Arduino 1.0 is now available from the download page.
A long time coming, this release brings small but important changes to clean up the Arduino environment and language – as well as adding lots of additional features. Updates to the environment include a new file extension, toolbar icons, and color scheme as well as a progress bar on compilation and upload. The language changes include modifications to the Serial class, addition of DHCP and DNS support to the Ethernet library, a new SoftwareSerial library, multi-file support in the SD library, modifications to the Wire library and UDP class, etc. For details, please see the release notes or this blog post. We’ll be pushing the updated reference for Arduino 1.0 live in the next day or two.
This release is the product of many people (listed in the release notes). Thank you to everyone who helped us get here!
Fantastic milestone for an amazing project, from a great group.
Here’s a link to a video demo of a Siri controlled Ardunio media remote. Adafruit’s Raw IR decoder sketch was used to help decode the IR protocol of a Comcast remote.
The first is this cute and thoughtful infographic (above – click the image for the full version) from onlineengineeringdegree.com, which paints a lamentable (if not surprising) picture of the state we’re in. The second, created by Knewton and originally posted on the Daily Kos, further addresses the problem:
The citation of Pete Conrad in the second ‘graphic really drives home the point that “standard” educational models can fail even for (perhaps especially for) the most talented of us. At the bottom of the the first graphic is another statement I can get behind; that “big lecture classes are cheap, but their dullness and rote memorization drive students away from STEM” — so very true (and sad).
Feel free to post your own thoughts in the comments!
Both of these originally via techi.com (h/t Akiba)
Join us Wednesday evening for the next episode of Make: Live, our streaming show and tell! This episode is another Hackerspace Roadshow, where we take you to five hackerspaces across the globe. Meet makers and tour the spaces of:
Make: Live 21: Hackerspace Roadshow II
Wednesday November 30, 9pm ET/6pm PT
Watch at makezine.com/live or on UStream
Please join us in the UStream chat or mark tweets with #makelive to interact live with the show.
NEW PRODUCT – Panel Current Meter – 0 to 9.99A. Put a current meter anywhere with this very handy display. This panel meter requires a DC voltage to run, and then has two thick gauge wires to measure current draw. A shunt is already on board so its very easy to hook up!
Since current sensors are a little more complex than volt meters, and its easy to confuse the wires, please read carefully to understand how to wire it together! The current meter has two sets of red/black wires, one thin and one thick. The thin wire set is for powering the meter itself and must be 4.5-30VDC. There is reverse-polarity protection on these wires. The thick wire set is for the in-line current sensing. The black sensing wire is tied to the black power wire internally, so depending on how you want to use the meter, you may need a separate power circuit (see the next paragraph)
The easiest and safest way to use the meter is to have no electrical connection between the powering and sensing current. That is, connect something like a 9V battery to the thin power wires and you can put the current sensor in anywhere you want. As long as the circuits are totally separate this will work great.
Another option is to have one circuit power the meter while it is sensing the same circuit. To do this, you’ll need to make sure that you are low-side sensing. This is because the ground power wire is connected to the black current sense wire. To make sure you don’t accidentally short your power supply, you’ll need to arrange your circuit so that the ammeter sits ‘right below’ the “ground” of whatever you are sensing. See the image above for a diagram showing how to measure motor current, for example. Make sure the DC power is between 4.5V and 30V in this case.
The display has a microcontroller that will read the current through the shunt resistance, compare it to a stable reference and display the current in Amps on a 3-digit 0.56″ tall 7-segment display. It works from 4.5V up to 30V and is reverse-polarity protected so it will be good for nearly any electronic project! The meter itself draws 3-4mA to power the microcontroller and display. This particular LED display is a nice contrast red, which we found very readable. To mount to your enclosure, simply cut a 45.5mm × 26.5mm rectangle and snap it in.
MAKE’s “Ultimate Guide to Kits” is out and it’s one of the best things they have ever created for tinkerers, makers and hackers. To promote it and their new Kit Reviews site, they’re running a “Kit-A-Day” giveaway that includes thousands of dollars in Maker Shed merchandise between now (last Friday, actually) and Xmas. Included are 5 Makerbots– 1 was already given away, but 4 are left. The guide has the biggest selection of open-source hardware in one place!
