This is the review of the book Arduino Android Blueprints that I recently read. Before we get into the review please read the following disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book by the publisher for me to review it. There was no condition that the review should be only positive and I didn’t receive any payment for the review. So I am just writing what I felt about the book after reading it.

Long time readers of my blog would know that I play around with connecting Arduino and Android a lot and have given talks about the pros and cons of the various approach that I have tried out.

So when someone from Packt Publishing contacted me about reviewing a book that talks about interfacing Android and Arduino I readily accepted it.

Synopsis

Arduino Android Blueprints

Arduino Android Blueprints is the book that talks about the different ways by which you can interface Android devices with Arduino boards to create interesting interactive projects. The book follows the “teach by show” approach and apart from the first chapter which was just introduction, every chapter is a project that you can try on your own.

The following were the list of projects there are available in the book.

• Bluetooth Weather Station
• WI-FI Smart Power Plug
• WI-FI Remote Security Camera
• Android Phone Sensor
• Voice activated Arduino
• Control an Arduino board using NFC
• Bluetooth Low Energy Mobile Robot
• Pulse Rate Sensor

My Review

I liked the fact that the book followed a real hands-on approach, backed by proper introduction to the concepts. Some books make the mistake of just talking about the concepts and others make the mistake of just talking about the project without any explanation.

This book has a proper balance between talking about the implementation details and explaining the concept.

But one thing to keep in mind is that this book is not for complete beginners. You would need to have some basic understanding of Arduino and how to program it to get the most out of the book. If you are completely new to Arduino, then this book may not be the correct one for you.

My Rating

My rating for the book is 5 out of 5.

The main reason for the 5 star rating is that the book not only talks about the concepts but also has clear, useful and complete projects which you can try out to understand the different ways you can connect Android and Arduino. Most books just talk about the method and leave out the actual details.

On the whole it is a nice book to read if you are interested in both Android and Arduino.