The brainchild of Tomás de Camino Beck, Polymath Boxes are experimental sound boxes. Using a Genuino Uno and 101 along with some 3D printing, these units enable young Makers and adults to experiment with programming and math to produce noises and tunes, from square and triangular waves to sample players and interactive sound generators.

The boxes were originally conceived by Camino Beck as part of an open-source experimental art project with the goal of stimulating STEAM in education, from high school to college, and to allow artists, engineers and computer scientists, or pretty much anyone interested, to explore programming and digital fabrication. They were developed and fabricated in “Inventoria”–Costa Rica’s own idea of a Makerspace.

More than just a finished project, these boxes are designed to be hacked and to help move away from more conventional ways of thinking when it comes to sound.

These boxes use coding as a way to “write music,” and to take advantage of the diversity of physical low cost sensors to trigger sound. Some of the boxes play with basic waves, just creating basic  PWM, and others go from there to create arpeggiator and interactive. They will be used in several workshops and experimental music concerts in Costa Rica.

A few weeks ago, an announcement was posted on the Arduino Forum mentioning new improvements on the software side of the Arduino/Genuino 101. With this release, the board–which was developed in collaboration with Intel–is reaching its full potential, with not only better code generation but unlocking useful features to make your sketches even more interactive as well.

You can easily upgrade the core using the Arduino IDE’s Board Manager (pictured below), while Arduino Create users will be automatically updated, so no action is required–the cool thing about the cloud!

In more detail:

• The GCC compiler has been updated to support hardware extensions to the ARC EM core in the Intel® Curie™ module. This provides significant improvements in floating point operations, bit shifting, and other operations to enhance Sketch performance.

• The Arduino/Genuino 101 platform offers 2MB Flash storage onboard, which is now enabled for user sketches.

• An experimental driver has been implemented to enable the I2S interface via the CurieI2S library. Connecting the I2S bus to an external DAC (digital to analog converter) allows users to play high-quality music (HiFi).

Other improvements and bug fixes:

• Motion Sensor: Several sample sketches, like MotionDetection, have been implemented to demonstrate the application of the IMU data
• Bluetooth LE: Several new examples for BLE peripheral library added
• IMU: Correct motion detection setting implemented
• Library CurieTimerOne APIs are now compatible with the TimerOne library

For comprehensive release notes refer to the Intel Open Source Technology Center on GitHub.

In support of the TBS show “America’s Greatest Makers,” YouTuber/plumber/stuntman/inventor Colin Furze recently took on the challenge of turning a bass guitar into a flamethrower with the help of a Genuino 101. Because after all, there’s nothing more metal than fire bursting as a rockstar shreds on-stage.

To bring this project life, Fruze added a pair of modified blow torches to the neck of the guitar and sawed off part of the instrument’s base to fit in the firing mechanisms. As you can see in his tutorial video below, the body is equipped with a gas reservoir on top, solenoid valves, a few switches, a gas supply to the blow torches, an inlet pipe, and some other components.

He even converted his amp to house a gas tank, along with a speaker, the Genuino board and a relay shield that enables the Maker to synchronize flames to certain musical patterns and sequences.

It goes without saying that you may not want to try this at home…

Last night Massimo Banzi was Guest Judge on Intel  America’s Greatest Maker - episode 4 and had the difficult task of evaluating the teams and their projects competing in the Make or Break rounds for $100,000 and a spot in the million dollar finale.

Check some bits of the episode in this Meet and Greet video and in the Fast Forward of the episode!

We’re very happy to announce that the source code of the real-time operating system (RTOS) powering the Arduino 101 and Genuino 101 is now available for hacking and study purposes.

The package  contains the complete BSP (Board Support Package) for the Curie processor on the 101. It allows you to compile and modify the core OS and the firmware to manage updates and the bootloader. (Be careful with this one since flashing the wrong bootloader could brick your board and require a JTAG programmer to unbrick it).

The firmware runs on the x86 chip inside the Curie module and communicates with the ARC core (which runs your Arduino sketches) using the callbacks.
Right now, the x86 core takes care of handling Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and USB communication, offloading the ARC core.
You can use the code which implements these functionalities as a starting point for your custom extra features.