NEW PRODUCT – 4-pin JST SM Receptacle Cable. This 4-wire cable is 20cm long and has a JST SM type connector receptacle on the end. It mates with the JST SM plug cable and is good for whenever you have 4 wires you want to be able to plug and unplug. We like the solid and compact nature of these connectors and the latch that keeps the cable from coming apart easily. For more information, check the JST SM connector datasheet.
Our digital addressable LED strip and 12mm pixels also come with JST SM connectors and you can use these cables to connect to the input or output port
This cable can be used to connect to the OUTPUT port of our LPD8806 digital addressable LED strip so that you can connect another strip to the output, or perhaps apply power to the ‘output’ end. It can be used to connect to the INPUT port of our WS2801 LED Pixels so that you can easily plug it into your Arduino or similar.
NEW PRODUCT – 4-pin JST SM Plug Cable. This 4-wire cable is 20cm long and has a JST SM type connector plug on the end. It mates with the JST SM receptacle cable and is good for whenever you have 4 wires you want to be able to plug and unplug. We like the solid and compact nature of these connectors and the latch that keeps the cable from coming apart easily. For more information, check the JST SM connector datasheet.
Our digital addressable LED strip and 12mm pixels also come with JST SM connectors and you can use these cables to connect to the input or output port
This cable can be used to connect to the INPUT port of our LPD8806 digital addressable LED strip (so that you can easily plug it into your Arduino or similar. It can be used to connect to the OUTPUT port of our WS2801 LED Pixels so that you can connect another strand to the output, or perhaps apply power to the ‘output’ end.
Hi. I’m Matt Webb from BERG, a design studio in London, UK. We specialise in product invention. Quick intro! With Bonnier, we were behind Mag+ (the first magazine platform for the iPad). And recently, with Warren Ellis and Matt Brooker, we published SVK, a comic printed in invisible ink.
For the past year we’ve been working on our new product — and we’re delighted and excited to be able to take the wraps off at last!
Today we’re announcing Little Printer.
Little Printer lives in your front room and scours the Web on your behalf, assembling the content you care about into designed deliveries a couple of times a day.
You configure Little Printer from your phone, and there’s some great content to choose from — it’s what Little Printer delivers that makes it really special. We have an incredible group of launch partners, and in the run-up to shipping we’re working with them all on custom publications.
Our launch partners are Arup, foursquare, Google, the Guardian, and Nike. Thanks guys, it’s great to do this together.
Octopart builds tools to help engineers and scientists change the world. Our electronic part search engine is already being used by hundreds of thousands of engineers to design electronic hardware and we’re just getting started. Join our team and help us solve problems that will impact the pace of technological innovation.
We’re looking for a multidisciplinary engineer who is passionate about engineering and science but who ultimately loves to code. We want someone who can build a beautiful user interface quickly and knows how to implement fast, elegant code. We value self-motivated individuals who are always generating new ideas and testing them out in the real world.
Want to add audio and lighting effects to your R/C car? The R/C Animator uses a Propeller Platform USB to read servo signals and play special effects. Gadget Gangster writes;
R/C Animator triggers effects based on the position of the servos in your vehicle. So, you can trigger the playback of a rumbling V8 when the throttle servo opens up. Or you could connect a spare servo channel to the R/C Animator to turn on an LED ‘light bar’ and play a siren. Effects include;
Sound playback
Up to 32GB of audio samples can be stored and played back in CD quality stereo. An onboard audio amp will drive speakers up to 1/4 Watt.
LED animation
Up to 25 LED’s can be turned on, blinked, or faded.
Secondary servo movements
Multiple servos can be directly controlled by R/C Animator, so a single wireless channel can trigger secondary servo animations
R/C Animator is designed to chain and combine these effects.
Going into business is risky, treacherous and demanding. But it is also invigorating, rewarding and beautiful, when it works. It is a lot like nature — with violent hurricanes and beautiful sunsets. I am not sure that you choose to be an entrepreneur; it chooses you.
At the completion of my internship at Atmel Norway in late 2010, I was offered a full time position working as an AVR Applications Engineer in the Atmel Norway facility. While the start date of this job was delayed to give me time to finish my University degrees, I have now completed all required materials and am only a few weeks away from the big move. In early 2012, I will be moving across to the other side of the world, to join the ranks of the Atmel AVR Applications group and live in Norway.
Printable catalog (PDF)
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