It’s Arduino’s 15th birthday! We are inviting the whole community to join Arduino Day 2020 on Saturday, March 21st.
Arduino Day is a 24-hour-long celebration around the globe, organized by the community for the community — where those interested in Arduino get together, share their experiences, and learn more about the platform. Participation is open to anyone, either as an organizer or participant, from makers and students to professional developers and educators.
In 2019, we had a record 659 events held in more than a 100 countries — full of activities, workshops, talks, and project exhibitions for a wide range of audiences and skill sets.
If you would like to organize an event, please fill out this online form and submit your proposal by March 6th.
Let’s join together and make 2020 another record-breaking year!
Over the next few weeks, make sure to visit the Arduino Day website to learn more or locate an event in your area. Moreover, don’t forget to spread the word on social media using the hashtag #ArduinoD20!
In addition to the usual load of bugfixes and small improvements under the hood, the latest version includes:
Improved support for Mac OS X (the app is now notarized and strictly follows the latest OS X recommended security guidelines)
A “send text” command within the serial plotter (so you can interact with the board while plotting data!)
Better sketch build time
Updated AVR core and WiFi firmware
As always, we must thank our amazing community for their incredible support and contributions. The complete list of changes and contributors can be found in the full changelog.
During Bett Show 2020, Arduino will launch the Arduino Education learning evolution: four new STEAM products for students in lower secondary school through to university. Arduino Education will also announce a partnership with the Fraunhofer Initiative: “Roberta – Learning with Robots” in Germany.
Arduino Education‘s latest products — CTC GO! Motions Expansion Pack, Engineering Kit Rev2, Arduino Education Starter Kit, and IoT Starter Kit — will be unveiled at Bett and available in Q1. These new products complement the existing portfolio, which includes the Science Kit, CTC GO!, CTC 101, Arduino Starter Kit, and Certification program.
Arduino CEO Fabio Violante comments: “We are delighted to announce four new products which will expand STEAM learning for lower secondary to university students. Our technology, programming, and curriculum content are creative tools — just like brushes and paint — that students can use as they become part of our next generation of scientists and artists.”
CTC GO! Motions Expansion Pack (Age: 14+)
Build on your secondary school students’ STEAM knowledge with more complex programming concepts that develop computational thinking and 21st-century skills.
For educators who have taken their students through the CTC GO! – Core Module, the Motions Expansion Pack builds on what they have already learned about how to use technology as a tool and how to apply that knowledge in the real world. The Motions Expansion Pack challenges students to go a step further in computing and design while introducing them to motors and transmission mechanisms such as pulleys and gear concepts that develop their logical reasoning, hands-on building skills, and problem-solving skills. Educators get all the teaching support they need with webinars, videos, guides, and direct contact with an expert.
Engineering Kit Rev2 (Age: 17+)
Challenge upper secondary school and university students and help them develop hands-on engineering skills.
Educators can challenge engineering students and help them develop physical engineering skills with the Arduino Engineering Kit Rev2. Featuring cutting-edge technology, the kit is a practical, hands-on tool that demonstrates key concepts, core aspects of mechatronics, and MATLAB and Simulink programming. Developed in partnership with MathWorks, The Engineering Kit Rev2 is ideal for advanced high school and college students, the three projects teach the basics of engineering — plus they’re fun to do!
Education Starter Kit (Age: 11+)
Learn electronics and get started with programming in your classroom step-by-step — no experience necessary!
Educators can teach lower secondary school students the basics of programming, coding, and electronics. No prior knowledge or experience is necessary as the kits guide educators through step-by-step, they are well-supported with teacher guides, and lessons can be paced according to students’ abilities. The kit can be integrated throughout the curriculum, giving students the opportunity to become confident in programming and electronics with guided sessions and open experimentation. They’ll also learn vital 21st-century skills such as collaboration and problem-solving.
IoT Starter Kit (Age: 14+)
The first step into the world of connected objects has never been easier.
Advanced secondary school and university students can get started with the Internet of Things quickly and easily. They’ll learn about using sensors; automation; logging, graphing and analyzing sensor data, and triggering events with serious technology made simple. The kit contains step-by-step tutorials for ten different projects – fun, creative experiments using real-life sensors.
In partnership with the Fraunhofer Initiative: “Roberta – Learning with Robots”
The dream team for classrooms worldwide: Arduino Education has officially partnered up with the Fraunhofer Initiative “Roberta – Learning with Robots.” The Arduino Uno WiFi Rev2 board, part of Arduino CTC GO!, joined the Open Roberta Lab, the biggest open-source coding platform developed in Europe.
