For the fifth year in a row we are inviting the open-source community to join us for Arduino Day 2018 on Saturday, May 12th!

Arduino Day is a worldwide celebration of Arduino’s birthday. It’s a 24 hours-long event–organized by the community and our team–where people interested in Arduino get together, share their experiences, and learn more about the platform.  Participation is open to anyone, either as a local organizer or participant.

In 2017, there were 499 global events consisting of various activities, workshops, talks, and project exhibitions for a wide range of audiences and skill sets. This year, we are hoping to pass the 500 mark! If you want to organize an Arduino Day festivity, please fill out this online form and submit your proposal by April 29th.

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 #ArduinoD18! 

A week ago we were in London for an introductory workshop on the Arduino Yún. The participants were mainly beginners, knew the basics about Arduino and had the chance to learn about the Bridge library, how to control the board locally through the browser and to use Temboo to connect the plant to Twitter. See the pictures on the our Flickr account.

Arduino history is tied to the city of London: the first Arduino workshops ever took place right there.

We are now planning to organise more #ArduinoTour activities in UK and we are looking for teachers and ambassadors of the Arduino community in London and also UK in general. Are you interested? Fill the form!

Next workshop in the City is scheduled on the 20th and 21st of December and it’s focused on beginners. On the 19th from 6 to 8 pm there will be a public presentation on the Arduino project and also get in touch with possible collaborators. Take a look at the program and book your participation to the workshop – (location still to be defined, more news soon).

Il prossimo weekend a Milano è il momento dell’Arduino Tour, una serie di tappe iniziate nel 2012 per portare in giro per l’Italia il  team  di Officine Arduino e coinvolgendo designer, artiste, appassionati e smanettoni in una full immersion sul nostro microprocessore preferito.

In realtà il workshop di questo tour che avverrà proprio sabato e domenica prossimi a Milano (23/24 febbraio – Iscriviti qui), non ha come protagonista un semplice Arduino. Infatti i partecipanti avranno tra le mani e poi si porteranno a casa il nuovo Starter Kit, recentemente recensito su Domusweb (grazie ad Antonio Scarponi!) e di cui potete vedere qualche foto qui:

L’aspetto interessante di questa due giorni è di introdurre alle gioie di Arduino assoluti principianti: chiunque é benvenuto a partecipare al workshop perchè non è richiesta alcuna precedente conscenza di programmazione o di elettronica. E nonostante la loro pazienza e passione nell’accompagnarvi nei vostri primi passi, non rimpiangerete i due docenti del corso quando tornerete a casa perchè il Kit è corredato da un libro di tutorial a prova di absolute beginner e online sono disponibili  una serie di video tutorial in cui Massimo Banzi in persona vi spiega come portare a termine la maggior parte dei progetti raccontati nel volume.

Se abitate a Milano e dintorni, avete voglia di capire in prima persona cosa significa creare progetti interattivi e toccare con mano l’ebbrezza di far blinkare un LED, prenotate uno degli ultimi posti rimasti!

Picture from Josef Prusa’s Flickr Photostream

We are happy to announce the upcoming Josef Prusa’s and Alessandro Ranellucci’s workshop @ Officine Arduino / Fablab Torino, on February 16th and 17th. This two days workshop will cover the making & fine-tuning of the latest Prusa I3 with Prusa nozzle AND Ranellucci’s how-to slic3r lesson on Sunday.

If you ever want to jump on the reprap world, this may be the best opportunity. If you don’t feel like buying the printer but just want to follow the workshop taking notes & make questions, we do also offer a spectator admittance.

The workshop is part of the celebration of the first year of Officine Arduino and Fablab, soon more details about the complete program (stay tuned).

read the full description of the workshop on the [Arduino Store] or read the (italian) post on the fablabtorino website.

Ever wondered about the extent of diversity in electronics? Been to a theatre and wondered at the sophistication of the live stage set? Welcome to the world of theatrical electronics. An exclusive inteview with this engineer in Arts – Ben Peoples

Priya: What is theatrical electronics? I always thought that theatres bought standard stuff off the shelves.
Ben: Theatrical electonics is a field of science where we try to rapid prototype electronic items on the stage to make things appear more real. Of course, it is a huge field. With 25 different theatres around the place where I live, my plates are generally full!

P: Interesting! How long have you been associated with electronics to capture such prototyping skills? What are the general tools that you use?
B: I have been prototyping electronics for over 20 years. I have been an ardent user of Arduino for the past 6. I loved the community so much that I even teach it to other people.

P: Oh teach too? Like classes for theatre prototyping? I would like more details on that.
B: (Smiles) Well not much, they are just getting started on how to rapidly put things together and program it using an Arduino to give it an “appearence” of more complex stuff like Time machine on stage.

P: Sounds fun. What are the theatre-specific whacky things that you teach them to build in the workshop? What are the general tools needed to attend your class?
B: I teach them to build Reed-candles, an elevator, wireless fireplace, wireless-dimmer, using Xbee radios for the lighting console and more things like that. I typically teach them inside a theatre wherein they need to bring their own laptops and software. They are seated inside a rehersal space so that they get the exact feel of designing things for a theatre. Other than that, its the usual arduino boards, gear motors, LEDs and of course, loads and loads of scotch tape! (Laughs)

P: Woah! How long does it take for you to teach them these?
B: 2-3 hours to teach math and the basics, 5 hours to explain the basic expriments and seeing them prototype their first objects. So yes, in total, 8 hours.

P: What according to you, is the advantage to pick electronic skill in the field of theatre?
B: There is theatre in colleges, the person could rise up to be a technical director, there is huge demand for lighting design, scenery design and of course in this age of television and movies, every drama theatre wants to stand out and do something extra. I see a huge future for it!

