Atmel celebrates International Arduino Day

Today we celebrate Arduino Day and mark the first successful decade of the Atmel-powered boards.

It’s a 24 hour celebration – both official and independent – with Makers all over the world meeting up to share their DIY experiences.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel is at the very heart of most Arduino boards on the market today.

Indeed, as 
Atmel MCU Applications Manager Bob Martin recently pointed out, Atmel’s 8- and 32-bit microcontrollers have been the MCUs of choice for Arduino since the boards first hit the streets for DIY Makers way back in 2005. More specifically, he attributes the success of Arduino to its easy-to-use, free cross-platform toolchain and its simple do-it-yourself packages with Atmel MCUs.

“These factors helped initially steer the Arduino team to choose our AVR microcontrollers – and today, both our AVR and ARM-based MCUs,” Martin explained.

In addition to the DIY Maker Movement, the boards are popular with veteran designers, architects and engineers.

“It’s very easy to try out design by building a prototype so that they can see what solutions work and toss out those that don’t. This is much easier to do early in the design process before more money has been spent on bringing an idea to fruition; Arduino can play a key role here,” Brock Craft, author of “Arduino Projects for Dummies,” told ItProPortal in late 2013.

“Just a simple example – I know a lighting company that recently used Arduino to control dimmable lighting effects for architectural lighting products they were developing. Using an Arduino helped them try out their ideas in an afternoon, rather than waiting weeks.”

Arduino boards are also extensively used in the educational community, with science and computing teachers in secondary schools choosing the versatile platform to teach kids the principles of programming and computational thinking.

“[Of course], Arduino is used in colleges and universities, [where] they are often found in design programs, particularly in product design, because Arduinos can quickly be used to prototype products that do physical things – like toasters or dispensers or remote controls, for example,” said Craft.

“It is also widely used in digital arts programs for making interactive artwork, music and performances. [Yes], there have been similar products on the market for many years and education curricula have used other alternatives. But what makes Arduino different – and is driving teachers to use them – is that Arduinos are easy to use. And if they need help, it’s easy for teachers and students to get it in the extensive online communities.”

As Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi notes, communities are the primary drivers for contribution in the Maker community.

“What you find is that if you can create a community around an open source project then it becomes really alive because everyone starts to contribute. If you don’t have an ecosystem, the platform won’t be successful. If you start charging for everything, everything dies very quickly,” he said.

“There are millions of sandwich places around the world, the recipe for sandwiches is open. Nobody can patent the recipe for a BLTs but yet there’s like a million restaurants doing BLTs. Everyday each one of them is adding a little source, each one is improving the recipe with technique, but effectively what goes inside the sandwich is out there and open and people still make money.”

As Bazni points out, open source hardware like the Arduino helps encourage creativity.

“I think it enables people to share the efforts that are needed to get the certain type of product or project started. Each person adds what some people call the secret source. You can take open source knowledge and add your own secret source,” he added.

“Or you can sell it or sell services around that product. [Arduino] wants to create a platform that’s going to take this and multiply the efficiency, [while] multiplying the value that people get by being part of that community… The challenge is to build a platform that solves a simple problem for a specific group of people: beginners for example. Our boards enable people to get ideas into products very fast. It’s people over Megahertz.”

 

Going back to school with Arduino

Jim Town, a math teacher at West Sacramento Prep, began incorporating Arduino boards in his math lessons last year. He soon found that the Atmel-powered hardware helped facilitate a “different type” of learning with high levels of engagement.

“Pre-calculus is a class that has many opportunities for creative teaching. Since we are a smaller school, there isn’t enough interest in computer science to justify a full class so I try to embed some of these skills into my math classes to help students become ready for the computer heavy careers that may await them,” Town explained in a recent blog post published in Makezine. “One way I’ve found to do this is through Arduino. My students had heard of Arduino because we had a few students working on Arduino projects last year, but had never worked with them. They were excited at the opportunity to ‘play’ in math.”

In the above-mentioned project, students learned about exponents and counting in binary, but probably did not learn the rules for simplifying exponents or other ultra-specific standards. However, Town says he views math more as a way of thinking, rather than a specific set of skills.

