Week 10 - Networking

Arduino with Processing

Networking

This week I wanted to use the "Processing" software to talk with Arduino, and use it to control the lights on the Arduino. A computer network or data network is a telecommunications network which allows computers to exchange data. In computer networks, networked computing devices pass data to each other along data connections (network links). Data is transferred in the form of packets. The connections between nodes are established using either cable media or wireless media. The best-known computer network is the Internet. Network computer devices that originate, route and terminate the data are called network nodes.[1] Nodes can include hosts such as personal computers, phones, servers as well as networking hardware. Two such devices are said to be networked together when one device is able to exchange information with the other device, whether or not they have a direct connection to each other.

  • Name: Desmond Lim
  • Interests: Fabrication, Making
  • Location: MIT Media Lab
  • Date: April 2015
Project 01a
I set up the Arduino using the instructions from the Arduino homepage webpage. It was fairly easy and I went through some of the examples. Over here in the image, I set up a button to press on and off the LED light. When I press, the button, the light will light up!
Over here, I am using Processing, which is software to produce a Graphical User Interface ("GUI") so that the user can manage and control the Arduino light using this software.

As you can see from this video, as I change the color on my computer screen using the GUI interface, the LED light on my Arduino will also change correspondingly. I needed to work the software on my Arduino by programming it using the USB cable and also download the appropriate software from Processing in order to make this work!
In this video, you can see a schematic map of various colors on my Graphical User Interface ("GUI") on my screen. As I select the different colors on my screen and click on them, I am able to change the colors on my LED light on Arduino board too.



In the next video, it is a pretty simple task. I am changing the trackpad of my macbook into a control to turn on and off the LED light for my Arduino. Similarly, I needed to program both my Arduino board and the use the software from Processing.org in order to do this.