DIPDuino is Arduino-compatible board in a DIP32 package

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DIPDuino is an Arduino-compatible board that combines a number of useful interfaces in one DIP32 package.

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While the idea of having an entire MCU platform in a DIP format isn’t all that new,  Alex Gornostayev just wasn’t satisfied with some of those on the market today, like the Teensy and Arduino Nano. And so, the Maker decided to create his own Arduino-compatible board that crams many useful interfaces all into one easy-to-use DIP32 package.

The aptly named DIPDuino goes a step further than most of today’s breakout boards. Based an ATmega1284RFR2 along with a 2.4GHz ZigBee transceiver, the unit is equipped with a 128×32-pixel OLED display, a microSD card reader, a serial FTDI port, 1MB of SRAM, a full JTAG debugger port, USB and pin power supply, LEDs, and a stabilized 3V and 3.6V power output.

Looking ahead, Gornostayev is planning on using the board for a number of DIY projects, ranging from an OLED watch to a weather station and a home automation system. Aside from that, one of his friends even wants to build a DIPDuino-based RepRap controller. The possibilities are endless! However, first he would like to improve its software so that the firmware can be programmed and updated from an SD card.

“I want to be able to be able to program DIPDuino from SD card. Just save BIN file on SD card and boot the device. The bootloader must be able to flash the firmware and it does not look too complicated. (I call this project ‘DIPBoot’).”

“I want to implement a simple BASIC translator for DIPDuino to be able to write programs in BASIC using simple text editor, save it on SD card and execute it form file on DIPDuino (which will be DIPBasic in this case),” Gornostayev adds. “This is really cool, because I will be to write programs on any devices, including smartphones or even DIPDuino itself, and execute them without any compilers and connections.”

Intrigued? Read more about the project on its Hackaday.io page here.

Piccolino is a Wi-Fi-enabled, Arduino-like board with an OLED display

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Piccolino is like an Arduino on steroids.

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For years, Alex Sardo has been on the prowl for a way to embed an OLED display into a project and to devise a remote-controlled appliance. She has found that such interfaces, while easy to embed, were either too expensive, not voltage compatible or too bulky. And so, the Maker sought out to create a low-cost alternative platform that would offer users a quick and simple way to deploy new designs. Recently launched on Kickstarter, the aptly-named Piccolino does just that.

It is an affordable yet powerful programmable controller equipped with an OLED display and Wi-Fi connectivity that allows Makers to program using existing tools such as the Arduino IDE and ESPlorer IDE. Based on an ATmega328P, the pint-sized platform (only 1.2″ x 1.2″ x 0.7”) adds a pair of individual capacitance touch inputs on the bezel, a bright 0.96″ OLED display, 32KB of SRAM, a microSD card and a powerful ESP8266 LUA Wi-Fi module, which takes care of the connectivity workload with just three lines of code. Furthermore, this module can be configured both as an Access Point or a Station, enabling users to develop mobile device-controlled appliances in a jiffy.

“Adding the ability for cloud-enabled devices, web alarms, event-driven email or text message notifications to phone or tablet, remote web-controlled appliances, Wi-Fi signal strength meters, monitors, loggers, network scanners has never been easier,” Sardo writes.

The so-called “Arduino on steroids” can be employed as a standalone device with an external battery, embedded into any range of custom designs or used for educational purposes. Beyond that, Makers can showcase their personality on their Piccolino through a custom 3D-printed shell.

As an open-source project, the Piccolino team will be releasing each of the necessary sample sketches, LUA scripts and optimized libraries in the coming weeks. Later this year, they will also be launching a Piccolino Gateway that will give Makers the ability to leverage their servers to conduct Internet functions with Piccolino using a easy-to-follow API.

Are you looking to add Wi-Fi connectivity and an OLED display to your next project? Head over to Piccolino’s official Kickstarter page, where the team has already surpassed its $5,000 goal.

Report: A flexible future in store

Do you ever look at your mobile device and think it’s just too rigid? Do you wish your phone would rest ever so nicely in the palm of your hand, or even fit a bit better in that back pocket? Fortunately, a growing number of tech giants have and with that comes the next wave of mobile device innovation.

According to recent reports, it appears that the flexible electronic market is growing with demand on the rise. As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, market research firm DisplaySearch has revealed that the share of flexible smartphones in the overall smartphone market is expected to reach 40% in 2018, up from merely 0.2% last year. In other words, it’s projected that four out of 10 smartphones will be flexible over the next couple of years. This should come with little surprise following recent analysts forecasting the flexible display market to surpass the $3.89 billion threshold by 2020 – growing at an impressively high CAGR from 2014 to 2020.

As seen in recent months, flexible electronic devices have started penetrating various markets, such as consumer electronics, medical and healthcare, and power and energy, automotive, and defense. Subsequently, the global flexible electronics market is expected to reach $13.23 billion by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of 21.73%. In addition, the emerging consumer electronics market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 44.30% in the forecast period, with North America leading the pack, followed by Europe and APAC.

A new report from research firm IDTechEx has also detailed that the market for flexible OLED screens will rise to over $16 billion by the year 2020. Currently, new technologies — like smart watches and OLED TVs — are driving this uptick in consumer interest. The study projects that the OLED market will grow 43% by the year 2020, contingent upon the adoption of OLED technology by the general public. Whether these flexible screens are utilized on the newest smartphones, the technology needs to become the cultural norm if this new data is to ring true. Ferret notes that smart watches and fitness bands are currently driving the OLED market, but the relatively small screen size on these devices will not create the projected profit margins that the report detailed.

Still, when looking at the possibilities of flexible OLED screens, there seems to be no limit to their application. The ridged nature of current screens has restrained the creativity of technology developers over the last century; however, with the influx of flexible screens and products, it will be surely be interesting to see what comes next. Time will only tell, but we’re certainly inching closer to the day where users will be able to fold their devices.

 

A giant TV you can roll up is coming

This week, LG Display announced that it had successfully created an 18-inch flexible OLED paper-thin panel that can be rolled up like a newspaper. According to the company, the 18-inch flexible OLED panel has a 1200 x 810 resolution, nearly 1 million megapixels, and a curvature radius of 30R. As previously mentioned, the panel can also be rolled up to a radius of 3 centimeters without affecting the function of the display. The company reports that this new panel paves the way for “rollable” TVs of more than 50 inches in the future.

The OLED technology used in the LG display screens is apparently thinner, lighter and more flexible than conventional LCDs. “This isn’t the first time we’ve seen flexible displays, although this is likely the first of its kind to be larger than a smartphone,” writes Kevin Parrish.

(SOURCE: Tom’s Hardware)