Ping-pong gets high-tech with AT42QT1010

Every hip, trendy new office seems to have a ping-pong table sequestered in the corner of a break room. Even if that that has become common practice in the contemporary office, this concept from across the pond at SI Digital has changed the way the game is played!

With SI Digital’s over-the-top office ping-pong table, each player has an RFID tag embedded into their personal paddle. When they approach the table, they simply wave their handle over a sensor and their image appears on a nearby LCD screen and a game is ready to commence.

Also, instead of tirelessly arguing over the manually tracked score, the team installed two capacitive touch sensors below the table that allow a quick click to add a point under each player’s image. These capacitive touch sensors, built by Adafruit and powered by the Atmel AT42QT1010 were chosen for their ability to trigger precisely after very slight and effortless touches.

Alongside the table, the innovative team placed an Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega168)-powered RFID reader covered with several LEDs to give visual feedback upon being scanned. The RFID tags provide the ability for games to start instantly and for rivalries to be upheld. The team at SI Digital used Node.js and Socket.io to develop an application that gave them the ability to track their live scoring and lifestime statistics. Game on!

For more information on this new spin on the old school Ping-Pong table, take a look at SI Digital’s project review here.

The fantastic MegaCube hits Kickstarter

The Maker community has grown up, and respectively, requires a development platform to match. As many of you may already know, the Arduino has been the development platform of choice for many Makers throughout the world. The brains and heavy-lifting behind it is an Atmel AVR microprocessor. As a result, MEGADOM Electronics Inc. and DomCo Electronics, Inc. have teamed up and brought you just that: The grown-up Arduino, the MegaCube.

At a first glance, the MegaCube looks a lot like a desktop PC processor; in fact, it is an ATmega2560 with all ancillary components onboard including a 5V LDO. At 1.8” x 2.1” in size, it’s the smallest Arduino-compatible development board, with an ATmega2560. Looking to get it going? All you need is a USB to serial TTL bridge such as an FTDI cable or In Circuit Serial Programmer (ICSP), such as the Atmel AVRISP mkII.

What sets the MegaCube apart from the original Arduino Mega and its clones is not only it’s minute size, but also that each of the one hundred pins of the 2560 are broken out for use. This includes the clock pins and additional general purpose I/O pins. It also works as a great stepping-stone for developers wanting to take the leap from Arduino to Atmel Studio. The MegaCube can act as either an Arduino or a full-featured Atmel development kit.

As opposed to the traditional Arduino platform which uses an asymmetrical pin lay-out, the MegaCube has a symmetrical layout. All pins are on a 0.1” grid and can be easily used with proto or vector board. This 0.1” grid also serves the dual purpose of making this dev kit socketable and thus embeddable permanently or temporarily.

Too many times, I have whipped up a quick proof of concept, which I would have liked to have kept intact without permanently tying up my Arduino; something in which MEGADOM Electronics has thought of as well. They created a “shield” system not all that dissimilar to the Arduino platform. They have two of them out now, with more in the works — one is the eBOSS (Embedded Break-Out Shield System) and the other is the BOSS (Break-Out Shield System). The eBOSS is at the core of this concept. You can easily solder the eBOSS into your proof of concept and then just socket the MegaCube into it.  This way, when you need your MegaCube for a different project, you don’t have to destroy your current project to use it. Rather, you can simply unplug the MegaCube board from the eBOSS and plug it into another eBOSS attached to a different project. I can envision the eBOSS also being used in finished products, where the product comes with an eBOSS and is offered as a complete solution with a MegaCube or without one offered at a lower price point, with the purchaser using his or her own MegaCube.

MEGADOM’s chief engineer, Mike Dombrowski, also has a demo in the works for putting multiple programs on the MegaCube. For instance, if you are using the ATmega328-based Arduino Uno platform, you could put up to eight full Uno programs on the MegaCube. By using a unique ID chip attached to each eBOSS, the MegaCube would be able to determine which program to run, making it a snap to switch between projects. Dombrowski’s demo switches between a robotic arm and a Bluetooth Remote controlled tank without reprogramming the firmware.The robotic arm using the eBoss and the MegaCube is on MEGADOM’s Kickstarter project video. Rumor has it MEGADOM is going to be selling the robotic arm as a kit as well!

