Getting your feet wet with programmable hardware can be tricky; even if you're comfortable with coding, you may not want to break out the soldering iron just to build a usable device. LittleBits is aware of just how intimidating these make-it-yourself gadgets can be, so it has just launched its first software-programmable module, the Arduino at Heart. As the name implies, it's an Arduino core (the same as the Leonardo) designed to fit into LittleBits' simple, building block approach to circuit boards. If you want to attach a light, motor or sensor to the Arduino board, you just snap it on -- you can spend more of your time coding rather than dealing with wiring and other hardware hassles. %Gallery-slideshow193425%

Filed under: Household, Peripherals

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Source: LittleBits

Come and join the biggest European gathering of Makers, full of amazing people who enjoy learning and love sharing projects and inventions from the 3rd to the 5th of October in Rome.

If you have an awesome project and want to show off to an international community, remember that the Call for Makers will be open until the 25th of May. Click here to submit your project.

There are a number of different types of maker applications you can do. You can apply as:

Maker : Individuals, groups, schools and organizations that would like to demonstrate what they make and/or how it works; interactive exhibits are encouraged. No fee to exhibit for Makers in a standard setup.

Light-Talk speaker: Individuals and groups who would like to talk about an idea or project of interest to the Maker community, OR makers who are interested in demonstrating what they make and how it works in a stage setting. Presentations are typically 15 or 40 minutes, with some time for Q&A.

Hands-On Workshop: If your passion is in inspiring the public into Making, we invite you to propose activities and workshops. The organization can provide materials and components for activities (please be specific in your proposal). Activities has to be guided and Maker facilitated. Each Activity should have a duration of 2 hours and half or the whole day and should be accessible for younger audience to make with parental guidance.

This year the venue will be the Parco della Musica Auditorium, the multi-functional complex designed by Renzo Piano (Viale Pietro Coubertin 30), in the Flaminio area of the city.

And just some days before on  September 30 and October 1 , the same venue will host the fifth edition of the  Open Hardware Summit, the annual conference organized by the Open Source Hardware Association and the world’s first comprehensive conference on open hardware.

Keynotes cover a wide range of subjects from electronics and mechanics to related fields such as digital fabrication, fashion technology, self-quantification devices, and DIY bio. Confirmed speakers until now are Becky Stern from Adafruit, Gabriella Levine COO of Protei Inc, manufacturing robotic biomimetic sailboats, Phoenix Perry - Adjunct Professor at NYU teaching Gaming, Design and more to come. They are seeking submissions for talks and workshops from individuals and groups working with open hardware and related areas. Submit your proposal (Accepted contributors will have airfare PAID by the organization)!

Read more on MAKE

It’s time to start tinkering on new projects or pimp-up some old ones because MakerFaire Rome is calling!

Last year it was an overwhelming experience for all of us: more than 35.000 people from all over the world gathered for the first edition of the European edition of MakerFaire. Around 24o makers presented their projects ( 60% from Italy and 40% from the rest of the continent) and showed to a crowd of enthusiasts and newbies  the impact of open source community and DIY on our lives.

If you want to join us with your project in Rome from the 3rd to the 5th of October, take a look at the Call for Makers and fill it before the 25th of May:

The first step to participate in Maker Faire Rome as Maker is to submit an entry that tells us about yourself and your project. Entries can be submitted from individuals as well as from groups.
Please provide a description of what you make and what you would like to bring to Maker Faire, including links to photographs and/or videos of your project. We particularly encourage exhibits that are interactive and that highlight the process of making things. Continue >>

Here’s Arduino’s video from last year experience:

Olympia Circuits is best known for its Arno board and Arno Shield, which are designed to ease the Arduino learning curve by providing a bevy of pre-wired sensors and controls along with detailed instructions for several DIY projects. The company announced a couple of new products at Maker Faire this past weekend: the Arno Digital RGB Add-On and the SODA HE-1.0 Arduino datalogger. With the former, your Arno simply gains three RGB LEDs, while the latter stands for "Simple, Open Data Acquisition, High Efficiency." It's an Arduino board with screw terminals designed around Atmel's ATmega32u4 that features a real-time clock (RTC) with battery backup, a high-precision ADC and a microSD card slot. The RTC can either wake the entire board or trigger an interrupt at set intervals, which makes the board very power efficient when used in the field. Olympia Circuits will be updating its website with more info shortly (including availability and pricing). Until then, don't miss our hands-on gallery below.

Gallery: Olympia Circuits at Maker Faire 2013

Filed under: Misc

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Source: Olympia Circuts

The Arduino Robot wasn't the only interesting product the Italian company launched at Maker Faire this past weekend. Arduino Yún combines a Leonardo board (featuring Atmel's ATmega32u4) with a MIPS-based WiFi SoC (Atheros AR9331) running Limino (an OpenWRT / Linux derivative). It includes everything you'd expect from a Leonardo board plus WiFi, wired Ethernet, a USB host port and a microSD card slot. The Arduino side can be programmed wirelessly and communicates with the WiFi SoC via SPI and UART interfaces using the new Bridge Library, which delegates networking to the Linux side. Out of the box, the board behaves just like any standard WiFi access point with a full web interface -- it even allows SSH access. Arduino Yún is the first of a family of WiFI-enabled products and will be available late June for $69. Check out the gallery below for some closeup shots, and follow the source for more details.

