Why the DIY business is booming

Writing for Electronic Design, Lou Frenzel confirms that the DIY hardware business is booming.

“Over the past several  years there has be a major increase in those interested in building, hacking and playing around with electronic things,” he explains.

“There is serious interest in making robots and experimenting with the Arduino and [other] embedded computers. Electronics seems to be fun again.”

As Frenzel notes, part of this re-emergence can be attributed to the influence of the popular magazine Make by publisher O’Reilly Media, now Maker Media.

“With well over 100K readers, Make is bringing back the popularity of making stuff, electronic, mechanical, wood and otherwise. Their Maker Faire events attract thousands who can show off their latest creations and consort with other makers and learn new skills and techniques. Robots are a major focus of the DIYers,” writes Frenzel.

“Another influencer has been the push to bring more kids into engineering with the various STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programs. STEM efforts hope to lure more students to college technical degrees to help build the U.S.’s engineering capability.”

In addition, says Frenzel, a big part of the experimentation resurgence is the availability of books supporting it.

“There have always been hobby electronic books but a new batch has helped many get started.  Some examples are Gordon McComb and Earl Boysen’s Electronics for Dummies (Wiley, 2005) and Earl Boysen and Nancy Muir’s Electronic Projects for Dummies (Wiley, 2006),” he adds.

“Even my own book, Electronics Explained (Newnes/Elsevier, 2010), has done well with the DIYers.  But the real best seller has been Charles Platt’s Make: Electronics (O’Reilly, 2009). Platt is a contributing editor to Make magazine. The book is printed in full color on quality paper and puts forth a wide range of build-it-yourself electronic projects.  All these books have one thing in common:  help a person learn electronics and have fun making electronic games, gadgets and unusually useful items.”

Interested in learning more about the DIY Maker Movement? The full text of “Make More Electronics: The DIY Business is Booming” by Lou Frenzel is available here. Readers may also want to check out our Bits & Pieces article archive on the subject here.

Iron Man Mark III project goes live

The Iron Man Factory recently debuted a (prototype) 3D-printed Iron Man suit. As Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch reports, the suit weighs in at only 3kg (6.6 lbs) and features metal joints with a carbon fiber/polymer body, along with a number of light-up aesthetic features, powered by AAA batteries.

According to Etherington, the creators of the Iron Man project are a team with an injection moulding factory out of Shenzen including engineers with over 15 years experience in die casting manufacturing.

“They’ve been working with designers in Beijing on the Iron Man project and began producing small runs of the Iron Man helmet alone via 3D printing. To get costs down and volumes up, they’re looking to cover the costs of initial setup for a full-scale, injection moulding production run,” Etherington explained.

“Backers can lay down pledges for either the full injection moulded suit ($1,999), a helmet alone ($1,800) or the full, 3D-printed suit ($35,000). The company also tells me that it’s working on a space-grade aluminum version of the suit, too, which it plans to put into mass production provided the initial campaign is successful.”

Of course, this isn’t the first Iron Man suit we’ve covered on Bits & Pieces. Back in November, a Maker by the name of Ryan Brooks – aka “the real Tony Stark” – created a slick 3D-printed, nod-receptive Iron Man helmet using an Atmel-powered Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega168) and an Adafruit accelerometer.

And in September, a Maker by the name of Thomas Lemieux turned numerous heads when he showcased his rather impressive Iron Man suit at the 2013 World Maker Faire in NYC.

“Everything is Arduino powered. There are four Arduino UNOs (ATmega328) in the suit; one for each bionic repulsor, one for the sound board, and one for the arc reactor. All of the components are powered by ten 2600 mAh batteries that had to be ordered from Hong Kong,” Lemieux told Electronic Design.

“The sound components for each repulsor and the sound board are wave shields from Adafruit. The SD cards with all of the sound files are located there.”

According to Lemieux, the project actually began with the arc reactor.

“I wanted one to sit on my desk at home and thought it would be cool to build one myself. So I walked the aisles at Home Depot and found any part that would seem to work,” he explained.

“The fins are cut from a solid sheet of metal and I used copper coils to bend around them. I used a sink tap as the center piece. And the rest is washers, rubber tubing and erector set pieces all J-B welded together. I got all of the electronics and LEDs from Radio Shack.”