Ever wondered about adding Mouse and Keyboard functionalities to your Arduino 101 and Genuino 101? Or uploading your sketches via BLE? Or add deep sleep functionalities when your application is battery powered? Now you can! (Some effort may be required )

We hope that this step will bring even more interesting features to your Arduino 101 and Genuino 101, so even if you are not into low-level C programming, keep an eye on the dedicated forum section and Arduino 101 core github repo to follow the news and be the first to try new features.

If you want to know more about projects made with Arduino 101, check our Project Hub section in Arduino Create, don’t forget to share with the community your experiments creating a new project and take look to this obstacle avoidance tutorial  on America’s Greatest Maker website  !

Massimo Banzi is among the judges on “America’s Greatest Makers” a reality competition from Mark Burnett (the reality-TV king behind “Survivor,” “The Apprentice,” and “The Voice”) in partnership with Intel which debuted last week on TBS.

In a first of its kind competition, the tv show takes 24 teams of makers from across US and puts them in head-to-head challenges to invent disruptive projects and win $1 million. The team are composed by unique people from 15 years old to 59 with ideas going to inspire a whole new audience of potential makers.

In the first two episodes, each team pitched their device idea to the judging panel composed by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich; business and financial expert Carol Roth; comedian, serial entrepreneur and co-host of truTV’s Hack My Life Kevin Pereira; and one of the celebrity guests.

At the end of April during 4th episode guest judge Massimo Banzi joins the panel as the remaining makers compete in the “Make or Break” rounds for $100,000 and a spot in the million dollar finale. If you are not in the USA, watch the episode at this link after April 27th.

In the meanwhile you can also watch a beginner maker project to learn how to do obstacle avoidance using Arduino 101. Cara Santa Maria is the trainer who’s going to guide you into the tutorial about this really important topic for projects involving moving objects like robots and drones:

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and use hashtag #AmericasGreatestMakers

Circuit Basic recently posted a 9-minute video unboxing, Setting Up, and Comparing the Arduino 101 to the Arduino Uno.

The Arduino 101 (US only) and the Genuino 101 (outside US), created in collaboration with Intel, keeps the same robust form factor and peripheral list of the Uno with the addition of onboard Bluetooth LE capabilities and a 6-axis accelerometer/gyro to  expand your creativity into the connected world.

Watch the video below to learn the first steps on how to use this new board!

If you don’t have a Raspberry Pi Zero right now, you’re not getting one for Christmas. Who would have thought a $5 Linux computer would have been popular, huh? If you’re looking for a new microcontroller platform you can actually buy, the Arduino / Genuino 101 is available in stores. This was released a few months ago, but it still looks pretty cool: DSP, BTLE, and a six-axis sensor.

If you don’t know [David], the Swede, you should. He’s the guy that launched a glider from a high altitude balloon and is one of the biggest advocates of tricopters. Now he bought an airplane wing for his front yard. It was an old Swedish air force transport aircraft being broken up for scrap. Simply awesome.

Chocolate chips. Now that the most obvious pun is out of the way, here’s how you make DIP8 cookie cutters.

[Barb] is over at the Crash Space hackerspace in LA, and she has a YouTube channel that goes over all her creations. This week, it’s a layered wood pendant constructed out of many layers of veneer. Take note of the 3M 77 spray glue used for the lamination and the super glue used as a clear, hard finish.

Star Wars was released and we have a few people digging through the repertoire to see what [John Williams] lifted for the new movie. Here’s musical Tesla coils playing the theme for the Force.

Flickr gives you a full gigabyte of storage, but only if you upload JPEGs, GIFs, and PNGs. That doesn’t prevent you from using Flickr as your own cloud storage.

We know two things about [Hans Fouche]: he lives in South Africa and he has a gigantic 3D printer. His latest creation is an acoustic guitar. It may not sound great, but that’s the quality of the recording. It may not play great, but he can fix that with some acetone vapor. It would be very interesting to see 3D printing used in a more traditional lutherie context; this printer could easily print molds and possibly even something to bend plywood tops.

Starting in 1990, [deater] would make a yearly Christmas-themed demo on his DOS box. You can really see the progression of technology starting with ANSI art trees written in BASIC, to an EGA graphical demo written with QBASIC to the last demo in 96 made with VGA, and SoundBlaster effects written in Turbo Pascal and asm.

