Atmel debuts mXT106xT2 touchscreen controller lineup

Atmel has expanded its popular maXTouch T lineup of touchscreen controllers with the mXT106xT2 family of devices. The new series incorporates a wide range of features for 7 – 8.9″ mid-sized tablet displays including hover, stylus and optimized noise immunity.

As Atmel exec Patrick Hanley points out, the maXTouch is the only product currently available that enables finger hovering up to 20mm on devices larger than a smartphone. This capability allows users to interact with their devices – without physically making contact with the screen.

Indeed, the T Series incorporates Atmel’s Adaptive Sensing technology to facilitate dynamic touch classification, which automatically switches between self- and mutual-capacitance sensing – providing a seamless transition between finger touch, hover, passive or active stylus, as well as glove touch. Additionally, Adaptive Sensing dramatically reduces power consumption, facilitating longer battery life for mobile devices.

“The mXT106xT2 offers features required in today’s tablet devices, including 0.4mm thin cover lenses and multifinger glove support for users in cold weather climates,” said Hanley. “For [those] who seek the extensive benefits in going paperless, the mXT106xT2 also [includes] stylus capabilities in either active stylus through Atmel’s maXStylus, or passive stylus with a 1mm tip to facilitate more precise selection.”

Essentially, the 106xT2 offers the same performance features as Atmel’s T Series maXTouch controllers, while enabling capacitive button, slider and wheel control via an embedded hardware module known as the Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC). This feature allows systems to integrate capacitive buttons without tying up nodes from the touch controller, while performing with improved noise immunity and lower power than when implemented via firmware.

The new devices in the maXTouch T Series are currently in production, with the 8.3” screen size evaluation kit slated to ship in May.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s popular maXTouch T lineup of touchscreen controllers? You can check out the product’s official page here.

EZcontrol.IT simplifies home automation

EZboard is an Atmel-based platform designed to facilitate home automation projects for Makers and developers. Powered by Atmel’s versatile ATmega328P microcontroller (MCU), the board is equipped with an onboard Ethernet controller, microSD card socket, temperature sensor and power relay.

“Everything on the EZboard has been designed to minimize power consumption. For this reason Atmel’s ATmega328P is configured to work a 3.3V and 8MHz of speed. While this [may] sound like a limit, we have verified that it is more than enough for home automation applications,” an EZboard rep explained in a recent Indiegogo post.

“The power source could be a microUSB adapter, but the EZboard was designed to receive power mostly by batteries. [Indeed], the EZboard has a dedicated input that uses 0.1″ pitch connectors like the common JST or even direct soldering of a battery pack to the board.”

Aside from Atmel’s ATmega328P MCU, key technical specs include:

• Operating Voltage: 3.3V (5V tolerant on I/Os)
• Input Voltage: 3.7 – 9V
• Digital I/O Pins: 14 (of which 6 provide PWM output)
• Analog Input Pins: 8 (of which 2 are used from onboard sensors)
• Flash Memory: 32 KB – SRAM: 2 KB, – EEPROM: 1 KB
• Additional Memory: microSD (TF) socket
• Clock Speed: 8MHz
• USB Controller: FTDI FT232RL
• Ethernet Controller: MIcrochip ENC28J60
• Max Ethernet Speed: 10Mbps
• Temperature sensor: TMP36
• Relay Rating: 1A at 30VDC or 2A at 110/250VAC
• Footprint: compatible with the Atmel-powered Arduino UNO R3

On the software side, the EZcontrol.IT is optimized for the cloud-based Lelylan, a simple and open API designed for building a connected IoT home.

“[Lelylan allows] Makers to focus on the hardware and design process, while developers can create new apps for the web and mobile,” the rep added.

“You [can] interact with lights, appliances, alarms, cooling and heating systems, gas sensors, rolling shutters, windows, irrigation, video surveillance, gates and multimedia (audio and video).”

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-based EZcontrol.IT? You can check out the board’s official Indiegogo page here.

