Arduino Zero takes center stage at Maker Faire

Arduino and Atmel recently debuted the Zero, a 32-bit development board powered by Atmel’s ARM-based (Cortex M0+ core) SAMD21 microcontroller (MCU).

Today, the Zero took center stage at Maker Faire Bay Area, as Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi, along with ARM and Atmel execs, unveiled the long-awaited board for all to see.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the Zero features 256kb of flash, 32kb SRAM in a TQFP package and compatibility with 3.3V shields that conform to the Arduino R3 layout.

In addition, the Arduino Zero board boasts flexible peripherals along with Atmel’s Embedded Debugger (EDBG) – facilitating a full debug interface on the SAMD21 without the need for supplemental hardware.

Last, but certainly not least, EDBG supports a virtual COM port that can be used for device programming and traditional Arduino bootloader functionality.

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered Arduino Zero? You can check out the dev board’s official page here.

Video: New PancakeBot spotted at Maker Faire 2014

The very first version of the open source PancakeBot was designed way back in 2010 by Miguel Valenzuela.

The latest iteration of the platform – which debuted at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 – comprises an acrylic body packed with Adafruit motor shields, an Atmel-based Arduino Mega (ATmega1280 MCU), two stepper motors, a pair of belt drives and a vacuum pump.

Interested in learning more about the Pancake Bot? You can check out the project’s official page here.

Atmel @ Maker Faire Day 0 (sneak peek)

Atmel is getting ready to take center stage at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 in San Mateo on May 17th and 18th.

Our team is currently setting up booth #205, where we’ll be showcasing a wide range of Maker projects, platforms and devices, including the new Arduino Zero which is powered by Atmel’s ARM-based SAMD21 microcontroller (MCU).

So, what else can you find in booth #205?

• Wearable electronics and cosplay
• MicroView
• ProtoSnap Pro-Mini
• Red Boards
• FuzzBots
• Phonear
• Touch Boards
• Hexabugs
• uToT ‘bots
• 3D printers
… And more!

Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 will kick off at the San Mateo Event Center in San Mateo, CA, on Saturday, May 17, from 10am to 8pm and Sunday, May 18, from 10am to 6pm.

Tickets can be purchased on-site at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 on May 17 and 18, 2014 ($25.00 – $40.00 for a full day pass).

Can’t make it to the Faire? You can follow @Atmel live on Twitter for event updates, or join the conversation by tweeting #AtmelMakes.

Arduino and Atmel debut Zero dev board

Arduino and Atmel have debuted the Zero development board – a simple, elegant and powerful 32-bit extension of the platform originally established by the popular UNO.

“The Zero board expands the Arduino family by providing increased performance to fuel the creativity of the Maker community,” said Massimo Banzi, Arduino co-founder and CEO.

“The flexible feature set enables endless project opportunities for devices and acts as a great educational tool for learning about 32-bit application development.”

Indeed, the Arduino Zero board packs Atmel’s versatile SAMD21 microcontroller (MCU), which features a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0+ core. Additional key hardware specs include 256kb of flash, 32kb SRAM in a TQFP package and compatibility with 3.3V shields that conform to the Arduino R3 layout.

The Arduino Zero board also boasts flexible peripherals along with Atmel’s Embedded Debugger (EDBG) – facilitating a full debug interface on the SAMD21 without the need for supplemental hardware.

In addition, EDBG supports a virtual COM port that can be used for device programming and traditional Arduino bootloader functionality.

According to Atmel exec Reza Kazerounian, the Zero board aims to provide creative individuals with the potential to realize truly innovative ideas for smart IoT devices, wearable technology, high-tech automation and robotics.

“Leveraging more than 15 years of experience since the inception of AVR, simplicity and ease-of-use have been at the core of Atmel’s technology,” Kazerounian added.

“[We are] pleased to see the continued growth of the global maker community stemming from the increasing access and availability to open source platforms such as Arduino. We enable Makers, but the power lies within the Makers themselves.”

