It was only a matter of time before Hackaday spotted John’s amazing resource on the Arduino. Before one of the haters points out its not a hack can I say well done John.

Anyone remotely interested in the Arduino might want to pour themselves the beverage of their choice and book themselves some “me” time to digest some of his many tutorials…

Lol @ the Simpsons dialer. It did come to mind!

This is awesome. You could text home to have your lights turned on or even start your dinner! I expect to see a lot of useful hacks / creations using this kind of add on and this code.

This would be a MUCH better hack if it used a cheap, walmart-type, $30, pay-as-you-go phone.

Does anyone know of any phones sold today that will have a serial port that you can send AT commands to that is pay-as-you-go?

Does anyone know if a SIM like this one:
http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=203635840&c=10200
(unlimited inbound SMS and calls in the US for $35/year)
is some sort of a trap, or would it be ideal for a project like this?

@David: actually, since your home likely already has internet to send messages over, that would not be the best application of this sort of thing.
I’d rather see it in a car, doing a range of things, from remote starting it on a snowy day, to unlocking it if you lock your keys inside, or having it respond back with GPS data if it’s stolen (or being able to remotely kill the car if it’s stolen)

@Bill D. Nothing is stopping you from using a pre-paid SIM with the GSM Shield.
To answer your question, the $20 Nokia 2320 to-go phone at Walmart has a F-bus interface, below the SIM slot. If properly connected, you should be able to issue AT commands. The shield will always do a better job though, as you’d design the system to perform only the tasks you want.

Yes, a car remote would be a great idea. Silent alarm too.

FCC regulations/registration requirements (and/or other applicable laws/regulations) not withstanding, it’d be an interesting experiment to use this to in conjunction with OpenBTS.
It’d at least give you some way to limit
the access (cell phone rf taps not withstanding)
to the “phone based” controls.

OpenBTS : http://openbts.sourceforge.net/
OpenBTS experiment issues : http://openbts.sourceforge.net/FieldTest/index.html
relates OpenBTS stuff: http://openbts.blogspot.com/ ;
http://lwn.net/Articles/320163/

I can’t believe HaD would post something like this! Do they have any regard for human life? You’re making it easier for the terrorists!

“There is no skill in plugging an “arduino” into some pre-built cellular module and following step by step directions to make it work.”

Isnt it great that everyone can learn electronics like Jake and never have a middle step. The joy of just going, I like electronics, and then knowing how to handle micro-controllers automatically is great!

+1 Jake

nothing new here.. i had my first gsm phone hocked up with AT codes back in 99 and even back then i followed a step by step guide!…

defintly no need for an expensive shield.
any midrange nokia phone has atleast internal
access pads for this!.

hacking? yes
bought 2 overpriced modules, plugged (not even soldered) them together, followed manual – not

** davo1111 exactly!

didn’t some guy blow himself up in Russia the other week when he accidently received one of those “courtesy messages”

welcome to moscow *BOOM*

im pretty sure a real teorists wouldent be
caught dead with an arduino

LOL

@Mike
For projects I mentioned in my post, remotely unlocking your car, starting it, killing it, would all be receive only for the device, and if it’s stolen, I’m sure you’d be MORE then happy to pay whatever the outbound SMS price is for the device to reply back with GPS loc. And all for $3/month? Please tell me if you find a better plan :)

Everyone is bashing each other for costs, level of skills and such. Fact is… You need something to plug your arduino to the phone network ? You have a hundred bucks and like investing in your hobbies ? Buy it. Your a real hardware specialist ? You only build stuff out of The oldest and cheapest

@Kris Lee
not so much stopping, but think of it as a DIY lo-jack

@Mike

I’m sorry, pal, but you are dead wrong. There are 3 seniors in the program working on a design project right now. They were in the lab yesterday, talking about how it needed ethernet, stepper motor control, etc.

Two of them had “arduinos” sitting on the desk, they were talking about how awesome it was, and how all they needed was to spend 50 bucks on an “ethernet shield” and another 50 or so for the right “arduino”, download someone’s code for controlling it all, piece it together, and have their final project.

I looked over and said “Oh, you guys working with atmel processors?”

Their response: “Huh?”

We proceeded to talk about the “arduino”. They didn’t even understand that the microcontroller on board had nothing to do with “arduino”. Furthermore, their senior project is going to consist of a bunch of pre-assembled boards, plugged in to each other, running from code that they copied off of the internet and pieced together.

If you want to learn how to program a microcontroller, and want to do it on an “arduino”, good for you. Just don’t call yourself an electrical engineer. If you want to use it in a project, good for you, just understand that you didn’t build it. You just plugged it in.

If you want to be a REAL hobbyist or engineer, build your own damn board. THIS requires skill, and you will learn so much doing it!

So, I say once again, “arduino” stifles skill building, and I scoff at the word “arduino”. I work part time with an engineering firm. Any potential intern that we interview who mentiones “arduino” is going to be questioned extensively on what an “arduino” is and how it works. 1000 bucks says he doesn’t really know, and won’t get hired as a result.

Jake, I’m sorry you’ve confused the comments section of HaD with the Dean of your program. I do not, nor does anyone on this site, give a crap about your feelings towards your classmates.
The article is about someone writing about their experience with an arduino and gsm radio shield. The author, afaik, is not purporting to be an EE student; Your rant has absolutely nothing to do with the topic.
What have I gotten wrong? That your comments are more offensive than the article? Nope, that’s true. That a device built with an arduino is not inherently worth less than an identical device built without? Nope, that too is true. That only an elitist would think otherwise? Maybe elitist isn’t the right word. That you’ve learned nothing in your EE program because you don’t understand the importance of arduino? That’s arguable, as you’ve probably learned enough to fancy yourself as better than those who use arduino. Which makes elitist the right word. You’ve got a proclivity to upset yourself, you proved it by reading and commenting on an article you knew you wouldn’t like. And there’s no arguing that if you avoid articles that have a picture of an arduino you’d hear about it less.

That said, there are certainly times when the use of an arduino isn’t warranted. If you’re in EE, using an arduino in your final project is probably taking the easy way out. If you want to be an electrical engineer an arduino isn’t going to cut it. That should be self evident.
But here’s the thing: You’ve got your emotions for your classmates, and the Internet, mixed up. The vast majority of arduino users are not in EE, and most of them do not care about what happens after they click compile, so long as the actions they’ve written occur. And that is 100% OK! Arduino lets people easily interface with hardware that was previously unreachable.
That’s why it is important. Anyone, not just people who’ve done extensive studying, can work with hardware. That’s huge. It exposes many people to things they would otherwise never know. Like coding, debugging, and soldering.
They aren’t fake hobbyists, what they’re doing isn’t not learning, they simply have no interest in learning two tons of crap before getting started. It’s a good thing, accept it, move on.