Planet Arduino

By popular demand, we are pleased to announce that it’s now possible to buy the Arduino MKR IoT Carrier. Originally forming a key part of the Arduino Oplá IoT Kit, we’ve responded to our community to make the carrier available on it’s own, thus enabling you to benefit from having a bunch of sensors, actuators and a display all featured on the one board — making it quicker and easier to take your IoT projects to the next level.

Featuring a large set of built-in sensors and actuators as well as a useful color display, the carrier lets you focus on prototyping your IoT ideas right away by saving on the hassle of wiring and soldering these components.  

The carrier can become a WiFi, LoRa, NB-IoT or GSM-compatible device by seamlessly connecting to any MKR family board. Building a user interface for these boards is easy with the embedded color OLED screen, five capacitive touch buttons, and the five RGB LEDs. The integrated sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure, RGBC light, gesture and proximity) allow you to map the environment around the carrier, and should you need to capture any other data there are over 100 additional Grove sensors that can easily be connected directly to the carrier.

Here’s are quick demo of the carrier’s capabilities! (Special shout out to Mirko Pacioni and Fill Connesso for creating this demo.)

Capture and store all the data locally on an SD card, or connect your MKR family board to the IoT Cloud for real-time data captured, storage, and visualization.

The MKR IoT Carrier features:

• Round OLED display
• Five RGB LEDs
• Five capacitive touch buttons
• On-board sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure, RGBC light, gesture and proximity)
• Buzzer
• IMU (Three-axis accelerometer sensor and three-axis gyroscope sensor)
• Two 24V relays
• MicroSD card holder (SD card not included)
• Plug-and-play Grove connectors for external sensors — two analog and one digital (I2C)
• 18650 Li-ion rechargeable battery holder (battery not included)

The MKR IoT Carrier is now available to purchase from the Arduino online store for €48 / $57.60 — find infinite possibilities for all your IoT projects

Interested in learning how to build IoT projects, then we have the perfect choice of kits for you, both featuring the MKR IoT Carrier. The Arduino Explore IoT Kit is the ideal kit to learn about the Internet of Things and what you can do with it, while the Arduino Oplá IoT Kit is great for experiencing the benefits of IoT at home or in the office with eight out-of-the-box IoT projects controlled on the Arduino IoT Cloud. 

This one goes out to anyone who loves music and feels it in their soul, but doesn’t necessarily understand it in their head. No instrument should stand in the way of expression, but it seems like they all do (except for maybe the kazoo).

[FrancoMolina]’s hybrid synth-MIDI controller is a shortcut between the desire to play music and actually doing it. Essentially, you press one of the buttons along Synthfonio’s neck to set the scale, and play the actual notes by pressing limit switches in the controller mounted on the body. If you’re feeling blue, you can shift to minor scales by pressing the relative minor note’s neck button at the same time as the root note, e.g. A+C=Am. Want to change octaves? Just slide the entire controller up or down for a total of three.

All of these switches are muxed to two Arduinos — an MKR1010 for USB MIDI control, and a bare ‘328 to provide the baked-in synth sounds. Power comes from a stepped-up 18650 that can be charged with an insanely cheap board from that one site. [Franco] has all the code and files available, so go have fun making music without being turned off by a bunch of theory. Push that button there to check out the demo.

If ‘portable’ means pocket-sized to you, then let this mini woodwind MIDI controller take your breath away.

Synths are a ton of fun no matter how good or bad they sound. Really, there are no bad-sounding ones, it’s just that some are more annoying to listen than others to if you’re not the one making the beep boops. [Clem] had built a tiny LDR-based synth into a watch case a few years back and took it to many a Maker Faire, where it delighted and annoyed until it ultimately broke.