“In conjunction with the unit on exponents, I challenged students to make a binary counter using either a dip switch or a momentary switch. A dip switch is a row of on/off switches conveniently labeled 1-8; they are like a bunch of little tiny light switches,” said Town. “For these students, when the switch labeled 6 was turned on, they needed to display a 6 in binary on the three LED’s they were given (on-on-off). A momentary switch is a single button that is ‘on’ when pushed and is ‘off’ when not pushed. The students had to keep track of how many times the button was pushed and display that number in binary on the LED’s. That is, if they button was pushed 4 times, the three LED’s would show on-off-off.”

In addition to the DIY Maker Movement, Arduino boards are wildly popular in the educational community, with science and computing teachers in secondary schools using the versatile platform to teach kids the principles of programming and computational thinking.

According to Brock Craft, author of Arduino Projects for Dummies, the Atmel-powered boards are also used in colleges and universities, where they are often found in design programs, particularly in product design.

“[This is] because Arduinos can quickly be used to prototype products that do physical things – like toasters or dispensers or remote controls, for example. It is also widely used in digital arts programs for making interactive artwork, music, and performances,” Craft told ItProPortal. “[Yes], there have been similar products on the market for many years and education curricula have used other alternatives. But what makes Arduino different – and is driving teachers to use them – is that Arduinos are easy to use. And if they need help, it’s easy for teachers and students to get it in the extensive online communities.”

In addition, Craft confirmed that Arduino boards are deployed throughout the corporate world, as the hardware is being used by designers, architects and engineers for prototyping purposes.

“It’s very easy to try out design by building a prototype so that they can see what solutions work and toss out those that don’t. This is much easier to do early in the design process before more money has been spent on bringing an idea to fruition; Arduino can play a key role here,” he added.

DIY tech – from kindergarten to Kickstarter

Brandon Lewis, Associate Editor at Embedded Computing, recently noted that the current popularity of the Do It Yourself (DIY) community is driving a wide range of open hardware platforms and offering Makers easy access to embedded development.

“Outside of hobbyist toys and educational devices, however, ‘hacker’ boards are increasing performance and I/O flexibility, and have become viable options for professional product development,” Lewis wrote.

According to Lewis, the Maker Movement is quickly gaining traction in the education and hobbyist markets with open hardware boards advertising a “less-is-more” architecture at a price to match with DIY boards like the Atmel-powered Arduino. The boards allows easy exploring for novice devs and sufficient flexibility for advanced hackers to create some pretty remarkable projects.

“Outside of the low barrier to market entry presented by these low-cost development platforms, Maker boards are being implemented in commercial products because their wide I/O expansion capabilities make them applicable for virtually any application, from robotics and industrial control to automotive and home automation systems,” Lewis explained.

Brock Craft, author of “Arduino Projects for Dummies,” recently expressed similar sentiments about Atmel-powered Arduino boards. In addition to the DIY Maker Movement, says Craft, Arduino is wildly popular in the educational community, with science and computing teachers in secondary schools using the platform to teach kids the principles of programming and computational thinking.

“[Of course], Arduino is also used in colleges and universities, [where] they are often found in design programs, particularly in product design, because Arduinos can quickly be used to prototype products that do physical things – like toasters or dispensers or remote controls, for example,” Craft told ItPortalPro.

“It is also widely used in digital arts programmes for making interactive artwork, music, and performances. [Yes], there have been similar products on the market for many years and education curricula have used other alternatives. But what makes Arduino different – and is driving teachers to use them – is that Arduinos are easy to use. And if they need help, it’s easy for teachers and students to get it in the extensive online communities.”

In addition, Craft confirmed that Arduino boards are deployed throughout the corporate world, as the hardware is being used by designers, architects and engineers for prototyping purposes.

“It’s very easy to try out design by building a prototype so that they can see what solutions work and toss out those that don’t. This is much easier to do early in the design process before more money has been spent on bringing an idea to fruition; Arduino can play a key role here,” he continued. “Just a simple example – I know a lighting company that recently used Arduino to control dimmable lighting effects for architectural lighting products they were developing. Using an Arduino helped them try out their ideas in an afternoon, rather than waiting weeks.”