The other shield system MEGADOM created is the BOSS. The BOSS was created to allow those new to Arduino to use a MegaCube as if it were an original Arduino Mega, because the BOSS is the same size and footprint as the original Arduino Mega (ATmega1280, an AVR based high-performance, low-power Atmel 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontroller combines 128KB ISP flash memory, 8KB SRAM, 4KB EEPROM, 86 general purpose I/O lines, 32 general purpose working registers) and gives you access to only the same pins as the Mega. The creator tells me the BOSS will have an R3 footprint in final release versions. This allows the MegaCube to dock with the BOSS giving you the standard Arduino footprint and use standard Arduino shields with the MegaCube. Once again, it’s a great launching platform for engineer or Makers that want to prototype and prove in their design before embedding it into a project full-time or in a more pertinent fashion.

The MegaCube and its shields were created to bring the Atmel ATmega 2560 [Atmel AVR based Microcontrollers] to the forefront of the budding Maker Movement. It unleashes more flexibility in a platform that is smaller and can be socketed and embedded into projects. As you can see, the MegaCube has a promising future with the Arduino Community and it’s already spawning similar designs on the Arduino Forums. To find out more about the MegaCube go to the MegaCube’s Kickstarter campaign or the MEGADOM homepage.

Atmel @ 2013 World Maker Faire: Day 1

Yesterday, Atmel kicked off the 2013 World Maker Faire in NYC with a star-studded analyst panel. Today, the Faire officially opened its doors, with hackers, modders and DIY Makers showcasing their creations, many of which are powered by Atmel microcontrollers (MCUs).

Atmel’s booth in the Arduino Pavilion is drawing  huge crowds, with entire families and Makers of all ages eagerly gathering around to see a number of uber-cool exhibits and demos including:

* Hexbug/hovercraft hacking:  Atmel employees are hacking traditional Hexbugs and hovercrafts using Arduino boards.

* MakerBot: We’re showcasing the wildly popular AVR-powered 3D printer and providing 3D samples over the weekend.

* Pensa: This company uses Arduino boards to make their flagship DIWire, a rapid prototyping machine that bends metal wire to produce 2D and 3D shapes.

* Infinity Aerospace: The ArduLab – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATMega 2560 microcontroller – is a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box. Sensor mounting is straightforward, with unique functionality addressing the technical challenges of operating in space.

Additional exhibitors at the Atmel World Maker Faire booth include Fuzzbot (robots), Evil Mad Scientist and Colorado Micro Devices.

Don’t forget to follows us at @makerfaire, @atmel and @arduino!

1:1 interview with Manu Sharma of Ardulab and Infinity Aerospace

The Ardulab, a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box, is built around Atmel’s versatile ATMega 2560 microcontroller (MCU). The low-cost, open-source, NASA-approved container Ardulab can be programmed just like an Arduino. Although the most recent mission is headed to the International Space Station (ISS) on Cygnus, the Ardulab is more than capable of operating on a number of suborbital launch vehicles and parabolic aircraft.

Below is Atmel’s interview with Manu Sharma, creator of Ardulab and co-founder of Infinity Aerospace.

Tom Vu:  What’s your vision for Ardulab’s roadmap?

Manu Sharma: Ardulab is a powerful platform that is transforming the way commercial customers including NASA and others conduct research and experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and suborbital vehicles. Ardulabs is used by high schools and universities to Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA. Within 9 months, we have been successful in selling the product to a broad range of customers as well as launching an Ardulab to the International Space Station aboard the Cygnus spacecraft with the help of our partners, NanoRacks. 

What Ardulab has triggered is phenomenal. I consider Ardulab a centerpiece product of our company. The Ardulab alone places tremendous power in the hands of users who are conducting research aboard the International Space Station. The customer unleashes the full potential of what Infinity Aerospace can offer to them by using the supporting services around Ardulab. For instance, we have started offering suborbital launch slots in the same package as an Ardulab(s). On top of that, we provide complete payload integration and handling services. In a nutshell, all of these services combine with Ardulab to form an innovative offering we call “Space Programs.” These are comprehensive packages that include everything from nuts and bolts to the Ardulabs and launch slots.

So, you see, already, Ardulab is changing its form from just a product to a package that serves customer needs from the beginning to end. We want to make Ardulab the de-facto product for microgravity research. We are seeing growth in the micro satellites market too and we may do something similar there as well.

Tom Vu: For founders, the signature are often the same at the root of startup. There are multiple forms of currency: Ideation, innovation, success, design, capital, humanity, design feats, passion, etc. What is your currency to make this ArduLab project evolve?

