If you’re not sure what an underwater ROV is, the short answer is: a Remotely Operated Vehicle you chuck in the sea. But if you’re our favourite kind of geek and wish to feast on a much longer answer, Blue Robotics has shared a short history and explanation of how they work, including the excellent tidbit that the first ever ROV was called the Poodle.
BlueROV2 is billed as “the world’s most affordable high-performance underwater ROV.” While $3,950 seems like a lot, this ROV buying guide quotes prices up to $40,000. We like to think our affordable Raspberry Pi brain had a lot to do with bringing that cost down
What’s it made of?
The device measures 18 × 13.3 × 10 inches and can capture live 1080p HD video, thanks to a wide-angle low-light camera mounted to a tilt mechanism on the front. An on-board gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer, along with pressure, depth, temperature, voltage, and leak detection sensors, make sure everything is functioning and navigating as it should.
If you choose a ROV with an acrylic enclosure, you can get to a depth of 100 metres, but splash out on the aluminium option and you’re safe to dive up to 300 metres. As far as we can tell, that’s deep enough to explore right down to the sea bed over much of the North Sea and almost all of the Irish Sea. Feel free to Google other bodies of water yourself.
What does its Raspberry Pi do?
The BlueROV2 is controlled by the Navigator Flight Controller, which is a HAT designed for Raspberry Pi 4. Raspberry Pi runs Blue Robotics’ bespoke BlueOS software and handles all of the processing and computing requirements inside the ROV.
All of those sensors are provided by the Navigator, and Raspberry Pi 4 communicates what’s happening back to base on dry land via BlueOS.
While we do think BlueROV2 is cool and all, we’re still too traumatised by the shark chase at the beginning of The Little Mermaid to watch any of the video it captures.
A sixth joint rotates the end of the head, to which you can attach various accessories using tiny LEGO connectors inserted into its grid of holes and those on the accessory, making them easy to fit and remove.
A similar LEGO connection system is used on the bottom of the robot to attach a base. Several options are available; we were supplied with the G-Base 2.0 (£58), which attaches the arm securely to the edge of a desk (so long as it’s not too thick).
Robot connections
With the robot arm secured to a desk, it’s time to power it up. A DC supply connects to a barrel jack on the base with a red power switch next to it. Raspberry Pi 4’s USB and Ethernet ports are exposed, along with its GPIO pins via a breakout header just above. On the opposite side of the base are a micro-HDMI port, headphone jack, USB-C port, and microSD card slot.
The inserted microSD card is pre-installed with a special version of Ubuntu MATE featuring a built-in development environment for MyCobot and several apps and tools. An extensive Python library enables you to quickly start positioning the arm by setting one or more joint angles or co‑ordinates – you can also read the current values. So you can manually move the arm into different positions and read the values to help you program it to shift between positions.
Another coding option is the myBlockly app in which you drag and drop Scratch-style blocks, including dedicated ones for MyCobot to set joint angles/co-ordinates and light up the RGB LED matrix on the head. Make sure you set the Baud value in the init block to 1000000, however, otherwise it won’t move. The arm also works with the commonly used ROS (Robot Operating System) 1 and 2.
The MyCobot written documentation could be clearer and better organised, but several videos help you to get to grips with it.
Attaching accessories
Our MyCobot arm was supplied with a couple of optional accessories: an adaptive gripper (£106) and a pen holder (£58). The gripper has a connector that plugs into a servo port on the head. It worked well and we soon had it picking up and dropping items on the desk with good repeated positioning precision.
The head also features a Grove connector, USB-C, and mini GPIO breakout, so there are plenty of connection options. You could even add a camera to give the arm computer vision.
While considerably more expensive than other Raspberry Pi robot arms we’ve tested, even without the addition of accessories, the MyCobot 280 is more robust and stylish. It has more powerful servos, while the joints have bearings for smoother movement and improved precision.
Verdict
9/10
It’s not cheap, but it does include a Raspberry Pi 4 and is a robust and stylish robotic arm with smooth and accurate movement.
Specs
Features: 6DOF, 330° rotation range, 280 mm radius, up to 250 g payload, LEGO interfaces on base and head, Raspberry Pi 4
Connections: 2 × USB 3.0, 2 × USB 2.0, Ethernet, micro-HDMI, GPIO breakout headers, USB-C, headphone jack, Grove and servo connectors
The two Toms continue to work together and are both members of Sheffield-based VolcanoTech. They aim to get more instruments onto volcanoes and acquire unprecedented long-term datasets that contribute to volcano research and monitoring. Designing and constructing low-cost scientific instrumentation is crucial for developing countries, where funding for equipment can be quite limited but where many of the world’s active volcanoes are located.
Tell-tale signs
A volcano’s degassing behaviour changes before an eruption, often increasing or decreasing. Since sulphur dioxide is the gas most prevalent at active volcano sites, Tom focused on monitoring this using a UV camera. There were already scientific-grade UV cameras in the field in some locations, but they cost tens of thousands of pounds, whereas Tom aimed to develop a UV camera “an order of magnitude cheaper” and much smaller, making it suitable for permanent installation and remote reporting. Monitoring volcanoes often involves tracking how sulphur dioxide diverges from a baseline and then investigating those changes. Tom’s system uses the Beer-Lambert law of absorption, comparing the optical depth of plume pixels in an image to the background sky radiance.