Brock Craft talks Arduino

Brock Craft is a Lecturer in Physical Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London in the Department of Computing. He was a partner at the design firm TinkerLondon, where he introduced the Atmel-powered Arduino into the UK along with its creator, Massimo Banzi.

Recently, the folks at ItProPortal sat down with Brock Craft, author of “Arduino Projects for Dummies,” to talk about Arduino boards. In addition to the DIY Maker Movement, the boards are wildly popular in the educational community, as well as the corporate world, with the hardware being used by designers, architects and engineers for rapid prototyping purposes.

“It’s very easy to try out design by building a prototype so that they can see what solutions work and toss out those that don’t. This is much easier to do early in the design process before more money has been spent on bringing an idea to fruition; Arduino can play a key role here,” he explained.

“Just a simple example – I know a lighting company that recently used Arduino to control dimmable lighting effects for architectural lighting products they were developing. Using an Arduino helped them try out their ideas in an afternoon, rather than waiting weeks.”

As noted above, Croft is the author of “Arduino Projects for Dummies,” a book which features an array of projects – offering readers a clear understanding of the different aspects of the wildly popular boards.

“[You’ll learn to] set up a workspace for your projects, create projects with Arduino Uno, automate the home and garden, including a tweeting pet door and a build a GPS data logger and an RFID reader,” Craft wrote in an official Amazon description of the book.

“[So] if you’re ready to start exploring all the amazing things you can do with Arduino, you’ve come to the right place. Featuring 12 cool projects you’ll build from scratch, this book is the fun, easy way to learn everything you need to know to create your very own original interactive objects and automated devices.”

Key instructional projects include:

• Decoding the code – get up to speed on Arduino programming and code writing basics, even if you’ve never programmed before.
• Make it move – learn what components are available to make things tweet, spin, jump, and move about (and how to hook them up).
• Light it up – create nifty projects from an intricate light ballet to a light pet, a scrolling LED sign, LCD alarm clock and more.
• Sensors and stuff – use sensors to build a plant watering system, tweeting pet door and household temperature and light monitor.
• Get sophisticated – build a GPS tracker and data logger, your own LED cubes, a remote control car and other advanced projects.
• How to build a robot car from stuff you find around the house and tips for constructing a keypad entry system.

“Arduino Projects For Dummies,” written by Brock Craft, is currently available on Amazon for $19.98 (Prime).

Arduino links Maker Movement with the corporate world

Recently, the folks at ItProPortal sat down with Brock Craft, author of “Arduino Projects for Dummies,” to talk about Atmel-powered Arduino boards. In addition to the DIY Maker Movement, the boards are wildly popular in the educational community, with science and computing teachers in secondary schools using the platform to teach kids the principles of programming and computational thinking.

“[Of course], Arduino is also used in colleges and universities, [where] they are often found in design programs, particularly in product design, because Arduinos can quickly be used to prototype products that do physical things – like toasters or dispensers or remote controls, for example,” Craft told the publication.

“It is also widely used in digital arts programmes for making interactive artwork, music, and performances. [Yes], there have been similar products on the market for many years and education curricula have used other alternatives. But what makes Arduino different – and is driving teachers to use them – is that Arduinos are easy to use. And if they need help, it’s easy for teachers and students to get it in the extensive online communities.”

In addition, Craft  confirmed that Arduino boards are deployed throughout the corporate world, as the hardware is being used by designers, architects and engineers for prototyping purposes.

“It’s very easy to try out design by building a prototype so that they can see what solutions work and toss out those that don’t. This is much easier to do early in the design process before more money has been spent on bringing an idea to fruition; Arduino can play a key role here,” he continued.

“Just a simple example – I know a lighting company that recently used Arduino to control dimmable lighting effects for architectural lighting products they were developing. Using an Arduino helped them try out their ideas in an afternoon, rather than waiting weeks.”

The full ItProPortal Brock Craft interview is available here.