Manu Sharma: All those currencies have been important for us at the root. However, if I had to choose one, it would be passion and design. At Infinity Aerospace we strive to design the absolute best product we can and to hear our customers tell us Ardulab is a well-designed product is so rewarding. We really think that designing better products makes all the difference and in some cases it can be instrumental in pioneering a revolution in the industry. From the choice of material, selecting the machining process to designing mounting holes so that customers can just plug and play equipment; we have spent a lot of time focusing on each feature. Then we let a bit of evolution / iteration take place. Early adopters buy the product and we listen to their feedback and start adding or removing features appropriately.

Of course all of this requires patience. That’s where passion comes in. We are space nuts. Literally. We love building products in space, after all.

Tom Vu: Explain the methodology and the approach? What is your general rule of thumb for designs in space? Form factor? Efficiency? Cost? Open source?

Manu Sharma: We are still learning the best way to create breakthrough products for space. What has worked for us so far is first going out and finding a REAL problem that’s worth something to potential customers. If you look at the space industry, the problems are either huge or small and very limited in potential. But all of this is changing. We generally question every single thing of current designs or processes.

Once we have good grasp of the fundamental problem, we don our artist and engineering hats and start designing a product. We take everything into account from cost, efficiency, to form factor. We chose open sourcing ArduLab’s operating system and software for a purpose. We want people to leverage the already existing vast knowledge resources on the internet about Arduino to build things in space. A general rule of thumb for us designing things for space is to keep everything very simple.

Tom Vu: Any “best practice” advice for those innovators, makers, or engineers out there looking to build for space?

Manu Sharma: Try to build upon standards or leverage existing standards. Use commercially off the shelf (COTS) hardware as much as possible to keep the costs low. Look for products in different markets that may inspire/help you to build a space product. Chances are you will find a lot of them.

Tom Vu: We are seeing lots of democratization of space? What does that really mean for consumers? What does it mean for designers and engineers?

Manu Sharma: Yes, within the last two years we have seen successful crowd funding campaigns for quite a few space products. We just saw a successful Kickstarter campaign by Planetary Resources (raising well over a million dollars) with people contributing as low as $25 to have their photos taken in space. As these new tools and technologies continue to emerge and scale with Moore’s law, we will see more and more democratization of space. It’s a fabulous thing on both ends.

For designers and engineers, the bells are ringing to get to work. As space democratizes, more and more products and business models become viable.

Tom Vu: Describe more of the intrinsic design characteristics and methodology, why Arduino?

Manu Sharma: When we looked at how people did research and other commercial activities aboard the International Space Station, we found that everyone was developing their own custom microcontroller boards, casing and electronics. Everything was custom. It takes a lot of resources and time. And why spend time reinventing the wheel if someone else has already figured it out?

We chose the Ardunio because everyone is using it to create experiments, including us. You can find example code and libraries for pretty much any kind of sensor or actuator you’re using. Tapping the Arduino community means reusability, efficiency and an open environment where we all can help each other. It is really hard to change a user behavior. Instead of giving customers a new architecture and software development environment, we chose to use the vastly adopted Arduino IDE.

Not to mention the fact that we were flabbergasted with the prices of similar solutions in the market. We wanted an affordable, simple, and powerful solution. Open sourcing space is the right thing to do. We want everyone to do interesting things in space.

Tom Vu: Can you give us a fly through of your design from origination, development, hardware, and application? Why AVR microcontrollers?

Manu Sharma: From the beginning we wanted to maintain the basic architecture of a well adopted microcontroller platform. We looked at various options such as the Beaglebone, Raspberry Pi and others. We realized that the large majority of Ardulab use cases do not require extensive processing power on board or a complex architecture. We wanted something simple, and highly robust that’s been industry proven. So we decided to go with the Atmel Atmega 2560. It is perfect for the Ardulab.

Next, we developed the microcontroller board that extends the capabilities of the Arduino Mega with additional features that solve the toughest challenges every one faces when designing their experiments for operation on the International Space Station. We solved them, standardized the protocols, and streamlined the process of remotely retrieving the data from Ardulabs aboard the ISS while on earth.

Tom Vu: How important are designs having “beyond the core” solutions ? What will Ardulab’s ecosystem eventually grow into at maturity?

