Far removed from the legions of 3D printers featured at this year’s Maker Faire in New York was a much smaller, but far more impressive announcement: The ARM-powered Arduino DUE is going to be released later this month.

Instead of the 8-bit AVR microcontrollers usually found in Arduinos, the DUE is powered by an ATSAM3X8E microcontroller, itself based on the ARM Cortex-M3 platform. There are a few very neat features in the DUE, namely a USB On The Go port to allow makers and tinkerers to connect keyboards, mice, smartphones (hey, someone should port IOIO firmware to this thing), and maybe even standard desktop inkjet or laser printers.

The board looks strikingly similar to the already common Arduino Mega. That’s no mistake; the DUE is compatible with existing shields, so connecting a RAMPS board for your 3D printer should be a snap.

Here’s a PDF the Arduino and Atmel guys were handing out at their booth. A few DUE boards have already made it into the hands of important people in the Arduino community, including 3D printer guru [Josef Prusa]. Sadly, the folks at Arduino didn’t think media personalities needed a DUE before its release, so you’ll have to wait until we get our hands on one later this month for a review.

[V0R73X], who is 17  has been working on a project, to build A robotic arm. This project started out as a challenge put forward from one of his school teachers to build a robotic arm for $200.  [VoR73X] accepted, and the challenge began.

He came up with a robotic arm that can be controlled from his mobile phone and other bluetooth enabled devices. He also designed it so that he can control it from the infrared remote control of an old tv set. [VoR73X] decided to kept the design simple, to make it easy for others to build.  [VoR73X] has shared the code and a step by step process of how to build in the hopes that others would also like to take up the challenge.  Watch the video after the break for further details on his project.

via[Instructables]

The Raspberry Pi faithful have been looking forward to the Gertboard almost as much as the main device itself: Gert van Loo's I/O extender promises to flash lights, spin motors and otherwise take on the tasks that the Raspberry Pi doesn't directly manage on its own. While we've seen work on the project since late 2011, the expansion now looks to be closer to reality following a fresh teaser. The refined design's biggest tweak is replacing its original PIC controller with an Arduino-powered chip -- an element no doubt familiar to the crowd that would already be looking at a very hackable, miniature Linux computer. Most everything else is a refinement, although Gert has brought in three physical buttons and two-channel analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters. We'll learn the full story later this week, and until then we'll be dreaming of all the off-kilter Arduino projects that might be made better with a little Raspberry Pi companionship.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

Raspberry Pi teases finished Gertboard I/O extender, revs creative engines originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Not far from the bustling labs of Northeastern University is the even more bustling hacker space known as Artisan's Asylum. The roughly 30,000 square foot complex is home to more than 100 makers, tinkerers and artists who building all sorts of crazy contraptions. One of the less ostentatious projects being worked on within its cavernous halls though, is the Rascal Micro. This tiny board is home to an ARM-based SOC and has its hungry, open-sourced eyes on competitors like Arduino and Beagle. Brandon Stafford, the creator, boiled down its primary selling points to this: "it's maybe 25 times faster, has 1,000 times more storage." Where as the Arduino excels at making things blink, move or Tweet, the Rascal Micro has enough power to function as a full-fledged web server.

Gallery: Rascal Micro hands-on

Continue reading Rascal Micro hands-on (video)

Rascal Micro hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock lately, we're pretty sure you've heard about the Raspberry Pi by now -- a $25 credit-card sized PC that brings ARM/Linux to the Arduino form factor. As a refresher, the system features a 700MHz Broadcom BCM2835 SoC with an ARM11 CPU, a Videocore 4 GPU (which handles HD H.264 video and OpenGL ES 2.0) and 256MB RAM. The board includes an SD card slot, HDMI ouput, composite video jack, 3.5mm audio socket, micro-USB power connector and GPIO header. Model A ($25) comes with one USB port, while Model B ($35) provides two USB ports and a 100BaseT Ethernet socket. Debian is recommended, but Raspberry Pi can run most ARM-compatible 32-bit OSes.

This past weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 we ran into Eben Upton, Executive Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and took the opportunity to spend some quality time with a production board and to discuss this incredible PC. We touched upon the origins of the project (inspired by the BBC Micro, one of the ARM founders' early projects), Moore's law, the wonders of simple computers and upcoming products / ideas -- including Adafruit's Pi Plates and Raspberry Pi's own prototype camera add-on. On the subject of availability, the company expects that "there will be approximately 200,000 units in the field by the end of June". Take a look at our hands-on gallery below and our video interview after the break.

Gallery: Raspberry Pi hands-on

Continue reading Raspberry Pi hands-on and Eben Upton interview at Maker Faire (video)

Raspberry Pi hands-on and Eben Upton interview at Maker Faire (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 06:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yesterday at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 we visited the Electric Imp booth to chat with the startup's founders and get some hands-on time with the tiny wireless computer. What is the Electric Imp? It's a module containing an ARM Cortex M3 SoC with embedded WiFi that's built into an SD card form factor. While the device looks just like and SD card, it's not pin-compatible with the standard -- the idea is to leverage a reliable and affordable connector for the Electric Imp. The module is not very useful on its own -- it only comes to life when inserted into one of several boards, which provide the Electric Imp with power and access to the real world. In turn the device gives these boards a brain and an Internet connection. Eventually the company hopes that appliance manufacturers will incorporate Electric Imp slots into products to make them network aware.

We talked with CEO Hugo Fiennes (formerly with Apple) about the past, present and future of the Electric Imp so hit the break to read more and to watch our hands-on video.

Gallery: Electric Imp hands-on

Continue reading Hands-on with the Electric Imp at Maker Faire (video)

Hands-on with the Electric Imp at Maker Faire (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 00:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

DIY drones are the rage! Chris flew a quadcopter off the stage, and entertained droves of questions from how much weight the copters can carry, to FAA regulations, and announced that they would have a new ARM-based APM (Ardu Pilot Mega) by Maker Faire New York.