ATmega328 powers paper-thin Printoo board

Printoo – powered by Atmel’s ATmega328 microcontroller (MCU) – is a lineup of paper-thin, low-power boards and modules that offer Makers and devs new levels of creative flexibility.

The open source platform, created by the Ynvisible crew, made its Kickstarter debut this week.

“Printoo is the first development board that is flexible and light enough to bring any of your 3D printed objects to life – no matter what shape it is. Add Internet and Bluetooth connectivity, input, output, motorization, light and motion sensing and power. Even solar, to almost any configuration or weird shape you print,” a Ynvisible rep explained.

“Plug the modules together, tinker with the Arduino sketches we are making available, and use the apps to connect and control Printoo – bringing your ideas to life. [Plus], we built the apps you need to connect Printoo to the Internet. You’ll be able to remotely control your Printoo creations or use them to trigger or perform action on the Web – from your smartphone, tablet or laptop, from anywhere in the world.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the core Printoo module is powered by Atmel’s ATmega328 microcontroller (MCU).

Additional hardware modules include a display driver, battery connector, batteries (soft and ultra-thin), battery holder, sensor module, solar cell connector, conductive ink adapter, DC motor drivers, electrochromic display, organic photodetector slider, polymer solar cell and LED strip.

The Ynvisible crew has also created a number of Printoo-powered demos such as a Bluetooth fan, 3D printed watercraft, solar powered 3D printed hovercraft, “girlfriend communicator,” electronic voter and the Printoo Man.

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

Video: Designing a mesh networked conference badge

Andrew Nohawk recently attended ZaCon V, a free South African security conference. In honor of the event, Nohawk decided to design an interactive mesh networked conference badge.

As HackADay’s Mathieu Stephan reports, the slick platform is powered by Atmel’s stalwart ATmega328 microcontroller (MCU). Additional features include a Nokia 5110 LCD, a 433MHz AM/OOK TX/RX module, a few LEDs and an assortment of buttons.

“The badges form a mesh network to send messages. This allows conversations between different attendees to be tracked,” Stephan explained.

“Final cost was the main constraint during this adventure, which is why these particular components were chosen and bought from eBay & Alibaba.”

According to Stephan, the first PCP prototypes were CNC milled and required quite a bit of soldering to finish off the 77 final boards. Meanwhile, the protocol itself was verified using Maltego.

“Of the 77 badges soldered together (at various stages of ‘full working order’ – especially the BYOB people) the front computer captured 9810 transmissions, 49 badges and 201 different relationships,” Nohwak confirmed in a blog post detailing the project.

Interested in learning more? You can access the relevant code, raw sqlite database and Maltego graphs from GitHub here or visit the project’s official blog post here.

Atmel’s ATtiny85 MCU powers ButtonDuino dev board

ButtonDuino – which recently made its Indiegogo debut – is an uber-mini (0.73in x 0.718in), USB programmable development platform powered by Atmel’s popular ATtiny85 microcontroller (MCU).

The open source ButtonDuino is breadboard compatible, so it plugs, with no pin conflict, directly into any standard pitch (2.54mm) breadboard as well as vero-boards. In addition, the platform can also be easily stacked with any ButtonDuino compatible ButtonShields and is expandable via I2C or SPI.

Upcoming ButtonShields include:

• Real time clock (RTC)  – I2C
• EEPROM – I2C
• Temperature sensor  – I2C
• RGB LED
• Pressure resistive sensor
• Coin battery pack
• 3-axis digital compass

“[Users can] create amazing Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) with LabVIEW by National Instruments. All you need is the same micro-USB cable that you already have to program and power ButtonDuino,” the ButtonDuino crew explained.

“The best feature? ButtonDuino’s schematics, code and bootloaders are all free and open source. All the details will be released once the product is finalized.”

Aside from Atmel’s popular ATtiny85 microcontroller (MCU), key ButtonDuino components include:

• USB Regulated power up to 800mA via external power supply or 500mA from PC/laptop
• Programmable via USB or AVR mkII
• Arduino IDE 1.0+ (Windows/OSX/Linux)
• 6 x available I/O Pins and I2C and SPI expandable
• 8k flash memory without bootloader (6k after USB bootloader)
• 3 x 8 bit hardware PWM pins
• 4 x 10 bit ADC pins
• Power LED
• Test LED (Pin 1)
• Soon to be available in deep red (PCB silkscreen)

Interested in learning more?

