JE Sept 1 2018 Proposal: Portable Arduino Coding for Neighborhood Outreach
leading toward Christian outreach to neighborhood families.
Bringing together ideas from Tx Oaks Baptist Tech and Truth (Wednesdays 7 P.M.) and Mrs. Lewis' One Day Academy Engineering 3.
Sidewalk Arduino coding is possible at 15 watts per station, maybe four stations. 7" HDMI display, Raspberry Pi running Arduino IDE, Arduino Mega 2560 (Walmart online $14).
No Internet connection needed to do C coding for Arduino. Arduino applications: sounds, lights, motors, sensors.
Arduino is a proven STEM vehicle.
Sidewalk setup with 12V inverter to get 120VAC, or DC-DC converter from 12V to 9V and 5V, folding chairs, stands to put hardware on.
It only lacks bathrooms--neighborhood participants walk home for bathroom.
To be solved: 1) getting young people to come outside to try out Arduino. 2) Is there HOA or City of Austin restriction on sidewalk use? 3) How many adults to supervise? 4) How many TOBC youth/college for coaching? 5) What days? Weekend, holidays... 6) Only during good weather (temperature; no rain) 7) Is there a neighborhood park? 8) Must have behavior policy thought out ahead of need. 9) Leaflet for participants to take home.
Sidewalk Arduino might get enough interest to have TOBC Arduino. Any students who have enough interest can be coached to get a Goodwill as-is computer, $50, for Ubuntu and have their own, at-home coding. Potentially, contact with teacher to generate more contacts. For any steady participants, Sidewalk Arduino becomes a way to acknowledge progress of those who are learning.
John Engelbrecht Retired electrical engineer Married, residence San Antonio 12311 Culebra Road #6104 johnenge@earthlink.net https://sites.google.com/site/solderandcircuits references at Calvary Hills Baptist Church
Sept 3 To advance the plan, I ordered through Adafruit (the lower Manhattan company of the woman electrical engineer Limor Fried, for electronics DIY) two sets of Raspberry Pi 3 model B which are able to do the Linux flavor of Raspian and run the Arduino IDE (about $37 per R Pi), micro-SD cards, $80 7" HDMI displays with 800x480 and 5V power.
Also on order are 8 Arduino Unos from Walmart, clearance at $8 each.