Lemieux also told Electronic Design that the biggest challenge in designing the suit was fitting all the electronics into such a constrained space.

“It was very much trial and error… I started building on May 2nd, spending about four hours a day plus many all-nighters.”

Lemieux says his next suit will be more streamlined and easier to assemble.

“I also want to make Ultron. I have some great ideas on lighting his face up,” he concluded.

The Makers of Iron Man

A Maker by the name of Ryan Brooks – aka “the real Tony Stark” – has created a slick 3D-printed, nod-receptive Iron Man helmet.

According to Terry Chao of DVICE, an Atmel-powered Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega168) and an Adafruit accelerometer allows the helmet’s faceplate to open and close based on which way the wearer nods.

“By nodding backwards, the faceplate seamlessly opens and locks into place, while nodding with a forward motion will close it. Brooks is currently selling iterations of his servo mechanism on his website, starting at $150,” wrote Chao. “Because the helmet’s base is tapered towards the bottom by design, Brooks made it possible to keep the shape of the original helmet through reticulating back neck flaps that allow the wearer to comfortably put it on.”

Brooks also equipped the helmet with some “Jarvis” voice action to inform the user if it is booted up and ready, along with appropriate air lock and “whoosh” sound effects when the faceplate opens and closes. Meanwhile, light blockers are tasked with protecting the wearer’s eyes from the bright LEDs in the mask.

Of course, this isn’t the first Iron Man project Bits & Pieces has covered. Back in September, we reported how a Maker by the name of Thomas Lemieux turned numerous heads when he showcased his rather impressive Iron Man suit at the 2013 World Maker Faire in NYC.

“Everything is Arduino powered. There are four Arduino UNOs (ATmega328) in the suit; one for each bionic replusor, one for the sound board, and one for the arc reactor. All of the components are powered by ten 2600 mAh batteries that had to be ordered from Hong Kong,” Lemieux told Electronic Design. “The sound components for each repulsor and the sound board are wave shields from Adafruit. The SD cards with all of the sound files are located there.”

According to Lemieux, the project actually began with the arc reactor.

“I wanted one to sit on my desk at home and thought it would be cool to build one myself. So I walked the aisles at Home Depot and found any part that would seem to work,” he explained.

“The fins are cut from a solid sheet of metal and I used copper coils to bend around them. I used a sink tap as the center piece. And the rest is washers, rubber tubing and erector set pieces all J-B welded together. I got all of the electronics and LEDs from Radio Shack.”

Lemieux also told Electronic Design that the biggest challenge in designing the suit was fitting all the electronics into such a constrained space.

“It was very much trial and error… I started building on May 2nd, spending about four hours a day plus many all-nighters.”

Lemieux says his next suit will be more streamlined and easier to assemble.

“I also want to make Ultron. I have some great ideas on lighting his face up,” he added.

CNBC analyzes open source hardware

Writing for CNBC, Tom DiChristopher confirms that the rapidly evolving open-source hardware (OSHW) movement is currently in the process of migrating from the garage to the marketplace.

As DiChristopher notes, companies that follow an open-source philosophy make their physical designs and software code available to the public. By doing so, they engage a wave of Makers, hobbyists and designers who don’t just want to buy products, but rather, offer a helping hand in developing them.

“Patents still work as an incentive for some people, but for a growing number of companies, sharing is more lucrative and fulfilling,” Alicia Gibb, executive director of the Open Source Hardware Association, told CNBC.

Gibb specifically highlighted Atmel-powered Arduino boards as an example of popular open hardware, pointing out that one of the biggest assets open-source hardware manufacturers have is the communities they’ve built among users who share their values and their roots as Makers.

“[For example], one of the things that the Arduino has that cannot be duplicated no matter how cheap you make it is the community that surrounds it,” said Gibb. “Even if somebody else comes along and tried to sell something cheaper I don’t think it would matter.”

