Home > Electronics > JOTA Arduino >   Programming

JOTA Arduino

Programming the JOTA Arduino

The Powerhouse Museum Thinker1 project was an Arduino circuit board and a series of programming exercises to make use of the various features and teach elementary programming.

The JOTA Arduino kit set out to make a low cost and compatible version of the Thinker1 Project. While JOTA Arduino uses an Arduino Nano chip, the two circuits are functionally equivalent and all the Think programs (or Sketches) work well on the JOTA Arduino.

In the list below are links to the exercise notes, some code to get you started, and a finished working example.

Read the notes, try the sample code to see if you can work out what to do, and if you get stuck try the completed example.

If you want all the instructions and the code, then download the Arduino.zip file. Unpack this in your home directory, and the Arduino IDE should find it next time you start.

If, after programming your Arduino, you want to put it back to the original JOTA program, you can download the original JOTA2015_Firmware.zip. Unpack this to the Arduino/JOTArduino/JOTA2015_Firmware folder and you can load it through the menues in the Arduino IDE.

These files were originally published by the Power House Museum in Sydney, Australia, and the originals are no longer available. They were published under a Creative Commons license and are reproduced here because they have been slightly modified compared to the original files.

Subsequently a new project, the Thinker Shield, was developed that is functionally similar. The instructions and code for the Thinker Shield can be downloaded from the Power House Museum as part of their ThinkSpace program. It also comes with a new programming guide to help guide you through the tutorials.

If you want to write your own programs, the exercises below are an excellent reference for accessing the individual inputs and outputs on the board. Then you can combine them to make interesting and useful programs.

Exercise Activity Files Completed Files
01-Thinker1-Hardware-Reference
02-Thinker1-Software-Reference
About-these-files About-these-files
03-Thinker1-Getting-Started GettingStarted.ino GettingStarted.ino
04-Thinker1-LEDs-Activity-One LED1.ino LED1.ino
04-Thinker1-LEDs-Activity-Two (same as above but turns on two LEDs) LED2.ino LED2.ino
06-Thinker1-Potentiometer-Activity-One Potentiometer1.ino Potentiometer1.ino
07-Thinker1-Potentiometer-Activity-Two Potentiometer2.ino Potentiometer2.ino
08-Thinker1-Potentiometer-Activity-Three Potentiometer3.ino Potentiometer3.ino
09-Thinker1-LightSensor-Activity-One LightSensor1.ino LightSensor1.ino
10-Thinker1-LightSensor-Activity-Two LightSensor2.ino LightSensor2.ino
11-Thinker1-PushButton-Activity-One PushButton1.ino PushButton1.ino
12-Thinker1-PushButton-Activity-Two PushButton2.ino PushButton2.ino
13-Thinker1-Buzzer-Activity-One Buzzer1.ino Buzzer1.ino
14-Thinker1-Buzzer-Activity-Two Buzzer2.ino Buzzer2.ino
15-Thinker1-Buzzer-Activity-Three Buzzer3.ino Buzzer3.ino
16-Thinker1-Vision-Activity-One Vision1.ino Vision1.ino
17-Thinker1-Vision-Activity-Two VisionAlphabet.ino VisionAlphabet.ino