Part 2. Project basics: input and output with Johnny-Five

This part of the book is where things really get cooking: you’ll learn how to add sensors, outputs, and moving parts to projects, building a whole bunch of small experiments along the way with your Arduino Uno board and Johnny-Five.

In chapter 4, you’ll get to know all about inputs (sensors), both analog and digital. You’ll try your hand at reading data from a simple temperature sensor and a photosensitive resistor, and you’ll learn to detect button presses.

Chapter 5 concerns itself with outputs, building on your earlier experimentations with LEDs. You’ll move beyond blinking LEDs to animated LEDs and full-color RGB LEDs. You’ll display text on a parallel LCD module and build your own “weather ball” (a simplified weather conditions display).

If you’ve been waiting for the robots part, chapter 6 is it! This chapter is all about motion: motors and servos. We’ll investigate how motors work and how to power and control them. At the end of chapter 6, you’ll build a simple roving robot using an inexpensive robot chassis kit.

By the end of this part of the book, you’ll have surveyed all of the major types of simple inputs and outputs for small embedded projects. You’ll be able to read environmental data from sensors and output light and sound. You’ll be ready to build more sophisticated, wires-free projects.