You can check out ButtonDuino’s official Indiegogo page here.

Mixed martial arts training with Fight Coach

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques from a variety of other fighting genres.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

While an experienced trainer is essential to prepare for an upcoming bout, aspiring fighters may also want to step into the practice ring with Fight Coach.

As HackADay’s Will Sweatman reports, the training platform, created by Cornell University’s Vincent Nguyen and Jooyoung Park, is built around Atmel’s ATmega32U4 microcontroller (MCU), an MPU-6050 6-axis accelerometer and a RN-41 Bluetooth module – all packed into a pair of boxing gloves.

“Fight Coach is a sensor that can be embedded into combat-sport equipment that can allow combat athletes to get a better gauge of their performance. By tracking the athlete’s movement and displaying it in real-time, Fight Coach can help athletes optimize their training,” Nguyen and Park explained on the project’s official page.

“In addition, Fight Coach is small enough to fit inside muay thai shinpads, boxing gloves, or even on your hand wraps. [Plus], Fight Coach records data from the fighter’s gloves so that it can not only be analyzed to improve performance, but also interact with the fighter in real-time.”

Currently, Fight Coach offer three primary modes of training: defense, damage and free-training, which is likely more than enough to help fighters hold their own in the ring.

Interested in learning more about Fight Coach? You can check out extensive documentation on the project’s official Cornell page here.

Video: This LEGO robot plays iPad games

Uli Kilian has designed a Lego Technics robot to play freemium games. More specifically, the Arduino Uno-powered (Atmel ATmega328 MCU) ‘bot plays Jurassic Park Builder, a title that requires the user to remain active (or tap) every few minutes. In addition to the Atmel-based Uno, key project specs include an old iPad mounted on top of Technics wheels.

“It’s a really nice game with nice graphics. But I thought you could easily automate the tapping,” Kilian, a senior art director at UK-based medical animation studio Random 42 told Wired UK’s Nate Lanxon.

“The last time I did anything with Lego was when I was eight, and I’ve never done anything with Technic. I heard about the [Arduino] boards two weeks before and I knew I was going on holiday. I’m a 3D artist so all the stuff I do is virtual and I really wanted to do something in the real world, and I’d never done anything with micro-controllers before.”

In Jurassic Park Builder, dinosaurs have different time periods during which they offer money. Simply put, the more regularly you load the game up and tap the dinosaur, the more you earn.

“One [dino kicks in] after five minutes – you tap him and get points. Another is every ten minutes; another every 15 minutes and so on. But you might want to sleep. At that time, that’s when the automation kicks in,” Kilian explained.

“I put all the dinosaurs in one line [in the game’s virtual park landscape] and then set the distance between them equally so the arm can move between them easily.”

Interested in learning more? You can read Wired’s full write up here.

ATmega644 MCU powers phased array speaker system

Edward Szoka (ecs227) and Tom Jackson (tcj26) of Cornell University have designed a phased array speaker system capable of “steering” sound around a room.

As HackADay’s Will Sweatman reports, the ATmega644-powered platform samples a standard audio input signal at approximately 44.1 kHz via 12 independently controllable speakers – each with a variable delay.

 Simply put, the angle of maximum intensity of the output wave can be shifted by adjusting the delay at precise intervals.

“Phased arrays are usually associated with EM applications, such as radar. But the same principles can be applied to sound waveforms,” Sweatman explained.

The basic idea behind a phased-array? By changing how the speakers are driven, the angle of the maximum intensity of the output wave can be shifted.

“This type of array was built to be able to support various other more advanced design challenges, including longer-range acoustic modem transmission and sonar imaging,” they added.

Interested in learning more? You can check out the project’s official page here and HackADay’s write up here.

uMotio controls 3D gestures

The uMotio – which recently surfaced on Indiegogo – is an open source 3D tracking and gesture controller. The platform, equipped with Atmel’s ATmega32U4 microcontroller (MCU), can be used to control media and games or embedded in DIY projects.