Building a mini GPS with Atmel, Adafruit & Arduino

Oscar Liang recent debuted GARLOW, which he describes as a mini GPS watch based on the Atmel-powered Arduino Nano (ATmega328 MCU).

“Garlow stands for GPS Arduino Rechargeable Logger OLED Watch. It does what the name suggests: Accurate time, positioning related information are received from GPS satellites, [which] can be logged on SD card and shown on a OLED display,” Oscar wrote in a recent blog post.

“It can be carried as a watch or simply left at the back seat of your car as a GPS data logger. The whole system is built on the backbone of an Arduino Nano board, with a LiPo power module which enables USB battery recharge.”

Aside from the Atmel-based Arduino Nano (Uno was used for prototype), key GARLOW specs include:

• Adafruit’s GPS Module
• Mini SD card module
• 0.96′ mono color OLED display
• Power cell – LiPo charger/booster
• 600mAh 1S LiPo battery
• Jumper wires

“Wiring is easy and soldering is minimum. I used jumper wires so each component can be disconnected for future projects,” he explained.

“I built the case using Plastic Styrene sheet (my favorite DIY material). Everything is then glued together using hot glue, and some nylon screws and nuts.”

According to Oscar, the GPS clock draws a total current of 40mA at standby mode (OLED turned off, SD card modue turned off, only GPS working and 80mA normal operation (all on).

Current consumption is broken down as follows:

• Arduino Nano – 20mA
• GPS Modue – 20mA
• OLED Display – 15mA
• SD Card Module – 25mA

“So with a fully charged battery (600mA) it can run 13 hours on standby mode (with 10% left), and 6.5 hours on normal operation,” he added.

“[Plus], the GPS positioning accuracy is about +/- 3 meters. [The] update rate is very good which is 10Hz. It also works indoor but needs to be close to the windows.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out GARLOW’s official blog page here.

ATmega328P-based TinkerBots hit Wired’s Gadget Lab

TinkerBots is an Atmel-powered (ATmega328P MCU) building set that enables Makers and hobbyists of all ages to easily create an endless number of toy robots that can be brought to life without wiring, soldering or programming.

http://vimeo.com/91590326

Indeed, TinkerBots’ specialized “Power Brain” and kinetic modules twist and snap together with other TinkerBots pieces – and even LEGO bricks – adding movement and interest to whatever sort of robot a Maker can imagine and build.

The centerpiece of the TinkerBots building set is a square, red “Power Brain” module (approximately 1.5”x1.5”x1.5”) that contains Atmel’s ATmega328P microcontroller. This module is tasked with providing wireless power and data transmission to kinetic modules such as motors, twisters, pivots and grabbers.

Kinematics launched its official TinkerBots Indiegogo campaign a few weeks ago, with the building set garnering coverage from a number of prominent publications, including Wired’s Gadget Lab.

“Once you snap together a contraption, you can program it in a few different ways. By pressing the ‘record’ button on the Powerbrain brick and twisting the robot’s motorized parts, it will remember those movements and replicate them when you hit the ‘play’ button. And if you want to step it up and write your own code, you can also program your robots via the Arduino IDE,” writes Wired’s Tim Moynihan.

“TinkerBots started out as an Indiegogo campaign, and it blew past its $100,000 goal in less than a week; its funding now is nearly double that amount, with about a month left to go in its campaign. You can preorder various kits now, and prices vary depending on the number and type of pieces in each set. For $160, you get a basic car-building set with the Powerbrain, motors, wheels, a twister joint and some other bricks. There’s an animal-themed set for $230, a grabber claw set for $400 and $500 gets you a fully loaded kit with bricks to build anything.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out the official Indiegogo TinkerBots page here.

Atmel-powered Printoo featured on Gigaom, EDN

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 official Kickstarter debut last week and has already been covered by a number of prominent publications, including EDN, Gigaom and Quartz.