The Arduino Uno WiFi Rev2 is the fourth Arduino board to be integrated into the Open Roberta Lab, which currently supports 13 robots and microcontrollers that enable children worldwide to adopt a playful approach to coding. The lab is the technological component of the Roberta Initiative, which was started by Fraunhofer IAIS in 2002. Eighteen years’ experience in STEM education, training teachers, and developing materials as well as launching the Open Roberta Lab in 2014 make Roberta a one-of-a-kind initiative in Germany and beyond, and the perfect partner for Arduino Education.
“Fraunhofer offers guaranteed quality, both on the technical level as well as for community support,” says Arduino CTO David Cuartielles. “There are a lot of synergies in our cooperation. Roberta is really meant for teachers to learn how to teach technology, and that’s also a key part of Arduino Education’s mission.”
“Open Roberta is developed as an open source platform to engage a community worldwide to join our mission. As a popular open source electronics platform, Arduino is the perfect match for us as it also motivates people all over the world to develop their own ideas and move from using to creating technology,” adds Thorsten Leimbach, head of business unit “Smart Coding and Learning” and Roberta manager at Fraunhofer IAIS.
Dream team for classrooms worldwide: Arduino Uno WiFi Rev2 for CTC GO! joins Open Roberta Lab, the biggest open source coding platform made in Europe.
The Arduino Uno WiFi Rev2 is the fourth Arduino board to be integrated into the Open Roberta Lab, which is currently supporting a total of 13 robots and microcontrollers to enable children worldwide to adopt a playful approach to coding. By “dragging and dropping” the colorful programming blocks called “NEPO” hundreds of thousands of users worldwide from more than 100 countries per year create their own programs to make their hardware come to life.
“Fraunhofer offers guaranteed quality, both on the technical level as well as for community support,” says Arduino CTO David Cuartielles. “There are a lot of synergies in our cooperation. Roberta is really meant for teachers to learn how to teach technology which is a key part of the Arduino Education’s mission.”
The CTC GO! – Core Module containing eight Arduino Uno WiFi Rev2 is supporting the joint mission of Open Roberta and Arduino in providing teachers with a getting started program including eight lessons, eight guided projects, and six self-guided projects that teach students how to use electronics and introduces them to programming and coding. The lessons increase in difficulty from the very basics all the way through to learning different programming capabilities and building circuits for different sensors and actuators. During the self-guided projects, students practice building structures and applying the knowledge acquired in the hands-on lessons to develop their critical thinking, creativity and problem solving skills in a collaborative manner.”
Arduino first joined Open Roberta in 2018, when the microcontrollers Arduino Uno, Nano, and Mega were integrated into the Open Roberta Lab. The lab is the technological component of the Roberta initiative, which was started by Fraunhofer IAIS in 2002. 18 years of experience in STEM education, training teachers and developing materials as well as launching the Open Roberta Lab in 2014 make Roberta a one of a kind initiative in Germany and beyond.
For enthusiasts, the Fundamentals Exam is the first tier in the Arduino Certification Program (ACP), designed to test entrants knowledge in Arduino-related electronics, programming, and physical computing.
The exam is available for everyone interested in officially certifying their skills and knowledge on Arduino, that could, for example, be referred to in a resume for academic or professional purposes.
Get your students, colleagues and friends certified!
The Fundamentals Exam is now also open to schools, academic institutions, universities, and companies that are interested in getting their students and employees officially certified!
The Fundamentals Certification offers the right balance of academic excellence and real world skills to give students the confidence and motivation they need to succeed both in educational and professional environments.
It is a great opportunity for companies who are interested in certifying their employees to refresh and add new skills to their repertoire.
El examen de Certificación Fundamentals, está ahora disponible en Español e Italiano
Para entusiastas, el examen de Certificación Fundamentals, es el primer nivel del Programa de certificación Arduino (ACP), diseñado para evaluar el conocimiento de los participantes en electrónica, programación y computación física relacionadas con Arduino.
El examen está disponible para todos los interesados ??en certificar oficialmente sus habilidades y conocimientos en Arduino, que podrían, por ejemplo, mencionarse en un currículum con fines académicos o profesionales.
¡Certifica a tus estudiantes, colegas y equipo de trabajo!
La certificación también está disponible para escuelas, instituciones académicas, universidades y empresas que estén interesadas en certificar oficialmente a sus estudiantes y equipo de trabajo.
La Certificación Fundamentals ofrece el equilibrio adecuado entre excelencia académica y habilidades del mundo real, para brindar a los estudiantes la confianza y la motivación que necesitan para tener éxito tanto en entornos académicos como profesionales.
