Parts and how to buy them

Lesson #1—Equipment used here

List of equipment

The following items are provided as part of this workshop:

• Arduino Uno
• SG90 servo motor
• 5528 light dependent resistor (5mm)
• Red light emitting diode (5mm)
• DS18B20 temperature sensor
• FW1S soil moisture probe
• XD-05 data logging shield
• 512MB SD card
• Resistors: 150 ohm, 4.7k, and 10k
• Electronics breadboard and wire.

How to buy these items

• All the electronics can be purchased very cheaply from places like AliExpress or eBay.
• You can also buy brand name equivalents from local electronics stores.

A note about software

• Download the Arduino IDE. I recommend the Windows regular IDE and not the online web editor.
• You will need to install the following libraries. In Arduino, go to Sketch –> Include Library –> Manage Libraries. Type each name below into the search box and click Install for each:
  • SdFat (by Bill Greiman)
  • OneWire (by Jim Studt et al.)
  • DallasTemperature (by Miles Burton et al.)
  • RTCLib by NeiroN (JeeLabs)

CH340 drivers (USB serial port on cheap Arduino clones)

The cheapest Arduino clones often use a low-cost chip called a CH340 to provide the USB interface. This chip requires a standalone driver to be installed.

• Download the CH340 driver.

Encouraging reuse

I have prepared these materials with the hope that you will use them. All content is licensed under a licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The breadboard images were drawn using Fritzing. I recommend this software if you want to prepare similar images yourself.