What is KiCad?

The KiCad EDA Suite project aims at creating a portable, cross-platform, Free/Libre/Open-Source EDA Suite. That is capable of schematic and printed circuit board design. The code is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL. KiCad is an open source software suite for electronic design automation (EDA). It facilitates the design of schematics for electronic circuits and their conversion to PCBs (printed circuit board) design. KiCad was developed by Jean-Pierre Charras, and features an integrated environment for schematic capture and PCB layout design. Tools exist within the package to create a bill of materials, artwork and Gerber files, and 3D views of the PCB and its components.

Download KiCad here!

Code Racer is a multi-player live coding game that teaches newbies how to code a basic website using HTML and CSS, and tests intermediate and advanced users on their coding speed and agility. Players race against each other and the clock to complete coding challenges, unlocking weapons and rewards along the way.

Treehouse looks really interesting, we like the way they’re using badges as learning tools.

Merit Badges for the Job Market @ WSJ.com.

This is the vision of a growing number of education reformers who feel that the standard certification system no longer works in today’s fast-changing job market. The Mozilla Foundation, the group that develops the popular Firefox Web browser, is designing a framework to let anyone with a Web page—colleges, companies, even individuals—issue forgery-proof digital badges that will give potential employers details about an applicant’s training at the click of a mouse. In September, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced a $2 million grant program, run in coordination with Mozilla, to encourage organizations to try the badge system. More than 300 groups have applied.

Read more…

For those keeping track of all this, we started doing “skill badges” in 2009 and recently added about 50 badges in the last few months for educators, workshops, hackerspaces and more to award to their students/learners.

The physical ones are mostly for anyone to self-determine if they want them, schools are using these to award the kids when they’re done learning how to solder for example. As far as certifying these as something more than that, we wanted to go in another direction.

Our “digital” online version of the badges will be awarded by Limor “Ladyada” Fried herself and we’re basing that on specific criteria and it will be project based, not test taking We’re really excited to see all the “merit badge” efforts and we’re curious where it will go. We’ll have our beta for our online version up soon, we have some testers now and we’ll be able to share the live system very soon!

This is a “round” 5v 40ma solar panel (our solar “badge” you could say) we’ll be talking about this on the show-and-tell and/or ASK AN ENGINEER on saturday night… amongst many many other new things. it’s 2″ x 2″ … 50 x 50 mm.

Visual Studio Achievements Program Brings Gamification to Development…

Starting today, developers who use Microsoft Visual Studio have a new way to highlight their skills, get recognition for the amazing work they do every day, and add some competitive fun to the development day.

Visual Studio Achievements, a Visual Studio plug-in, enables developers to unlock badges and compete against one another for a place on a leader board based on the code they write, its level of sophistication, and the Visual Studio capabilities they use to do so. Developers finally have the ability to actually show their friends, colleagues, project managers, spouses and customers how good they are at what they do all day and sometimes into the night.

It’s a badge world now, we’re all just living in it

Many of you are using the Adafruit skill badges to rewards students, kids and workshop participants. One of most requested new badge for us to add was one for PHP. So we talked wth Vincent who designed the very cute PHP elephant and we now have permission to make these! The elePHPant created by Vincent PONTIER – www.elroubio.net

We’ll have the stickers in the store soon, and lots of ways to earn them for free

Drawdio is an electronic pencil that lets you make music while you draw! It’s great project for beginners: An easy soldering kit with instant gratification. Essentially, its a very simple musical synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of pencil graphite to create different sounds. The result is a fun toy that lets you draw musical instruments on any piece of paper. This badge is a great reward for a fun workshop!

Ohm’s law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship. I is the current through the conductor in units of amperes, V is the potential difference measured across the conductor in units of volts, and R is the resistance of the conductor in units of ohms. More specifically, Ohm’s law states that the R in this relation is constant, independent of the current.

