Introducing the Arduino GEMMA

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This wearable board is one bad mamma GEMMA!

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First announced last fall during Maker Faire Rome, the Arduino GEMMA is now available. The board, which was developed in collaboration with Adafruit, is a tiny wearable MCU that packs a whole lot of awesomeness in a 1.1” (28mm) diameter.

Similar to the latest version of the Adafruit GEMMA, the mini yet powerful platform is based on the ATtiny85. The MCU is supported in Arduino IDE (1.6.4 or higher) and programmable via microUSB. This enables all Makers to easily create wearable projects with all the advantages of being part of the Arduino family.

“It’s perfect for when you don’t want to give up your Adafruit FLORA and you aren’t willing to take apart the project you worked so hard to design. It’s the Adafruit and Arduino lowest-cost sewable controller,” Adafruit notes.

Ideal for small and simple projects sewn with conductive thread like the LilyPad Arduino, the tinyAVR powered Arduino GEMMA fits the needs of nearly every entry-level wearable creation — ranging from reading sensors and driving addressable LED pixels to Apple Watch-inspired buzzing mindfulness bracelets. The board features a USB bootloader with a nice LED indicator that resembles a USBtinyISP, allowing Makers to program it with the Arduino IDE (with just a few modifications). Beyond that, the Arduino GEMMA is equipped with a mini-USB jack for power and/or USB uploading.

“The ATtiny85 is a great processor because despite being so small, it has 8K of flash, and 5 I/O pins, including analog inputs and PWM ‘analog’ outputs. We designed a USB bootloader so you can plug it into any computer and reprogram it over a USB port just like an Arduino (it uses 2 of the 5 I/O pins, leaving you with 3),” Adafruit adds. “In fact, we even made some simple modifications to the Arduino IDE so that it works like a mini-Flora.”

Keep in mind that although it can be configured using the Arduino IDE, it is not entirely Arduino-compatible. Aside from the on-board tinyAVR MCU, other key specs include:

• Size: 1.1” (28mm) diameter and 0.28″ (7mm) thick
• Operating Voltage: 3.3V
• Input Voltage: Up to 16V (reverse-polarity protection, thermal and current-limit protection)
• I/O Pins: 5 (of which 2 can be used as PWM outputs and 1 as analog input)
• Flash Memory: 8KB (ATtiny85)
• SRAM: 512B (ATtiny85)
• EEPROM: 512B (ATtiny85)
• Clock Speed: 8MHz
• MicroUSB for USB bootloader
• JST 2-PH for 3.7 external Li-Ion battery
• Hardware I2C capability for breakout/sensor interfacing

Think you may like an Arduino Gemma for your next DIY wearable project? The board is now available for $9.95 on both Arduino.cc and Adafruit’s online store.

Build yourself a GEMMA-powered buzzing mindfulness bracelet

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Inspired by the Apple Watch’s Stand Reminder, Adafruit’s latest wearable project lets you know when it’s time to step away from your desk. 

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If you’re like nearly 90% of employees in America, you sit all day for your job. Add to that the time you spend on the couch after work watching TV, reading, playing video games and surfing the web, that’s an approximate total of 13 hours spent each day in a chair of some sort. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little reminder letting us know to take a short break from time to time? That was the idea behind Becky Stern of Adafruit’s latest project: a buzzing mindfulness bracelet.

Powered by the one and only GEMMA (ATtiny85), the band emits subtle haptic feedback as the day progresses, offering a helpful hint to get off your rear and step away from the desk — even for just a few moments.

All too often, we get to the office, start working to look up and find that it’s already five o’clock. Where did the day go? Inspired by the Apple Watch’s Stand Reminder feature but at a mere fraction of the cost, this DIY project enables users to literally feel the passage of time, or at least “have a new awareness of how the perception of passing time varies based on what they’re doing.”

The wearable is comprised of a vibrating motor circuit, which includes a transistor, a resistor and a diode, along with a GEMMA to control the frequency of vibrations. The circuit itself is housed inside a linked bracelet, however as Stern notes, it can be embedded into pretty much anything such as the rubber from a bicycle’s inner tube.