Tom and his colleagues didn’t know much about Raspberry Pi at the outset, “which made the detailed knowledge and wealth of experimentation by others invaluable when it came to asking specific questions or pulling ideas from pre-existing threads.” A particularly fruitful discovery was a YouTube video by Les Wright which simplified the process of removing the Bayer filter from the camera lens to enhance its sensitivity to ultraviolet light. This worked well for a Raspberry Pi Camera 1.3, but Tom reports that he was unable to remove the Bayer filter in the same way for the newer Raspberry Pi Camera Module. The process in any case requires a fume cupboard and dangerous chemicals (see ‘Warning’ box). Tom originally made use of the UV camera in a spectrometer he used for sulphur dioxide monitoring. Although this worked well, he subsequently decided to focus on the camera-based system.
How predictable
Having created an affordable alternative to the £10,000 scientific cameras, Tom has been working on modifying the camera design so they can be deployed permanently on volcanoes, without the need for human interaction. To date, only Stromboli in the Aeolian Islands, and Etna just to the south, have fixed monitoring. “We are now beginning to build high time-resolution sulphur dioxide emission rate datasets from several volcanoes, the likes of which are quite rare in volcanology,” he says.
Getting the cameras installed on hazardous volcanoes is no mean feat! Using a Starlink satellite connection has helped them overcome the major issue of handling and processing the terabytes of data each camera acquires each year, as well as partially solving issues relating to debugging camera installations remotely. With cameras in the Amazon rainforest as well as the Atacama desert, temperature extremes and huge amounts of rainfall add to the challenges. However, once in place, they’ll give volcanologists significantly improved monitoring capabilities that contribute to longer-term volcanological research – an increasingly critical aspect of their work “since a volcano can exhibit significant changes in activity over a wide range of time scales.
20 years ago, you could walk into any pharmacy or big box store with your rolls of film, then get developed photos back within 24 hours at a reasonable price. But that industry is dead and life is much more difficult for film photographers today. While big chain pharmacies still have developing services, they have to send the film out to a lab and it is quite an expensive. One alternative is to build the OpenAutoLab, which can automatically develop black-and-white and color film photos without user interruption.
The OpenAutoLab machine only develops film and so you’ll still need to turn elsewhere to get your prints, but it makes the process much easier to perform at home. It handles most of the steps you would need to do in a dark room, so you aren’t fumbling around with baths and washes. It pumps the chemicals back and forth as needed and, most importantly, maintains the ideal temperature and performs periodic agitation.
An Arduino Nano board is responsible for most of the process control. It opens and closes the valves and operates the pump. It monitors each reservoir with a load cell and HX711 amplifier or float switch, moving the liquids back and forth at specific times according to the user-set parameters. Interestingly, the designers chose to use a sous vide stick to maintain temperature and circulate the bath. That’s a clever idea, because those sous vide sticks are very affordable and quite precise.
OpenAutoLab is intended to be a more affordable alternative to the Jobo Autolab and it appears to have promise. Documentation is sparse at the moment and we aren’t sure how well it works, but brave photographers can use the build instructions to try out OpenAutoLab right now.
Shuffling and dealing is very serious business when you’re playing any card game that puts money on the line, like poker. Even when the stakes aren’t that high, poor shuffling or dealing can drive a family apart. If you’re tired of being criticized for your card-handling skills, maybe you should build this automatic card dealer and shuffler designed by VUBGROUP1.
VUBGROUP1 consists of electromechanical engineering students at Bruface (The Brussels Faculty of Engineering) and this machine was a project for a mechatronics course. It is capable of both shuffling and dealing cards. Both of those subsystems work in a similar manner: DC motors spin wheels that grip the top card and push it out.
To shuffle, the user splits the deck and loads the two halves. The machine then pushes the cards together in semi-random order into the pre-deal area. That probably isn’t enough for a true shuffle, so it might be worth running the deck through a few times. From the pre-deal area, the machine spits out a selected number of cards, pivots on a stepper motor, and the repeats until all hands have been dealt.
An Arduino UNO Rev3 board controls that entire process according to user parameters set through a simple interface consisting of a 16×2 character LCD and push buttons. The enclosure is laser-cut MDF held together by M3 screws and there are a handful of 3D-printed parts, such as the gears attached to the motors.
Like most furniture, a coffee table should both look good and function well. To function well, a coffee table just needs a flat surface. But looking good is a lot more complicated and depends entirely on owner taste. If kinetic art is your thing, then you might consider building this automatic sand art coffee table.
This is a coffee table with a large pocket in the center filled with sand. A ball bearing rolls around in the sand, leaving intricate patterns behind. LED lighting highlights those patterns and users can program their own sequences of movements to create whatever art they like.
