Schlagwort: Uno R4

  • UNO R4 Stars: Meet Clatters Machines

    UNO R4 Stars: Meet Clatters Machines

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.

    That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.

    We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

    Clatters Machines creates “noisy machines for music lovers” – handmade electronic musical instruments that turn technology into sound waves. The company was co-founded by Carolina Guidi and Michelangelo Nasso, brought together by a unique passion for sound and for making what could be a mess of cables, wires, and knobs look really cool. 

    Guidi, in particular, is in charge of visual branding and product design – which makes for great eye candy on their Instagram wall! – while Nasso’s favorite part of the job is prototyping and testing the modules, fueled by his passion for hardware and software engineering.

    Arduino has always played a crucial role in the duo’s explorations, and later, in their work. Guidi discovered the brand during a university workshop: she says she was surprised to find out that putting together a few components on a breadboard could be so easy and accessible – “all you need to worry about is your own creativity.” 

    Nasso got his first taste of Arduino a bit earlier, quickly realizing how it made a lot of his ideas closer to reality than he thought, even before he acquired the engineering skills he would develop during university. 

    It is not by chance that their very first product, the Pocket Garden Listener, was “all designed, prototyped and tested with an Arduino UNO,” and that they have fond memories of the experience.

    The embodiment of how creative flair and engineering mastery can come together beautifully, Clatters Machines takes pride in inspiring “people who play and love music, with products that start right here, from an original idea:” isn’t that the essence of making?

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnk_oSLKq8Y?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    We asked Guidi and Nasso, “What’s your favorite part of the UNO R4?”

    • Its thrilling potential, which opens up to infinite new possibilities – just like the very first Arduino UNO did for the many makers who started with it! 
    • The huge leap forward it represents for anyone working in prototyping, thanks to the upgraded tech specs.
    • How it “ramps up everything that made Arduino the brand it is today.’

    Ready to play with Clatters Machines? Head to their website to get yourself a cool sound machine. 

    The post UNO R4 Stars: Meet Clatters Machines appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • UNO R4 Stars: Meet Anouk Wipprecht

    UNO R4 Stars: Meet Anouk Wipprecht

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.

    That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.

    We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

    Many of us think electronics are a beautiful thing, but Anouk Wipprecht takes it to the next level. The Dutch designer creates interactive dresses that turn garments into sensorial experiences, pushing wearables into the field of robotic couture she is pioneering. Check out her YouTube or Vimeo channel to see the Spider Dress, which attacks anyone getting too close to the wearer, or the Smoke Dress, inspired by octopi’s defense mechanisms. 

    Wipprecht began exploring #FashionTech over 20 years ago, when computers were still big and bulky – and very difficult to hide in a dress. For her, everything changed when she discovered Arduino by attending an interaction design course held by our very own David Cuartielles and the Arduino team in Malmo, Sweden. That’s when she learned to leverage the technological platform Arduino provides to create increasingly smaller wearable systems, and most importantly, with that she became part of a diverse and eclectic community of makers. Using the same simple boards her teammates were working on projects ranging from RC cars to early drones. Meanwhile, following her passion for fashion, she was especially interested in the potential of smaller and more flexible hardware components to bring her creations to life.

    Over the years she has furthered her research with every new technological advancement, up to her latest creation: the Chroma dress for Chromatic 3D, which senses other people’s proximity and lights up accordingly, mimicking the bioluminescence of fireflies with LEDs embedded in an innovative elastomer mesh fabric.

    For this particular garment, Wipprecht chose the new Arduino Nano ESP32 because of its outstanding combination of small form factor – easy to integrate in the design and comfortable to wear on the body – and great power. Not to mention, the module made interconnections easier than ever and helped speed up the entire project: “The process went super rapidly from ideation to final experiment, and we were able to switch back and forth in order to optimize it.”

    “The coolest thing about Arduino is it makes working with electronics really fun,” she says. The experience is so enjoyable thanks to great ease of use and flexibility – which also allows Wipprecht to use Arduino when she teaches, encouraging a whole new generation of makers to turn their ideas into reality. 

    “The great advantage we have today is we have a lot of accessibility to really cool tools, from powerful machines, to all the latest electronics and technology, and it doesn’t cost as much as it used to. It makes it really easy to make cool stuff.”

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrxWnsEQpB0?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    We asked Wipprecht, “What’s your favorite part of the UNO R4?”

    • The higher processing power: “Everyone wants better processing power, all the time!”
    • How easy it is to use: “It’s basically plug-and-play,” making it perfect for prototyping as well as teaching.

    To keep up with the latest fashion in microcontrollers, follow Wipprecht on Vimeo and LinkedIn, or bookmark her website!

    The post UNO R4 Stars: Meet Anouk Wipprecht appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • A terrifying FNAF-style Mickey Mouse animatronic

    A terrifying FNAF-style Mickey Mouse animatronic

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The copyright for Steamboat Willie famously expired at the beginning of this year. Steamboat Willie was the first appearance Mickey Mouse, so this copyright expiration is a big deal for Disney. Anyone will be able to use the character for the first time in history, as Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Jaimie and Jay of the Wicked Makers YouTube channel built this terrifying FNAF-style Mickey Mouse animatronic.

    A few months ago, Wicked Makers built a Five Nights at Freddy’s Springtrap animatronic and the results were amazing. For this project, they took many of those same lessons, techniques, and stylistic decisions and applied them to Mickey.

