Reminder for dates for September meetings

Saturday 15th September – Holsworthy

Sat 22nd September – Plymouth

Please see meetings page for times / venue details

Linux Mint 19 was recently released.  ( https://linuxmint.com/ ) This has a host of new features, and is a long term support release.

As far as meetings are concerned,  the Holsworthy meeting will take place as usual at the white hart on the 3rd Saturday in August (Sat 18th).   The July Plymouth Meeting (4th Saturday) has a new venue and the website will be updated shortly.   The August meeting will take place on Saturday 25th August.

The Holsworthy CoderDojo is now up and running.   Volunteers are still needed for other Dojos planned for other parts of Devon.   The Paignton Code club is taking a break and will be returning in September as a  CoderDojo,

A beta release of Linuxmint 19, codenamed Tara has been released full details are on the Linuxmint website.

You can download and test the ISO for different versions of this such as XFCE, MATE AND Cinnamon.

3rd Saturday

Saturday 16th June 2018
Holsworthy LUG meeting White Hart Inn
Fore St, Holsworthy
EX22 6EB 3rd Saturday

2pm – 4pm

4th Saturday

Saturday 23rd June 2018
Plymouth LUG meeting Hush Coffee & Sandwich Bar
1 Old Town St, Plymouth
PL1 1DA
12pm – 3pm

You can follow us on Twitter at @dcglug

As well as Friendica decentralised social media network.

Friendica also has info on upcoming Lug meets on the Events calender

The code club that is running at Torquay Library is looking for a helper to assist the volunteer (Alan) who is running the club.   Club takes place on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month at Torquay Library.

If anyone can help please get in touch with Shona Keen at Torquay Library.

https://www.torbay.gov.uk/libraries/library-volunteers/

Code Club Website : https://www.codeclub.org.uk/

Penwith, Cornwall area meetup

A pub meet up has been arranged for the Penwith area of Cornwall.   This will take place on the 3rd Feb 2018, at Station, House,  Marazion, Cornwall. Between 12 noon and 2pm. 

If you would like more information please contact Jay or Fraser via the DCGLUG mailing list.   But feel free to just turn up.

They will be in the corner near the table football.

Further meetings are planned starting with the 3rd March, which will be a bring-a-box, but this will be at a different location.

Arduino easy module shield

Arduino Sensor Shield

Equipment required:

• Shield
  Arduino R3 uno
  Long nose pliers
  Scissors to open packet

Upon opening the packet,  you get a shield with a foam protective sheet. Fitting the board is easy(ish) partly as you need to align all pins carefully and if need be adjust the to suit the female header on the Arduino Board. Clasp 1 row of pins and move slightly, be careful doing this.

inspection of the board with the Label at the bottom the digital inputs are at the bottom (near to the power in) top row viewing this way you have analogue in then the power in/out sockets.

• ax refers to analogue pins
  dx refers to digital pins

so on the left hand side

pins for vcc,gnd,sda & scl
below this going down 2x switches (d2,d3)
dht 11 (d4)
below this the reset switch.

Then there are 2 LEDs blue (d13) red (d12)

Potentiometer (a0)

just above this and to the right of the switches
is a tri colour LED (d9-11)

Next to this are 2x 3 blocks pins connected to (d7 & d8) along with vcc and ground pins in. Under this there is  a small buzzer connected to d5 and under that another 3 pin block with vcc,gnd and connected to a3 pin

finally on the far right hand side

serial (4x pins txd,rxd,vcc,gnd)
under that a IR led (d6)
under that light sensor (a1)
and lm35 temperature sensor connected to a2

So in all this is a pretty comprehensive board, the advantage with this is tht you don’t need to worry about wiring, you plug in the code, the components are labeled and tell you where they are connected so no messing around trying to find data-sheets or notes.

Upon connecting a usb lead for power to the Arduino the Blue LED same as the red LED on the Arduino board, which is by now covered up by the shield.

Quick test of the board using the Arduino blink example (modified)

Source code

/*
Blink
Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.
 
This example code is in the public domain.
// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards.
// give it a name:
int led = 13;
int led2 = 12;
// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {                
  // initialize the digital pin as an output.
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
pinMode(led2, OUTPUT);   
}
 
// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  digitalWrite(led2, LOW); 
  delay(500);               // wait for 1/2 a second
  digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  digitalWrite(led2, HIGH); 
  delay(500);               // wait for 1/2 a second
}

October 2017 events

List archives here

Any errors or omissions, please contact Michael via the list or IRC #dcglug on Freenode.