In this article we’ll build an XML-driven video gallery exploring a lot of new Flex 4 features (out in spring 2010): skinning spark components, spark containers, new states and transitions; but we’ll also use some “old” concepts like itemRenderers, custom events dispatch, load data from an xml file (using the Singleton design pattern), value objects, embedding fonts, css and a lot of other useful stuff when you develop Flex applications.

The Wii nunchuck controller contains a 3 axis accelerometer, one joystick and 2 buttons for only 20 euro and you can easly use it to manage your Arduino applications.
In this article we’ll see how to move two servo motors using this controller (providing two videos, prototype images and complete source code)

With Arduino you can build a lot of cool projects regarding domotics and robotics and manage servo motors is one of the most important stuff to enter in the home automation world.
As we saw in previous articles we can move and manage servos using your own microcontroller but naturally they have a limited number of analog pins.
So, what’s a servo controller? It’s another board that extends your microcontroller with new servo dedicated ports. In this article we’ll see the power of the Micro Serial 8 Servo Controller Kit applied …

OpenFire is an opensource real time collaboration server that use XMPP (also called Jabber) to create istant messaging applications.
The official web site also says “Openfire is incredibly easy to setup and administer, but offers rock-solid security and performance” and I can confirm you that it’s really true!

As Adobe Developer I’m trying a lot of solutions to control external devices from my Flash, Flex and AIR applications but using Arduino Microcontroller (my favourite one in this period ; ) I got some issues and limitations.
In this article I have extended the ActionScript 3.0 XML Socket Class to send messages from Flex 3 to Arduino and viceversa and even if it works well for simple stuff it seems far from the final solution.

A lot of low-price LCD displays available on the market are compatible with the Hitachi HD44780 driver and you can easly display and control their text using the LiquidCrystal library.

We’ll use the Arduino microcontroller and an analog joystick to control two servos: the first one will be connected to the horizontal axis, and the second one to the vertical axis.
We also use a the Lynx B-Pan Tilt Kit (BPT-KT) to connect servos together. Check the video and imagine what kind of robots or cool stuff you could create using more devices and a lot of pacience ; )

In this article we’ll send data from a classic IR remote controller (I used my Creative Speaker IR remote control) to turn on/off a LED in our Arduino board, using an IK38khz sensor and the IRemote library.
Naturally you could use your IR Remote for everything: to manage motors, servo and other devices or you could also create a cheap network between two Arduino: one board will send data from a IK38khz Sensor (receiver) and the other one will receive them using an infrared Led (sender)

In this article we’ll see how to retrieve data from 4 cool electronic sensors often used in domotica and robotica projects: Infrared Proximity Sensor, Force Resistive Resistor (FSR), Light Photo Detector (LDR), tilt Sharp (inclination).
To see them in action the returned values will be mapped to update a LED luminosity (using PWM - Pulse-Width Modulation). I have provided Arduino sketch files (written in C), breadboard connection pictures and a demo video for each sensor.

After you have configured your Arduino board to properly work with your Flash applications you could quickly update your existent Flash or Flex games to get input from a joystick.
I have modified three prototypes, 2 cars games and 1 platform, to work with a mini-stick, spending no more than 5 minutes to update each game.