Arduino Prototyping: a blog about microcontrollers and interactive design.


  • Martian 2 – Interior Home Entertaining System

    Created by: Yuxi Chen In Martian, Mark Watney became stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead. He rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and survive until a potential rescue. Mark got rescued and became the director of the astronaut candidate program. For Martian…

  • Film Prop Project

    Smart Habitat Module Concept Introduction As we all know, the environment on Mars is extreme and definitely not suitable for humans or any living things. Therefore, it is important to have a Smart Habitat Module that is installed in the shelter for any human beings to survive through the ever-changing surface of Mars which has…

  • Attention: Quartz Watch Simulator

    This project is a “simulation” of a quartz watch that explains the mechanism by which they work. A quartz watch uses a piezoelectric quartz crystal which pulses electricity at an exact frequency, typically 32768 hz (pulses/second.)Our version has a frequency of 32 hz due to limitations of the number of pins and LEDs. Each red…

  • Attention Project: Revolving Snake

    Snakes have multiple forms of locomotion. My project depicts rectilinear: when the snake moves with its body straight without any bends using its belly muscles. Setup My project uses a stepper motor and reed switch as its main Arduino components. The stepper motor moves the snake around a circular rock formation and the reed switch…

  • MQ-J2 Gas Sensor

    Angelica Jones My random sensor was the MQ-J2. Some Basic Info: The MQ series of gas sensors use a small heater inside with an electro-chemical sensor. They are sensitive for a range of gasses and are used indoors at room temperature. The output is an analog signal and can be read with an analog input…

  • Random Sensors: Adafruit MMA8451 Accelerometer & KY-028 Digital Temperature Sensor

    For my project, I had a KY-028 Digital Temperature Sensor and an Adafruit MMA8451 Accelerometer to work with, so I decided to make a device that moves if it detects heat! Here’s some pictures/videos that I took while I was working: KY-028 Digital Temperature Sensor The KY-028 detects data from the environment on temperature. This…

  • KY-038 – Microphone Sound Sensor

    The KY-038 chip contains several component pieces of varying importance. First, the KY-038 chip comes with 4 pins: Analog output, digital output, ground, and power. The analog and digital output pins allow you to choose whether you want to work with a digital or analog signal for detecting sound. I use examples of both. The…

  • Attention: Pocket Pet

    By: Yuxi Chen Origin Before the week I came up with this project, I saw a poster showing that the area shelter has reached its capacity and many pets are going to be killed. It asked people to try to help the pets in shelter if they can. I found out that over 104,000 stray…

  • KY-025 Reed Switch

    The Switch The Reed Switch sensor detects magnetic fields using two magnetic rods. When the two rods are in a magnetic field, the two rods connect and complete the electrical circuit. Also, the switch will have a sensor dead zone if orientated in a specific way. If the direction of the poles of the magnet…

  • “Etch-a-Sketchy”: KY-002 Vibration Sensor

    For my random sensor project, I received this sensor: It turned out to be a KY-002 Vibration Sensor. I could figure that out because there’s a tiny spring inside the cylinder that seemed to vibrate easily, leading me to guess it was a vibration sensor. It’s basically a standard button, except instead of having to…