Gallery: Arduino Yún at Maker Faire 2013

Filed under: Misc, Wireless

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Source: Arduino blog

There's a new kid on the Arduino block, and it's called the Arduino Robot. Launched yesterday at Maker Faire Bay Area, it's the company's first product that extends beyond single microcontroller boards. The Roomba-like design, which we first saw in November 2011, is the result of a collaboration with Complubot. It consists of two circular boards, each equipped with Atmel's ubiquitous ATmega32u4 and connected via ribbon cable.

The bottom board is home to four AA batteries (NiMH), a pair of motors and wheels, a power connector and switch plus some infrared sensors. By default it's programmed to drive the motors and manage power. The top board features a color LCD, a microSD card slot, an EEPROM, a speaker, a compass, a knob plus some buttons and LEDs. It's programmed to control the display and handle I/O. Everything fits inside a space that's about 10cm high and 19cm in diameter.

Pre-soldered connectors and prototyping areas on each board make it easier to customize the robot platform with additional sensors and electronics. It even comes with eleven step-by-step projects and a helpful GUI right out of the box. The Arduino Robot is now on sale at the Maker Faire for $275 and will be available online in July. Take a look at our gallery below and watch our video interview with Arduino founder Massimo Banzi after the break.

Gallery: Arduino Robot at Maker Faire 2013

Filed under: Misc, Robots

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Via: Make

Source: Arduino

Post originally published on the Maker Faire Rome official Blog by Massimo Banzi

If you are a maker living in Europe and you’ve been looking at the Makerfaire events with enthusiasm and wishing to be there, this is the moment to spring into action because The Call for Makers for the 1st Maker Faire Rome – The European Edition, is NOW open (until 2nd June 2013)!

The Call is the opportunity you have to submit your great project to the Maker Faire Team and become one of the protagonists of this amazing Show (and Tell) taking place next October in Rome.

We are welcoming projects from all over Europe because we believe that the power of innovation should not be limited by local bounds. Makers from all over the continent  are invited to take part and share their projects to all the lovers of the “do it yourself” spirit, connect and feel the empowerment of sharing.

Even if the main focus of the event is about highlighting the process of making things together, we are  also looking for performers and presenters who want to share their ideas and projects from a stage. Read carefully the call to snatch all the details.

If you’d like a bit of inspiration, stay tuned to our blog as in the next weeks we’ll be featuring some of the makers who have exhibited at previous Maker Faires.

And keep in mind that the deadline for submissions is Sunday 2nd June 2013.
Looking forward to being amazed by your projects and seeing you there!

Al periodico appuntamento con l’elettronica amatoriale presso Modena Fiere, che oggi e domani (19-20 Gennaio) ospita Expo Elettronica, i makers e gli hobbysti emiliano-romagnoli non possono rimanere delusi per il calibro degli ospiti in programma. Officine Arduino, assieme ai ragazzi del FabLab di Reggio Emilia, offrono un’occasione unica per confrontarsi con il mondo dei makers e con la prototipazione DIY, grazie a numerose varianti di stampanti 3D esposte e funzionanti, assieme alla possibilità di provare e “toccare con mano” alcune delle novità più interessanti del mondo Arduino, come l’Arduino DUE.

Lo stand del FabLab di Reggio Emilia.

Alcune delle novità più interessanti riguardano i prossimi eventi in programma, fra cui troviamo l’importante “Makre Faire – The European Edition”, che verrà ospitata per la prima volta in Italia nei giorni 3-6 Ottobre 2013 a Roma e che vedrà coinvolta l’intera comunità di makers provenienti da tutta Europa. Fra gli eventi in programma vi saranno conferenze, workshop hands-on e numerosi speech, in aggiunta alla fiera “vera e propria” che si terrà nel week-end.

Per partecipare come espositori, a partire dal 18 Febbraio si aprirà una “Call for makers” alla quale chiunque sia interessato potrà inviare la propria candidatura e i propri progetti, che verranno accuratamente selezionati per costituire il programma delle numerose esposizioni previste. Stay tuned sull’home page della fiera per i prossimi aggiornamenti!

Costantino e Davide presentano la Maker Faire di Roma.

Fra gli imminenti eventi in calendario elenchiamo il prossimo Workshop Base di Arduino che si terrà i giorni 26-27 Gennaio a Reggio Emilia, presso il FabLab “Spazio Gerra”. Le iscrizioni sono ancora aperte, ma i posti ancora disponibili sono limitati! Accorrete numerosi!

Hamburg Maker Meeting 2012, which took place last week and involved about 200 visitors and more than 20 exhibitors, has been a fantastic opportunity to meet and share experience regarding several topics, such as 3D printing, hacking, retro gaming and so on. At the Attraktor Makerspace, several projects have been presented and demonstrated by their inventors, among which we highlight a very nice Arduino-based floppy drive organ that has been employed to play the Tetris game theme.

Moreover, among the others events planned for the meeting, a special sneak-preview session allowed all the interested people to get some insights on the new Arduino Due board, released a couple of days ago.

A video of the event can be found here, while here you may find more pictures.

More information can be found on the homepage of the meeting.

[Via: Hamburg Maker Meeting website]