The Metric System is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world. The United States is the only industrialised country that has not defined a metric system as its official system of measurement, although the use of a metric system has been sanctioned for use there since 1866. Although the United Kingdom committed to officially adopting a metric system for many measurement applications, one is still not in universal use there and the customary imperial system is still in common and widespread use. Although the originators intended to devise a system that was equally accessible to all, it proved necessary to use prototype units under the custody of government or other approved authorities as standards. Until 1875, control of the prototype units of measure was maintained by the French Government when it passed to an inter-governmental organisation – the Conférence générale des poids et mesures (CGPM). It is now hoped that the last of these prototypes can be retired by 2014 via Wikipedia.

Did you know all our badges are made in the USA *and* the embroidery machines use solar power! These badges are fueled by a star!

Here are the stickers of the Adafruit skill badges, coming “hot off the press”! We’ll have them in store very soon

In the second video you can see a fun production innovation, the barcodes for our inventory system are printed on the non-used portion of the sticker. This makes it super easy to add to stock, track and make sure there are not any shipping issues since we scan each item before we ship it!

On a related note, all our stickers and badges are made in the USA. And the power used for the sticker and embroidered machines are from solar power. We’ll be posting more details like this soon, but when you’re considering buying things from the various companies out there we hope these little details like solar powered and where things are made helps make the decision.

‘Badges’ Earned Online Pose Challenge to Traditional College Diplomas – College 2.0 – The Chronicle of Higher Education via Massimo!

The spread of a seemingly playful alternative to traditional diplomas, inspired by Boy Scout achievement patches and video-game power-ups, suggests that the standard certification system no longer works in today’s fast-changing job market.

Educational upstarts across the Web are adopting systems of “badges” to certify skills and abilities. If scouting focuses on outdoorsy skills like tying knots, these badges denote areas employers might look for, like mentorship or digital video editing. Many of the new digital badges are easy to attain—intentionally so—to keep students motivated, while others signal mastery of fine-grained skills that are not formally recognized in a traditional classroom.

At the free online-education provider Khan Academy, for instance, students get a “Great Listener” badge for watching 30 minutes of videos from its collection of thousands of short educational clips. With enough of those badges, paired with badges earned for passing standardized tests administered on the site, users can earn the distinction of “Master of Algebra” or other “Challenge Patches.”

Read more.

Adafruit offers fun and exciting “badges” of achievement for electronics, science and engineering. Please visit our badge section to purchase badges or contact us for more information on how educators can participate. We believe everyone should be able to be rewarded for learning a useful skill, a badge is just one of the many ways to show and share. From the “I CAN USE A LASER CUTTER” or “I CAN SOLDER” to “I LEARNED MICRO-CONTROLLERS” Adafruit has designed open-source badges to reward students, beginners and individuals who are learning with Adafruit products.

See our badges here

Twizted writes -

My girlfriend got me a “man-bag” a.k.a “geek-bag” for Christmas which I pretty much already knew and she is -teh AWESOME- for …. But, what I didn’t know was that she was being sneaky and had been watching me geek out over the patches in the adafruit shop one evening and decided to get me some for Christmas to go with the bag. She said she got the ones that she knew what it was and knew I had “earned” hehe, she also wanted to get me the magic blue smoke monster since she has witnessed on a few occasions some… “complications” …at my work bench, but alas, it was out of stock at the time… Anyway, Thank you Ladyada and adabot for having these awesome patches for all us maker-geeks!

Coming soon glow-in-the-dark “Radiation” badge. You learned about radiation and radioactivity! Adafruit offers a fun and exciting “badges” of achievement for electronics, science and engineering. We believe everyone should be able to be rewarded for learning a useful skill, a badge is just one of the many ways to show and share. This is the “Radioactivity and Radiation” badge for use at classrooms, workshops, Maker Faires, Hackerspaces, TechShops and around the world to reward beginners on their skill building journey! This special badge is white in the day time and glows green in the dark.

Should be in stock in a week or so! You can check out all the badges here and here.

Coming soon – BSD Daemon and ESD (Electrostatic-sensitive device) skill badges! Special thanks to Kirk McKusick for the BSD Daemon. The BSD Daemon used with permission. You can see most/many of the skill badges in the Adafruit Educators section and we’ll soon be releasing the “digital” versions, buttons, stickers and more

We are using a Model 100 1″ Round Button Machine. Made in the USA too!

