Planet Arduino

L‘Arduino Tour torna nel 2014 con due tappe  ’on the beach‘: Rimini e Pula. Le due location ospiteranno nelle prossime settimane due workshop dedicati all’alfabeto di Arduino e alle wearable technologies.

• L’appuntamento di Rimini si terrà sabato 22 febbraio negli spazi del nuovissimo MakerRn Lab di Rimini, dove Zoe Romano e Riccardo Marchesi di Plug&Wear introdurranno in otto ore di workshop il mondo dei wearables. Nella prima parte della giornata ci si avvicinerà a livello teorico alle applicazioni wearable, mentre nella seconda i parteciperanno produrranno un piccolo progetto con un sensore tessile. Appassionati di moda, design e smanettoni sono benvenuti, non è infatti richiesta alcuna conoscenza di programmazione o di taglio e cucito.  Qui trovi i dettagli per prenotare uno degli ultimi posti ancora disponibili!

• La tappa sarda dell’Arduino Tour toccherà mercoledì 26 febbraio la sede dello IED di Cagliari (Viale Trento 39, h. 17) con un’introduzione alla scheda Arduino curata da Mirco Piccin e aperta a tutti. Tra giovedì 27 e venerdì 28 febbraio, il team Arduino si sposterà invece con Davide Gomba a Pula negli spazi del Parco Tecnologico della Sardegna, dove il Fablab di Sardegna Ricerche ospiterà le 16 ore di workshop vero e proprio. Al termine del percorso, i partecipanti avranno per competenze per mettere a punto mini-progetti, da implementare poi in autonomia a casa.  Prenota la tua partecipazione  qui!

Once again Xun and David in this fourth video tutorial on the Arduino Robot released by RS Components, are exploring one of the most used techniques in Robotics: following a line, just like factory robots do to get an orientation when they carry objects from one place to another without human intervention.

Watching the video you’ll learn how to create a racing track drawing a black line over a white surface and understand how the different sensors read data that will be used to feed a PD algorithm:

PD stands for Predictive-Derivative and it is used to make a decision on how centred the robot is on top of the line. Ideally, for the robot to follow a line, the central IR sensor needs to be straight on top of the track and the algorithm needs to be “clever” enough to steer the motors towards it.

Check it out:

Click and watch more video tutorials about the Arduino Robot.

Il primo appuntamento con l’Arduino Tour per quest’autunno ci porta a Udine:

• Venerdì 22 novembre 6 dicembre alle 19.00: presentazione pubblica di Arduino nella sede di Confartigianato Udine in Via del Pozzo 8

• Sabato e Domenica 23 e 24 novembre  7 e 8 dicembre dalle 10 alle 18: workshop Base di Arduino ospitato nella sede del Temporary FabLab: via Stringher 12, sempre a Udine

Come ogni tappa, anche questa volta  l’appuntamento si snoda su 3 giorni. Il venerdì presentazione pubblica serale e i due giorni successivi, sabato e domenica, li dedicheremo a esplorare come compiere i primi passi con Arduino e permettere agli iscritti di realizzare un piccolo progetto. I partecipanti lasceranno il corso con una serie di strumenti per orientarsi, di  materiali base per realizzare progetti interattivi e per continuare ad imparare online in modalità autonoma.

Come in ogni tappa del Tour utilizzeremo come base l’Arduino Starter Kit che da qualche settimana è disponibile anche nella versione italiana!

I posti sono limitati quindi potete approfondire e  prenotare la vostra partecipazione cliccando su questo link.

RS Components released the second video focused on the first steps with the Arduino Robot with Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles and Xun Yang:

In this video you will see where to find code examples on the IDE. The robot library comes with two folders named “learn” and “explore” with examples on how to use the software to program the top board – this is the board you will mainly interact with while the motor board runs its original firmware.

One of the first examples of coding on the Arduino Robot is called “LOGO” which is very similar to an early educational programming language that controlled a virtual turtle moving across the screen with simple instructions. This time however, instead of having a small virtual turtle running on a screen, we have a robot that can respond to commands demonstrating a basic example of movement.

“LOGO” invites users to interact with the robot using the keypad to tell the robot whether to move forwards/backwards or to turn left/right. The program can store a series of commands that will then be executed one at a time.

Xun and David show users where to find the LOGO example and how to upload it to the robot’s control board. You will notice that the robot’s motors are disengaged when the USB cable is connected. The Arduino Robot can be pretty powerful and this feature prevents it from running away with your laptop!

Since all motors are slightly different, users will have to configure the robot’s movement using a different example called “Calibration”. Using a screwdriver on the trimmer on the bottom board, it is possible to balance the strength applied by each one of the wheels so that the robot moves straight when asked to. The video closes with an example of how to use a simple IR-receiver connected to one of the sensor inputs on the robot to control it using a small universal TV-remote. This program is also part of the basic list of examples in the library.

Go and run with the first Arduino on wheels!

(originally posted on Makezine)

Dario Buzzini and I have been friends since we met at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea several years ago. Ever since, we have worked together on interaction design projects for different clients. While visiting NYC for World Maker Faire last month, we organized a free open workshop for 25 participants at the IDEO NYC office (where Dario works)  focused on creating sounds and music.

“Make Some Noise” was a short, one-day workshop about Arduino where we explored the topic of sound and it was aimed at complete beginners with no experience. To simplify the structure of the workshop we started with hands-on experiments composed by a quick set of exercises to enable the participants to understand the basics and, later on, to start exploring pitch, frequency, tone, and multiple effects—with quite curious results (see videos below)!