P: Okay one question that intrigues me after all this conversation is how different is theatre electronics from electronic arts?
B: Interesting question! For starters, Electronic Arts is very finished and polished. Theatrical electronics is well.. more raw and duct-taped at the back. They are two entirely different industries.

P: What are the things that interest you other than prototyping and what would be your ideal birthday present?
B: I love Ariel photography. Ideal birthday present is anything photography related. For work, I have to shoot digital, but for art I shoot 100% film, and just love it.

P: Any advice for youngsters?
B: Don’t be afraid to try anything new. Ship early, ship often.

(Ben can be contacted from his blog here. Also he is the author of a very cool book speaking on the same topic and yes, I contacted him via reddit. )

Arduino at EHSM 2012

We mentioned earlier about the very special geek way of entering new year 2013. So here is a first hand, un-altered account of Tricia Blickfeldt who participated in the Arduino workshop for kids held there. We now are richer by one more arduino user! Yay!

“Before I tell you about the conference, I have to say that I work in Special Education at an elementary school. I am surrounded by children all day every day. Many of them with disabilities. I am not an engineer. I am not a hacker. My gifts do not include technical things. I came to the conference as a friend of one of the presenters. Many of the presentations were foreign to me. I felt very welcomed though and learned a lot. The staff were all very helpful and kind.

I was excited and nervous to participate in the arduino workshop. My friend told me that the class was created for kids with no experience. This was comforting. Kid things are right up my alley. And I certainly had no experience. There had been some last minute changes in teachers for the class, but I was very impressed with the guys who presented the workshop. It was clear that they knew and were very experienced in what they were teaching. When we arrived and there were no kids and, much to my dismay, they changed up what/how they were going to teach. I was soon put at ease though as they began at the beginning and explained what arduino is, what it does, and why it is so amazing and useful. They adjusted to their audience without making it more complicated.

I got really anxious again as they started handing out several little parts for us to build on the arduino board. The directions however were clear and precise. Illustrations were shown and questions were welcomed and answered. I set up an LED light and programmed it to go! The programming was not difficult because we just had to look up the codes for the task we wanted and apply them to what built. To do this we had to name the light in the program so it knew where to apply the command.

Then we added a button and programmed that to make the light go when we pushed it! We had to make some modifications to the code to add the button. I was so excited. We had some time to add more lights and see what we could make them do. I lined them up and programmed them to flash in a row and then back! This was a little trickier to program because we had to name each light individually and tell it to go in sequence. Who knew that I was capable of that?

Finally, we added a knob to control the speed of the blinking. This was definitely the hardest for me to understand. We had to set a delay that corresponded to the position of the knob. I was so excited that I took pictures and videos to prove that I really did it and that it really worked!

I was very impressed at how professional the presentation was. It was given in a way that created meaning and understanding without being overwhelming. It allowed me to create things that I hadn’t ever imagined myself doing. I am motivated now to find a project to work on using what I learned in the arduino workshop.

The entire conference seemed to be a lot like the workshop. It was very pleasant and friendly to all who were there regardless of background or expertise. It was professional and the presenters were all very knowledgeable. I learned a lot and enjoyed my time at the conference.”

PS: Many many thanks Tomek and his friend, for filling in the last minute!

Manca un giorno ormai a partire per Matera. Domani sera alle 19:00 presso l’incubatore nei sassi (molto vicino a qui) faremo una breve presentazione di Arduino che possa introdurre alla scheda e al movimento dell’hardware open source. La presentazione é rivolta a chi partecipa al workshop, ma anche e soprattutto a chi é interessato a conoscere Arduino e vedere alcuni progetti realizzati in giro per il mondo.

Prima e dopo la presentazione sarà possibile iscriversi al workshop, qualora non siate riusciti a farlo online (sia la scorsa settimana che questa abbiamo avuto qualche problema tecnico con lo store.

a domani.

Come sapete stiamo portando un workshop di Arduino in giro per l’Italia. Siamo stati a Roma un po’ di tempo fa e ora é il turno di Matera. Sviluppo Basilicata, oltre ad avere sistemato parte dei Sassi trasformandoli in un incubatore di impresa, si é spesa per rendere il workshop possibile (avete capito bene, il workshop si terrà nei mitici Sassi di Matera!).

Se vuoi darci una mano a promuovere il workshop nella tua città scarica il volantino cartaceo! Vi invitiamo tutti quanti a partecipare alla presentazione del workshop e di Arduino il venerdì 16 Novembre [Iscriviti all'Evento Facebook]

Il Workshop é in vendita sullo store di Arduino.

Anche se un po’ sotto data, se domani siete dalle parti dell’ “Erasmo da Rotterdam” di Bollate (MI) potreste partecipare ad un workshop gratuito sulla “Stampa 3D, la Modellazione Solida e il Rapid Prototyping” organizzato dalla rivista ElettronicaIn, aperto ad insegnanti /  studenti / curiosi.

Il workshop riguarda il rapido sviluppo che ha coinvolto la stampa tridimensionale in questi ultimi anni, rivoluzionando la produzione di modelli tridimensionali e di prototipi in tutti i settori tecnologici: progettazione architettonica, design industriale, industria meccanica, robotica, fino alla produzione di oggetti di consumo e gadget. Il limite è legato solo alla creatività e all’estro del progettista.

a tenere il workshop sarà Simone Majocchi, autore di libri su Arduino e giornalista/divulgatore scientifico: iscrivetevi.

Via [elettronicaIn]