También es una gran posibilidad para compañías que están interesadas en certificar a su equipo de trabajo para actualizar y agregar nuevas habilidades a su repertorio.
Siamo lieti di annunciare che l’esame per la certificazione Arduino Fundamentals è da adesso disponibile anche in spagnolo e italiano!
Desideriamo rendere accessibile la Certificazione alle scuole, alle istitutuzioni, università e aziende che siano interessate a certificare ufficialmente i propri studenti e dipendenti! La certificazione Arduino Fundamentals offre il giusto equilibrio fra l’acquisizione di abilità accademiche e lavorative, fornendo agli studenti la sicurezza e la motivazione necessarie per riuscire nel mondo accademico e professionale. E’ inoltre un increndibile possibilità per le aziende interessate ad aggionarne, migliorare e/o accrescere le capacità dei propri dipendenti.
We’re kicking off this year’s CES with some big news.
Millions of users and thousands of companies across the world already use Arduino as an innovation platform, which is why we have drawn on this experience to enable enterprises to quickly and securely connect remote sensors to business logic within one simple IoT application development platform: a new solution for professionals in traditional sectors aspiring for digital transformation through IoT.
Combining a low-code application development platform with modular hardware makes tangible results possible in just one day. This means companies can build, measure, and iterate without expensive consultants or lengthy integration projects.
Built on ARM Pelion technology, the latest generation of Arduino solutions brings users simplicity of integration and a scalable, secure, professionally supported service.
“By combining the power and flexibility of our production ready IoT hardware with our secure, scalable and easy to integrate cloud services we are putting in the hands of our customers something really disruptive,” commented Arduino CEO Fabio Violante. “Among the millions of Arduino customers, we’ve even seen numerous businesses transform from traditional ‘one off’ selling to subscription-based service models, creating new IoT-based revenue streams with Arduino as the enabler. The availability of a huge community of developers with Arduino skills is also an important plus and gives them the confidence to invest in our technology”.
But that’s not all. At CES 2020, we are also excited to announce the powerful, low-power new Arduino Portenta family. Designed for demanding industrial applications, AI edge processing and robotics, it features a new standard for open high-density interconnect to support advanced peripherals. The first member of the family is the Arduino Portenta H7 module – a dual-core Arm Cortex-M7 and Cortex-M4 running at 480MHz and 240MHz, respectively, with industrial temperature-range (-40 to 85°C) components. The Portenta H7 is capable of running Arduino code, Python and JavaScript, making it accessible to an even broader audience of developers.
The new Arduino Portenta H7 is now available for pre-order on the Arduino online store, with an estimated delivery date of late February 2020.
You can now securely connect Alexa to your Arduino IoT Cloud projects with no additional coding required. You could use Alexa to turn on the lights in the living room, check the temperature in the bedroom, start the coffee machine, check on your plants, find out if your dog is sleeping in the doghouse… the only limit is your imagination!
Below are some of the features that will be available:
Changing the color and the luminosity of lights
Retrieving temperature and detect motion activity from sensors
Using voice commands to trigger switches and smart plugs
Being compatible with one of the most recognized cloud-based services on the market, bridges the communication gap between different applications and processes, and removes many tricky aspects that usually follows wireless connectivity and communication.
Using Alexa is as simple as asking a question — just ask, and Alexa will respond instantly.
Integrating Arduino with Alexa is as quick and easy as these four simple steps:
1. Add the Arduino IoT Cloud Smart Home skill.
2. Link your Arduino Create account with Alexa.
3. Once linked, go to the device tab in the Alexa app and start searching for devices.
4. The properties you created in the Arduino IoT Cloud now appear as devices!
Boom — you can now start voice controlling your Arduino project with Alexa!
IoT – secure connections
The launch of the Arduino IoT Cloud & Alexa integration brings easy cross platform communication, customisable user interfaces and reduced complexity when it comes to programming. These features will allow many different types of users to benefit from this service, where they can create anything from voice controlled light dimmers to plant waterers.
While creating IoT applications is a lot of fun, one of the main concerns regarding IoT is data security. Arduino IoT Cloud was designed to have security as a priority, so our compatible boards come with an ECC508 crypto chip, ensuring that your data and connections remain secure and private to the highest standard.
The latest update to the Arduino IoT Cloud enables users with a Create Maker Plan subscription to use devices based on the popular ESP8266, such as NodeMCU and ESPduino. While these devices do not implement a crypto chip, the data transferred over SSL is still encrypted.