Manu Sharma: One has to always keep the trajectory of product development and evolution in mind. We certainly do with ArduLab. We think that with Ardulab we can offer a great educational package to high schools and universities. Schools and Universities can literally start a private space program by using ArduLabs, our launch slots, and payload services. Customers can simply Fedex their experiments to us and we take care of integrating them with launch vehicles. If it is ISS bound, we work with NanoRacks directly. When the experiments are installed inside ISS, you would be able to access the data almost near real time on your iPad.

Eventually, we want ArduLab in every high school and university’s science programs. Ardulab is itself a space lab. Students will be able to collaborate and develop science experiments. Recently, we have considered something similar in the micro satellite market. We aren’t talking about it to much at the moment. You should be hearing from us about this soon.

Tom Vu: Semiconductors have their challenges and expertise with form-factor, scale, and large FAB production cost and cycles? What are your challenges and expertise at Infinity Aerospace?

Manu Sharma: I don’t know if it is right to say that we have challenges with scale. We are growing organically at the moment. Yes, currently we are producing small quantities of Ardulabs and cost of fabrication is higher due to that. However, we are moving towards a hybrid model where we can sell the hardware for less allowing more customers to use our powerful software and services.

Tom Vu: What word comes to mind when we think of Ardulab or even for that matter Infinity Aerospace? What would you like the readers to understand the significance of this project?

Manu Sharma: “Remote Automation and Cloud Management in Space.” We are building products that offer turnkey solutions in low earth orbit and suborbital flights.

Tom Vu:  How does Ardulab play a role in the inspiring minds of today especially in Education or Engineering Academia?

Manu Sharma: We created ArduLab keeping students and researchers in mind. Working with CASIS we’re piloting an educational curriculum around ArduLab in three schools in Houston, Texas. Each school will develop a space experiment inside an Ardulab. Kids from 6th grade to 12th will be working in the teams to develop science experiments. They will be launching their Ardulab experiments to the International Space Station sometime mid next year. This is so exciting for us, it really keeps us in high spirits to share the wonders of space and inspire students. If we are successful here, we will be able to scale Ardulab and space programs to schools and universities nationwide.

Tom Vu: Explain the processing requirements or minimalist approach for Ardulab and the designs of future products? What are the raw challenges dealt with in the harshness of launch, zero gravity, or space? Any design constraints or design methodologies?

Manu Sharma: There are many design constraints. Since we designed Ardulab to comply with the International Space Station, we have to mind the NASA requirements when choosing electronic components. On top of that, we have to make sure we are consistent with NanoRacks systems onboard the ISS. There isn’t any design constraint regarding radiation. Radiation levels inside the ISS is low enough for commercial off the shelf electronics to work properly. Through much iteration, the Ardulab structure has been designed to survive the extreme vibrations encountered during the launch.

Tom Vu: How important is it for you to rapidly build, test, and develop the evolution of your product from Arduino or AVR chip?

Manu Sharma:  It is very important; we don’t have a choice. When we deliver Ardulabs to our customers, we are also eagerly seeing how they use our product and what changes we can make to improve the user experience. We have gone through more than 7 design iterations since last October. As I talk to you now, a new version of Ardulab microcontrollers are being assembled which include new features and technologies.

Tom Vu: Metaphorically, it is fun. What sound barrier or escape velocity (technology, solution, and consumer product changes) are we about to embark in if Ardulab becomes overtly successful?

Manu Sharma:  Ardulab is intended to make it as easy as possible for people all over the world to gain access to space. If Ardulab is wildly successful, then a lot of people will be active in the space industry. We plan to serve this market by continuing to provide more infrastructure technologies. Communication, data transfer, and management of systems is a big opportunity there.

Tom Vu:  What are some of the challenges you can imagine resulting from Infinity Aerospace’s Ardulab?

Manu Sharma:  I think our challenge is similar to any aerospace company. The cost of getting into low earth orbit or to the International Space Station is still of the order of about $50k for a 1 kilogram Ardulab. We are optimistic that in near future, these prices drop an order of magnitude. Currently, we are offering space programs starting at $4995 that includes a launch slot in a suborbital vehicle (XCOR Aerospace Lynx). Customers will get about 4 minutes of high quality microgravity in a suborbital vehicle. It is great for experimentation and learning about the microgravity environment. We are first to market with this product at this price point and we will surely soon see real competition. We need to continue to innovate and lead this market to stay competitive.