The secret to a kinetic sand coffee table like this one is magnetism. There is a two-axis CNC system underneath the table with a strong magnet that pulls the ball bearing through the sand. In this case, the kinematics are straightforward with a linear rail gantry riding on a pair of linear rails. Stepper motors pull the gantry and carriage with GT2 belts.
An Arduino UNO Rev3 board controls those stepper motors through a CNC Shield V3 with two TMC2209 drivers. The sketch is very simple and doesn’t run G-code directly. Instead, the user must extract a series of coordinates from a G-code file and copy them into the sketch. But because this is a coffee table, most users will only need to do that one time to program a series of patterns to cycle through.
Autism often comes with a unique sensory experience that differs from that of most neurotypical people. That tends to be publicized as a negative thing, as some sensations can cause some autistic people a lot of discomfort. But the opposite can also be true, with positive sensory experiences providing great joy. The latter scenario inspired CapeGeek to build this desktop elevator for a friend’s autistic son.
Elevators are popular with many people living with autism because they provide a multi-sensory experience that can be quite enjoyable. As such, there is a whole community of people with a shared love of elevators. This desktop model may have been designed for one child in particular, but it should appeal to many others. It has three floors and a car that moves between them in an elevator shaft. The user can send the car to a specific floor by pushing the corresponding button. The car will then move to that floor and the elevator doors will open.
CapeGeek constructed this using a frame made of aluminum extrusion. The elevator car rides on a lead screw driven by a stepper motor and servo motors open the doors. An Arduino UNO R3 board controls those motors in response to the call buttons, which are standard momentary push buttons. Three micro switches tell the Arduino when the car reaches a floor. Optional upgrades include a small LCD screen reads “Zach’s Elevator” and a prompt to select a floor, sound effects, and LED lighting to illuminate the elevator car.
Some of YouTube’s most famous makers get together every year for a Secret Santa gift exchange. We already showed you the heartbeat-controlled drum machine that Sam Battle created for Ali Spagnola, but what did Battle receive? Roboticist extraordinaire James Bruton drew Battle and decided to build him this oversized robotic Furby.
Bruton started by skinning a normal Furby to take a look inside and find out how it ticks. The current models are a bit different than the originals from a couple of decades ago, but they’re still pretty simple. There are basic mechanical linkages for the animatronic movement, sensors to detect touch and movement, a speaker for the sound, and cheap LCD eyes. Bruton didn’t reuse any of those components, but this dissection gave him some direction.
With a Furby anatomy lesson under his belt, Bruton designed the scaled-up version with a 3D-printed skeleton. That houses several servo motors to actuate the eyes, eyelids, ears, and mouth, along with two small linear actuators that let it rock back and forth. An Arduino Mega 2560 board controls those motors, as well as a DFRobot DFPlayer Mini MP3 player for the sound effects. An infrared proximity sensor lets the Arduino detect nearby movement, so it can react. Under normal conditions, it just cycles through pre-programmed movement and audio. But if the infrared proximity sensor triggers, the Arduino will switch to something new immediately.
The final step was to cover the giant Furby in its signature fur. Bruton left an opening in the chest where there is a cavity big enough for a normal Furby to reside, complete with LED illumination. That has some concerning implications, but the entire Furby aesthetic skirts the creepy line and so it seems fitting.
Arduino is ready to graduate its educational efforts in support of university-level STEM and R&D programs across the United States: this is where students come together to explore the solutions that will soon define their future, in terms of their personal careers and more importantly of their impact on the world.
Case in point: the groundbreaking partnership with the Ohio State University Buckeye Solar Racing Team, a student organization at the forefront of solar vehicle technology, committed to promoting sustainable transportation by designing, building, and racing solar-powered vehicles in national and international competitions. This collaboration will see the integration of advanced Arduino hardware into the team’s cutting-edge solar vehicles, enhancing driver displays, data transmission, and cockpit metric monitoring.
In particular, the team identified the Arduino Pro Portenta C33 as the best option for their car: “extremely low-powered, high-quality and reliable, it also has a CAN interface – which is how we will be getting data from our sensors,” team lead Vasilios Konstantacos shared.
We have also provided Arduino Student Kits for prototyping and, most importantly, accelerating the learning curve for new members. “Our goal is to rapidly equip our newcomers with vital skills, enabling them to contribute meaningfully to our team’s progress. Arduino’s hardware is a game-changer in this regard,” Vasilios stated. In addition, the team received Nicla Vision, Nicla Sense ME, and Nicla Voice modules to integrate essential sensors in the car, and more Portenta components to make their R&D process run faster (pun intended!): Portenta Breakout to speed up development on the Portenta C33, Portenta H7 to experiment with AI models for vehicle driving and testing, and Portenta Cat. M1/NB IoT GNSS Shield to connect the H7 to the car wirelessly, replacing walkie-talkie communication, and track the vehicle’s location.
Combining our beginner-friendly approach with the advanced features of the Arduino Pro range is the key to empower students like the members of the Buckeye Solar Racing Team to learn and develop truly innovative solutions with the support of a qualified industrial partner and high-performance technological products. In particular, the Arduino ecosystem offers a dual advantage in this case: components’ extreme ruggedness, essential for race vehicle operations, paired with the familiarity and ease of use of the Arduino IDE.