Interested in checking out an Arduino Zero prototype? You can get up close and personal with the very first prototypes at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014 in San Mateo on May 17 and 18 at the following booths:

• Arduino booth: #204
• Atmel booth: #205
• ARM booth: #405

We’ll see you there!

ATmega32u4 MCU powers littleBits Arduino module

LittleBits has debuted a programmable ATmega32u4-powered Arduino at Heart Module. The new component will allow Makers to easily incorporate sketches into their littleBits circuits.

According to a LittleBits rep, the Arduino Module is capable of reading two types of input signals.

“The first is digital, which is a simple ‘on’ or ‘off’ signal. This is the type of signal you will get from a button or trigger. In the Arduino coding language, on is a HIGH signal and off is a LOW signal. All three inputs on the Arduino Module can read digital signals,” the rep explained.

“The other type of signal is an analog signal. Analog signals aren’t just ‘on’ or ‘off.’ They work like a dimmer switch or a volume knob. In the Arduino coding language, analog signals are given a value between 0 and 1023. If you connected a dimmer module to your Arduino and turn the knob up (clockwise), the value would slowly rise from 0 to 1023. The inputs on the Arduino module marked a0 and a1 both accept analog signals.”

As Engadget’s Jon Fingas notes, the programmable module gives Makers much more control over LittleBits’ existing modules, such as the oscillators in the Synth Kit.

“However, it also opens the door to interaction with your computer. Since the Arduino module has USB support built-in, you can create Etch-A-Sketches, Pong games and other programs that have LittleBits and your PC working in harmony,” said Fingas.

“[Plus], many existing Arduino projects should work with only a few slight tweaks to pin assignments.”

The stand-alone Arduino module can be snapped up for $36, although LittleBits is currently offering an $89 starter bundle that includes a total of 8 prototyping modules.

Interested in learning more? You can find additional information about the new LittleBits module here.

SmartWood goes old school on Kickstarter

SmartWood – which recently hit Kickstarter – is a lineup of smartphone controlled models powered by Atmel’s ATmega8 microcontroller (MCU).

“No technical skills are necessary to assemble and use a Smartwood model, even if you’ve never built a robot before,” a SmartWood rep explained. “It’s affordable, readily expandable and the perfect hobby to do with your kids or even on your own.”

Aside from Atmel’s ATmega8 microcontroller, key technical specs and features include:

• Onboard 5V regulator
• Power supply voltage: 5-9V
• DC Motor Driver up to 2A per channel
• Supports up to 8 Servos
• Built in LED connected to D13
• Battery level monitoring
• Master on and off switch
• Compatible with the Bluetooth Module supplied with the controller

Currently, the following five SmartWood models are available on the crowd funding website: MiniBot, Crawler, Dragster, Truck and a Kickstarter special edition vehicle.

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered SmartWood? You can check out the project’s official Kickstarter page here.

Open Garden hardware built around ATtiny84 MCU

Cooking Hacks, the the open hardware division of Libelium, has debuted a new Open Garden hardware platform.

Powered by Atmel’s ATtiny84 microcontroller (MCU), the platform consists of three separate kits equipped with sensors to maintain healthy growth, whether plants are located indoors or outside.

“All kits measure parameters such as temperature, humidity and light; soil moisture is monitored in the Indoor and Outdoor kits; water sensors such as pH, conductivity and temperature are added to the Hydroponics kits,” David Bordonada, Manager of Libelium’s Open Hardware division, explained.

“The Open Garden platform works with various types of actuators that can modify the state of the plants, by irrigating them with droppers or sprinklers or activating lights and oxygen pumps. The sensor nodes periodically send information to an Internet Gateway by using available wireless interfaces such as Wi-Fi, GPRS and 3G.”

According to Bordonada, an open-source web application stores data, allowing users to easily access relevant information from a browser or iPhone/Android app.

The system – compatible with both U.S. (110V) and Europe (220V) power requirements – will be showcased at Maker Faire Bay Area, May 17-18, 2014, at booth 231.

“Open Garden helps you get started with plant projects that range from beginner gardens to fully automated watering systems with grow lights,” added Bordonada.