Naturally, it was time to make a new version that’s more capable. Whereas the first one was Atari-punk-console-meets-light-Theremin, this one has a bunch of inputs and can be programmed on the fly to record and play back bendable tones. It’s driven by an Arduino MKR, and the inputs are managed by an impressively squash bug-wired shift register. [Clem] used beefy switches this time in the hopes that this one will last longer. We think the slide pots are a great touch, as are the candy-colored knobs printed in PMMA.

Our favorite part is that [Clem] took advantage of the random states the microcontroller pins are in when it’s first powered on. If you don’t want to program any notes, you can use the ones generated at boot and just play around with those. Be sure to check out the build video after the break.

We’ve seen our share of synths, but few as delicious-looking as KELPIE from this year’s Hackaday Prize.

We are very happy to announce the Arduino PRO Gateway for LoRa!

Combined with Arduino MKR WAN 1300 IoT nodes, it makes an ideal solution for a wide range of applications, like smart agriculture, smart cities and building automation – and many other remote monitoring use cases requiring long range, low power wireless connectivity.

The gateway can be used globally and enables multiple channel management. By supporting advanced features like Listen Before Talk (LBT), it allows users to transmit at higher power on the first free channel, achieving longer ranges than conventional gateways for LoRa. 

Arduino continues its mission of making complex technology easy enough for anyone to use. Customers of the Arduino PRO Gateway will be given exclusive beta access to the Arduino IoT Cloud, which makes installation, provisioning and remote management of the gateway incredibly simple through the popular Arduino Create cloud platform.

The gateway features the advanced Embit EMB-LR1301-mPCIe module, hosted by a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ SBC, in a rugged aluminum enclosure. The gateway comes pre-installed with an optimized packet forwarder and a carrier grade Network server for LoRa WAN that is running on the Arduino Cloud provided by A2A Smart City (part of the A2A Group).

Technical Specifications

• Chipset: Semtech SX1301
• Modulation: LoRa Spread Spectrum, FSK, GFSK 868MHz (EU) / 915MHz (US)
• Number of Channels: 8 LoRa Channels
• Operating Frequency: 868MHz (EU) / 915MHz (US)
• Frequency Range: 860MHz to 1020MHz
• Operating Temperature: -40°C to +85°C
• RF Output Power: Up to +27dBm
• Sensitivity: Up to -137dBm
• Interfaces for the LoRa Module:  mPCIe (SPI / I2C / UART / GPIOs) :
• Dimensions: 71x40x1mm
• Operating Voltage: +5V
• Additional Features:
  • Listen Before Talk (LBT) Capability (for improved transmission power management),
  • On-board uFL antenna connector
  • FPGA support for LoRa Spectral Scan

The Arduino Pro Gateway for LoRa (868 MHz , EU version) can be pre-ordered from the Arduino Store.

We’re excited to kick off Maker Faire Bay Area by expanding our IoT lineup with two new boards: the MKR Vidor 4000 and the Uno WiFi Rev 2.

The MKR Vidor 4000 is the first-ever Arduino based on an FPGA chip, equipped with a SAM D21 microcontroller, a u-blox Nina W102 WiFi module, and an ECC508 crypto chip for secure connection to local networks and the Internet. MKR Vidor 4000 is the latest addition to the MKR family, designed for a wide range of IoT applications, with its distinctive form factor and substantial computational power for high performance. The board will be coupled with an innovative development environment, which aims to democratize and radically simplify access to the world of FPGAs.

“The new MKR Vidor 4000 will finally make FPGA accessible to makers and innovators,” said Massimo Banzi, Arduino co-founder. “And we are looking forward to changing the game yet again.”

“Maker Faire Bay Area is always an unparalleled opportunity to interact with the Arduino community and makers,” added Fabio Violante, Arduino CEO. “This year I’m extremely excited about the launch of the most flexible Arduino ever, the MKR Vidor 4000 and the development environment vision around it. With this new product we aim at putting in the hands of professionals, makers and educators the electronic equivalent of a resourceful Swiss Knife to bring their creativity to the next level. The applications are countless.”

