MORE ABOUT Arduino

At the end of last year the feud that has for so long split Arduino asunder seemed to have been resolved. Massimo Banzi announced at the World Maker Faire New York that a single united IDE is being created in a nonprofit foundation. He went on to say “The Arduino Foundation will allow us to champion the core values of the Arduino Community within the open source ecosystem and make our commitment to open source stronger than ever.” It also has a manifesto (in PDF) outlining many beautiful ideas and goals for the foundation. There are also some troubling undercurrents...

Designed by Clemens Valens at Elektor.LABS, the AVR Playground – a playful reference to the Arduino forum known as the Arduino Playground – is a hybrid of an Arduino Uno and a traditional micro-controller development board. It is intended for ‘doing Arduino’ without bad connections and loose wires (although it doesn’t disallow it). It provides an easy way to start learning the microcontroller without having to solder or add other components. 

As you well know, the Arduino is "the" basic component in the maker community, however to expand its capabilities makers are still largely on their own. To really make the most of the Arduino, and explore the projects in which it can be used, it means getting back to basics which can often cause major problems — and that's where the book Home Automation Projects with Arduino begins.

This timelapse video shows you how easily the Arduino Tinkerkit* Braccio Robotic Arm kit can be assembled. While manipulating the different parts and screwing it together, you will learn a lot about how it actually works. The assembly is real fun, and thanks to the Arduino test sketch found in the examples, aligning the servomotors is a piece of cake too. Soon you’ll be familiar with the arm itself and learn how to control its movements through your smartphone.

Before the rise of Arduino, microcontroller development boards had on-board peripherals like pushbuttons and LEDs, a display, one or more potentiometers for analog signals, extension connectors, etc. and, of course, a decent power supply. The goal of these boards was to provide an easy way to start learning the microcontroller without having to solder or add other components. The AVR Playground – an open source, open hardware project – was designed with this in mind, and extended with things from Arduino that we have learned to appreciate.

A kit of parts for making a robot and experimenting with the Brainbox AVR educational board is available in the Elektor Store. Also suitable for hobby environments, the Brainbox AVR board is 100% compatible with Arduino, but it's more than a regular Leonardo. Thanks to the rugged screw connections, the 500mA outputs, the four DC servo outputs and the many power supply options, this enhanced platform is immediately useful, perfect for educational and DIY purposes.

The new Elektor book GSM/GPRS Projects is aimed for people who want to learn how to use the GSM/GPRS modems in microcontroller based projects. Two types of popular microcontroller families are considered in the book: PIC and AVR microcontrollers, the last one with Arduino.

Sure, an Arduino also offers a range of inputs and outputs but the BBC Micro:bit offers additionally numerous sensors and control functions. Two input buttons and a 5x5-LED display field, a compass sensor and a 3-axis accelerometer, plus light and temperature measurement. As the crowning glory you have Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) data transfer.

The inter-IC bus, or I2C bus for short, is a two-wire bus designed for connecting simple peripherals that do not require rapid transfer of large amounts of data. In this three-part series we will look at the essential features of the bus and see how it can be used in practice with a Raspberry Pi, Arduino or other system.

Maker Faire UK 2017 was held once again in Newcastle (UK). It's the oldest Maker Faire outside of the USA and over 10,000 happy visitors came to the Centre for Life science village to witness and take part in various making and science activities. With over a 100 maker stands and performing artists, the breath of activities was amazing and diverse with activities in art, coding, craft, gaming, music, science and STEM.