The folks at lahack.com have created a custom badge wall generator for showing off your hacking and making skills on the internet(s). If you want to save the image after you’ve generated it, click ‘view image’, and then save it as a jpeg (your browser might want to save it as a .php file, just change php to jpg).

Thanks, lahack.com!

Of course, if you really want to really wear your skills on your sleeve, you can check out the badges in the shop!

Put a couple of the iron-on patches from the shop on my nerd bag. This is the bag I usually take with me to MakerFaire and other geek-tastic events. They look really nice against the black fabric background.

I need to get more hackerspace pins.

Quick tips for iron-on patches:

1. Make sure the fabric you’re applying the patch to is clean.
2. Use a high enough heat setting to melt the adhesive and let it permeate into the fabric below. I used a high “cotton” setting.
3. Apply firm, even pressure over the whole area of the patch for long enough to let the adhesive set (as above) — I ironed each patch for about 3 minutes each.
4. Use a handkerchief or thin cloth between the iron and the patch, or you risk damaging the threads on the patch.

Will there be “buttons” and “stickers” of the skill badges? Yes! We’re currently getting stickers made and we’re evaluating some button makers. We really like the ones from http://www.tecre.com/ If you have any suggestions/comments on button makers let us know!

Digi XBee, HTML 5 and Educational mini UAVs- Skill badges, iron-on patches are IN!

The skill badges you can pick up in our store (and soon earn for free) are great ways to share and show your skill set, but we’re also going to celebrate some of the mistakes we all make with electronics Say hi to the magic blue smoke monster. This badge is available starting today.

Magic smoke – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Magic smoke (also called factory smoke or blue smoke) is smoke produced by malfunctioning electronic circuits. The origins of the magic smoke have become a running in-joke that started among electrical engineers and technicians before it was more recently adopted by computer programmers. The actual origin of blue smoke is the black plastic epoxy material that is used to package most common semiconductor devices such as transistors and integrated circuits, which produces a bluish coloured smoke during combustion. Smoke from other components that do not use this epoxy may vary in colour, but still be identified as the same phenomenon for purposes of the joke.

Our little friend does not have a name besides “magic blue smoke monster” but here are some suggestions that were made from the community

Preview – Biohacking skill badge. Skills we’ll celebrate and share in the 21st century.

On a related note. Did you know NYC has a biohacking lab?

Genspace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting education in molecular biology for both children and adults. We work inside and outside of traditional settings, providing a safe, supportive environment for study and mentoring of biotechnology.

In the summer of 2010, we built the first-ever community laboratory, a facility where we design workshops, train students and innovate new technologies. As a membership-based community lab, we offer New Yorkers the opportunity to work on their own unique projects in a safe, Biosafety Level 1 compliant facility.

Visit, GENSPACE.

Instructables, Android, Linux “Tux” Penguin, CadSoft EAGLE, Blender, High Altitude Balloon, Processing, Tesla Coil, Beagle Bone, Hacked Kinect. Special thanks to the cool companies and orgs that granted us permission for the ones we needed to ask permission for! And to our artist Bruce for many of these and our awesome partner NeedleNerds.

User:CrashCart – Makers Local 256 uses our Adafruit skill badges to share interests and introduce themselves based on interests and projects.

It’s cool to see this as it’s been part of years-long project of celebrating skills with physical and digital badges. We’ll be rolling out a really big system shortly that everyone will be able to participate in – seeing a hackerspace quickly adopting these is great

For now check out our badges section in the shop and educators section. If you’re working on some amazing project over the holidays, you’ll soon be able to earn free badges as well!

Have a favorite Hack-A-Day project that was posted? Post up in the comments on Hack-a-Day with a link to your favorite (Hack-a-Day)
project and they’ll send out a free badge to the creators of the top 10 hacks!

On a related note! IN THE FUTURE – As we continue rolling out our skill badge program any Adafruit customer who uses stuff from us can earn a free badge if their project is posted on Hack-a-day! STAY TUNED FOR MORE DETAILS!

In addition to getting these from our store, we’ll soon be announcing how you can earn these, for free. Physical ones sent to you as well as digital ones to celebrate and share.

