I use a swing arm “architects” lamp, but that uses a wall plug. I would think the newer LED rechargeable flashlight-type lights might be better for your situation (and mine!) – I too look forward to recommendations.
Another thing, if your friend gets into soldering, a multiarm “soldering arm” – do a search for that to see pictures of what I mean. Especially with a magnifying glass. And safety glasses! Or a combination safety/magnifying glasses. I try to stick to rechargeable as batteries are a waste.
I also have a Walmart fishing tackle box to store all my soldering stuff, and makes it portable. I took out two of the drawers to fit the soldering equipment in, the sides have solder and wire rolls, and the top has small tools.
This one’s mine. The two bottom drawers are out and replaced with soldering equipment. Eventually I’m running a power cord out of it, and maybe some of those arms to hold lights and projects.
I bought a second one for my Dremels.
I’ve been frustrated by those, they never seem to hold right or secure enough. And, I’ve been spoiled by the Panavise 201 which I find to be the perfect tool for holding soldering work.
Here’s the thing that bought for myself this year that’s made my electronics hobbies much more fun. Bonus is that it’s inexpensive too.
It’s a lighted headband magnifier, and conveniently it comes with lenses in several different strengths, for working with things that are kinda small all the way down to “crap, how am I supposed to see that?”
I have that same magnifier glasses set. Use it every day. It’s fantastic, especially for the price.
Working on Arduino projects right now. I’m building an internet-controlled LED effects lamp. The little chip I’m using has an arduino-compatible processor (8266), a wifi radio, full TCP/IP stack and a built in web server. Three for fifteen bucks.
I am amazed at what you can do simply and quickly with a few bucks in chips these days. I used to work with PLCs and other logic controllers, and it’s amazing how much you can do now for a tiny fraction of the price.
My next project is a remote solar powered weather station using LORA radios that will pump data into a local MySql database. Again, the parts are just a few bucks.
I used an Arduino and a couple stepper motors to make a computer-controlled Etch-A-Sketch. I need to get back to that project one of these days. I thought I might add a GPS receiver so that I could walk around a field and the Etch-A-Sketch would draw a line that followed my path.
For the anemometer I am 3D printing one, using a 608 skateboard bearing for it to spin freely and a hall effect sensor and a magnet for detecting RPM. Parts for that are just a couple of bucks. For wind direction I may use a magnetic compass, or possibly an encoder on the vane (which also turns on a skateboard bearing).
I haven’t done anything with rain or snow sensing.
I was planning on using a couple of these chips:
They seem simply enough, give me maybe 100 meters of range, which should be enough. The one in the weather station can be connected to just a simple arduino, while the one in the house will be connected to an ESP32 with built-in Wifi. I’d love to just use a wifi-enabled chip for the weather station, but my wifi signal won’t reach.
You can also get ESP32s with built-in LORA hardware. I might use a couple of those. A little more expensive (about 40 bucks for a pair of them), but simpler in terms of wiring.
I’ve done a significant amount of development work with the NiceRF LoRa module.
You can get WAY more than 100 meters with those modules. I can get over 2 miles with a 1/4 wave dipole antenna on both ends. With clear line-of-site and elevation out of the Fresnel zone, I suspect I could get 20 miles.
That’s awesome. Yeah, I know you can go further with external antennas - I was hoping to get 100m or so with the pcb printed antennas, going through one external wall to the location of the receiver. But I haven’t tested that yet.
I’ve heard of people using Arduino thingies to build monitors for beehives. I’d love something that monitors hive weight and temps and transmits the data so I can play with it. Why have 100,000 stinging insects if you can’t monitor their activities?
But I know data, not computers. How hard would something like that be to set up?
The ATmega-based Arduino boards I have seen have analogue input ports and the chip includes an analog-to-digital converter, so as long as you can convert your sensors to output a voltage between e.g. 0 to 5 volts, it should be quite easy to set up. You can buy many different kinds of “Arduino-ready” temperature (and other kinds of) sensor boards.
Wanted to thank everyone in this thread for their help.
We gave the Arduino kit that was recommended, as well as other mentioned accessories, and it was a big hit!
Didn’t realize the Winter class he’s going to start is Computer Architecture, a perfect fit for the new Raspberry Pi, as well as the kit.
Also made note of the websites and projects that were mentioned - you guys are the best!
There are strain gauges and load cells designed for Arduino that can be used to measure weights of all sorts. As with most things Arduino, they are incredibly cheap (under $10 for some), and surprisingly easy to use.
Happy to have been included in such a fine list, but I have never seen an Arduino up close.
I’m a Raspberry Pi man myself.
The former seems to be best for microcontrollers and such, while the Pi gives a full-on Linux operating system which is very nice to have.
Most of my projects are related to setting up small servers that need control buttons, and it’s super convenient to install prebuilt packages for whatever I want, such as an audio player, a web UI for audio, or drivers for a small LCD panel.
Currently working on a Pi-based jukebox that I will install inside my Seeburg 1000 background music system project, so when it isn’t actually playing physical records, I can pipe music from the Pi through its amplifier and nobody will know the difference.
I have considered Arduino in the past for things like custom-built power feeds for my milling machine, but it was much easier to buy what I was looking for.
That really would be a neat tool though: an Arduino carefully driving a stepper meter to move my mill’s vertical axis smoothly enough to bore a hole with a nice finish. The vertical feed I purchased is more of a blunt instrument–it raises and lowers the machine quickly, but was never intended to be used while making a cut.
Raspberry Pis are great, and affordable, but, since sensors were mentioned, please note that at least with the basic models one thing not included, but which is included even in the cheapest Arduino chips with 512 bytes of RAM, is an analogue-to-digital converter to convert a continuous voltage reading into a number that can be processed by your program.
If you need such measurements, you can just buy an extra chip that does it, with however many input channels and precision.
