Review: The Arduino Cookbook 2nd Edition

O’Reilly Media is arguably one of the best friends a geek can have. They are legendary for their wide array of programming books and system administration books. From the Nutshell Books, The Animal Books and the Hack Series, O’Reilly Media has been providing people with knowledge and support for over 25 years. It should come as no surprise that as the hardware hacking movement took off O’Reilly was there to help. I was recently sent a copy of The Arduino Cookbook 2nd Edition by Michael Margolis to review for GeekDad.

For those of you not familiar with the O’reilly Cookbook series, they are a collection of “recipes” that help you get things done with different technologies. I have used The Cisco IOS Cookbook in my professional work for years. The Arduino Cookbook 2nd Edition is a collection of recipes to get the Arduino Micro-controller board to do … well, what do you want it do?

The book follows a simple format to present the material to the reader. A problem is stated and a solution is given. After the solution the author follows with a discussion and sometimes a section for further reading. This format is used in all of the Cookbook Series books. The first problem facing an Arduino beginner is, how do I program this thing? The first recipe in the book addresses that question. Margolis walks the reader through setting up the programming environment, powering up the board and writing a script to blink an LED. The first chapter is slanted towards the Official Arduino boards and not the third party variations, like the Boardino or the Ardweeny. The code will work on any board based on the Arduino but you may need to hook up an LED to port 13 to run the test code; see Recipe 7.1 for how to do that.

Chapters 2 and 3 covers aspects of Arduino programs, called sketches. I have to say this section can be a little daunting to programming newcomers. I recommend reading through the two chapters first and then going back through and trying some of the examples. These chapters will be a good reference when you start using the recipes and you will find yourself returning to them to look up a function or check the syntax of a command.

The rest of the book is a collection of useful scripts and schematics that serve as building blocks to build anything you can imagine with an Arduino. Want to use a Wii Nun-chuck to control an audio synthesizer? Check recipe 9.7 to make a synthesizer and recipe 13.2 to interface the accelerometer. There are recipes for communications using Ethernet, Xbee and Bluetooth. Reading sensors, controlling motors and making music. If you have any ideas bouncing around your head for controlling something there is probably a recipe for it. The one thing missing is X10, for home automation, but there is a library that you can install to do X10 communications and recipe 16.2 will tell you how to install it.

The final two chapters dig into some advanced Arduino topics like memory handling and using the low-level hardware functions. The recipes are followed by a set of appendices that cover electronic components, troubleshooting and building techniques.

The Arduino Cookbook doesn’t walk the reader through full projects. There are books that will take you step by step through building robots, sensor networks, or talking toys. This book is for the person who has an idea and wants to make it a reality using the Arduino. So if you want to monitor your garden remotely or make a cool animated Halloween decoration or make a robot to chase the kids around and nag them to clean their room The Arduino Cookbook should be on your bookshelf.

Source: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/05/arduino-cookbook-2nd-edition/

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