Co-developed with Microchip, the Uno WiFi Rev 2 is built around the new ATmega4809, u-blox Nina W102 WiFi module, and an integrated IMU. The Uno WiFi will make it even easier to deploy products that need connectivity using the classic Arduino form factor, and is ideal for emerging IoT industries such as automotive, agriculture, consumer electronics, smart home, and wearables. Among its other features, the ATmega4809 provides 6KB of RAM, 48KB of Flash, three UARTS, Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs), and an integrated high-speed ADC. Combined with Microchip’s ECC608 crypto chip on the Uno board, the microcontroller also provides hardware-based security for connecting projects to the cloud including AWS and Google.

“As we grow, partner and invest, we will fuel the vast IoT and software markets across the industry,” said Banzi. “Inspiring the Arduino community with easy to deploy solutions that enable our users to have access to larger both flash and RAM memory for more demanding IoT projects.”

“Arduino aims at supporting professional developers, makers and educators during the entire lifecycle of IoT product development, from the initial learning phases to mass deployment,” noted Violante. “Being based on the popular AVR technology, but on steroids, and with an enhanced WiFi connectivity, the UNO WiFi Rev 2 is a big step forward for all users that want to leverage the vast ecosystem of shields and libraries available for the traditional UNO form factor, in connected use cases.”

Those heading to Maker Faire this weekend are invited to attend Massimo Banzi’s semi-annual ‘State of Arduino’ talk, where you can learn more about our latest developments including the MKR Vidor 4000, Uno WiFi Rev2, and our Arduino Day releases.

Both the MKR Vidor 4000 and Uno WiFi Rev2 will be available on the Arduino online store at the end of June.

We’re excited to announce two new wireless connectivity boards to help streamline Internet of Things development, the MKR WiFi 1010 and MKR NB 1500.

The first of the boards is the MKR WiFi 1010, which offers low power consumption and has been designed not only to speed up and simplify the prototyping of WiFi-based IoT applications, but also to be embedded in production IoT applications that require WiFi connectivity. The board is an evolution of the existing Arduino MKR1000, but now comes equipped with an ESP32-based module manufactured by U-blox. This key element delivers 2.4GHz WiFi and Bluetooth communications capability, along with leading RF and power performance: the ESP32 is a highly flexible device that provides adjustable power output, enabling optimal trade-offs between communication range, data rate, and power consumption.

Fully compatible with the Arduino IT cloud, the MKR1010 also offers simple migration from other Arduino boards, and uses open-source WiFi firmware, which makes it easy to reprogram for upgrading or to repair any security flaws. A significant feature is the MKR1010’s two standalone programmable processors – the first based on ARM processor core technology, the second based on a dual-core Espressif IC – making the board a high-performance solution that can distribute its workload across its dual-processor system. Another major feature is the integration of a secure authentication module – Microchip’s ECC508 – which uses crypto authentication to secure TLS network communications and connections.

The second board to be introduced is the MKR NB 1500, which employs the new low-power NB-IoT (narrowband IoT) standard, designed to work over cellular/LTE networks. When combined with the ease of use of the Arduino ecosystem, the MKR1500 becomes an excellent choice for applications in remote areas such as on-field monitoring systems and remote-controlled LTE-enabled modules.

Designed for global deployment, it supports transmissions via AT&T, T-Mobile USA, Telstra, Verizon over the Cat M1/NB1 deployed bands 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 20 and 28. The NB-IoT communications technology makes use of existing LTE cellular networks and delivers significantly faster communications than alternative IoT networks such as LoRa and Sigfox, while also having a low impact on battery consumption. In addition, when compared to typical GSM or 3G cellular connectivity, wake up times and connections are much faster, which enables significant power saving. Importantly, both of the new boards are fully compatible with the Arduino Uno, Mega and existing MKR hardware. Also common to both boards is their MKR footprint, as well as the same wide range of available interfaces, including I2S, I2C, UART and SPI. Both boards also operate at 3.3V and offer input/output options including 22 digital I/Os – 12 with PWM outputs – and seven analog inputs.