The partnership will empower Ohio State University students to experiment with microcontrollers and sensors in a high-performance setting, fostering a seamless, hands-on learning experience and supporting the institution’s dedication to providing unparalleled opportunities for real-world application of engineering and technology studies. Arduino’s renowned reliability and intuitive interface make it an ideal platform for students to develop solutions that are not only effective in the demanding environment of solar racing but also transferable to their future professional pursuits.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with the Ohio State University Buckeye Solar Racing Team,” commented Jason Strickland, Arduino’s Higher Education Sales Manager. “Our mission has always been to make technology accessible and foster innovation. Seeing our hardware contribute to advancing solar racing technology and education is a proud moment for Arduino.”
Every holiday season, several of YouTube’s most prominent makers get together for a Secret Santa gift exchange. It is always fun to see what kind of tailored gifts they create and this year is no different. Sam Battle of the LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER YouTube channel drew Ali Spagnola in the most recent exchange. Ali likes both music and exercise, so Battle built her this quirky drum machine controlled by the user’s heart beat.
At first glance, this looks like a fairly conventional drum sequencer. It cycles through eight beats and can play from five different samples. Each beat has a set of five switches to select the sample to play on that beat. But the twist is that the machine only moves to the next beat when the user’s heart beats, as opposed to moving through the sequence at a consistent rate.
That sounds a little bit jarring, because hearts are not metronomes. But the benefit is that the tempo increases with the user’s heart rate, so the pace matches their activity level.
An Arduino Nano board detects the user’s pulse through a Pimoroni Pulse Sensor. It plays drum samples (or any audio clips) loaded onto a SparkFun WAV Trigger module. Battle wired the sequencer switches in a keyboard-style matrix, which reduces the number of IO pins required to just the number of rows plus columns instead of one pin for every switch. On each beat, the Arduino checks the switches and then plays the corresponding drum samples. Finally, Battle crammed all of that hardware into an enclosure with 3D-printed decoration that makes the device look like an oversized heart.
We are pleased to announce a new partnership with Chilean engineering services firm C3D, joining our System Integrators Program at the Gold level. The collaboration will focus on enhancing the company’s IoT and automation capabilities by leveraging the entire Arduino Pro product line to accelerate the product development of connected applications in key verticals.
“Through exploration, design, prototyping and manufacturing, we strive to solve every challenge that may prevent our clients from turning their product into a reality,” states Juan Pablo Oyarzún Alcayaga, CEO of C3D. “By combining Arduino Pro industrial-grade modular products and our expertise, we can now offer accelerated development and lower non-recurring engineering fees at the same time.”
According to a Gartner report published in June, “Spend on the Internet of Things (IoT) across key industries reached over $268 billion in 2022, and IoT devices are forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% from 2021 through 2025.” The significant global growth experienced by the IoT market has been driven by increased connectivity and the integration of smart devices across various industries – including healthcare, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, smart homes and smart cities. On top of this, 2023 has been the year of artificial intelligence, leading to unprecedented advancements in automation: the integration of AI into IoT systems currently allows for intelligent decision-making and process automation at an entirely new level. Businesses that incorporate AI-driven automation into their workflows can enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve overall performance – and C3D offers a variety of services to achieve all of this and more.
The firm is particularly interested in the potential impact that the emergence of Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology will have on the market, as it gains traction as a specialized communication standard designed for the IoT. Offering low power consumption, extended coverage, and support for a massive number of devices, it stands out as the ideal solution for applications in agriculture, utilities, asset tracking, and mining.
“We are excited C3D is our first system integrator partner in Chile,” comments Paul Kaeley, Strategic Sales Advisor to Arduino. “Their strategic insights and expertise, in the context of machine design and manufacturing increasingly moving to South America, create amazing opportunities to potentially set a new standard, and drive customer value in this market.”
The System Integrators Partnership Program by Arduino Pro is an exclusive initiative designed for professionals seeking to implement Arduino technologies in their projects. This program opens up a world of opportunities based on the robust Arduino ecosystem, allowing partners to unlock their full potential in collaboration with us.
Each year, young people all over the world share and celebrate their amazing tech creations by taking part in Coolest Projects, our digital technology showcase. Our global online showcase and local in-person events give kids a wonderful opportunity to celebrate their creativity with their communities, explore other young creators’ tech projects, and gain inspiration and encouragement for their future projects.
The Coolest Projects exhibit at the Young V&A in London.
Now, visitors to the Young V&A museum in London can also be inspired by some of the incredible creations showcased at Coolest Projects. The museum has recently reopened after a large reimagining, and some of the inspiring projects by Coolest Projects 2022 participants are now on display in the Design Gallery, ready to spark digital creativity among more young people.
Projects to solve problems
Many Coolest Projects participants showcase projects that they created to make an impact and solve a real-world problem that’s important to them, for example to help members of their local community, or to protect the environment.
At Coolest Projects, Donal (age 9) showcased his creation to send notifications about coronavirus test results via email.