Getting started with this integration
In order to get started with Alexa, you need to go through a few simple steps to make things work smoothly:
Setting up your Arduino IoT Cloud workspace with your Arduino Create account
Getting an IoT Cloud compatible board
Installing the Arduino Alexa Skill
Setting up the Arduino IoT Cloud workspace
Getting started with the Arduino IoT Cloud is fast and easy, and by following this tutorial you will get a detailed run through of the different functionalities and try out some of the examples! Please note, you will need an Arduino Create account in order to use the Arduino IoT Cloud and a compatible board.
Getting an IoT Cloud compatible board
The Arduino IoT Cloud currently supports the following Arduino boards: MKR 1000, MKR WiFi 1010, MKR GSM 1400 and Nano 33 IoT. You can find and purchase these boards fromour store.
The following properties in the Arduino IoT Cloud can currently be used with Alexa:
Light
Dimmable light
Colored light
Smart plug
Smart switch
Contact sensor
Temperature sensor
Motion sensor
Any of these properties can be created in the Arduino IoT Cloud platform. A sketch will be generated automatically to read and set these properties.
Installing the Arduino Alexa Skill
To install the Arduino Alexa Skill, you will need to have an Amazon account and download the latest version of the Alexa app on a smartphone or tablet, or use the Amazon Web application. You can find the link to the Amazon Alexa app here. Once we are successfully logged into the app, it is time to make the magic happen.
To integrate Alexa and Arduino IoT Cloud, you need to add the Arduino skill. Then link your Arduino Create account with Alexa. Once linked, select the device tab in the Alexa app and start discovering devices.
The smart home properties already in existence in the Arduino IoT Cloud now appear as devices, and you can start controlling them with the Alexa app or your voice!
Step-by-step guide to connecting Arduino IoT Cloud with Alexa
A simple and complete step-by-step guide showing you how to connect the Arduino IoT Cloud with Alexa, is available via this tutorial.
Share your creativity with us!
Community is everything for Arduino, so we would love to see what you create! Make sure you document and share your amazing projects for example on Arduino Project Hub and use the #ArduinoAlexa hashtag to make it discoverable by everyone!
With the latest release of Arduino IoT Cloud (version 0.8.0) we did a lot of work behind the scenes, and while it might be transparent to most users, it introduced some big changes. But the one we’re most excited about is that the Arduino IoT Cloud has begun supporting a number of third party devices.
Starting with the uber-popular ESP8266 by Espressif — NodeMCU, Sparkfun’s ESP Thing, ESPDuino, and Wemos (to name a few) — along with other inexpensive commercially available plugs and switches based on this module. You can now add one to your Cloud Thing and control it using our intuitive web-based Dashboard.
Like every new release, there were plenty of obstacles to get around, especially providing security between the third party boards and the Arduino IoT Cloud, where there’s no possibility to go through our secure certificate provisioning process because the hardware is lacking an essential component: the cryptographic element.
The Arduino IoT Cloud was born with security in mind and developed around the Arduino MKR series of boards featuring Microchip’s ATTECx08, an encryption chip capable of elliptic-curve cryptography. These boards store the bits necessary to authenticate with a server in a very secure way, guaranteeing your board is connecting to the real server and exchanging data over TLS.
When it comes to boards that don’t have enough RAM and do not feature such cryptographic elements, we had to enable a secondary way to get in. Data transfer will still be encrypted over SSL, but the server authentication part will be a little less strict, allowing the Arduino IoT Cloud to be available to a wider user base. Nevertheless, we do inform users that if they want the highest levels of security they’ll have to use a board which embeds a cryptographic chip. As more and more IoT device users become concerned with security, manufacturers are starting to implement such technologies. We have just recently seen standalone ECC modules which can be paired with your microcontroller of choice. It’s looking bright, and we’re proud to have been amongst the first to bring about this change.
For third party boards without a crypto chip, we had to extend our API and allow the creation of a device-exclusive unique identifier (which will be used as a username) and the generation of a Device Key, providing the final user to access the platform using a username: password pair.
Internally we already used those tools and APIs; we’re just opening them up for use by a broader audience.
One small requirement for this to work is that you’ll need to upgrade your Arduino Create plan to the ‘Maker plan.’ This will give you access to ESP8266 compilation and IoT Cloud pairing of the device. The Maker plan will also extend the amount of original Arduino boards and Things you can create and manage.
This is just the first step in opening up to more and more hardware, and we have a lot of things lined up for our users. We really hope you’ll enjoy the ease of development and the tools to bring your application to the Cloud in the shortest possible time.