Tom Vu: How can Ardulab evolve technologically? As a visionary, do you see a demand for Ardulab to be integrated more into education, design, solution, and products. Perhaps, accelerate efficiencies or connectivity?

Manu Sharma: There are many ways we plan to grow Ardulab technologically. Firstly, we are planning to experiment with higher end microprocessors that not only will serve some users in education market but will provide robust and high performance capabilities to commercial customers developing low earth orbit solutions. If you look at Ardulab as a platform to develop automated tools in space, then you will see multiple possibilities for Ardulab to morph into different products.

Tom Vu: What are you seeing come into your pipeline of request to get into Space. What does Ardulab have in roadmap for customers in the next 5-10 years?

Manu Sharma: We have some great surprises for everyone. We have customers developing their experiments in domains such as bio tech, fluids, chemistry, physics, and robotics and material sciences. Ardulab is creating offshoot products. We have recently been working with NanoRacks to develop an automated fluid mixing lab. We are reusing the Ardulab board to power this totally new product. We are working on software that will enable teams to collaborate for designing experiments in Ardulab and also provide near real time access to them when they are installed on the ISS. We will be growing our services to provide more options for launch slots on suborbital vehicle as well as low earth orbit with different providers in the coming years. Eventually customers would want to go beyond International Space Station and we are fully aware of that and strategically planning our development process keeping that in mind.

Tom Vu: Why space? Is this important in the next step for computing and embedded design engineering?

Manu Sharma: During a late night discussion over drinks with Astronaut Don Pettit, he said one thing that has stuck in my mind since then. He said space is a frontier and frontier is enriched with new discoveries and phenomenon. Space is a totally new arena for developing products. There is a growing market and economical reasons to go to space either for developing better communication and imagery systems or mining resources and settling human bases on different moons and planets.

A phone today has all the basic functionalities to become a system bus for a micro satellite. We say that from the PhoneSat project at NASA Ames. The group later went on to create a company building disposable micro satellites. Imagine that in near future we can get real time imagery of the whole planet! What will people use this data for? What kind of apps could be created? We could possibly track deforestation, wild fires or other natural calamities on our iPads. I think advances in computing and integrated circuit will make this kind of future in space happen.

Tom Vu: What is the vision for Infinity Aerospace as it pertains to people benefiting from their milestones?

Manu Sharma:  Our vision is to provide a very powerful platform and software tools for people to develop space based hardware, tools, experiments or applications. I think with our upcoming products and as Ardulab and other services evolve, people and organizations will be able to create automated systems in space with great simplicity never seen before in the entire history of low earth orbit market.

Tom Vu: What is SMART design to your standards?

Manu Sharma: A SMART design for us is a design that solves real problems of people with minimal use of resources. We strongly believe in making sure that not only we solve the problems but also provide a great experience while interacting with our product.

Atmel powered ArduLab en route to the ISS

The Atmel powered ArduLab is en route to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a Cygnus cargo spacecraft design by the Orbital Sciences corporation. The Cygnus – currently traveling at 17,500 mph in Earth’s orbit – is on track to rendezvous with the ISS on Sunday, Sept. 22. In the meantime, Orbital Sciences has confirmed that the two power-generating solar arrays on the Cygnus spacecraft have deployed as planned.

The ArduLab, a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box, is built around Atmel’s versatile ATMega2560 microcontroller. The low-cost, open-source, NASA-approved container ArduLab can be programmed just like an Arduino. Although the most recent mission is headed to the International Space Station (ISS) on Cygnus, the ArduLab is more than capable of operating on a number of suborbital launch vehicles and parabolic aircraft.

“Until now, experimentation in space has been limited by governmental red tape, high costs, lengthy research and approval processes, [plus] having to work with multiple vendors. [However], ArduLab is a turnkey solution that removes the regular difficulties of hardware and logistics and further opens space research to everyone from high school students to drug companies,” ArduLab co-founder Manu Sharma explained.

“You can purchase ArduLab’s space program to do sub-orbital research through XCOR, or buy an Ardulab and work with partner NanoRacks to get to the ISS. Once you receive your Ardulab, simply put your experiment inside the container, program it using Arduino (leveraging the many existing Arduino tutorials found online, if you wish), FedEx it to parent company Infinity Aerospace and then receive video and data output from its journey in space.”

According to Sharma, ArduLab is currently working on capabilities for real-time data, as well as video and control. And although ArduLab’s early customers include the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), the ArduLab co-founder emphasized that the platform was also designed with students and educators in mind.