We’re very excited to announce that starting today Arduino 101* (USA only) and Genuino 101 (Outside USA) made in collaboration with Intel, are available for purchase exclusively on the Arduino Stores at the price of $30/€28,65 (+ tax).

Arduino 101 and Genuino 101 are the ideal successor of the Uno featuring a 32-bit Intel® Quark™ microcontroller for minimal power consumption, 384 kB of flash memory, 80 kB of SRAM (24 kB available for sketches), an integrated DSP sensor hub, Bluetooth Low Energy radio, and 6-axis combo sensor with accelerometer and gyroscope. You’ll be able to create projects with great features like recognising gestures and controlling your phone over Bluetooth connectivity — all without needing additional hardware.

We presented it and gave a preview during Maker Faire Rome 2015: watch Massimo Banzi and Josh Walden Senior Vice President of Intel Corporation introducing the board at the Faire in the video below.

We prepared some documentation so you can learn all the details about the new board:

• Product page
• Getting Started guide
• Arduino Forum dedicated section

And  3 tutorials focused on the new features of Arduino and Genuino 101:

• Try out the integrated accelerometer and gyro and discover sensor fusion
• Count your steps using the advanced features of 101’s accelerometer
• Monitor your heart rate using the Bluetooth Low Energy capabilities

Like all our boards, Arduino 101 & Genuino 101 are supported by Arduino IDE starting with version 1.6.7, that we have just released. Check out the download page. IDE version 1.6.7 contains a revamped, faster and more compliant version of Arduino-builder (all the fixes are reported here), a lot of fixes to Board Manager and the serial plotter is now able to plot multiple signals at once.

*Please note: Arduino 101 boards sold in USA are in pre-selling, we will be able to ship them  from December 28th onword.

Today during Opening Conference at Maker Faire Rome, Josh Walden Senior Vice President of Intel Corporation and Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino, announced the upcoming release of Arduino 101 (U.S.) and Genuino 101 (outside the U.S.). The board features a 32-bit Intel® Quark™ microcontroller for minimal power consumption, 384 kB of flash memory, 80 kB of SRAM (24kB available for sketches), an integrated DSP sensor hub, Bluetooth* Low Energy radio, and 6-axis combo sensor with accelerometer and gyroscope.

We collaborated with Intel to provide the maker community an affordable learning and development board ideal for entry-level makers and education environments and also the first widely available development board based on the tiny, low-power Intel Curie  module.

Josh Walden explained the new partnership with Arduino:

“Empowering budding entrepreneurs and young students has always been a priority for Intel, and by partnering with Arduino, we are bringing the power of Intel to a new generation of makers. With the advanced features of the Intel Curie module embodied in the Arduino 101 board, young learners as well as developers can now bring to life truly unique, smart and connected creations.”

Massimo Banzi added:

“We worked closely with Intel on the development of this board and are expanding our educational courseware to incorporate the connectivity and advanced features expected by today’s student developers. Through our work with Intel, we’re able to reach a global community of entry-level makers and students with a comprehensive introduction to physical computing and now with a more advanced, powerful technology solution that will help them bring their creative visions to reality.”

Arduino 101 will be available in the first quarter of 2016 for a suggested retail price of US$30 (approximately 27 euros). The Intel-manufactured board will be sold under the Arduino 101 brand in the United States and under the Genuino 101 brand outside the United States. It will be also available through catalog distributors and retailers selling other Intel maker and innovator products such as Amazon, Conrad Electronic, Farnell Element 14, Microcenter, Mouser, Radio Shack, RS Components and SparkFun.

In the meanwhile Arduino 101 will be incorporated into the Creative Technologies in the Classroom (CTC) physical computing curriculum developed and tested by our team and currently deployed in over 300 schools. CTC is the world’s first formal physical computing curriculum for elementary and secondary school classrooms and provides educators with the tools, support and confidence needed to introduce their students to the foundations of programming, electronics and mechanics.

Intel will work closely with us to bring the CTC program to schools across the globe in coming years. As it is introduced to classrooms, Arduino 101 will nurture the next generation of technology industry professionals, entrepreneurs and inventors!