This bracelet is created out of folded figure-8 shapes cut from leather, along with a pair of elongated tabs for its closure. Once the GEMMA is inserted into its resting place, a small hole is poked to make room for the resistor to fit through. From there, a Maker simply needs to solder the electronic components among the loops of the bracelet and voilà!

A user must then plug in the ATtiny85 powered board over USB to load up the code and adjust the timing intervals based on their haptic preference. In this case, the time interval is set to one hour, but can be modified by the user. Although the times are stored in milliseconds, the design does use the tinyAVR’s Watchdog Timer (WDT) to conserve power. What’s also nice is that, since it spends most of the day in sleep mode, the battery lasts for quite a while.

Looking to become more mindful as to how you spend your days? Head over to Adafruit’s step-by-step tutorial here to get started.

Adafruit unveils the GEMMA v2

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The newest version of the Adafruit GEMMA features an on/off switch and Micro-USB.

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We’re not quite sure as to how we missed this bit of news on #WearableWednesday, however if DIY wearable projects are your thing, then perhaps you’d like know about the brand-spanking new Adafruit GEMMA v2.

The latest version — which is essentially identical to its predecessor in terms of aesthetics and code — has swapped out the Mini-B for a Mirco-B USB connector to provide some more on-board space. With all that new room, the GEMMA now is able to welcome the addition of an on/off switch.

For the 1% of you who are not familiar with Adafruit and its versatile lineup of Atmel based body boards, GEMMA is a tiny wearable MCU that packs a whole lot of awesome in a 1-inch (27mm) diameter area. The mini yet powerful platform is powered by an ATtiny85 and is programmable with the Arduino IDE via USB. It also features a 3.3V regulator with 150mA output capability and ultra-low dropout. Beyond that, v2’s ATtiny85 chip package has switched from SOIC to QFN.

“We designed a USB bootloader so you can plug it into any computer and reprogram it over a USB port just like an Arduino (it uses 2 of the 5 I/O pins, leaving you with 3). In fact, we even made some simple modifications to the Arduino IDE so that it works like a mini-FLORA,” the Adafruit team explains.

Ideal for small and simple projects sewn with conductive thread, the [tinyAVR based] GEMMA fits the needs of nearly every entry-level wearable creation — ranging from reading sensors to driving addressable LED pixels.

“We wanted to design a microcontroller board that was small enough to fit into any project, and low cost enough to use without hesitation. Perfect for when you don’t want to give up your Flora and you aren’t willing to take apart the project you worked so hard to design. It’s our lowest-cost sewable controller.”

Aside from the ATtiny85 MCU, other key hardware specs of GEMMA include:

• Operating Voltage: 3.3V
• Input voltage (recommended): 4-16V via battery port
• Digital I/O pins: 3
• PWM channels: 2
• Analog input channels: 1
• Flash memory: 8KB (ATtiny85) of which 2.75KB used by bootloader
• SRAM: 512 bytes (ATtiny85)
• EEPROM: 512 bytes (ATtiny85)
• Clock speed: 8 MHz
• Micro-USB for USB bootloader

Interested in learning more? Head over to its official page here. Or, watch Adafruit’s Becky Stern show off the new and improved GEMMA v2 below!

Create a color-changing sweatshirt with a potentiometer and GEMMA

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Stay warm while looking cool! 

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While we’ve covered a number of Becky Stern’s slick wearable creations in recent months, the timeliness of this one couldn’t be better for our friends in the Northeast as they battle these bitter cold months. Thanks to her latest tutorial, Makers can now easily create their own color-changing NeoPixel hoodie using a soft potentiometer, conductive thread, some tiny LEDs and an Adafruit GEMMA (ATtiny85).

Conductive thread is used to connect the potentiometer to the wearable platform board, which is sewn to the zipper on the front of the sweatshirt. This allows for the use of the drawstring to perform a sliding action. The sensor’s ribbon was divided in half, leaving two pieces: one for the pull tab, the other to slide along.

“The yarn in the sensor has a high resistance that GEMMA can measure with its analog input. The charm moves along its length, changing the amount of yarn connected to the input,” Stern explains.

Stern notes that a Maker could also couple a temperature control action of zipping/unzipping the hoodie with the LED color-changing effect. However, for simplicity sake of the demonstration, she decided to keep them separate.

