Interacting with Electronic Circuits - Adventures in Minecraft - page 109

You can buy the Arduino Pro Micro from https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12587
product number: DEV-12587 , but it needs some soldering and you need to program it
with the special software to make it work as an input/output board. To save you the
time and bother of doing this, you can buy a pre-soldered and pre-tested board with
the software preloaded from http://skpang.co.uk/catalog/pro-micro-33v8mhz-with-
headers-and-anyio-irmware-p-1327.html , product number AR-PROMICRO-ANYIO.
All you then need to do is to plug the board into your breadboard and connect it via a
USB cable to your PC or Mac, and it will work as an input/output board. Figure 5-3
shows you all the parts you need to set off on this adventure using a PC or a Mac.
If you have a Mac, it must run at least OS X 10.6 for the Arduino board to work.
There is a small collection of software source files you need to complete this
adventure. All of these files are included in your starter kit's downloadable from
the companion website. I have also provided links later on to where you and your
friends can download the latest version of these software source files, in case
you also want to use them in your non-Minecraft projects and experiments too!
Once you have bought all the bits and pieces you need, let's get started and build your
first electronic circuit!
Prototyping Electronics
with.a.Breadboard
When an electronics engineer designs the circuit for a new product, they will normally
prototype the circuit board before forging ahead and building thousands of them.
A prototype is a small model of something to allow you to test that it will work.
It is far easier to fix problems if you have built only one of something, than if you
have built thousands—or even millions.