“For the first time, classes and students can [conduct] space experiments and get results within 2 semesters. CASIS (an independent non-profit organization funded by NASA) is funding a nation-wide competition for students to develop microgravity experiments with ArduLab and launch them to ISS – this is the first step towards ArduLab becoming part of school curriculum,” he added.

Interested in sending your experiment to the ISS and beyond? The Space Explorer Program includes ArduLab 1.0, an additional ArduLab board for experimentation development, launch slot to space and an Infinity Aerospace basic payload support for $4,995.

You can also customize your Explorer Program for an additional fee, while the Space Conqueror Program ($34,995 yearly subscription fee) offers unlimited flights to space, 3 x ArduLab 1.0, ($250 for each additional ArduLab 1.0) and a “Getting Started in Space” lesson with Infinity Aerospace engineers.

Interested in learning more? Be sure to check out Infinity Aerospace’s official page here. Readers may also want to peruse the infographic below which details just what ArduLab is capable of doing for your experiment.

ArduLab launch countdown begins

We’re eagerly counting down the hours and days until the long-awaited ArduLab launch, currently slated for September 17, 2013. Although this particular mission is headed to the International Space Station (ISS) on an Antares Rocket/Cygnus spacecraft developed by the Orbital Sciences Corporation, the ArduLab is more than capable of operating on a number of suborbital launch vehicles and parabolic aircraft.

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the ArduLab – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATMega 2560 microcontroller (MCU) – is a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box. Designed by Infinity Aerospace, ArduLab can be programmed just like an Arduino.

According to ArduLab co-founder Manu Sharma, ArduLab is equipped with automatic switching, enabling experiments to be fully automated including data retrieval. Meaning, no dedicated astronaut time is needed.

“Simply put, our ArduLab Space Programs offered by Infinity Aerospace can transform any high school or university classroom into a fully fledged space lab for under $5k,” Sharma told Bits & Pieces.

“Indeed, ArduLab can be programmed using in-house software (currently in development) dubbed Space Cloud. This allows users to program the Lab via a web browser.”

As Sharma recently noted, ArduLab ultimately wants to create a community of space hardware hackers.

“We’re launching our forums and our community page where people can just hang out, share their experiences and share knowledge about experiments that they’re doing and things like that. We really want to create a new committee of people and we need those people to [renew] possibilities of what we can do with ArduLab and future products,” he added.

Interested in sending your experiment to the ISS and beyond? The Space Explorer Program includes ArduLab 1.0, an additional ArduLab board for experimentation development, launch slot to space and an Infinity Aerospace basic payload support for $4,995.

You can also customize your Explorer Program for an additional fee, while the Space Conqueror Program ($34,995 yearly subscription fee) offers unlimited flights to space, 3 x ArduLab 1.0, ($250 for each additional ArduLab 1.0) and a “Getting Started in Space” lesson with Infinity Aerospace engineers.

Interested in learning more? Be sure to check out Infinity Aerospace’s official page here. Readers may also want to peruse the infographic below which details just what ArduLab is capable of doing for your experiment.

Atmel to host analyst panel @ World Maker Faire

The 2013 World Maker Faire opens its doors on September 21st in the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI). We’ll be there at the Atmel booth in the Arduino pavilion, showcasing a number of exciting new companies that have developed innovative applications using Arduino boards powered by Atmel AVR and ARM microcontrollers.

Atmel is slated to host a public media/industry analyst panel on Friday, September 20th, on the Maker Community and education. Members of the panel include Atmel’s Reza Kazerounian, co-founder of Arduino Massimo Banzi, Atmel Maker and Hexbug guru Bob Martin, university engineer professor Annmarie Thomas, EDN’s Executive Editor Suzanne Deffree, 12-year old CEO and maker Quin (Qtechknow), and MAKE Books Senior Editor Brian Jepson. The panel will be moderated by Windell H. Oskay of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

Tune into our live Twitter feed of the panel starting at 11:30 am ET on September 20th under #Atmelmakes or visit our recently launched microsite for more details. For those of you attending the Faire, Atmel’s booth will be taking center stage at the show with a number of uber-cool exhibits and demos including:

• Hexbug/hovercraft hacking: Watch Atmel employees hack traditional Hexbugs and hovercrafts using Arduino boards.
• MakerBot: We’ll be showcasing the wildly popular AVR-powered 3D printer and providing 3D samples over the weekend.
• Pensa: This company uses Arduino boards to make their flagship DIWire, a rapid prototyping machine that bends metal wire to produce 2D and 3D shapes.
• Infinity Aerospace: The ArduLab – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATMega 2560 microcontroller – is a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box. Sensor mounting is straightforward, with unique functionality addressing the technical challenges of operating in space.