One example on display in the Young V&A gallery is EleVoc, by 15-year-old Chinmayi from India. Chinmayi was inspired to create her project after she and her family faced a frightening encounter:
“My family and I are involved in wildlife conservation. One time we were charged by elephants even though we were only passing by in a Jeep. This was my first introduction to human–animal conflict, and I wanted to find a way to solve it!” – Chinmayi
The experience prompted Chinmayi to create EleVoc, an early-warning device designed to reduce human–elephant conflict by detecting and classifying different elephant sounds and alerting nearby villages to the elephants’ proximity and behaviour.
Also exhibited at the Young V&A is the hardware project Gas Leak Detector by Sashrika, aged 11, from the USA. Gas Leak Detector is a device that detects if a fuel tank for a diesel-powered heating system is leaking and notifies householders through an app in a matter of second.
Sashrika knew this invention could really make a difference to people’s lives. She explained, “Typically, diesel gas tanks for heating are in the basement where people don’t visit every day. Leakage may be unnoticed and lead to fire or major repair cost.”
Projects to have fun
As well as projects designed to solve problems, Coolest Projects also welcomes young people who create things to entertain or have fun.
Harshit’s game for Coolest Projects, now exhibited in the Young V&A
At the Young V&A, visitors can enjoy the fun, fast-paced game project Runaway Nose, by 10-year-old Harshit from Ireland. Runaway Nose uses facial recognition, and players have to use their nose to interact with the prompts on the screen.
Harshit shared the motivation behind his project:
“I wanted to make a fun game to get you thinking fast and that would get you active, even on a rainy day.” – Harshit
We can confirm Runaway Nose is a lot of fun, and a must-do activity for people of all ages on a visit to the museum.
Join in the celebration!
If you are in London, make sure to head to the Young V&A to see Chinmayi’s, Sashrika’s, and Harshit’s projects, and many more. We love seeing the ingenuity of the global community of young tech creators celebrated, and hope it inspires you and your young people.
With that in mind, we are excited that Coolest Projects will be back in 2024. Registrations for the global Coolest Projects online showcase will be open from 14 February to 22 May 2024, and any young creator up to age 18 anywhere in the world can get involved. We’ll also be holding in-person Coolest Projects events for young people in Ireland and the UK. Head to the Coolest Projects website to find out more.
Coolest Projects Ireland 2023.
Coolest Projects is for all young people, no matter their level of coding experience. Kids who are just getting started and would like to take part can check out the free project guides on our projects site. These offer step-by-step guidance to help everyone make a tech project they feel proud of.
To always get the latest news about all things Coolest Projects, from event updates to the fun swag coming for 2024, sign up for the Coolest Projects newsletter.
With Christmas just around the corner, you may start reminiscing about childhood races down the stairs to rip open presents under the tree. You’ll likely never do be any faster than you were when you were 12, but why not turn stair racing into an event anyway? Jared Dilley made that possible with his stairway stopwatch device.
It seems prudent to give you a disclaimer here: running up and down stairs is dangerous. We promise that your bones aren’t nearly as resilient as they were when you were a kid.
Dilley’s device is a timer system meant to measure the time it takes to ascend or descend a flight of stairs. It could also be used for races across flat ground or any other kind of terrain. That’s because it consists of two separate units that act as race gates. Each has an ultrasonic sensor to detect a passing person. Together, they measure the time it takes to pass the second gate after triggering the first.
Each unit contains an Arduino Nano board and the two boards communicate via HC-12 433MHz radio transceiver modules. Those have enough range to allow for positioning anywhere within a house, assuming you don’t live in a mansion with multiple wings. The primary unit displays the current record on a small LCD screen, as well as the most recent time on a large LED matrix panel. Both the primary and secondary units have nifty 3D-printed enclosures that Dilley designed to mount onto walls.
We all know that one neighbor who always goes the extra mile when decorating for the holidays, and after taking inspiration from these large displays of light and sound, Marcelo Arredondo, Andres Sabas, and Andrea ZGuz of the Electronic Cats crew decided to build a smaller version for their Christmas tree using the Arduino Opta micro PLC.
The team chose to create their music-synchronized light show with the Opta because of its reliability and bank of four built-in relays that could be utilized to switch specific light strings on or off. Lining up and triggering certain lighting effects for the music was all handled through the open-source Vixen Lights software. In here, the Opta was configured as a quad-channel controller that receives its commands over a GPIO connection sent by an Arduino UNO mediator. The PLC is programmed visually to read a programmable input pin for each relay and then leverage a comparator to toggle the relay when the signal is high.
Back in the Vixen Light software, the team imported their favorite Christmas song and began the process of charting it. First, they generated markers over the audio waveform to signify the beats and overall tempo. Next, various effects were added to the timeline which trigger the lighting channels in a particular sequence. Lastly, the UNO was flashed with a sketch that allowed it to read the incoming Serial data from Vixen over USB and then toggle its digital outputs for the Opta to register.
A will to create something new by subtracting and simplifying, rather than adding, seems to inspire the three projects uploaded to Project Hub in October that we are proud to highlight today. This “less, but better” attitude is often the key to great ideas and even better executions, creating magical interactions and efficient solutions. Sometimes, all you need is the openness to imagine a different way of doing things!