“A spin-out from YDreams, Ynvisible was founded in 2010 with the goal to bring more interactivity to everyday objects and surfaces, mostly through the use of flexible and printed electronics including the company’s fully transparent electrochromic display. The paper-thin display, which only becomes visible when activated can easily be integrated with different background graphics,” writes EDN’s Julien Happich.

“Running Arduino software, the first Printoo packs include novel printed modules including LED light strips from VTT lab, 1.5V printed batteries from Blue Spark and Enfucell, 0.350mm thin organic photodetectors from ISORG, printed polymer solar cells from Mekoprint, and Ynvisible’s own transparent printed displays running from 1.5V. Also included are modules like Bluetooth LE, DC motor control, flexible LED matrixes, and a variety of sensors. The Printoo core is powered by the Atmel ATmega328 microcontroller.”

As Gigaom’s Signe Brewster notes, printed circuits are currently being considered for everything from shipping labels to tiny spacecraft NASA might send to Mars.

“Ynvisible expects Printoo to find a home among 3D printer owners and DIYers already familiar with Arduino,” Brewster explains.

“The modules are small enough to slip into a 3D printed object, opening up ways to easily create robots and other moving or connected devices. They could also be worn as a bracelet or sewn into clothes.”

Meanwhile, Lio Mirani of Quartz points out that bendable electronics could be the future of the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT).

“When the first Harry Potter movie came out in 2001 the idea of the Daily Prophet, a newspaper that contains moving pictures, qualified as magic. A Kickstarter campaign by Ynvisible, a Lisbon-based technology firm, is bringing that magic to life with its displays, held together with paper-thin circuitry,” writes Mirani.

“Ynvisible’s ‘vision’ is to ‘bring everyday objects to life.’ For that to happen, it isn’t just processing power that needs to get cheaper and smaller, which it has, but the input and output mechanisms also need to be smaller and easily adaptable. Ynvisible is betting there is a broad market for such technology. The roaring success of its Kickstarter campaign is an early validation of that belief.”

Indeed, Ynvisible has already raised close to $36,000 – with support from almost 300 backers. Interested in learning more? You can check out the project’s official Kickstarter page here.

Getting started with Adafruit’s Atmel-powered FLORA

Adafruit’s Becky Stern and Tyler Cooper have penned a new book about the company’s popular Atmel-powered FLORA platform.

Titled “Make: Getting Started with Adafruit FLORA,” the upcoming book details various wearable electronics projects that can be designed and built using the device.

Indeed, FLORA weighs in at 4.4 grams and measures only 1.75 inches in diameter. Featuring Arduino compatibility, the platform is one of the most beginner-friendly way to create wearable projects.

“This book shows you how to plan your wearable circuits, sew with electronics and write programs that run on the FLORA to control the electronics,” Stern explained in a recent blog post.

“The FLORA family includes an assortment of sensors, as well as RGB LEDs that let you add lighting to your wearable projects.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Adafruit’s wearable electronics platform is built around Atmel’s versatile Atmega32u4 microcontroller (MCU).

The microcontroller boasts built-in USB support, eliminating the need for pesky special cables and extra parts.

According to Adafruit’s Limor Fried, FLORA is extremely “beginner-friendly.” Indeed, the device is difficult to accidentally destroy by connecting a battery backwards, thanks to a polarized connector and protection diodes.

Meanwhile, an onboard regulator ensures even connecting a 9V battery won’t result in damage.

Interested in learning more about Adafruit’s Atmel-powered FLORA? You can check out the platform’s official page on Adafruit here and sign up for book updates here.

BI Intelligence details IoT building blocks

Writing for Business Insider, Marcelo Ballve notes that the Internet of Things (IoT) will make many of the familiar objects in our lives connected, as well as accessible via smartphones and tablets.

“This shift to connectivity in once-inert things — the logical next step in the growing ubiquity of the Internet — will force companies large and small to transform dramatically,” said Ballve. 