Additional exhibitors at the Atmel World Maker Faire booth include Fuzzbot (robots), Evil Mad Scientist and Colorado Micro Devices. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the Atmel booth, so don’t forget to follow us at @makerfaire, @atmel and @arduino!

Interested in attending Atmel’s panel? Be sure to email us at pr@atmel.com. Also, be sure to join us when Bob Martin presents Prototyping is as Easy as Uno, Due, Tres.

The Ardruino Uno is an excellent lab tool for technicians and h/w engineers who have a specific design in mind. In this presentation, we will show how Atmel’s MCU apps lab uses the Uno to test harnesses for LED lighting stress testing, SBC reset response and power supply stress testing on a regular basis for the weather station prototype.

When: Sunday, September 22, 2013, 12:30PM – 1:00PM ET
Where: Make: Electronics Stage

Atmel powered ArduLab is ready for launch!

The ArduLab – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATmega2560 – is a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box. Designed by Infinity Aerospace, ArduLab can be programmed just like an Arduino.

The next ArduLab launch is scheduled for September 17, 2013. Although this particular mission is headed to the International Space Station (ISS) on an Antares Rocket/Cygnus spacecraft developed by the Orbital Sciences Corporation, the ArduLab is fully capable of operating on a number of suborbital launch vehicles and parabolic aircraft.

“There are multiple [reasons] why we’re doing exactly what we’re doing [with ArduLab]. One is that space is usually not inclusive of all the people around the world,” ArduLab co-founder Manu Sharma recently told DIY Space Exploration. “I wanted to create products that enabled people across the globe… [to] make cool experiments and do anything they want.”

According to Sharma, the ArduLab crew will be launching pretty much every day for the next few years.

“[So] it probably won’t be as hard for [someone] to come up with an idea, ‘I want to see how fireflies fly in space,'” Sharma explained. “And he could program this thing and do any of those experiments. That was the real reason why we went to open hardware because it allows us to go beyond borders and find people to work on it very easily.”

Sharma also noted that ArduLab ultimately wanted to create a community of space hardware hackers.

“We’re launching our forums and our community page where people can just hang out, share their experiences, and share knowledge about experiments that they’re doing and things like that. We really want to create a new committee of people and we need those people to [renew] possibilities of what we can do with ArduLab and future products,” he added.

Interested in sending your experiment to the ISS and beyond? The Space Explorer Program includes ArduLab 1.0, an additional ArduLab board for experimentation development, launch slot to space and an Infinity Aerospace basic payload support for $4,995.

You can also customize your Explorer Program for an additional fee, while the Space Conqueror Program ($34,995 yearly subscription fee) offers unlimited flights to space, 3 x ArduLab 1.0, ($250 for each additional ArduLab 1.0) and a “Getting Started in Space” lesson with Infinity Aerospace engineers. Interested in learning more? Be sure to check out Infinity Aerospace’s official page here.

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel’s ATmega2560 is a high-performance, low-power 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontroller equipped with 256KB ISP flash memory, 8KB SRAM, 4KB EEPROM, 86 general purpose I/O lines, 32 general purpose working registers, a real time counter and 6 flexible timer/counters with compare modes. Additional key specs include a PWM, four USARTs, a byte oriented 2-wire serial interface, 16-channel 10-bit A/D converter and a JTAG interface for on-chip debugging.

The ATmega2560 is capable of achieving a throughput of 16 MIPS at 16 MHz, while operating between 4.5-5.5 volts. By executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the device achieves a throughput approaching 1 MIPS per MHz, neatly balancing power consumption with processing speed.

Interested in learning more? See the infographic below which details just what ArduLab is capable of doing for your experiment.

Come see Atmel @ the 2013 World Maker Faire!

The long-awaited 2013 World Maker Faire kicks off September 21st in the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI). We’ll be there at the Atmel booth in the Arduino pavilion. Will you? Don’t worry if you can’t make it to out to the Big Apple, because you can still follow all the goings on via Twitter – just look for the hashtags @makerfaire, @atmel and @arduino.