With a simple Arduino sketch and stitching of the NeoPixels tasked with altering colors, you’re just about ready to go. The code uses the changing value of the slide sensor to adjust the blinking speed of GEMMA’s onboard LED. Slide the sensor and watch the LED blink faster or slower.

Before completing the project, a Maker must cut a small hole in the upper inside edge of the hoodie’s front pocket, and thread through a JST extension wire for the AAA battery pack. Store the batteries inside the pocket, and run the extension cable up through the front facing to plug into GEMMA’s JST port. And, voila!

Ready to give your hoodie some special effects for a cold winter night? You can find an entire step-by-step breakdown of the build here. Meanwhile, you can also check out some of Stern’s most wow-worthy wearables here.

This space-inspired LED makeup is out of this world

October is here and while most of us are urgently searching the web for the perfect Halloween costume to wow friends and family, our pals at Adafruit have come up with the perfect Atmel based solution.

Inspired by the Cassiopeia constellation, this galactic makeup uses the GEMMA platform (ATtiny85) along with a series of FLORA NeoPixels. The team behind the build used some clever soldering to link five NeoPixels to the Gemma, while keeping the design light enough so that the LED structure could be worn for long periods of time.

The Adafruit design is directly mounted to the user’s forehead and an accompanying makeup tutorial turns the costumed constellation wearer into a walking galaxy. While some of your friends will likely go with the old standbys this Halloween, such as a cop, a cat, or some assortment of superheroes, why not stand out like a star in the night sky?

Feeling inspired? This timely guide will show you how to bring some celestial luster to this month’s big holiday, or perhaps even a Comic-Con or two.

Arduino and Adafruit unveil the Arduino Gemma

During his Maker Faire Rome presentation, Arduino Co-Founder Massimo Banzi offered attendees a preview of the company’s new collaboration with Adafruit — the Arduino Gemma, a tiny wearable MCU board packed in a 1-inch (27mm) diameter package.

Similar to the original Adafruit Gemma, the mini yet powerful wearable platform board is powered by the versatile ATtiny85. The board will be default-supported in the Arduino IDE, equipped with an on/off switch and a microUSB connector. Since it is programmable with the Arduino IDE over USB, all Makers will have the ability to easily create wearable projects with all the advantages of being part of the Arduino family.

“We wanted to design a microcontroller board that was small enough to fit into any project, and low cost enough to use without hesitation,” Adafruit’s Limor Fried (aka LadyAda) explained in a blog post last September. “Gemma is perfect for when you don’t want to give up your Flora and aren’t willing to take apart the project you worked so hard to design. It’s our lowest-cost sewable controller.”

Ideal for small and simple projects sewn with conductive thread, the [tinyAVR based] Arduino Gemma fits the needs of nearly every entry-level wearable creations — ranging from reading sensors to driving addressable LED pixels.

To better visualize just how small we are talking, look at this image from an earlier version of the Adafruit Gemma.

“The ATtiny85 is a great processor because despite being so small, it has 8K of flash and 5 I/O pins, including analog inputs and PWM ‘analog’ outputs. It was designed with a USB bootloader so you can plug it into any computer and reprogram it over a USB port (it uses 2 of the 5 I/O pins, leaving you with 3),” Arduino noted in its announcement.

In addition to ATtiny85 MCU, other key hardware specs include:

• Operating Voltage: 3.3V
• Input Voltage (recommended): 4-16V via battery port
• Input Voltage (limits): 3-18V
• Digital I/O Pins: 3
• PWM Channels: 2
• Analog Input Channels: 1
• DC Current per I/O Pin: 40 mA
• DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 150 mA
• Flash Memory: 8 KB (ATtiny85) of which 2.5 KB used by bootloader
• SRAM: 0.5 KB (ATtiny85)
• EEPROM: 0.5 KB (ATtiny85)
• Clock Speed: 8 MHz
• MicroUSB for USB Bootloader
• JST 2-PH for external battery

For those seeking to use an Arduino Gemma in their next DIY wearable project, the board will be available for purchase on the Arduino Store and Adafruit Industries beginning late Fall 2014.

