When people think about DIY electronics and maker culture, they tend to think about Raspberry Pi’s and 3D printers, but the humble Arduino is often overlooked. Despite being overshadowed by its competitors, the Arduino remains a viable choice for home-built projects that don’t need the full power of a single-board computer, but still need to manage electrical components.
As a company, Arduino has always embraced its community. The official website hosts hundreds of projects and makers all over the world use its microcontrollers as the foundation of their projects. We did the work of sifting through the numerous projects out there on the web and curated five fun projects you can undertake to up your maker game.
5 Morse code decoder and trainer
After all, why shouldn’t I learn another useless skill?
Even if you’ve never come into contact with it in your day-to-day life, you’ve probably heard of Morse code (also known as continuous wave, or CW), the system of encoding letters and numbers into a sequence of dots and dashes. Morse code is a pretty niche skill these days, relegated mostly to ham radio enthusiasts, but if you’re feeling cheeky, you can set up your phone’s keyboard to accept Morse code input.
This project (which you can find on the Arduino Project Hub) requires a microcontroller, some electrical components, an OLED screen, skill with a soldering iron, and a project box to hold everything together. It’s essentially a Morse code decoder that you can use to either decode incoming CW broadcasts in your ham shack or to check your accuracy when you’re practicing your keying.
4 GlowBlaster laser gun
It shoots frickin’ laser beams
On New Year's Eve, you were visited by a wounded time traveler. With their dying breath, they warn you of the impending AI wars that pit humanity against the relentless machines. There is no escape from the future — you can only prepare. And so, you build the GlowBlaster.
The GlowBlaster is basically a 5mW laser connected to a 9-volt battery wrapped in a 3D-printed laser pistol. Considering that this is a DIY project hosted on GitHub, you can switch out or modify any of the parts. That means that you can add a bigger power source and slap in a 5W laser that will pop balloons and burn wood. Just don’t burn your eyes out.
3 Electronic tin whistle
Get set to dance a lo-fi jig
Modern tin whistles have been around for over 150 years, and they’re an integral part of British and American folk music. These mass-produced whistles originally cost around a penny (hence the name penny whistle) but today they’re only around $15, so it’s the kind of thing you can pick up on a whim if you want to finally learn the solo to Paul Simon’s "You Can Call Me Al."
Although an electronic tin whistle isn’t likely to make you a musical sensation, it’s a fun project to put together. This project is a little rough around the edges, but that just means there’s lots of room to make it your own. In addition to an Arduino Uno, you’re going to need a handful of electronic components, a power source, your soldering skills, and a custom PCB. You can grab the .INO sketch file from GitHub.
2 Force feedback steering wheel
In F1, the steering wheel moves you
In the world of racing simulators, one of the most essential bits of kit is a steering wheel that provides force feedback (FFB) to more faithfully simulate the conditions and sensations of real-world driving. The best commercial FFB steering wheels on the market cost around $800, so if you can find a way to cut some corners and build your own, you should go for it.
This project is a step above the ones we’ve mentioned before and requires a laser cutter and 3D printer in addition to the standard Arduino and electrical bits, not to mention a big motor and a 10:1 planetary gearbox. If your maker game is on point, and you know who Lewis Hamilton is, this might be the perfect project for you.
1 Budget CNC router
Use your maker skills to make stuff that makes stuff
The tools of the modern maker are many and varied. After picking up a few microcontrollers or a 3D printer, it’s hard to know what new gadget you should invest your time or money on to continue scratching that maker's itch. If you’re asking our opinion, we say invest in a CNC router. Besides just wood, you can use a router on acrylic, plastic, foam, and even soft metal like aluminum and brass.
To get this project up and running you will need the obligatory Arduino, a 3D printer, wood and some shop tools, and various electrical bits and bobs. You’ll even have to hack a few stepper motors to be bipolar! And of course, once everything is put together, you’ll have to invest in some CNC router bits. The best part? The whole thing should cost you less than $100.
Put your Arduino to use!
Even though the Arduino lineup isn’t as ubiquitous or affordable as Raspberry Pi’s Pico microcontroller, it’s still capable of doing some pretty cool things. In other words, if you’ve got an old Uno lying around and have the urge to get your hands dirty making something, there are lots of projects out there for you to choose from.