For those of you attending the Faire, Atmel’s booth will be taking center stage at the show with a number of uber-cool exhibits and demos including:

• Hexbug/hovercraft hacking: Watch Atmel employees hack traditional Hexbugs and hovercrafts using Arduino boards.
• MakerBot: We’ll be showcasing the wildly popular AVR-powered 3D printer and providing 3D samples over the weekend.
• Pensa: This company uses Arduino boards to make their flagship DIWire, a rapid prototyping machine that bends metal wire to produce 2D and 3D shapes.
• Infinity Aerospace: The ArduLab – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATMega 2560 microcontroller – is a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box. Sensor mounting is straightforward, with unique functionality addressing the technical challenges of operating in space.

Additional exhibitors at the Atmel World Maker Faire booth include Fuzzbot (robots), Evil Mad Scientist and Colorado Micro Devices. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the Atmel booth, so don’t forget to follow us at @makerfaire, @atmel and @arduino!

Atmel is also slated to host a public media/industry analyst panel on Friday, September 20th, on the maker community and education. Members of the panel include Atmel’s Reza Kazerounian, Co-founder of Arduino Massimo Banzi, Atmel maker and Hexbug guru Bob Martin, university engineer professor Annmarie Thomas, EDN’s Executive Editor Suzanne Deffree, 12-year old CEO and maker Quin (Qtechknow), and MAKE Books Senior Editor Brian Jepson. The panel will be moderated by Windell H. Oskay of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

Tune into our live Twitter feed of the panel starting at 11:30 am ET on September 20th under #Atmelmakes or visit our recently launched microsite for more details. Interested in attending? Please email pr@atmel.com. Also, be sure to join us when Bob Martin presents Prototyping is as Easy as Uno, Due, Tres.

The Ardruino Uno is an excellent lab tool for technicians and h/w engineers who have a specific design in mind. In this presentation, we will show how Atmel’s MCU apps lab uses the Uno to test harnesses for LED lighting stress testing, SBC reset response and power supply stress testing on a regular basis for the weather station prototype.

When: Sunday, September 22, 2013, 12:30PM – 1:00PM ET
Where: Make: Electronics Stage

Blast off to space with the ATmega2560 powered ArduLab

The ArduLab – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATmega2560 – is a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box. Sensor mounting is straightforward, with unique functionality addressing the technical challenges of operating in space.

Designed by Infinity Aerospace, ArduLab can be programmed just like an Arduino. With a simple software command, the ArduLab switches into drive mode – making its memory accessible like a USB stick. In terms of physical assembly, the ArduLab is configurable using hex bolts and a few washers with an included allen wrench. Plus, over 100 flush mounted threaded inserts act as versatile anchors for a wide range of equipment.

The next ArduLab launch is scheduled for September 15, 2013. Although this particular mission is headed to the International Space Station (ISS) on an Antares Rocket/Cygnus spacecraft developed by the Orbital Sciences Corporation, the ArduLab is fully capable of operating on a number of suborbital launch vehicles and parabolic aircraft.

Interested in sending your experiment to the ISS and beyond? The Space Explorer Program includes ArduLab 1.0, an additional ArduLab board for experimentation development, launch slot to space and an Infinity Aerospace basic payload support for $4,995.

You can also customize your Explorer Program for an additional fee, while the Space Conqueror Program ($34,995 yearly subscription fee) offers unlimited flights to space, 3 x ArduLab 1.0, ($250 for each additional ArduLab 1.0) and a “Getting Started in Space” lesson with Infinity Aerospace engineers. Interested in learning more? Be sure to check out Infinity Aerospace’s official page here.

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel’s ATmega2560 is a high-performance, low-power 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontroller equipped with 256KB ISP flash memory, 8KB SRAM, 4KB EEPROM, 86 general purpose I/O lines, 32 general purpose working registers, a real time counter and 6 flexible timer/counters with compare modes. Additional key specs include a PWM, four USARTs, a byte oriented 2-wire serial interface, 16-channel 10-bit A/D converter and a JTAG interface for on-chip debugging.

The ATmega2560 is capable of achieving a throughput of 16 MIPS at 16 MHz, while operating between 4.5-5.5 volts. By executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the device achieves a throughput approaching 1 MIPS per MHz, neatly balancing power consumption with processing speed.