Planet Arduino

We’re excited to announce the Arduino Open Source Report for 2021 is now available, offering many insights into the development of our open-source ecosystem during the past year.

In this retrospective report you’ll learn about the activities Arduino carried out in the last twelve months, thanks to the hard work of the employees, contractors and volunteers on our team and to the passion of our vibrant community, fueling our mission every day.

We’re proud of the many achievements we celebrated in 2021. It was one of the busiest and most productive years in Arduino’s history of commitment to open source.

We launched a number of new open source hardware products, software tools and libraries. We also upgraded existing assets, heavily refactoring some core pillars of the Arduino framework (IDE, library index and more) ,making them robust enough to support the growing Arduino user base.

The document also highlights key contributions from the Arduino community – libraries, cores and more – that were made during the year. We’re grateful for all the active maintainers and contributors that put Arduino in a league of its own, and strive to give everyone proper credit.

We invite all of you to join the community and become active contributors. There’s a lot to do! For each sub-project, the report points out where you can join us and make a difference.

So, are you ready to dive in? Download the Arduino Open Source Report 2021, and please share your comments and get in touch with us on the Arduino Forum. We want to read your feedback and understand what we can do together in 2022 to ensure Arduino keeps getting better and better.

The post The 2021 Arduino Open Source Report is out appeared first on Arduino Blog.

The first time I saw 3D modeling and 3D printing used practically was at a hack day event. We printed simple plastic struts to hold a couple of spring-loaded wires apart. Nothing revolutionary as far as parts go but it was the moment I realized the value of a printer.

Since then, I have used OpenSCAD because that is what I saw the first time but the intuitiveness of other programs led me to develop the OpenVectorKB which allowed the ubiquitous vectors in OpenSCAD to be changed at will while keeping the parametric qualities of the program, and even leveraging them.

All three values in a vector, X, Y, and Z, are modified by twisting encoder knobs. The device acts as a keyboard to

1. select the relevant value
2. replace it with an updated value
3. refresh the display
4. move the cursor back to the starting point

There is no software to install and it runs off a Teensy-LC so reprogramming it for other programs is possible in any program where rotary encoders may be useful. Additional modes include a mouse, arrow keys, Audacity editing controls, and VLC time searching.

Here’s an article in favor of OpenSCAD and here’s one against it. This article does a good job of explaining OpenSCAD.

[Editor’s note: This is a Hackaday writer’s hack, hence the “I” in place of the usual “we”. We all love custom peripherals though, and a good number of us love OpenSCAD, so you could probably read it either way, but we don’t want to take credit for [Brian]’s work.]

We’re very happy to announce that the source code of the real-time operating system (RTOS) powering the Arduino 101 and Genuino 101 is now available for hacking and study purposes.

The package  contains the complete BSP (Board Support Package) for the Curie processor on the 101. It allows you to compile and modify the core OS and the firmware to manage updates and the bootloader. (Be careful with this one since flashing the wrong bootloader could brick your board and require a JTAG programmer to unbrick it).

The firmware runs on the x86 chip inside the Curie module and communicates with the ARC core (which runs your Arduino sketches) using the callbacks.
Right now, the x86 core takes care of handling Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and USB communication, offloading the ARC core.
You can use the code which implements these functionalities as a starting point for your custom extra features.

Ever wondered about adding Mouse and Keyboard functionalities to your Arduino 101 and Genuino 101? Or uploading your sketches via BLE? Or add deep sleep functionalities when your application is battery powered? Now you can! (Some effort may be required )

We hope that this step will bring even more interesting features to your Arduino 101 and Genuino 101, so even if you are not into low-level C programming, keep an eye on the dedicated forum section and Arduino 101 core github repo to follow the news and be the first to try new features.

If you want to know more about projects made with Arduino 101, check our Project Hub section in Arduino Create, don’t forget to share with the community your experiments creating a new project and take look to this obstacle avoidance tutorial  on America’s Greatest Maker website  !

Open.Theremin is an open source hardware and software project by Urs Gaudenz of  Gaudi Lab with the aim of building the next digital generation of the legendary music instrument developed in the ’20s by the Russian inventor professor Leon Theremin. The project is documented under a open license and uses Open.Theremin.UNO, an Arduino  or Genuino Uno shield featuring a digital mixer, combined 12 bit audio and CV out, audio jack on the bottom for more compact design, two completely separate antenna circuits:

The theremin is played with two antennas, one to control the pitch and one for volume. The electronic shield with two ports to connect those antennas comprises two heterodyne oscillators to measure the distance of the hand to the antenna when playing the instrument. The resulting signal is fed into the arduino. After linearization and filtering the arduino generates the instruments sound that is then played through a high quality digital analog audio converter on the board. The characteristics of the sound can be determined by a wave table on the arduino.

Most theremins on the market are either expensive or then not really playable. That’s how I decided to design a playable, open and affordable theremin. The first version was modular and difficult to program. Then I decided to redesign it as a shield to fit on the Arduino.UNO. This was a big success and many people could start using it, change the sounds and adapt it to their own application. The whole design is open source and documented on the website. I produced a small batch of the shield that can be bought through the small batch store on the website.

Watch the video below with Coralie Ehinger, a Swiss theremin player and organizer of the first Swiss theremin festival N / O / D / E, playing the instrument:

Farmbot is the first open source cnc farming machine with the aim to create an open and accessible technology aiding everyone to grow food and to grow food for everyone. It runs on open source hardware like Arduino Mega 2560 and  involves a community of contributors on the wiki and forum where you can find documentation, schematics, assembly guides, troubleshooting tips and many more on all currently supported and old FarmBots.

