Lumioto is an easy-to-use, open source LED prototyping tool

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Lumioto makes it easy to add expressive, professional LED effects to prototypes, design models and videos.

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It seems like these days, just about every product on the market contains at least one LED. The same goes for DIY projects. Sure, LED designs are great. However, if you’ve ever tried to configure them, you know just how tricky it can get. Even the earliest steps like controlling brightness and choosing colors can present a few unexpected challenges, not to mention adding animation only seems to make matters worse. Cognizant of the limited number of tools available, SCALAR Electronics has developed Lumioto, a quick and simple way to go about the LED creation process.

Based on an Arduino Uno (ATmega328), Lumioto gives users the ability to make fine modifications on up to three independent RGB LEDs, including toggling their brightness, color and pattern. The open source tool is equipped with an intuitive hue-saturation-lightness (HSL) on-board color picker, along with 14 different built-in animations with adjustable speed, intensity and relative timing. This way, designers and Makers alike can easily add LED effects to prototypes, models and a wide range of other projects.

What’s more, users can experiment with 24-bit digital color and brightness by plugging into any USB port. If that port happens to be on a computer, they can configure more advanced settings using Lumioto Terminal, ranging from turning LEDs on/off and getting readouts to adjusting settings and accessing flexible LED animations. Whether for professional or amateur use, the possibilities are truly endless. Given that it’s Arduino-compatible, Makers can even hack its code and add their own new features and functions.

Other notable specs include:

• Full set of three 36″ Lumioto LED cables included (2X inline, 1X angled)
• High brightness: Up to 3000mcd per LED (1200mcd with white-balancing enabled)
• Hex color reference and digital brightness readouts
• Detachable LED cables for easy modification, permanent LED integration, or multiple simultaneous projects
• All settings saved automatically for convenience and mobility
• Identical Mac and Windows support; no drivers required
• USB-powered
• Open source firmware
• Completely free firmware development toolchain (Atmel Studio + AVRdude, Windows-only)
• Entire Arduino port D0-D7 accessible for hardware expansion
• ~50% CPU, RAM, FLASH utilization

“Don’t know Arduino? That’s okay. With the Designer Kit, you don’t need to be into electronics to use Lumioto. It’s the same as the Maker kit, except it comes with an Arduino preprogrammed with the freshest Lumioto firmware. It’s ready for action right out of the box, down to the included USB cable,” its team writes.

Interested in adding professional LED effects to your next design? Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Lumioto is now selling both on Tindie and its official site for $89.00.

pico-Platinchen is a pocket-sized, Arduino-compatible wearable board

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This Arduino-sensor combination is perfect for your next wearable design.

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Last year, Guido Burger had brought to our attention his impressive blueIOT. The open sensor platform was based on the ultra low-power combination of an ATmega328P MCU and a BLE module along with a single coin cell battery. Created in collaboration with the Fab-Lab Europe team, the board would on to be successfully implemented in a number of applications, ranging from DIY fitness trackers and smart socks to  magical Easter Egg hunts and hacked Nespresso machines — which you will actually be able to witness live at Maker Faire Bay Area.

Well, hot on the heels of its predecessor’s success, Burger has returned with the latest innovation from his crew: the pico-Platinchen. The uber mini, Arduino-compatible board was designed with wearable devices in mind and comes loaded with a high-precision, absolute orientation sensor from Bosch Sensortec. The BNO055 is joined by an ATmega328P, and like its older sibling, is powered by a CR2032 coin cell battery.

“The basis for your projects comes pre-integrated but you can still can expand it with more LEDs, sensors (e.g. I2C/SPI) and displays,” Burger explains. “Also, pico-Platinchen is a perfect basis for students and kids to start exploring the physical world: g-forces, magnetics, movements and much more!”

With a diameter of only 20mm, pico-Platinchen is ideal for projects that involve sewing, particularly hats. What’s more, the platform packs the punch of an Arduino Uno along with the flexibility of an entire 9-DOF sensor. And, to provide on-board notifications and color-fading, the Fab-Lab team decided to add some NeoPixels (WS2812 LEDs) that can drive up to 256 lights with the pico-Platinchen right out of the box.

“By the way, it comes with a lot horse power,” Burger adds. “The motion co-processor for 3D maths is an Atmel | SMART SAM D21. [The] gyro, accelerometer and magnetometer are [all] combined with high-precision and 100Hz update for an absolute orientation in 3D space.”

Using the Arduino IDE 1.0.7, Makers can build their own application with just a few lines of code in a matter of minutes. Aside from wearable projects, pico-Plantichen makes for a viable option in a variety of settings, whether that’s robotics, aviation or even in education (particularly physics). What’s more, the board can be coated for underwater projects.