You may know that synesthesia allows some people to experience color when listening to music, but have you heard of a scanning tool that lets anyone translate color into sound? It’s the open-source, portable IMSO, Color on the Scale of Sound: a wooden “magic wand” powered by an Arduino Mini and a few lines of code, perfect to inspire kids, ages 7 and up, to explore the worlds of art, music and technology all at once.
If you still believe instruments must have keys or strings or some surface to hit in order to produce sound, have a look at this project. Based on an Arduino UNO Rev3 and coded with the IDE 1.8, it enables you to play music by moving your hands in the air! Designed for musicians at any skill level, this one-of-a-kind instrument works by reproducing a different note depending on which of its 8 laser beams you are interrupting, and conveniently displays both the note and octave on an LCD display.
Faced with the staggering costs of digitizing his father’s high school 16-mm football films from the 1970s, dstein425 decided to leverage his professional software engineering skills to create a DIY solution based on the Arduino UNO Rev3, Raspberry Pi, an old projector, and only under 200 lines of code. His efforts led not only to great savings, but also to the huge satisfaction of creating a better-quality result that will preserve family memories through the years.
For your chance to be selected for a $100, $300 or even $500 gift card to spend on the Arduino Store, submit your best project on Project Hub! We will be awarding three new entries every month, as detailed in the complete terms and conditions. Good luck!
We support two networks of coding clubs where young people around the world discover the countless possibilities of creating with digital technologies.
Young people in a CoderDojo in India.
Code Club is a global network of after-school coding clubs for learners aged 9 to 13, where educators and other volunteers help young people learn about coding and digital making
CoderDojo is a worldwide network of free, open, and community-based programming clubs for young people aged 7 to 17, where they get the opportunity to learn how to create fantastic new things with technology
Every year, we send out a survey to volunteers at all the clubs we support. Today we share some highlights from the findings and what we’re planning next.
A Code Club session in the USA.
Why do we do an annual survey for clubs?
The simple answer is: to help make clubs even better for everyone involved! Educators and volunteers are doing a remarkable job in helping young people learn about computing and coding, so we want to know more about them, about how they run their clubs, and what impact the club sessions have for young people.
A CoderDojo session in the UK.
By knowing more about clubs — how frequently club leaders run them, what resources they use, what they would like more of — we can continue to improve the learning experience for educators, volunteers, and young people involved in our clubs.
This year in March we sent out our survey to all Code Clubs and CoderDojos around the world, and we heard back from almost 500. As always, the results were very positive, and they also gave us a lot of useful information on how we can continue to improve our support for clubs all over the world.
Who is involved in clubs?
Based on the survey, we estimate that at the time, the network of over 4200 Code Clubs and 700 CoderDojos was reaching almost 139,000 young people globally. The global community of clubs has continued to grow since then, with a now even larger network of volunteers supporting ever more young people.
Participants in a Code Club in the UK.
According to the survey, the majority of young people attending clubs are aged between 8 and 13, but clubs host young people as young as 6 and as old as 18. It was great to hear about the participation of girls, and we’d love to see this rise even higher: respondents told us that 42% of their Code Club attendees and 30% of their CoderDojo attendees are female.
Respondents feel that attending club sessions improves young peoples’ interest and engagement in computing and programming, and increases their understanding of the usefulness of computing.
None of these young people would be able to attend clubs without the great work of teams of educators and volunteers. Based on the survey, we estimate that at the time of the survey, there were over 10,300 Code Club leaders and almost 4000 CoderDojo champions around the world. Many survey respondents said that they were motivated to start volunteering after attending a club themselves.
A Code Club session in Botswana.
Community is at the heart of clubs and the clubs networks: over 80% of respondents said that belonging to a global community of clubs helps motivates them to volunteer at their own club.
What is the impact of clubs?
Clubs focus on a wide range of topics and programming languages. Scratch is overwhelmingly popular, with over 95% of respondents telling us that they used Scratch in club sessions in the previous year. Micro:bit projects and Python-based programming were also very popular. Club leaders told us that in future they would like to offer more activities around AI applications, as well as around games and mobile apps.
Club leaders told us that being part of a Code Club or CoderDojo affects young people positively. Respondents feel that attending club sessions improves young peoples’ skills and interest in computing and programming, and increases their understanding of the usefulness of computing. Almost 90% of club leaders also agree that after attending a club, young people are interested in additional experiences of learning about computing and programming.
Attending also positively affects young people’s wider skills and attitudes, with club leaders stating that young people who attend improve their personal confidence, independence in learning, and creative thinking.
Young people who attend improve their personal confidence, independence in learning, and creative thinking.
We were pleased to find out that most Code Club leaders, who run their sessions in schools, think that their clubs increase the visibility of computing within their school. Many also said that the attendees’ parents and guardians value their clubs as opportunities for their children.
What’s next?
We want to keep providing clubs with support to increase their positive impact on young people. Thanks to the survey results, we know to focus our work on providing training opportunities for club volunteers, as well as supporting club leaders to recruit volunteers and advertise their clubs to more young people.