“Now it’s easy to run your garden with microprocessors and a suite of sensors to monitor your plants and make sure they get optimal care.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out the official Open Garden page here. Readers may also want to browse through some of our previous articles on open source agriculture, including “The Internet of Things, Stalk by Stalk,” “Smart Urban Aquaponics in West Oakland,” “DIY Farming with Atmel and Arduino,” “Open Source Aquaponics with APDuino,” Agricultural Monitoring with Atmel AVR
,” “Arduino-Based Farming in Maine” and “Building a DIY Moisture Monitor.“

Open Electronics talks Adafruit’s FLORA (ATmega32u4)

Writing about wearable technology for Open Electronics, Alessio Biancalana highlights Adafruit’s FLORA, a popular platform powered by Atmel’s versatile Atmega32u4 microcontroller (MCU).

“Adafruit released more than 100 tutorials and over 25 libraries for the Arduino IDE, so they [ultimately] decided to produce their own wearable platform. The cool aspect about FLORA is that this tiny [platform] is fully compatible with Arduino, so no matter the operating system you will immediately be able to bootstrap your wearable startup,” Alessio explains.

“If you have the Arduino IDE installed on your computer, and if you know how to develop software for the original Arduino – and this is awesome, because as you know in an open ecosystem the knowledge reuse is on of the most important things.”

As Biancalana points out, FLORA boasts an on-board regulator, making the platform extremely beginner friendly.

“[It also] has four LEDs: power good, digital signal LED for bootloader feedback, data rx/tx. If we are power users, we can reprogram it all thanks to a ICSP controller; we have 14 sewing tap pads for electrical connections and attachments,” he says.

“[Makers] can expand [the] board to create even more powerful wearables, or maintain easy access to the controller so [it] can be hacked in many ways, growing a strong community around [the] hardware.”

Interested in learning more about Adafruit’s Atmel-powered FLORA? You can check out the platform’s official page on Adafruit here, read about Becky Stern’s “Make: Getting Started with Adafruit FLORA” here and browse our FLORA project archives here.

ATtiny45 drives this optical theremin

A Maker by the name of Derek recently created an optical theremin to illustrate the types of devices typically found in hacker and Maker spaces.

As HackADay’s Rick Osgood reports, the solderless Noise-o-Tron kit is powered by Atmel’s ATtiny45 microcontroller (MCU).

“Arduino libraries have already been ported to this chip, so all [Derek] had to do was write a few simple lines of code and he was up and running,” writes Osgood.

“The chip is connected to a photocell so the pitch will vary with the amount of light that reaches the cell. The user can then change the pitch by moving their hand closer or further away, achieving a similar effect to a theremin.”

According to Osgood, Derek designed a simple PCB out of acrylic, with laser cut holes to fit the components and leads twisted together.

“I learned a lot with this project and I think some other people did too. I had kids as young as 5 assemble these boards with guidance, some of them with surprisingly little help,” notes Derek.

“Everyone seemed to like them and I ran out of components for kits. I’m calling it a huge success and I hope that this project is replicated and taken to Maker Faires, expos and ‘learn electronics’ nights.”

Interested in learning more about the solderless Noise-o-Tron kit? You can check out Derek’s blog post here and the relevant Github files here.

Drag & drop programming with Pepino

The recently unveiled Project Pepino is a comprehensive drag and drop development environment for Makers.

Created by Tovi Levis, the open source Pepino comprises both a hardware platform and software layer.

On the hardware side, Pepino boasts a custom-designed board powered by Atmel’s popular ATmega328 microcontroller (MCU).

Additional key hardware specs include:

• 8 digital inputs/outputs
• 4 LEGO sensors
• 2 analog inputs
• 2 Motors
• I2C Bus
• LCD Display
• 3D Printed Case

Meanwhile, the software environment is hosted on a Raspberry Pi (model B) that connects to the Atmel-powered board.

Levis says he created Pepino as a final project for his degree at the Afeka College of Engineering in Israel, with source code and installation instructions expected to go live at some point in the near future.

Although additional details are still scarce at this point, you can check out Project Pepino’s official page here.