Intrigued? The pico-Platichen is now available on Tindie for $32. Meanwhile, if you’re wondering what to make with the super small, wearable board, you can check out one of its recent projects on Hackster.io here.

Croduino Pico is an Arduino-compatible board for Makers

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This $11 open-source board is based on an ATmega328 and comes without a USB converter.

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Last year, the e-radionica.com crew released the Croduino Basic, an open-source board based on the wildly popular ATmega328 MCU. Now, the team has returned with the debut of the Croduino Pico.

Currently available on Tindie for $11, the Croduino Pico is billed as “simpler than the basic version” since it lacks an on-board FTDI USB converter. It should be noted that the board measures just 5cm x 3cm in size, making it easy for tinkerers to integrate and leave in various projects.

Aside from ATmega328, the Croduino Pico targets both Makers and developers with a wide range of features, including:

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22 digital I/O
• 6 PWM outputs
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8 analog inputs
• I2C communication
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Built-in 5V voltage regulator
• Reset button and LED

Interested? You can check out the project’s official Tindie page, as well as access its documentation for more information here.

Build a mini, modular Arduino inside a Tic Tac box

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Tacuino is a modular Arduino-compatible educational kit for Makers. And to think, you wanted to throw away your Tic Tac box…

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With the rise of the Maker Movement, we’ve seen countless takes on highly-popular Arduino boards in recent months. Not only does the open-source prototyping platform come in a number of shapes and sizes, DIYers are now discovering ways to create their own. In fact, Instructables user “MakersBox” did just that, by devising an uber-mini, modular board that can fit inside a Tic Tac box.

Aptly named Tacuino, the Arduino-compatible board is based on a tinyAVR MCU capable of running the Arduino IDE — a method that could also be seen with last year’s ATtiny167 based Digispark Pro board project.

“After finding the Paperduino project, I learned that a bootloader could be placed on the inexpensive ATtiny85 chips so that they could be programmed like a regular Arduino,” MakersBox writes.

The Tacuino is self-contained in that it includes an inexpensive CR2032 battery power source, two inputs (touch and light sensors) as well as two outputs (sound and LEDs). As the Maker explained, “This was just enough ‘umph’ for a reasonable beginning project while demonstrating some of the amazing abilities of an embedded circuit.”

In addition, Tacuino’s modular design allows it to be installed in a soft-circuit with conductive thread, or even other projects using jumper wire.

Intrigued? Head on over the project’s official page here for a step-by-step breakdown of the build. Those who rather not collect each of the required parts themselves can also find the ready-to-assemble kit on Tindie here.

Soil moisture sensor packs an ATtiny44A MCU

Powered by Atmel’s ATtiny44A microcontroller (MCU), Chirp is a plant watering alarm equipped with a soil moisture sensor.

According to a company rep, Chirp uses capacitive sensing as opposed to resistive humidity sensing.

Meaning, it does not actually make an electric contact with the soil, thereby successfully avoiding electrode corrosion and soil electrolysis – resulting in optimized accuracy and extended battery life.

On the hardware side of things, a standard AVR 6 pin ISP programming header is available on the board for programming and serial communication. The device acts as a I2C slave, so the header can be used to read the moisture and light levels. It should be noted that another microcontroller or a dev board such as Arduino can be used as I2C master to read those levels.

The alarm level is set for each plant individually, with Chirp configured to detect low moisture level and emit rare short chirps as appropriate. As more water evaporates, Chirp increases the alarm rate.

Chirp is currently available on Tindie at a $15 price point.

Croduino Basic sells for $21 on Tindie

The open source Croduino Basic – currently selling for $21 on Tindie – is built around Atmel’s wildly popular ATmega328 microcontroller (MCU).

Aside from Atmel’s MCU, the board targets both Makers and developers with a wide range of features, including:

• 

14 digital I/O (6PWM outputs)
• 
8 analog inputs
• 
FTDI RS232 as USB converter
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Built-in 5V voltage regulator
• USB mini-B cable

It should be noted that Croduino measures just 5cm x 3cm, making it easy for DIY tinkerers to integrate into various projects.

Interested in learning more? You can check out the project’s official Tindie page here, courtesy of the e-radionica.com crew.

In addition, you can view the project source code here, documentation here and BoM here.

Makelangelo is a $200 art robot

The Makelangelo 2.5 – which recently made its Tindie debut – is described as “sitting on the sweet spot between power and price.”

Sold as a bare-bones kit (sans the Atmel-based Arduino Uno which can be purchased here), the platform is regulated by Java software tasked with converting pictures into lines.

Essentially, the software sends the lines to the robot one at a time with GCODE. The robot leverages trigonometry to calculate the length of each belt.