“The new boards bring new communication options to satisfy the needs of the most demanding use cases, giving the users one of the widest range of options on the market of certified products,” said Arduino co-founder and CTO Massimo Banzi.

“NB-IoT and CAT M1 are gradually becoming a reality in many countries in the world. With MKR NB 1500 we wanted to create a versatile and standard technology to democratize the access to the new networks, enabling our customers  to take advantage of this big opportunity early on,” said Fabio Violante, CEO of Arduino. “We strongly believe the MKR NB 1500 has all the ingredients to become the go to product for many professional use cases”.

“As far as the MKR 1010 is concerned, we had the opportunity to learn a lot from all the WiFi products that we had on the market for several years. Based on customers’ feedback we thought it was now time to release a new ultra reliable board that was suitable for a variety of use cases that were difficult to support with other products,” added Fabio Violante. “The other aspect that we love about the products is that the firmware of the WiFi part is developed by us and open-source, opening new opportunity for continuous improvements and contributions from the community.”

Both the MKR WiFi 1010 and the MKR NB 1500 will be available on the Arduino online store starting in June 2018.

Genuino Day 2016 in Indonesia was organized by the local community, who submitted this winning photo of the group on Instagram. For sharing the pic below, they’ll be receiving a Genuino MKR1000 and a Genuino Mug!

Grup Robotika SMK Negeri 2 Babelan at GENUINO DAY 2016 (Jakarta) . . . . . #Arduino #Genuino #ArduinoD16 #GenuinoD16 #ArduinoDay #GenuinoDay #ArduinoCC #MKR1000 #OpenElectronic #ArduinoIndonesia #Jakarta #Indonesia #Makers #DIY #Robots #Robotics #OpenSource #Tech #Community #AtAmerica

A photo posted by Arduino Indonesia (@arduinoindonesia) on Apr 5, 2016 at 7:54pm PDT

There’s still time to participate in this giveaway, which runs until May 26th. Here’s how:

– Follow our official Arduino.cc account on Instagram

– Share your images on your account on Instagram using hashtag #ArduinoD16 and #GenuinoD16 and mention us with the tag @Arduino.cc

– Every Thursday, from April 7th to May 26th, we are going to choose one of your pics (posted starting April 2nd) and announce the winner of an Arduino or a Genuino MKR1000 and one of our t-shirt or mug  on the blog. That’s a total of of eight lucky people! Easy enough, right?

Remember to also share cool photos relating to your favorite Arduino and Genuino moments in your community beyond Arduino and Genuino Day.
Show us your local activities!

Here we are today announcing the winner of this week for our Instagram giveaway!

Congratulations to Thinklab.ph from Manila (Philippines) for the following picture taken at Genuino Day with Rizal High School showcasing an Arduino based battle robot: Tagisang Robotics, Salamander.  They win a Genuino MKR1000 and a Genuino Mug!

Rizal High School showcasing their Tagisang Robotics entry, Salamander, an Arduino based battle robot last Arduino/Genuino Day 2016 Manila. @arduino.cc #ArduinoD16 #GenuinoD16 #GenuinoDay2016Manila

A photo posted by ThinkLab PH (@thinklab.ph) on Apr 19, 2016 at 8:21pm PDT

Yes, you can win it too! Here’s how:

– Follow our official Arduino.cc account on Instagram

– Share your pics on your account on Instagram using hashtag #ArduinoD16 and #GenuinoD16 and mention us with the tag @Arduino.cc

– Every thursday, from April 7th to May 26th we are going to choose one of your pics (posted starting April 2nd) and announce on this blog a winner of an Arduino or a Genuino MKR1000 and one of our t-shirt or mug for a total of of 8 lucky people. Easy enough, right?

Remember to share cool pictures regarding Arduino and Genuino moments in your community also beyond Arduino and Genuino Day.
Show us your talent!