Acknowledgments

I have been a lifelong tinkerer. My earliest recollection of dissecting my father’s broken tape recorder instilled an appreciation for the technology that drove it. From there, erector sets, model railroads, and programmable calculators led to personal computers, mobile devices, and microcontrollers. Over the years, this passion for learning not only how stuff works but also how technical concepts can be remixed with surprising, often highly satisfying results has been liberating. That’s why this book was such a joy for me to write.

Helping others to see what’s possible by observing their surroundings and having the desire to take an active role in making their lives easier with technology while having fun is this book’s primary goal. Yet without others helping me distill my ideas into what you are reading now, this book would not have been possible. It is to them that I wish to express my deepest gratitude for their support.

A boatload of thanks goes to the book’s editor, Jackie Carter, who spent countless hours ensuring that my words were constructed with clarity and precision. Copy editor Molly McBeath did a fantastic job catching hidden (from my view anyway) typos and grammatical misconstructions. Big thanks to Susannah Pfalzer for her infectious enthusiasm and boundless boosts of encouragement and to Arduino expert and fellow Pragmatic author Maik Schmidt, whose own success helped pave the way for a book like this.

Many thanks also go to John Winans, tech wiz extraordinaire, who refactored the state machine code used in several of the projects, as well as to Sven Davies, Mike Bengtson, Jon Bearscove, Kevin Gisi, Michael Hunter, Jerry Kuch, Preston Patton, and Tony Williamitis for helping to make this book as technically accurate and complete as it is. Shout-outs also go to Jon Erikson and Jon Kurz for their enthusiastic encouragement. I also want to thank Bob Cochran and Jim Schultz for providing wonderfully helpful feedback during the book’s beta period. Thanks also go to Philip Aaberg for filling my ears with music to code by. And to the makers of and contributors to the Arduino and Fritzing projects, you people have changed the world for the better.

I am most grateful to my wife, Marinette, and my family for allowing me to tunnel away for months in my mythical man cave to complete this book. And I can’t gush enough over the wonderful pencil illustrations that my daughter drew for the book. I am so proud of you, Marielle!

Finally, I am sincerely thankful to Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt for their passion and vision. You’re the best.