”But how are the ‘things’ in the Internet of Things actually put together? What elevates an object or device from normal status to a sensor-laden node in the soon-to-be-massive Internet Of Things?”

As Ballve notes, a recent BI Intelligence report lists the following 6 primary attributes that will help make “things” a part of the rapidly evolving IoT:

• 

Sensors – IoT devices and systems include sensors that track and measure activity.
• 
Connectivity – Internet connectivity is either contained in the item itself, or a connected hub, smartphone, or base station.
• 
Processors – IoT devices will obviously pack some form of computing power.
• Energy-efficiency – Many devices may need to be able to operate for a year or more using a minimal amount of energy, waking only periodically to relay data.
• Cost-effectiveness – Objects that contain sensors will need to be relatively inexpensive to purchase and deploy.
• 
Quality and reliability – Some IoT devices will need to operate in harsh environments (outdoors) and for extended periods of time.
• Security – IoT devices may need to relay sensitive or regulated information such as health-related data, making data security critical.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a future world where all types of electronic devices link to each other via the Internet. In 2009, there were 2.5 billion connected devices; most of these were mobile phones, PCs and tablets. By 2020, there will be over 30 billion connected devices of far greater variety.

According to Reza Kazerounian, Senior VP and GM of the Microcontroller Business Unit at Atmel, the IoT is a combination of multiple market segments, tens of thousands of OEMs and hundreds of thousands of products.

“It is seen by many as the next wave of dramatic market growth for semiconductors. If you look at the different estimates made by market analysts, the IoT market will be worth trillions of dollars to a variety of industries from the consumer to financial, industrial, white goods and other market segments,” he told EEWeb in February.

“Companies that provide cloud-based services, service providers and semiconductor companies will also benefit from this market. The number of small or new companies that are showcasing connective devices has increased – there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. These nodes will have characteristics such as low-power embedded processing, a human-machine interface and connectivity.”

Reza also pointed out that Atmel views microcontrollers (MCUs) as an essential building block for every PC, consumer device, industrial machine, home connectivity device and automobile. To be sure, MCUs are playing an increasingly critical role in the lucrative space.

“As the semiconductor industry has transitioned from PCs to mobile, IoT will now rise to become the predominant market,” he added. ”This transition will favor ultra-low power and integration of microcontrollers, wireless connectivity, security, touch technologies and sensor management products.”

Interested in learning more about the IoT? You can check out Atmel’s recent IoT SoMa panel on the subject here, Patrick Sullivan’s EELive! 2014 presentation and our extensive Bits & Pieces IoT article archive here.

Infographic: From 3D printing to Star Trek

The folks at BestComputerScienceSchools have put together an informative infographic that details the rapidly evolving 3D industry.

“On the original Star Trek TV series from the 1960s, they had their fictional replicator technology that materialized food, drink and non-edible objects. Well, now 3D printing is turning fiction into fact,” the BestComputerScienceSchools crew explained in a blog post accompanying the infographic.

“There’s even a 3D printer by MakerBot Industries called the Replicator. Okay, we’re not quite at the Star Trek level yet, but the number of objects we can ‘print’ is quickly growing, and the list includes useful things such as human organs, limbs and even synthetic food including pizza… In the near future, you could very well order something online and have it created in front of you from a home or office 3D printer — not unlike the Star Trek replicator.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the DIY Maker Movement has been using Atmel-powered 3D printers for some time now. However, 3D printing has clearly entered a new and important stage in a number of spaces including the medical sphere, architectural arena and science lab.

Indeed, the meteoric rise of 3D printing is paving the way for a new generation of Internet entrepreneurs, Makers and do-it-yourself (DIY) manufacturers. As such, the lucrative 3D printing industry remains on track to be worth a staggering $3 billion by 2016.

This geiger counter is powered by Adafruit & Atmel

The Geiger–Müller counter, also known as a Geiger counter, is an instrument used for measuring ionizing radiation. According to Wikipedia, the device detects radiation such as alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays using the ionization produced in a Geiger–Müller tube.