According to Catarina Mota, research chair at the Open Source Hardware Association, the rise of open-source hardware companies can be attributed to a number of cultural and technological trends. Indeed, hardware makers have built on the open-source software movement that gained steam in the ’90s, while the ubiquity of the Internet allows hobbyists to collaborate on physical products. The barriers to making hardware and other equipment have also fallen, says Mota, thanks to cheaper prototyping tools such as the Atmel-powered MakerBot and RepRap 3D printers.

The rapid growth of the movement is also reflected in the success of marketplaces for DIY developers and open-source enthusiasts like New York-based Adafruit Industries, a company which uses Atmel microprocessors (MCUs) in a number of its platforms, including FLORA and Trinket. To be sure, Adafruit’s revenue has tripled year over year, with the company expecting full-year revenue for 2013 to reach $20 million. Of course, customers are not just limited to hobbyists and isolated Makers.

“Our customers are moving more and more towards commercial endeavors and a very large portion of our orders are from professionals at very large companies,” Limor Fried, founder of Adafruit, told CNBC.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, perhaps the greatest success to date in OSHW (open-source hardware) has been the Atmel-powered Arduino, primarily because it established a vibrant ecosystem. Writing in Electronic Design, David Tarrant and Andrew Back note that all the hardware design files were made available – so both Makers and engineers could study the design and extend it for their own purposes in a commercial or non-commercial context.

“These files were combined with an accessible and equally flexible software platform. [Clearly], Arduino has benefited from derivative and complementary third-party hardware and is today a growing brand with a strong reputation for quality,” the two explained.

“Following its example, hardware companies are increasingly seeing OSHW as an opportunity to seed the market and educational establishments with their technology. Development kit design files are increasingly available under open-source licenses. And as was the case with software, more reusable components are becoming available.”

According to Tarrant and Back, another key product example of the OSHW revolution is the Atmel-powered MakerBot 3D printer, the initial generations of which were entirely based on open-source design.

“Although open-source hardware has to date largely been seen as existing at the simpler end of the electronics design spectrum, it embraces two major assets within the engineering community—goodwill and collective intelligence—and is being recognized as an important movement with increasing opportunities across both industry and education,” the two added.

Atmel leads OSHW movement

Writing in Electronic Design, David Tarrant and Andrew Back confirm that the greatest success to date in OSHW (open-source hardware) has been the Atmel-powered Arduino, primarily because it established a vibrant ecosystem. As Tarrant and Back note, all the hardware design files were made available, so both Makers and engineers could study the design and extend it for their own purposes in a commercial or non-commercial context.

“These files were combined with an accessible and equally flexible software platform. [Clearly], Arduino has benefited from derivative and complementary third-party hardware and is today a growing brand with a strong reputation for quality,” the two explained.

“Following its example, hardware companies are increasingly seeing OSHW as an opportunity to seed the market and educational establishments with their technology. Development kit design files are increasingly available under open-source licenses. And as was the case with software, more reusable components are becoming available.”

According to Tarrant and Back, another key product example of the OSHW revolution is the Atmel-powered MakerBot 3D printer, the initial generations of which were entirely based on open-source design.

“Although open-source hardware has to date largely been seen as existing at the simpler end of the electronics design spectrum, it embraces two major assets within the engineering community—goodwill and collective intelligence—and is being recognized as an important movement with increasing opportunities across both industry and education,” the two added.

Casey Hare of EDN expressed similar sentiments.

“Open-source hardware is going mainstream. I always knew educators, academics, hobbyists and makers would push open-source hardware and software,” he opined. “Big companies and professional engineers would stay away until it was mature, robust, didn’t waste much time and added lots of value. [Clearly], that day has arrived.”

Indeed, Wilson Lee, Newark element14’s director of product marketing, told Hare the OSHW trend speaks to the importance of ease of access and use – as a strong community can help bring abstract ideas and designs to life.

“Engineers have historically been hesitant to fully embrace open source, but the sheer availability of open-source tools and resources has mitigated many of the risks associated with designing in open source for commercial use,” he concluded.

Yes, Makers are changing the engineering industry

Writing for Electronic Design (ED), Iliza Sokol says Atmel’s recent Maker and Education Community panel illustrates how the wildly popular DIY Maker Movement is positively changing the engineering industry.