“The uMotio brings a new experience to both the regular user, gamer or hacker. Whether it be on a computer, appliances, lighting or your own projects. Using hand and finger tracking you control your world,” uMotio creators Ignatius Havemann and Tom Van den Bon explained.

“The uMotio works straight out of the box, no technical experience required. Have the technical experience? Don’t worry, we have you covered. The uMotio is fully Arduino compatible and with our gesture library you will be integrating motion and gesture control into all your projects without any difficulty.”

So, how does uMotio actually work? Well, the 3D sensor technology transmits frequencies in the range of 100 kHz, which reflects a wavelength of approximately three kilometers. With electrode geometries of typically less than twenty by twenty centimeters, this Tx wavelength is much larger in comparison. As such, the magnetic component is practically zero and no wave propagation takes place.

The result?

A quasi-static electrical near field that can be used for sensing conductive objects such as the human body. Indeed, once a user enters the sensing area, the electrical field distribution becomes distorted. The field lines intercepted by the hand are shunted to ground through the conductivity of the human body itself. The proximity of the body causes a compression of the equipotential lines and shifts the receiver electrode signal levels to a lower potential which is detected by the 3D sensor technology.

“The 3D tracking and gesture sensing is done using Microchip’s 32-bit MGC3130 GestIC Technology. This gives the uMotio a 0 to 15cm detection range with a high resolution of up to 150 dpi,” said Havemann and Tom Van den Bon. “To interface with the world around it, you will find an Atmel’s ATmega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller operating at 3.3V. On the AVR we will load an Arduino bootloader so you can easily run your own applications on the uMotio.”

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

GridVortex talks Atmel on LinkedIn

Jonny Doin, the founder and CEO of GridVortex Systems, recently explained why and how his company uses Atmel microcontrollers (MCUs) in a series of LinkedIn posts.

First off, Doin said he was quite pleased with the support he’s received from global Atmel staff in various locations, including San Jose, France, Spain and Germany.

“We needed support for the crypto core details for the CPKCL and promptly [kicked-off] a teleconference with the crypto guys in France,” he wrote. “I now try to use Atmel parts in all my projects.”

In terms of specific silicon, Doin said:

“If you need a Cortex-M that does serious crypto operations, consider using an [ARM-powered] SAM4C16 from Atmel. It is a dual Cortex-M4 with 1MB/2MB Flash, 128K/256K RAM and very strong crypto support. The chip is targeted [at] Legal Metrology and offers secure hardware crypto to support TLS/SSL.

“It [also boasts] hardware support for ECC512, RSA1024, independent circuitry for AES and a subsystem that monitors memory areas and generates exception when the hash of the area changes. From what I saw, [this] is the fastest ECC512 engine in a microcontroller, [although it does not] tax the MCU cores. [Yes], you will need a crypto NDA to get access to the crypto hardware documentation, but the ECC crypto API is really complete. The timings are impressive and outperform [other microcontrollers].”

Doin also noted that he is currently testing an Energy Meter that includes an ARM-based SAM4C.

“Atmel has won almost all chips on my design. I am using the SAM4C, ATM90E25, AT86RF212B and the LED controllers from mSilica, MSL20xx. I try to use Atmel parts in all my projects. The IPv6 router for my mesh networking is being designed around the SAMA5D3. The intelligent nodes in the mesh are SAM4C16+AT86RF212B. My software defined LED power driver is being built around the SAMD10/MSL20xx and our intelligent smart vision cameras will also use Atmel processors.”

In addition, Doin confirmed that his company was in the process of designing its endpoint hardware with the SAM4C16.

“The documentation is really good, and so far we just got everything we needed directly from the datasheet,” he added. “Maybe we’ll [also] decide to use a SAM4C32 in one of our designs, so I am looking forward to the updated datasheet.”

Last, but certainly not least, Doin said he successfully designed a high-precision servo-DAC using delta demodulation and one of the center-aligned PWMs of the SAM4C16.

“Using just one digital output and one ADC input I achieved a very stable, precision DAC, at under 19cents of external discrete components. I [recently showcased] the DAC prototype at a recent meeting in Atmel San Jose. I plan to publish the design as an AppNote for the SAM4C16 (and also for the ATmega, which also has the same PWM) and present it as a lecture at the next Embedded Systems Conference,” he concluded.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s portfolio for your next project? You can check out a detailed breakdown of our microcontrollers here.

