Mini Project — Arduino + Potentiometer

Our assignment this week was to program an arduino to control the motion of a video on screen using processing, a potentiometer, and a breadboard.

Step One: Program the Arduino

The first task required to use an arduino and allow it to communicate with processing is to upload “Firmata” onto the device. To do this, I downloaded both Processing and the Arduino IDE to my laptop.

I first identified the correct port that the Arduino was connected to via tools > ports, then I uploaded StandardFirmata onto the device, although I ran into problems when uploading the software because the cord that came with my Arduino was faulty. When I switched out the cord (after a lot of troubleshooting), it worked just fine.

Step Two: Hook Up the Potentiometer

I watched this youtube video to help me connect the potentiometer to the ardunio by way of a breadboard. It’s quite easy!

Step Three: Add More Processing Libraries

I downloaded both ScratchArduio and Video from the processing library and made sure all files were saved in the same place on my desktop.

Step Five: Change Port Name in ScratchArduino pde

I made sure the port name in the code matched the code from the ports menu on my machine.

Step Five: Run ScratchArduino to test Control

I ran the program to make sure that my potentiometer worked. I found out at that time that I had forgotten to install processing video onto my machine, so it didn’t work. Once I went back and did that, it worked great.

Step Six: Upload Video and Save to Data Folder

I uploaded a video I already owned to the data folder. I had to re-render the video in a different pixel ratio for it to work, so be aware of that when using this library. It also seems that small file sizes are important, so keep that in mind when using this.

Finally, I changed the name of the movie in processing so the arduino would refer to the correct movie. Done!