Recently, Johan of dynode.nl designed geiger counter powered by Adafruit’s Atmel-based (ATtiny85 MCU) Trinket.

“Lately I have been messing around a bit with microprocessor powered geiger counters. One smart guy came up with the idea of generating high voltage using PWM signals from the microprocessor itself,” Johan explained in a detailed blog post.

“With some additional external parts a HV supply and negative going pulse suitable for microprocessors is easy to make.”

So, how does the circuit work? Simply put, a ~1 Khz squarewave turns the MPSA44 high voltage transistor on and off – generating high voltage when the inductors current is shut off.

As Johan notes, the specific voltage is contingent upon the pulse width of the square wave which can be tweaked on a software level.

“The 1N4007 diode rectifies this voltage, and the HV cap removes most of the ripple on this voltage. The resistor limits current to the GM tube,” he continued.

 “The current pulses from the tube generate a voltage drop over the 100K resistor which turns on the BC546. When this happens, the voltage [via] the 10K resistor is pulled to ground, generating a negative going pulse each time the GM tube detects an ionizing ray or particle.”

It should also be noted that Johan’s design supports serial logging capability using a tx only software serial library tasked with outputting the measurements in CPM every 10 seconds on pin 4.

So, what’s next for the Trinket-powered geiger counter? Well, Johan says the platform still requires some tweaking, as the circuit is quite susceptible to electromagnetic interference which causes erroneous counts.

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

Building a city of the future with Arduino

Writing for Wired UK, Liat Clark describes the recently held Playable Cities competition between British and Brazilian digital artists.

“The scheme was launched in January, when a Brazilian cohort came to Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol to explore the concept of a future city that is not just smart and efficient, but fun to live in,” writes Clark.

“While driverless vehicles and smart meters remain the focus of those future metropolises, Watershed wanted to explore how a smart city could be interactive, playful and most importantly, how it could bring communities together. With help from the British Council’s Creative Economy program, this [initiative] was taken to Recife.”

One of the featured exhibits was Fortune Fictions, a futuristic bus stop that cheerfully delivers witty one liners to waiting passengers. 

According to Fábio Florencio, a sound and game designer, Fortune’s goal is is to “deliver enjoyable moments” for people who are bored waiting for their buses.

“[The project] also deals with complicated elements in Recife such as lost times in traffic jams, the heat in summer and rain in winter,” he says.

More specifically, the futuristic bus stop is furnished with an Atmel-based Arduino board that receives commands from a physical button pressed by citizens – with an MP3 shield triggering sounds and phrases. In the future, Florencio and his team envision equipping the stop with pressure sensors (for the benches) and RFID readers.

“It rewards the curious Recife bus traveller with fantastical words of wisdom, gauging the mood of the city and breaking the monotony of waiting times,” Florencio explains. “Drawing on data such as weather, traffic, pollution and football information, enigmatic advice, broadcast from the bus stop itself, sends the passenger on their way with a thought… and a smile.”

Press Play – another Arduino-based exhibit displayed at the Playable Cities competition – engages the public via music. Indeed, pedestrians can touch hands, fitted with sensors, to play part or all of a tune.

So, how does it work? Well, Press Play is fitted with a conductive matting for durable touch switches connected to an Arduino and wav-Trigger board. This configuration supports up to eight tracks running simultaneously from a micro SD card.

“[Press Play] became a gathering spot for different people that haven’t met before but, for a short period, felt intensely connected with each other,” Filipe Calegario, a doctorate student for UFPE’s Informatics Centre, told Wired UK. “Last Friday was the first day of public testing and, for a moment, the systems stopped working because the battery ran low. The people’s reaction was impressive, they felt so involved that the absence of sound made them shout ask us to make the system work again. It was such a spontaneous reaction.”

The full text of Liat Clark’s “Urban Legends Brought to Life in Playable Cities Competition” can be read here on Wired UK.