Channel your inner superhero with The Dazzler bracelet

Maker Michael Barretta was searching for the perfect gift for his girlfriend’s birthday. After some deep thought, he decided to develop a project based on her favorite superhero: The Dazzler. So what happens when the superpowers of the X-Men join forces with the low power of today’s microcontrollers? This DIY Dazzler bracelet.

To best personify the bright lights of the Dazzler’s powers, Barretta worked to incorporate light organs into a wearable bracelet. MAKE Magazine best describes light organs as a simple technology that causes light to pulse in tune with the frequency and intensity of sound.

Much like Marcus Olsson’s Trinket design we featured a few weeks back, this bracelet pulses in reaction to the sound around it. Undoubtedly, these wearables would be a massive hit at any party… or Comic-Con, of course!

Barretta linked an Adafruit GEMMA platform (ATtiny85), a microphone breakout board, NeoPixel RGB LED strips and LiPo battery to establish the dazzling effect. The microphone adapts surrounding music into a sequence of LED flashes. For even further customization and personalization, the Maker 3D printed the bracelet enclosure to perfectly fit his girlfriend’s wrist. The schematics for the bracelet itself can be found here.

If you want to build your own bracelet for that someone special in your life, or just want to channel your inner Dazzler, check out Michael’s tutorial here!

Wearable computing @ CES 2014

Angela McIntyre, research director at Gartner, has confirmed that digital health and fitness will be one of the hottest segments at CES 2014 – with 40 percent of exhibitor floor space expanded for the lucrative segment.

“We expect to see some updates and innovation in wearable cameras, smart glasses, smart watches and headsets. We will see a range of styles and functionality for smart watches as companies experiment with designs that appeal to different potential market segments,” McIntyre explained.

OpenBCI – A brain-computer interface for Makers. Powered by Atmel.

“[Meanwhile], headsets can determine where we are looking, a feature that will be utilized by apps for personal navigation, and by virtual personal assistants to help with in-store shopping. Headsets that read brain waves (EEG) will be used to help improve concentration, serve as controllers for toys, and adjust music according to our moods.”

McIntyre emphasized that despite some of the inevitable hype surrounding wearables, the segments for fitness and personal health devices have been among the first to gain traction.

“Wearable electronics has its strongest consumer base among fitness enthusiasts and wider consumer interest in these devices is leading to broader adoption. The worldwide revenue from wearable electronic devices, apps and services for fitness and personal health is anticipated to be $1.6 billion this year, increasing to $5 billion by 2016,” said McIntyre.

Atmel-powered Agent Smartwatch

“Wearables support the ‘quantified self’ trend of people tracking their vital signs, activities, and capturing images of what they experience during the day. The fun of wearing and using gadgets to track fitness and health is appealing, and so is using their apps and services. Gamification enables wearers to compete against themselves or others and rewards wearers. Online communities provide camaraderie with those having similar goals. Wearable electronics provide new motivation to consumers for improving fitness and health.”

The analyst also noted that fitness and health devices are mostly composed of activity monitors, pedometers and consumer heart-rate monitors. They may take the form of a fob or wristband, or embedded in a wrist watch, in clothing or in wearable accessories, such as shoes, hats and chest straps.

“At CES, we will see athletic shirts with sensors woven in to track heart rate and respiration during training and competitions. Smart undershirts for infants will monitor their heart rate, breathing and sleep,” she continued.

Amulyte pendant – powered by Atmel’s SAM4L

“Wearable devices for home health monitoring of the elderly will include clothing and accessories, such as wristbands that can track heart rate, monitor activity level during the day, detect falls, provide location information and send alerts to caregivers. With wearable technology, the elderly may to continue to live independently with reduced risk to their health and personal safety.”

Last, but certainly not least, McIntyre points out that consumers will want to know how easily their wearable devices communicate with each other, peripheral computing devices and multiple screens.

Adafruit’s Gemma (ATtiny85)

“Data will be integrated from more than one wearable device to provide useful information and insights about fitness and health to the wearer. Personal identification, biometric information and payment systems can be linked through wearable devices. Wearers can be admitted to events, access health records, and make purchases, through their wearable devices,” the analyst concluded.