Every year I don’t wish for much for Christmas and it’s always more fun for me to give than to receive. This year however I was really excited when I unwrapped the present from my husband because it was something that I spoke about a lot recently and it’s something to play with :-) .

After I participated in the Wearable Technology workshop in Munich I was fascinated with Arduino and everything you can do with it but I didn’t quite know how to start. A lot of people say that they have an idea of something they want to create and then just start and figure out how to do it while building it. For me personally I think it’s hard to come up with an idea if you don’t know what is possible. So probably the best way is to re-create existing projects and look at things that other people built and use this as a starting point to come up with own ideas. So here’s this year’s favourite Christmas present:

My Franzis Arduino starter kit!

It contains an Arduino Uno board, a handbook and everything you need for your first projects. So far I’m a bit clueless, but I guess I’ll read myself through the handbook and just try it out.

I also got a soldering gun, so I can finally fix my talking handbag. So let’s start and build some cool things. I’m excited to see what i will come up with. For some inspiration I started to browse youtube for other projects using the Arduino Uno board:

Like this reactive LED coffee table:

Or the electronics in a quadcopter:

Or use Lilypad for wearables: