Hasta La Gadget!

For those of you out there who have been left scratching your heads, wondering just what the heck happened to the Arduino Yun after it decided to skip out on its original June release date, fret not. The apocalypse has not arrived, and it is finally available in-store to interested parties. The Arduino Yun will retail for $69 or €52 a pop (VAT not part of the deal), where it will be different from the classic Arduino Leonardo system as it combines that with a Wi-Fi system-on-a-chip that runs on Linino.

It will be based upon the ATMega32u4 microcontroller as well as on the Atheros AR9331 running Linino, which in turn is a customized version of OpenWRT that so happens to be the most used Linux distribution where embedded devices are concerned. In a nutshell, owners of the new Arduino Yun are able to enjoy tinkering with their customized wireless access point with Ethernet, USB and a microSD memory slot. How many of you out there have already given the Arduino a shot in the past, and do you think you would enjoy the same with the new Arduino Yun? After all, the adage of better late than never certainly applies in this case, don’t you think so?

Arduino Yun Now Available original content from Ubergizmo.

Hardware hacking often seems like black magic to the uninitiated, which is why 123D Circuits is so cool: it allows you to learn electronics using a virtual Arduino board and breadboard without blowing up capacitors or burning yourself with solder on your work table.

Created by AutoDesk, 123D Circuits is part of the company’s “sandbox” initiative that offers simple 3D simulators, 3D printing apps, and other tools for beginners and advanced users to take part in the Maker movement.

To be clear I have very little experience in breadboard design and I find Arduino baffling right now (I’m pretty good with my Raspberry Pi, though). However, as an entry-level system for creating circuits as well as electronics design collaboration this thing looks pretty good. You can even print your own PCBs using designs made in the app and it supports Arduino programming using a built-in code editor.

The service is free and upgraded accounts are available for $12 and $25 a month. The lower price point gets you 5% off PCB orders and unlimited public circuits (as well as 5 private circuits.) Twenty-five dollars per month gets you unlimited private circuits.

The app runs in the browser and offers a number of components, pre-made designs, and chips. You drag and drop components from a large library of simulated electronics and then “run” them, simulating the flow of electricity through the designs. In short, it’s like having a RadioShack on your laptop. You can also see other public circuits and play with them on the fly.

Circuits.io isn’t new – it’s been around since 2012 – but these entry-level Arduino tools help improve the product and make it easier for newbs to get into hardware hacking without zapping themselves.

As the quantified self movement continues to pick up momentum, the range of consumer devices tracking physiological signals is set to expand. But harvesting bio-signals requires specialist kit — which can be either expensive to buy or tricky to put together yourself for prototyping purposes, unless that’s your particular area of expertise. Well, here’s a device that wants to change that. BITalino is a simplified system for makers, app developers and researchers who want to quickly start capturing bio-signals.

The low cost (€149/$197 + shipping and taxes) kit of modular blocks includes a swathe of physiological sensors that can be broken out to use individually or linked together and used in whatever combination you’re after. BITalino’s approach is plug and play, to keep things as simple as possible. The sensors in the kit can interface with computing platforms such as Arduino (and derivatives) and Raspberry Pi, says project lead Hugo Silva. BITalino also includes Bluetooth connectivity so can be used in desktop and mobile environments.

“Currently there are several APIs for platforms including Android OS, Java or Python; BITalino is also cloud / web compatible through a software framework based on WebSockets, HTML5 and CSS3,” he tells TechCrunch.

Sensors included in the BITalino kit are:

• an EMG (electromyography) to track muscle activation
• an EDA (electrodermal Activity) to measure skin activity/moisture levels
• a LUX light sensor to monitor ambient light or (used in conjunction with a light source) to track blood volume pulse data
• an ECG (electrocardiogram) to track heart rate, monitor stress etc
• an accelerometer to track limb movements

The board also includes an LED block for visual feedback, a microcontroller unit and a power management block to power the other units.

The kit is the result of a collaboration between Portuguese bio-sensor maker, PLUX – Wireless Biosignals (co-founded by Silva in 2007), and a not-for-profit research centre in the country, called Instituto de Telecomunicações, where Silva is currently doing his PhD. He isn’t aiming to make money off the BITalino kit itself — hence its low cost and bootstrapped status.

“BITalino by itself won’t be a money maker; it is more thought out as a community driver/motivator,” he says. ”BITalino is sold with everything needed for people to start developing. The hardware prices start at €149 (+ shipping and taxes) and includes all the sensors and parts to jump start their work. The APIs and software framework is provided free of cost as well.

“Our goal with BITalino is to empower the community with basic tools for rapid prototyping of biosignal-based projects. We are looking forward to lower the prices even more as the production scales up.”

As well as its low relative cost – ”BITalino makes technologies that usually cost several thousands of dollars readily available for anyone at very low pricing”, according to Silva — he says the platform’s other disruptive factor is its goal of “democratising” bio-signal acquisition technologies. The grand aim behind that being to help bring down the cost of developing affordable medical devices for developing and low-income countries.

While BITalino overlaps somewhat, in competitive terms, with Arduino and (the also not-for profit) Raspberry Pi, Silva says it is carving out a niche by specialising in bio-signal capture and processing. ”The Arduino and Raspberry Pi platforms can be seen as competitors, however, biosignals have specific requirements (e.g. tolerance to noise, sampling frequency) for which these platforms are not particularly tuned, and many projects end up heavily bounded by the high cost and limited access to suitable hardware materials,” he says.

“The closest platform that one can find in this segment is the Libellium e-Health sensor platform for Arduino and Raspberry Pi, however the price point for this platform is above $500 and it does not provide either the same sensors, or the same versatility in terms of hardware and software. BITalino provides a framework for very integrated (stamp-like) systems to be developed, and has a growing and wide range of APIs and software tools.”

BITalino went on sale in mid August 2013 and just over 100 of the modular kits have been pre-ordered or sold to-date. Research institutions are a strong initial customer base, as you’d expect — but BITalino is also being targeted more broadly at students, hobbyists and app developers, so there’s plenty of scope for that number to grow.

“We’ve sold to countries ranging from U.S., South Africa, Italy, Spain, UK. BITalinos are already being used by people from institutions such as the MIT, University of Florida, Zurich University, among many others,” Silva adds.

Here’s a video demonstrating some possible use-cases for BITalino:

Have you ever wanted ride shotgun in a robotic car as it drives around your neighborhood? Sure, autonomous cars are still very expensive, but how about miniature version? I bet you hadn’t though of that, but a couple of engineers came up with this scaled-down version of Google’s driverless car.

The RoboTech SuperCar is a toy car kit, powered by an Arduino controller. It has RGB LED headlights and tail lights, an ultrasonic sensor, and a 24-pin RC bus that can interface with its microcontroller. The car can operate in several modes, including full RC, computer-assisted RC, or fully-autonomous driving.

The benefit is that it’s low cost compared to a full-size autonomous car, and I’m sure that you can have your own robotic invasion fleet ready soon. It’s definitely something quite ingenious to have around if you want to spy on your neighbors.

[via MAKE]

If the words “ARM-powered wireless Arduino” send your heart aflutter, then you might be interested in… Flutter — a development platform with the aforementioned qualities. The Kickstarter project claims the device has a usable range of over half a mile, letting you nail that wireless letterbox-checker project with ease. Similar tools, such as Xbee and Zigbee already exist, but the $20 price tag for the Flutter basic, and $30 for Flutter Pro (adds battery charging, another button, more memory) make this a tempting option for tinkerers on a budget. So, if building that mesh network of quadrocopters has been sitting at the top of your to-do list for too long, we recommend you get backing right now.

Filed under: Networking, Internet

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Via: Ycombinator

Source: Kickstarter