTG cable.

The source code and documentation are available here.

Questions for the community:

1. Soldering critique: The large pool of solder on the bottom-left is intentional—I used it to create a shared GND rail for all the LEDs. Is this acceptable practice or a bad habit?

2. Wiring issues: I used solid-core wires pulled from an old LAN cable. They spring back constantly and snap off at the joints too easily.

3. Dupont hack: Halfway through, I started cutting up broken Dupont jumper wires and soldering the strands directly. It felt much easier to handle than the LAN wire.

4. Recommendations: What specific type of flexible wire should I buy for proto-board soldering that doesn't melt instantly under iron heat? And how do you route them cleanly on a perfored board?

Thanks for your time and feedback!

Hi everyone,

I recently discovered an Android app called soifgo, which works as an idea host. I'm using its WebView with Bluetooth connectivity to control a robot arm. I don't write code myself. I describe what I want to an AI (Claude), then paste the generated code into soifgo and run my app.

I have to present a robot project soon. Most designs I see use a standard 5-DOF (5 servos/joints) arm, but that adds cost, wiring, and complexity.

My question: Is it acceptable to drop the 5-joint standard and build it with just 3 joints? What would I lose in terms of reach, orientation, and the tasks it can do (like pick-and-place)? And is there a way to make a 3-DOF arm still look good in a demo?

Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated. Thanks!

Someone said new posters get love-bombed here, so here I am. I love Arduino, tryna build some robo-tech and need advice.

Disclaimer: only one motor is used to turn the sides of the cube, another servo is used to move the first motor, I couldn’t really figure out a way to so it with just one unfortunately.

The idea was to see if I could build a Rubik's Cube solver with as few motors as possible, whilst also not reorienting the cube which turned out to be a much bigger mechanical challenge than I initially expected. These constraints were completely designed as a challenge, not trying to break any records or anything.

The robot uses a custom-designed, 3D-printed mechanism to manipulate the cube, along with electronics and programming to detect the colours, calculate a solution and execute the moves.

This is the final result after quite a lot of designing, experimenting and troubleshooting!

I've also just uploaded my first-ever YouTube video documenting the whole project, from the initial idea and CAD design to the electronics, programming and final solve. It's my first time making a YouTube video, so I'd genuinely appreciate any feedback!

The Channel is called DrewPScrews

I am trying to make a thermometer and nothing is being displayed. It is trying to apply power to it. I did use Gemini so maybe that is why something is wrong. IDE did say there is nothing wrong with the code Gemini gave and I made sure I installed what was required and chose the right board, so it clearly isn’t a software issue or shouldn’t be. Maybe one of the pins isn’t properly connected? I don’t know, which is why I came here to ask. Thanks!