To make things even easier, we focused only on one type of output  showing how you can relate that output with several types of input, like different sensors. We started, as usual, blinking a LED and then learned how a speaker clicks the same way an LED blinks: if you do it fast enough you can make a sound, if you do it at a specific speed you can make a note, and if you look up at all the frequencies associated with all the notes you can make scales.

After some testing, students were able to create noises, sounds, control them through slide sensors, buttons, potentiometers. At the end, as a fun exercise we used a piece of open source software that one of the Arduino users put on the Arduino Playground, which turns the Arduino into an eight-oscillator synthesizer that can use any piece of metal as a sensor. We then connected eight soda cans with an Arduino and a speaker. It played them as if it was a church organ!

Design and technology have, once again, come together to redefine, shape, and explore new experiences through simple, approachable tools.

For a little over a year, I’ve been working on an open-source, DIY cellphone as part of my PhD research at the MIT Media Lab. The current version of the phone is based on the Arduino GSM shield and Arduino GSM library. It sports a deliberately low-resolution screen (8 characters, each a 5×7 matrix of LEDs), a laser-cut wooden enclosure, flexure (living hinge) buttons, and a ~1000-line Arduino program that powers the user interface. The phone can make and receive phone calls and text messages, includes a phone book and caller id, and keeps the time. Everything you’d expect from a 20-year old Nokia! (Except snake.) I’ve been using various iterations of the project as my primary cellphone for the past six months or so.

The phone is open-source and the design files are available on GitHub (hardware, software). Assembly instructions are on my website, although I wouldn’t recommend making your own unless you have experience with soldering surface mount components.

Of course, it’s not just me that’s been building these phones. I’ve run two workshops in which other people have made them for themselves. A few people have been building them on their own, including someone who posted his result on Twitter.

Here you can see some the variations on the enclosure that my friends have made. On the left is a 3d-printed case by Ben Peters, the middle is a CNC-milled purpleheart wood case by Dena Molnar, and on the right is a hand-cut cardboard case by Jeffrey Warren.

The phone has undergone numerous revisions as I’ve tried to get it into a robust, useable form. Here you can see some of those variations. I started with an LCD screen like those found on old Nokia phones, but it would break after a month or so in my pocket, so I switched to the more-robust LED matrix. The enclosure has had a few tweaks as well, primarily to find a good design for the flexure buttons.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the current incarnation. It seems to be relatively robust, simple enough to assemble by hand, and functional enough to use everyday (although a long way from a smart phone). That’s my DIY cellphone.

It’s been a while now we have been testing and bringing ArduinoTour Workshops all over Italy and – here and there – around Europe. And we are happy to inform you that this powerful workshop format is soon landing in Singapore on August the 3rd-4th, hosted by The Hub Singapore, a cool co-working space willing to spread the Arduino word within its walls and beyond.

During the 2-day workshop participants will learn the basics of Arduino (what we call the Arduino Alphabet) and  have the chance to see it in action on different scenarios. They will produce their own project using the Arduino Starter Kit given to the workshop attendees.

The ArduinoTour is a way to meet & share experiences. For this reason it’s traditionally opened by a public presentation of Arduino which is going to happen on friday the 2nd of August at 7:00 PM at the-Hub. (download hi-res flyer)

Book your participation now and join the Arduino world.

Last weekend at Fondazione Achille Castiglioni Massimo Banzi held a workshop called “Arduino and the light” where participants learned the basics of Arduino and created an interactive lamp digitally manufactured and designed by Habits Studio.

The Tinkerlamp was developed to be easily assembled the necessity of any technical notion: a single sheet of wood includes all the pieces to be mounted in interlocking, avoiding the use of glues.

All the files to produce the laser-cut lamp will be  are released with an open-source license and now will be downloadable from Habit’s website.

Even without any knowledge of electronics, participants  learnt and practiced how to add interaction to the lamp using Tinkerkit, a collection of different sensors and actuators to make prototyping much easier as you can directly hook them up to the Arduino.

Take a look at the pictures of the two-day workshop on our Flickr set below, click on it for bigger pictures!

L’estate non ferma l’appuntamento con l’Arduino Tour che, dopo Alessandria, continua il suo percorso verso Trento. Questa volta saremo ospiti della  Fondazione Bruno Kessler, centro di ricerca di livello internazionale che ospita oltre 350 ricercatori in ambito scientifico, tecnologico, sociale e umanistico.

Come ogni tappa, l’appuntamento si snoda su 3 giorni. Il venerdì presentazione pubblica serale e i due giorni successivi, sabato e domenica, li dedicheremo a esplorare una panoramica degli impieghi di Arduino e permettere ai partecipanti di realizzare un piccolo progetto. Aspettatevi di lasciare il corso con una serie di strumenti per orientarvi in una crescente e variegata quantità di materiale per continuare ad imparare online.

Entrambe gli appuntamenti si terranno presso il Polo scientifico e tecnologico di Via Sommarive 18 – Povo (TN).

L’iscrizione al workshop vi permette anche di ottenere uno sconto del 10% per l’acquisto dell’Arduino Starter Kit o, se ce l’avete già, di altri prodotti dello store online.

I posti sono limitati, quindi se avete voglia di aprirvi al mondo di Arduino, affrettatevi a prenotare la vostra partecipazione cliccando su questo link.

Sabato e domenica prossimi presso la Fondazione Achille Castiglioni a Milano, Massimo Banzi terrà un workshop dal titolo “Arduino e la luce” in cui i partecipanti realizzeranno la Tinker Lamp (nelle foto) fabbricata digitalmente e disegnata dallo studio Habits, resa interattiva tramite Arduino.

Il ricavato del workshop andrà alla Fondazione Achille Castiglioni.

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