Programmable micro controllers have hit the streets in a big way the past few years. Sites like YouTube and GitHub are crawling with crafty Do-It-Yourself projects that seek to help solve everyday problems that we encounter as a society. Have you ever run out of toilet paper at just the wrong time? Write a program that will detect the absence of mass on a toilet paper hanger and have it send a signal to your computer telling it to put in an order on Amazon!
Team Red Eagle sat down with the rest of ODU’s drone teams and tinkered with a few Arduino micro controllers. While certainly not an arduous task for many of the students (There’s quite a few electrical engineers), for a few it was the first time sitting down and using C and C++ since freshman year! We built several simple circuits that are applicable to drones such as servos, LED lighting as well as coding timing variations into the Arduino.