Oscilloscope – Skill badge, iron-on patch
Hack-a-Day – Badge, iron-on patch
Dumpster Diving! – Skill badge, iron-on patch
“Brewing” – Skill badge, iron-on patch

You can see all the badges we have here and you can see all the current/upcoming ones in our educators section.

“For Job Hunters, Digital Merit Badges” – Digital Badges May Highlight Job Seekers’ Skills @ NYTimes.com

CLOTH and metal badges have long been worn by Boy Scouts, soldiers and others to show off their accomplishments.

Now the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is putting millions of dollars into a competition to spur interest in a new type of badge — one that people can display not on their clothing but on a Web site, blog or Facebook page while they are looking for a job.

The badges will not replace résumés or transcripts, but they may be a convenient supplement, putting the spotlight on skills that do not necessarily show up in traditional documents — highly specialized computer knowledge, say, or skills learned in the military, in online courses or in after-school programs at museums or libraries.

Read more.

Very cool to see “badges” for tech skills, we think is key to sharing and celebrating skills. We’ve had a soldering badge since 2009 and before the end of 2011 we’ll have over 30 electronic / maker-friendly skills badges you can award and earn.

The Lightning Foundry by Greg Leyh — Kickstarter via jwz.

What is the Lightning Foundry?   The Lightning Foundry is a project to re-create super-long discharge effects normally found only in lightning.  Two 10-story Tesla Coil towers will fill an area the size of a football field with lightning-like discharges hundreds of feet in length. If we trigger super-long discharge effects the arcs could strike considerably further.

Wow! These folks get our Tesla coil badge once we get them in stock

Latest Adafruit “skill badges” are in stock! 3D printing, Micro-controllers, robotics, water jet safety, multimeter and TechShop!

You can see all of them here (digital form) and the ones that are either in stock or are in process, ready to sign up for when they’re in stock here.

High-altitude balloons are unmanned balloons, usually filled with helium or hydrogen that are released into the stratosphere, generally reaching between 60,000 to 120,000 feet (18 to 37 km).

The most common type of high altitude balloons are weather balloons. Other purposes use as a platform experiments in the upper atmosphere. Modern balloons generally contain electronic equipment such as radio transmitters, cameras, or satellite navigation systems, such as GPS receivers.

These balloons are launched into what is termed “near space”—the area of Earth’s atmosphere where there is very little air, but which is not high enough to be in the realm ofsatellites.

A seasonal vortex in Antarctica allows balloons to be recovered very close to their launch site, making it a popular location for balloon-based research.

Due to the low cost of GPS and communications equipment, high altitude ballooning is an emerging hobby.

We have a lot of customers using our products and designs for their cool high-altitude balloon projects and soon we will be able to reward them with a badge!

You’ll see this little friend here soon as we release some (more) fun ways to share skill achievements and celebrate some of the mistakes we all make with electronics Say hi to the magic blue smoke monster.

Magic smoke – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Magic smoke (also called factory smoke or blue smoke) is smoke produced by malfunctioning electronic circuits. The origins of the magic smoke have become a running in-joke that started among electrical engineers and technicians before it was more recently adopted by computer programmers. The actual origin of blue smoke is the black plastic epoxy material that is used to package most common semiconductor devices such as transistors and integrated circuits, which produces a bluish coloured smoke during combustion. Smoke from other components that do not use this epoxy may vary in colour, but still be identified as the same phenomenon for purposes of the joke.

Feel free to post name suggestions in the comments

NEW PRODUCT – Learn to solder – Skill badge, iron-on patch. Adafruit offers a fun and exciting “badges” of achievement for electronics, science and engineering. We believe everyone should be able to be rewarded for learning a useful skill, a badge is just one of the many ways to show and share. This is the “I learned to solder” badge which has been used at workshops, Maker Faires and around the world to reward beginners on their electronic journey! This beautiful badge is made in the USA and has subtle details like metallic thread. The badge is skillfully designed and sturdily made to last a life time, the backing is iron-on but the badge can also be sewn on.

Size: 1.7″ x 1.7″ (44mm x 44mm).

In stock and shipping now. You can also get this badge for free for orders $225 or more, it will automatically be added to your cart.

Lastly, if you’re a reseller or hackerspace you can now buy these in bulk as well!