Experiments in wireless (2)

Still waiting for the components to build my breakout boards for the wireless and motors so I've had to content myself with getting the arduino to respond to serial input.  Actually very simple using the serial commands built into the arduino.

I started to rig up some different coloured LEDs on the breadboard when I thought: "traffic light!".  Then as I was rummaging for an amber LED I remembered a school project my eldest daughter had made last year - a set of traffic lights (complete with waiting car)!  So, in the true spirit of recycling (and to give the whole project the hither to missing element of child appeal) I connected up my daughters traffic light project to the arduino thus:

I just added in a couple of 220 ohm resistors to protect the LEDs and then hooked them up to pins 13,12 and 11:

To start with I'm just sent simple signals via a terminal console from my second radio module.  I programmed in a series of commands such as individual on/off, a proper pelican STOP, proper pelican GO and some fancy flashing sequence.

You can see these demonstrated (by my daughter) in the video below:

The (possibly) final stage of this project was to create a more user (child) friendly UI.  I used Processing for the first time to do this.  All I had to was install the serial library and point processing at the right serial port.  I applied my stellar design skills and came up with the following:

Simple point and click.  Unfortunately by now both my daughters had gone to bed so I'll have to wait until tomorrow for some user feedback!