As we take an impact-focused approach to our work, we are currently partnering with Durham University on an evaluation of Code Clubs in UK schools. The evaluation will provide further insights for how we can best support people around the world to run clubs that provide welcoming spaces where all kids can learn to create with digital technologies.
Android and Google Play have continuously evolved to provide more flexibility and choice in response to feedback from developers and regulators, as well as intense competition from Apple and app stores across the open Android ecosystem. We demonstrated this in the recent trial and were disappointed that the verdict did not recognize the choice and competition that our platforms enable. While we are challenging that verdict and our case with Epic is far from over, we remain committed to continually improving Android and Google Play.
Today, the details of a settlement reached in September with state attorneys general were filed publicly. This settlement builds on Android’s choice and flexibility, maintains strong security protections, and retains Google’s ability to compete with other OS makers, and invest in the Android ecosystem for users and developers. We’re pleased to resolve our case with the states and move forward on a settlement that includes:
Growing our commitment to app store choice: We have always allowed alternative app stores to be preloaded onto Android devices and for users to download alternative app stores directly. In fact, most Android devices ship with two or more app stores preloaded. The settlement with the attorneys general makes clear that OEMs can continue to provide users with options out of the box to use Play or another app store. We recently implemented features in Android 14 that will make third-party app stores work even better for users and let third-party app stores update apps more easily.
Streamlining sideloading while prioritizing security: Unlike on iOS, Android users have the option to sideload apps, meaning they can download directly from a developer’s website without going through an app store like Google Play. While we maintain it is critical to our safety efforts to inform users that sideloading on mobile could come with unique risks, as part of our settlement we will be further simplifying the sideloading process and updating the language that informs users about these potential risks of downloading apps directly from the web for the first time.
Expanding user choice billing to more people: App and game developers will be able to implement an alternative billing option alongside Google Play’s billing system for their U.S. users who can then choose which option to use when making in-app purchases. We have been piloting user choice billing in the U.S. for over a year and will now expand this option further.
Expanding open communication on pricing: We have always given developers more ways to interact with their customers than iOS and other operating systems. For example, Google Play allows developers to communicate freely with their customers outside the app about subscription offers or lower-cost options available on a rival app store or the developer’s website. This openness has spurred competition and benefited consumers and developers. As part of user choice billing, which we’re expanding with today’s settlement announcement, developers are also able to show different pricing options within the app when a user makes a digital purchase.
Contributing to a settlement fund: Google will pay $630 million into a settlement fund to be distributed for the benefit of consumers according to a Court-approved plan and $70 million into a fund that will be used by the states.
Android and Google Play provide choices and opportunities for innovation that other platforms we compete against simply don’t – from allowing for multiple app stores and avenues of app distribution to piloting new ways for users to pay for in-app purchases. We’re pleased to reach an agreement that builds on that foundation and we look forward to making these improvements that will help evolve Android and Google Play for the benefit of millions of developers and billions of people around the world. These proposed changes will go into effect after the Court formally approves the settlement.
Whether it’s an elf that stealthily watches from across the room or an all-knowing Santa Claus that keeps a list of one’s actions, spying during the holidays is nothing new. But when it comes time to receive presents, the more eager among us might want to know what presents await us a few days in advance under the tree, which is what prompted element14 Presents host Milos Rasic to build a robotic ornament equipped with vision and a compact movement system.
On the hardware side, Rasic went with an Arduino Nicla Vision board as it contains a camera and the ability to livestream the video feed over the network. A pair of continuous servo motors allow the mobile robot platform to move along the ground while another set of servos open the ornament’s trapdoor to expose the wheels and carefully lower it from the tree through a clever system of bands and thread.
The livestreaming portion of the project was based off an existing MJPEG RTP example that exposes a web API endpoint for fetching the latest frame from the Nicla’s onboard camera and delivering it via Wi-Fi. To control the robot, including winching, driving, and toggling the lights, Rasic created a Node-RED interface that sent MQTT messages to the Nicla.
To see more about how this creative device was designed, watch Rasic’s video below or read his full write-up here.
We are thrilled to announce an exciting collaboration that is set to revolutionize the landscape of Industry 4.0 digitalization and beyond. Arduino Pro is proud to welcome Patti Engineering into our esteemed family of System Integrators Partners. This partnership marks a significant milestone in our commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions to manufacturers worldwide.
Patti Engineering’s expertise encompasses a wide range of high-potential applications, including:
1. Industry 4.0 digital transformation
Patti Engineering specializes in guiding manufacturers through the dynamic realm of Industry 4.0 digital transformation. Their expertise lies in leveraging digitalization technologies to propel production to unprecedented heights.
2. Robotics
In the era of automation, Patti Engineering stands out as an expert in the design and integration of robotic cells. Their solutions are crafted to enhance productivity, efficiency, safety, consistency, and quality.
3. Control systems integration
Partnering with world-leading manufacturers, Patti Engineering excels in streamlining and optimizing production through the integration of control systems. This expertise ensures a seamless flow of operations, allowing businesses to achieve new levels of efficiency and reliability.