Documentation has been a key element of the project since the beginning and Farmbot founder, Rory Aronson at the 2015 Hackaday SuperConference, gave a talk about why great documentation is the key to building a community of hackers who continue to build upon open source technologies:

Last spring we collaborated with VisionMobile to run a survey on IoT developers and also the value that Open source has in the field.

We discovered that Between IoT developers there is a big chunk of open source enthusiast. 1/5 value the importance of using open source tools and platforms.

Developer that define themselves explorers cover a crucial role in the field. It is from them that all the truly new, out-of-the-box ideas come from.

Only by exploring seemingly crazy ideas can the Internet of Things reach its full potential. The open source ecosystem is often the area where these ideas bloom.

While open source is so valued between developers, there is still a lot of work to be done. 60% of the opensource enthusiast in fact, think that open standards are missing in IoT.

We are really happy that the connected Home is the most interesting vertical market for developers, and we can’t wait to see what this big group of explorers will develop in the next future. Hopefully the next big invention will be open source.

Find a full article on Developer Economics website.

On Casa Jasmina website you can explore the infographic in high-res with some  interesting data:

The most important role of Internet of Things developers is to explore new possibilities. The technology is widely available; in no small part because of open source software and hardware projects. Now we need to learn where we can take it. We can build it, but should we?

Last spring we collaborated with VisionMobile to run a survey on IoT developers and also the value that Open source has in the field.

We discovered that Between IoT developers there is a big chunk of open source enthusiast. 1/5 value the importance of using open source tools and platforms.

Developer that define themselves explorers cover a crucial role in the field. It is from them that all the truly new, out-of-the-box ideas come from.

Only by exploring seemingly crazy ideas can the Internet of Things reach its full potential. The open source ecosystem is often the area where these ideas bloom.

While open source is so valued between developers, there is still a lot of work to be done. 60% of the opensource enthusiast in fact, think that open standards are missing in IoT.

We are really happy that the connected Home is the most interesting vertical market for developers, and we can’t wait to see what this big group of explorers will develop in the next future. Hopefully the next big invention will be open source.

Find a full article on Developer Economics website.

On Casa Jasmina website you can explore the infographic in high-res with some  interesting data:

The most important role of Internet of Things developers is to explore new possibilities. The technology is widely available; in no small part because of open source software and hardware projects. Now we need to learn where we can take it. We can build it, but should we?

The Open Hardware Summit 2015 will be held September 19th in Philadelphia, PA (USA). This event brings together the open hardware community for a day of talks on all aspects of open-source hardware. It’s an inspiring event and a great chance to connect with other open hardware practitioners. The summit is organized by the Open Source Hardware Association.

If you’d like to speak at the Summit, check out the call for submissions. You have until July 2nd to submit your proposal. Decisions on the schedule will be made by July 31st.

You can get your tickets for the Summit. Past years have sold out, so you may want to get them early.

If you’d like to sponsor the Summit, see the sponsorship details.

This post, written by  Jasmina Tesanovic and Bruce Sterling, was originally posted on Casa Jasmina blog.

On February 2, we were in Berlin’s “House of World Cultures” to discuss “Casa Jasmina.” We were participating in the Transmediale Festival, as part of an event roundtable on the topic of “the Internet of Things.”

Luckily, since we’re electronic art journalists, we’ve seen about a million public panels of this kind. It never surprises us when everybody at a round table has a different angle on the problem.

Our own answer, as we described it to the crowd at Transmediale, is pretty simple. “Casa Jasmina” is a new project to build an IoT home that’s (1) open source (2) luxurious and (3) Turinese.

Our panel featured Arduino colleague David Cuartielles, who memorably described Arduino as “fifty guys in six garages in six different countries.” In “Casa Jasmina,” basically, we’re the cool clubhouse in one of those six garages. That is our purpose and nature.

The “Internet of Things” is a very big topic. It’s physically impossible for anybody anywhere to keep up with every IoT appliance, wearable, machine-to-machine app, set-top box, thing-router, platform, protocol, cloud and app. There are so many commercial IoT gimmicks available right now that we could fill the Mole Antonelliana with them from top to bottom. However, we’re not going to try that. Instead we are concentrating on our own distinct approach to the Internet of Things issue.

That’s where the “luxury” aspect comes in. “Lusso Open Source.” We’re interested in “luxury” because we’re Turinese. Italy is into boutique manufacturing and luxury export, especially Italian furniture, clothing, foodstuffs and kitchen gear. Italy’s got lots of hackerspaces and makerspace now: over thirty of them, and the Maker scene is advancing fast. This means that some domestic refinement is in order: Italians need to class this Maker stuff up and sell it to the foreign tourists. That’s what Italians do, such is the time-honored Italian way of life. The traditional craft cachet of “Made in Italy” ought to be followed by the less-traditional digital-craft cachet of “Make in Italy.” Why not?

Since Torino is the manufacturing center of Italy, Torino obviously the place to try this. We’re pretty sure it is bound to happen anyway. “Casa Jasmina” should be a place where concerned people can sit down, have a glass of Piedmontese red and think that prospect over. What does “Luxury Open Source” really mean, anyway? What would Ettore Sotsass, Bruno Munari, or Enzo Mari do about this?

Keep reading on Casa Jasmina Blog >>

Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi, announced at MakerCon the collaboration between the open-source microcontroller and futurist Bruce Sterling. The Open-Source Apartment will be located in Torino, near Arduino Italian headquarters and it will serve as a test ground for the latest developments from the open source community, being outfitted with furniture from OpenDesk and a variety of hardware creations.
Watch the video below and more details will be available during Maker Faire Rome: