MORE ABOUT Arduino

Writing the time every minute – or at any other adjustable interval – into a layer of sand is the star attraction of a cool project developed around an Arduino Uno. This video shows how easy it is to build the well-designed gadget yourself from a kit of parts provided by Elektor. All parts are included.

The Pretzel board is a really useful tool especially when you are starting out with networks. Now however it was time to try out a different type of board. We took a look at the ESP32 which is the more powerful cousin of the ESP8266 with many more peripheral functions built-in...

Open-source hardware is meerting open-source instruction set architecture with SiFive announcing their Arduino Cinque — an Arduino development board employing the RISC-V ISA (Instruction Set Architecture). After the $59 HiFive1 from late 2016, the Cinque is the second RISC-V based development board released by SiFive.

The ESP8266 from Espressif has made waves in the maker community with its low price: you can get one from AliExpress for just two or three euros/ dollars/pounds. Its big brother, the ESP32, is the result of Espressif’s efforts to make their WLAN SoCs fit for the future. Along with a dual-core processor, it has onboard Bluetooth, more RAM, and IO extensions. In this article we talk about programming the ESP32 with the Arduino IDE. In the next issue of Elektor we will turn our attention to the native development tool IDF.

Using optics for switching and control is a widely employed and accepted technique, with many favorable features. No mechanical movement, no wear and tear on switch contacts, modules are electrically isolated and much more.

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.