4. Asset tracking
Visibility and traceability of materials are paramount in modern manufacturing. Patti Engineering employs the latest asset tracking technologies to improve these crucial aspects.
“We believe that Patti Engineering’s wealth of experience and proficiency in Industry 4.0, robotics, control systems integration, and asset tracking will bring unparalleled value to our community,” Paul Kaeley, Strategic Sales Advisor to Arduino commented. “Together, we look forward to pushing the boundaries of what is possible and driving innovation in the world of technology and manufacturing.”
Stay tuned for the incredible solutions and advancements that will emerge from this powerful partnership!
The System Integrators Partnership Program by Arduino Pro is an exclusive initiative designed for professionals seeking to implement Arduino technologies in their projects. This program opens up a world of opportunities based on the robust Arduino ecosystem, allowing partners to unlock their full potential in collaboration with us.
One of the main difficulties that people encounter when trying to build their edge ML models is gathering a large, yet simultaneously diverse, dataset. Audio models normally require setting up a microphone, capturing long sequences of sounds, and then manually removing bad data from the resulting files. Shakhizat Nurgaliyev’s project, however, eliminates the need for the arduous process by taking advantage of generative models to produce the dataset artificially.
In order to go from three audio classes: speech, music, and background noise to a complete dataset, Nurgaliyev wrote a simple prompt for ChatGPT that gave directions for creating a total of 300 detailed audio descriptions. After this, he grabbed an NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit and loaded Meta’s generative AudioCraft model which allowed him to pass in the previously made audio prompts and receive sound snippets in return.
The final steps involved creating an Edge Impulse audio classification project, uploading the generated samples, and designing an Impulse that leveraged the MFE audio block and a Keras classifier model. Once an Arduino library had been built, Nurgaliyev loaded it, along with a simple sketch, onto an Arduino GIGA R1 WiFi board that continually listened for new audio data, performed classification, and displayed the label on the GIGA R1’s Display Shield screen.
A glockenspiel is a pretty ordinary instrument with a very silly name. Many Westerners will immediately notice the similarities between glockenspiels and xylophones, but there are slight differences in pitch and range. Both are played with mallets and so anyone can hammer out some notes. But playing well is much more difficult, which is why CamsLab built this auto-glockenspiel that plays itself.
CamsLab chose the glockenspiel over other instruments because they wanted an excuse to experiment with solenoids. Compared to string, brass, and wind instruments, a percussion instrument like a glockenspiel is very easy to play by electromechanical means. Each bar is a copper pipe of a specific length calibrated to produce a desired note. Every one of those bars has its own solenoid, which strikes the copper on demand.
An Arduino Mega 2560 board controls those solenoids through FETs (field-effect transistors). Those are necessary because the solenoids each require about 1A of current, which is more than the Arduino can supply through a pin. CamsLab also implemented flyback diodes to prevent damage, since solenoids are inductive loads. Those components and the copper bars mount onto a simple frame made of aluminum extrusion.
CamsLab programmed each note in sequence within the sketch, which is cumbersome. A good alternative would be MIDI control. But even as it is, the auto-glockenspiel sounds great.
We may be a little heavy-handed on the Dungeons & Dragons metaphor this month. This guide to beginning your Raspberry Pi is packed with information, hints, and things to discover with your favourite computer. It’s the perfect guidebook for Raspberry Pi newcomers.
Raspberry Pi Beginner Projects
We all had to start somewhere and this month Rob’s collected dozens of projects for you to try out. Discover coding, making, robotics, and more in this fantastic feature.
This Amiga is not an Amiga
Discover this Amiga build that breathes new life into a classic computer. Rob Fisher has used Raspberry Pi and the Amiga Forever emulator to load ROMs into this restored computer.
BlueROV R4
ВlueROV2 is an underwater ROV that surveys the darkest depths – well, the really very gloomy depths anyway – with the help of a Raspberry Pi 4 wearing its bespoke Navigator Flight Controller as a HAT.
Giant Fine-Art Game Boy
The iconic handheld console can now be treated as fine art, especially when you deconstruct it and rebuild it six times larger, like Connor Gottfried has.
CinePI XL
CinePI is an open-source cinema camera that lends itself to DIY design, including larger sensors. We take a look at this lovingly recreated camera build.
Beepy: Make a DIY palmtop computer
If you’ve ever missed the golden age of palmtop computers, PDAs (personal digital assistants), and phones with physical keyboards, Squarofumi’s Beepy might be the kit for you: just add a Raspberry Pi Zero W. In this, the first of a series of tutorials, we turn Raspberry Pi into a personal assistant using a Blackberry-style keyboard.
Design a circuit with KiCad
This tutorial will provide guidance on how to design your own circuit using KiCad. It will show how you can design a circuit that can be used with Raspberry Pi Pico.
MyCobot 280 Pi
MyCobot 280 is a high-quality robot arm with a long reach. Powered by a built-in Raspberry Pi 4, it has six degrees of freedom (6DOF) thanks to half a dozen joints (equipped with bearings) controlled by large servos, all enclosed in protective plastic casings. We test out this professional robot arm based on Raspberry Pi technology.
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