Meaning, to move from point A to point B the robot determines the change in belt length and subsequently pulls the belts at the right speed to move in straight lines. 

Repeat 10,000 times and yes, you have a beautiful picture.

Currently available on Tindie at a $200 price point, kit contents include:

• 2x ROBO-0022 Makelangelo 3 motor mount for wood
• 1x ROBO-0021 Makelangelo 3 pen holder
• 1x KIT-0002 Adafruit motor shield v1
• 1x ELEC-0001 5.5*2.1 female power plug
• 2x MOTO-0003 Stepper Motor, NEMA17, 12v0.3a
• 3x MECH-0051 Timing Belt, GT2-6×1000
• 1x MECH-0070 Makelangelo 2.5 laser cut parts

Interested in learning more? You can check out Makelangelo’s official Tindie product page here.

Atmel-powered 3DOF Robot Arm is now on Tindie

Back in May, Dan Royer of Marginally Clever debuted an open source 3-DOF palletizing robot based on the commercial ABB 460. The unit is now available on Tindie as a kit for $350.

According to Royer, the ‘bot is powered by two Adafruit motor shields, an Atmel-based Arduino Uno (ATmega328 MCU) and gcodecncdemo (software).

“[Essentially], this robot is an affordable, scaled-down model that is perfect for classroom based training on the mechanics and operations of a robot arm,” said Royer.

“[It boasts] three degrees of freedom – reaching up to 50cm away from its body. It runs on stepper motors and gearing for great precision. The lifting capacity is approximately 125g fully extended and 155g in a retracted position.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out the official 3DOF Robot Arm page on Tindie here.

$19 ATtiny25 BFuse hits Tindie

Powered by Atmel’s ATtiny 25 microcontroller (MCU), BFuse is an electronic fuse designed specifically for breadboards.

According to the product’s official Tindie description, the BFuse is fast, adjustable and programmable.

“A lot of mistakes can happen during prototyping: Misplacing components, creating random shorts or simply making things wrong,” BFuse creator Kaktus explained. 

”BFuse can help saving precious components that would otherwise be damaged by such mistakes. It works like a regular fuse, only better.”

So, how exactly does the board work? Well, BFuse continuously compares the load current with the value set by the trimmer. Meaning, If an overcurrent occurs, BFuse disconnects the load by switching off a P-channel MOSFET – notifying the user by lighting a red LED. Meanwhile, a green LED confirms when the load is connected.

“Even though the fuse is designed for operations up to 1A, it can measure current up to 5A, giving you options to allow for some inrush current for capacitive loads. BFuse is powered by the same line it protects, no extra power needed,” Kaktus concluded.

“BFuse not only protects against overcurrent but it has also built-in reverse polarity protection. Moreover, it has a transient-voltage suppressor on both its input and output. BFuse was tested on a 22-Amp Statron stabilized power source for short-circuit and startup into short-circuit – it passed with flying colors.”

Aside from Atmel’s ATtiny 25 microcontroller, key technical specs include:

• Input voltage range: 3.3–12V (absolute maximum rating 3–13V)
• Measured current range: 5A
• Trip current range: 50mA–1A
• Fuse resistance: less than 100 milliohm
• Fuse power consumption: less than 10mA
• Dimensions: 18×36mm
• Weight: 4.5 grams

Note: BFuse is shipped as a kit, so Makers and engineers will have to solder the pin headers: 4 pins for the power line (input/output) and 6 pins for the SPI header (to re-program BFuse).

Interested in learning more? You can check out the official BFuse Tindie page here.

Check out this $10 PicoDuino on Tindie

The PicoDuino – targeted at both Makers and engineers – is an uber-mini development board powered by Atmel’s ATtiny85 microcontroller (MCU).

“With the ability to use the familiar Arduino IDE (Digispark version is highly recommended), the PicoDuino is a great way to jump into electronics,” Tindie vendor bobricius explained in a product post.

Aside from the MCU, key board specs include:

• Support for the Arduino IDE 1.0 and later (OS X, Windows, and Linux)
• Built-in USB
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5 I/O pins (two are used for USB only if program actively communicates over USB)
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8 KB flash memory (about 6 KB after bootloader)
• I2C and SPI (vis USI)
• PWM on three pins (more possible with software PWM)
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ADC on 4 pins
• Internal temperature sensor
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On-board RGB LED
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Keyboard and HID device emulation
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Programmable via USBASP
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12×22 mm
• Smart pinout
• Partially breadboard compatible
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Supports four types of USB connector 0 PCB, USB-A, MiniUSB and MicroUSB
• Optional Power LED (full model only)
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Optional Reset button (full model only)

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