Microcontrollers

Arduino, The Movie

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Arduino Duemilanove

Arduino might be the first microcontroller to get its own movie (or documentary at least). The LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación industrial (in Spain) has commissioned the creation of a documentary about Arduino and has just released the trailer, as shown below.

The movie is scheduled for release this summer under the Creative Commons licence. This means that soon, every Arduino enthusiast will be able to showcase the documentary in classes, pubic events and more, and use the content to create their own documentaries. People can also help with the subtitle translation by visiting the movie’s home page.

Via Arduino Blog.

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Tags: Arduino
Posted in Art, Microcontrollers, Movies | 3 Comments »

The RoBoard Gains an LCD, Robots Show Their True Colours

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

The RoBoard has been controlling robots for some time now. It is a single board computer featuring a Vortex86DX, a 32bit x86 CPU running at 1 GHz with 256MB DRAM, lots of PWM IO for controlling servos, and more.

RoBoard RB-110 Single Board Computer

A recurring feature that was always asked was to have a small native display for the RoBoard in order to have an easy and convenient way to interact with the robot without requiring a full sized computer screen. Now every robotic wish has been fulfilled since RobotShop now carries the 8.9″ LCD Panel for RoBoard.

8.9" LCD Panel for RoBoard Single Board Computer

Below, you can see the RoBoard in action running two very popular operating systems.

RoBoard + Display Running Ubuntu Linux

RoBoard + Display Running Windows XP

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Tags: LCD, RoBoard, Single Board Computer
Posted in Microcontrollers, RobotShop | No Comments »

Lego Mindstorm NXT Controlled with Arduino

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Clinton Blackmore form the Southern Alberta Robotics Enthusiasts club put together some pretty neat software to control Lego NXT motors and sensors by using the Arduino microcontroller.

Lego NXT robot Controlled by Arduino

As shown in the video below, he is using the Mindsesors Multiplexer for NXT Motors coupled with an Arduino Compatible Seeeduino in order to control a small robot made from Lego NXT parts, read NXT encoders and more. All the required code for the Arduino can be found in the NXT I2C Devices For Arduino Project Page.

The possibilities that this enables are almost endless. Especially when considering that now Arduino Shields can be used in order to extend the capabilities of the Lego NXT parts.

Via Make.

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Tags: Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, NXT
Posted in Education, Fun, Kits, Microcontrollers | No Comments »

Arduino is a Hit, Why?

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

At RobotShop we know that the Arduino is very popular among roboticists, hobbyist and professionals alike. Its success is mainly due to the openness of its design, and its utter ease of use. Also, the fact that it is an affordable platform that can be programmed using an Open Source easy-to-use IDE gained the support of a large and very active community. This make it very simple to get started with the Arduino thanks to the wide variety of projects and learning material readily available.

In order to know more about its great success among hackers and the public in general, we invite you to read the recent Wired article about the reasons for Arduino’s Success.

Arduino Duemilanove

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Tags: Arduino
Posted in Domestic and Personal Robots, Microcontrollers | No Comments »

Virtual Breadboard – Free Arduino Simulator

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Virtual Breadboard is a free circuit prototyping software that has readily available hardware and software simulation tools. It can simulate various hobbyists microcontrollers including the popular Arduino, and the Parallax Basic Stamp.

As shown below, this software not only simulates the Arduino hardware but also runs the software in the virtual microcontroller.

Virtual Breadboard - Arduino Demo

See the video here: Virtual Breadboard – Arduino Demo

This could become a tool of choice for roboticians building and testing custom circuitry for their robots.

Via Hack n Mod.

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Tags: Arduino, Parallax
Posted in Microcontrollers, Software | 4 Comments »

New Microcontrollers and 32 Bits Category at RobotShop

Friday, June 11th, 2010

32-bit-Microcontrollers

RobotShop blogs will have a new Microcontrollers category which will showcase the new corresponding products available in our online robot store (for example, the 32 bit microcontrollers here).

Think back, we recently introduced you to the domino FEZ microcontroller by GHI Electronics.

To mark the arrival of the store’s new 32 bit category and the blog’s microcontroller section, we’re offering you an interesting comparison between the leading manufacturers of microcontrollers via Google Trends:

you can see a real trend in the interest of Arduino, especially since the end of 2006, beginning of 2007.

arduino, basic stamp, basic micro, picaxe, pic microcontroller

Arduino-trend

Second comparison: arduino,freescale,nxp,microchip

Arduino-trend

Watch this great video presentation of Arduino on the BBC too: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8063975.stm

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Tags: Arduino
Posted in Microcontrollers | 1 Comment »

GHI FEZ Domino Microcontroller

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

FEZ microcontroller

We’ve just received in the RobotShop store the Fez Domino microcontroller by GHI Electronics.

FEZ stands for “Freaking Easy.”

It’s a microcontroller which can be programmed in Microsoft .NET Micro Framework and is compatible with Arduino Duemilanove shields.

One of the differences with Arduino is that the FEZ can be used for much more complex projects requiring more memory or computing power, for example.

In fact, the FEZ is a little like a next generation Arduino…

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Tags: Fez
Posted in Kits, Microcontrollers | No Comments »

Arduino Cheatsheet V.02B: the Arduino cheatsheet

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Here’s an image to for all budding roboticists or Arduino specialists: the Arduino Cheatsheet V.02B.

This chart is yours to print and put up on your wall ; -)

The advantage of this type of image is that it shows all the information together: libraries, constants, structures and types of data, operators, etc.

The Arduino Cheatsheet was made by Gavin Smith aka “The Mechatronics Guy“.

The information was captured in the Arduino Extended reference base.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE below TO ENLARGE IT or click here to download the PDF version:

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Tags: Arduino
Posted in Kits, Microcontrollers | 1 Comment »

New Arduino Wi-Fi by AsyncLabs

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

We have just received two new flagship products in our online robotics store.

They are the Arduino WiFi BlackWidow by AsyncLabs (large version, which is compatible with Arduino shielding standards)

Arduino Wifi BlackWidow Asynclabs

and the Mini Arduino WiFi YellowJacket by AsyncLabs (miniature version for small robots).

Mini Arduino Wifi Yellowjacket

These two new releases from our manufacturer, Asynclabs, are Open-Source, just like Arduino.

They have Wi-Fi so can connect and control robot prototypes via a computer (like Rovio or Spykee).

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Tags: Arduino
Posted in Kits, Microcontrollers | No Comments »

Arduino kit to levitate objects

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Arduino

Semageek displays a setup to perform “magic” with an Arduino Kit.

Arduino is an open-source robotic and electronic project (micro-controllers) for both hardware and software platforms.

An object is levitated using the magnetic field produced by a magnet.

In order to keep the metal in balance (in this case, the dart below), the trick of the project is to properly calibrate the magnetic field in order to obtain a “floating” object.

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