Video: This giant LED Tamagotchi hearts Atmel

The Tamagotchi (たまごっち?) is a handheld digital pet, originally designed in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai way back in 1996. According to Wikipedia, well over 76 million Tamagotchis have been sold world-wide.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

The majority of Tamagotchis are housed in a small egg-shaped computer with an interface (typically) consisting of three buttons, although the number of buttons may vary.

However, a Maker by the name of Vadim recently decided to create a unique, desktop-sized Tamagotchi using a spare LED matrix and an Atmel ATmega328P microcontroller (MCU) with an Arduino bootloader.

As HackADay’s James Hobson reports, the LED matrix comprises four 8×8 LED modules with four shift registers (74HC595) and two Darlington transistor arrays to take the current.

“This is because the 256 LEDs need to be multiplexed down to 32 IO’s (16 rows + 16 columns),” he explained.

After the hardware was deemed operational, Vadim started work on the coding side of things, writing the entire game from scratch.

“While it’s not that complex it’s still an impressive amount of effort that went into this desktop- sized Tamagotchi!” Hobson added.

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

Digispark goes Pro (ATtiny167) on Kickstarter

The Atmel-based Digispark dev board has gone Pro on Kickstarter. Powered by Atmel’s ATtiny167 microcontroller (MCU), the new board is even easier to use than the original Digispark.

“[The Pro is] packed full of i/o, more program space and more features,” Digispark Pro creator Erik Kettenburg explained.

“With new shields and libraries the Digispark Pro is still just as small as a Digispark and just as affordable – because electronics should be accessible to all.”

Aside from Atmel’s ATtiny167 MCU, key project specs and features include:

• Compatible with Arduino IDE 1.5 (OSX/Win/Linux)
• Fully signed drivers and executable for easy installation
• USB programming, USB device emulation, USB-CDC virtual serial port emulation
• 
16KB Flash Memory (14.5K+ after bootloader)
• Serial over USB debugging and communication
• 14 i/o Pins (2 shared with USB)
• I2C, true SPI, UART, LIN and USI
• ADC on 10 pins
• Three PWM channels (which can be assigned to a selection of pins)
• Power via USB, or external source – 5v or 6-16v (automatic selection)
• On-board button that can be used as a reset, program, or user button – or disabled to use that pin as general i/o – without altering the bootloader
• On-board 500ma 5V regulator
• Power LED and Test/Status LED (on Pin 1)
• User accessible solder jumpers to disable LEDs
• Two mounting holes
• Breadboard compatible pin out/spacing (the three side header pins are for legacy shield support)

On the software side, the Digispark Pro uses the latest Micronucleus USB bootloader for programming, which facilitates easy programming over USB direct from the Arduino IDE (or command line). 

According to Kettenburg, the open source Micronucleus is the official bootloader of the original Digispark, with the company confirming installation of the ‘loaders on over 40,000 devices.

“With the help of friend, LittleWire creator, and Digispark user Ihsan Kehribar – the Digispark Pro supports emulating a USB CDC/Serial Device – when enabled it shows up as a serial port on all major platforms (OS X/Win/Linux/Raspi/Android) – which means it will work with the Arduino Serial Monitor, other programs designed for Arduinos that appear as a serial port and be much easier to integrate into custom programs,” he explained.

“We also provide libraries for the Pro to emulate a USB keyboard, mouse, joystick, or generic HID device. This means it can appear to your computer as if it were that type of device – allowing you to easily have your device type, move the mouse, act as a joystick and more.”

As expected, the Digispark Pro is backwards compatible with all existing Digispark shields.

Nevertheless, Kettenburg is also offering a number of Pro exclusive shields for various applications, including WiFi, Bluetooth Classic, Bluetooth Low Energy and a nRF24L01+ low cost mesh networking.

Last, but certainly not least, the Digispark Pro is ready to connect to just about any peripheral. Indeed, the dev board offers a stand-alone SPI, UART (with LIN capabilties) and I2C that is shared with a USI bus – which could act as a second SPI or UART for advanced users.

Interested in learning more about the Digispark Pro? You can check out the project’s official Kickstarter page here.