The panel was moderated by moderated by Windell Oskay, co-founder of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Panelists included Massimo Banzi (co-founder of Arduino), Reza Kazerounian (Microcontroller SVP at Atmel), Suzanne Deffree (Executive Editor at UBM Tech’s EDN), Brian Jepson (Editor at Maker Media), Annmarie Thomas (Engineering Professor at the University of St. Thomas), Bob Martin (member of Atmel’s microcontroller team) and Quin Etnyre (the 12-year-old CEO of Qtechknow).

All of the panelists, says Sokol, agreed the rapidly growing Maker Movement offers a sense of hands-on practicality for aspiring engineers that traditional education may lack.

“Oskay asked why schools should invest in engineering education when they are struggling as a whole. Banzi then reiterated the benefits of the Maker Movement, saying that Makers keep costs down,” writes Sokol.

“Thomas took it one step farther by emphasizing that the Maker Movement is about actual making – not necessarily the tools that are involved – and that it celebrates curiosity and inventiveness.”

Etnyre, who at 12 is already CEO of a company that sells open-source electronics kits and teaches Arduino classes, talked about how the rapidly evolving Movement has had a direct effect on the engineering industry in the last five years alone.

“With crowdfunding, smaller projects have the potential to become bigger open-sourced projects,” he explained.

When asked how one should persuade a kid to spend money on an electronics kit instead of a video game, Etnyre replied: “Just tell them they can make the video game they want to play with Arduino.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, typical interests pursued by Maker culture include engineering-oriented projects such as electronics, Arduino-based robotics, 3D printing with Atmel-powered printers like the MakerBot or RepRap and the use of CNC tools.

Indeed, Larry Magid, a technology journalist who writes for the San Jose Mercury News, recently noted that the Maker Movement is growing exponentially by taking advantage of 3D printers, inexpensive microcontrollers (MCUs), robotics, CAD and the ability to control machines with computers, tablets and smartphones. The truth is, says Magid, we are all Makers to a certain extent, even if some of us don’t know it yet.

“All of us – even Leonardo da Vinci – were late comers as far as the Maker movement is concerned,” he opined. “Our prehistoric ancestors millions of years ago, figured out how to turn stones into tools so that they could make things. Only they didn’t have fairs, books and websites to document the process.”

Will.i.am, the technophile founder of The Black Eyed Peas, also offered a ringing endorsement of the Maker Movement and related culture on Facebook.

“Every young person is going to be inspired to be a maker from now on,” said Will.i.am. “It’s like how everyone used to want to be a musician, an actor, an athlete — but a maker is what people are going to want to be.”

Fitting in with Atmel’s SAM D20 family

Atmel’s recently launched SAM D20 lineup is based on the ARM Cortex- M0+ core, setting a new benchmark for flexibility and ease-of-use.

The MCU series is ideal for a number of low-power, cost-sensitive industrial and consumer devices, such as GPS trackers, appliance controllers, intelligent remotes and optical transceivers.

As William Wong of Electronic Design notes, the SAM D20 specifically targets the entire low-end space currently handled by 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers, while also hitting the low-end 32-bit space.

“The SAM D20 incorporates high-end support like the high-speed bus matrix linked to three AHB/APB bridges. System and power controllers can be found off one bridge. Memory controllers are found off another,” Wong wrote in an article posted on Electronic Design.

“The third bridge handles the convention interfaces that include up to six programmable serial ports, eight timers, a 20-channel, 350-ksample/s analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a pair of comparators, and a 10-bit, 350-ksample/s digital-to-analog converter (DAC). There is also Atmel’s touch interface controller.”

In addition, Wong described Atmel’s advanced Event System which allows peripheral events to trigger actions – without processor intervention (the core can actually be sleeping), while pointing out that the SAM D20 family supports up to 32 kbytes for RAM and 256 kbytes of flash memory.

“Atmel is already known for its microcontroller families, including the 8-bit AVR,” Wong continued. “The SAM D20 will follow in the pin steps of these chips with 32-, 48-, and 64-pin versions that match the SAM4L family.”

The full text of “Cortex-M0+ Family Supports The Low-End Space,” written by William Wong, can be read here on Electronic Design.