    This is a full, life-saved head that can move, open and close its jaw, and direct its scary glowing gaze. The vast majority of the head’s structure is a 3D-printed shell (modeled by BeardlessProps) with a ridiculous amount of superb texturing, painting, and weathering. The ears, for example, have a coating of dark fiber that gives a felt-like appearance. The aesthetic does a fantastic job of making this look like an old and beaten animatronic from a theme park.

    The movement is all actuated by hobby servo motors controlled by an Arduino UNO R4 board. Wicked Makers added a USB host shield, which let them connect a PlayStation 4 controller. The Arduino reads the stick positions and button presses from the PS4 controller and adjusts the servo motors accordingly. That allows for nice organic control when puppeteering.

    This video ends with the animatronic dying. But from what we saw before that, it was very much a success. The Wicked Makers plan to repair the head and will post a video with updates, so be sure to subscribe to their channel.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZaJVcytjyQ?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post A terrifying FNAF-style Mickey Mouse animatronic appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • UNO R4 Stars: Meet Brenda Mboya

    UNO R4 Stars: Meet Brenda Mboya

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.

    That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.

    We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

    Brenda Akoth Mboya, a trailblazing STEM educator and the co-founder of Jenga Labs Africa, embodies the spirit of Arduino-driven innovation in the realm of education and community empowerment. “My passion lies in inspiring African youth by using technology and leadership as tools,” she affirms – and we take pride in being the platform of choice for her vision. 

    Mboya’s journey with Arduino began with a revelatory moment, when she realized that technology could be both easy and fun, empowering even children under 13 to create meaningful and innovative projects of their own.

    Initiating Jenga Labs Africa in 2019, Mboya embarked on a groundbreaking venture to introduce 4th Industrial Revolution technologies to the next generation of African innovators and makers. Through collaborations with West African schools, the startup has seamlessly infused STEM activities into curricula and set up makerspaces available to all students.

    In addition, Mboya actively engages young minds in the technology space as part of the Arm Engage program and the Arduino user group in Kenya, organizing events that bring together electronics enthusiasts eager to dive into the vast potential of microcontrollers. A recent major achievement was the successful orchestration of a 12-hour hackathon in Kisumu, leveraging the capabilities of IoT to address critical agricultural challenges in western Kenya. The event showcased the exceptional talents of the local youth – something that Mboya holds dear: “Being a maker in 2023, especially in the African continent, means having the tools to create solutions tailored to African needs – thus moving away from being mere consumers of Western technologies, and towards becoming creators of solutions that address specific African use cases.”

    Indeed, the project that most deeply resonates with her vision at the moment is the one-year Leadership and Technology Program Jenga Labs is about to launch in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s largest slums. This initiative aims to empower the community by training them on Arduino technology, enabling them to create innovative solutions for the myriad problems and challenges they face every day. Mboya sees this as a transformative way to give back, fostering a sense of leadership and innovation that can spark positive change. In Mboya’s world, Arduino is not just a tool: it’s a catalyst for African youths to shape their destinies and contribute to the advancement of their communities.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10_TUOeLEEw?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    We asked Mboya, “What’s your favorite part of the UNO R4?”

    • The LED matrix for quick visualization, allowing for instant satisfaction as well as clear help in debugging.
    • The USB-C connector: having this extremely popular option means “I can even use my phone’s cable to quickly do something on the Arduino.”
    • The top-notch speed and connectivity features compared to the UNO Rev3.

    Keep up with the updates on Mboya’s impact on the world by following her LinkedIn profile or visit Jenga Labs’ website!

    The post UNO R4 Stars: Meet Brenda Mboya appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • UNO R4 Stars: Meet Michael Cheich

    UNO R4 Stars: Meet Michael Cheich

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.

    That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.

    We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

    Learning can be overwhelming for anyone – and we mean anyone. Michael Cheich studied neuroscience and spent 20 years in the US military flying helicopters, yet candidly admits he was intimidated when he first began exploring his passion for programming and electronics. 

    Discovering the Arduino ecosystem turned around his perspective, allowing him to solve every challenge he encountered. Building projects that leverage technology now gives him a sense of accomplishment — a feeling he hopes to share with the almost 200K subscribers to Programming Electronics Academy

    On Cheich’s YouTube channel, you will find weekly videos that promise to give viewers not only the information but also, and more importantly, the confidence they need to keep learning. Just pick among hundreds of tutorials from basic to advanced – including a 90-minute masterclass on programming – as well as product reviews and project ideas.

    For example, Cheich recently has had a ton of fun building a ChatGPT terminal and decided to start writing an Arduino library for interfacing the large language model (LLM) with Wi-Fi-enabled microcontrollers. “I’ve always been fascinated by AI, and I just can’t express how amazing it is that an average guy like me has access to such powerful tools. It’s a great time to be alive and be a maker.”

    And his creativity does not stop at your typical coding or IoT endeavors. Cheich is also the mind behind The Arduino Paradox (use this affiliate link to support him!), a graphic novel written by Mark Lambert and illustrated by Brandon Scribner. We may not be the most objective, but we thought it was a great read! 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQO_4ndairU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    We asked Cheich, “What’s your favorite part of the UNO R4?”

    • The wireless capabilities of the UNO R4 WiFi, which make interfacing with LLMs really accessible.
    • The bigger, more powerful processor: “I am excited to explore some edge AI applications.”  
    • The debug port in the UNO R4 Minima, making it easier than ever to catch and correct any mistakes.

    In his full review of the Arduino UNO R4 Minima, Cheich also pointed out how he appreciates both what has been improved in the new revision and what has been kept the same: while packed with new exciting features, in his eyes the R4 is still perfect for beginners. And clearly “Arduino has thought hard about the hardware compatibility between the R4 and its predecessor, the R3.” So, no matter where you are on your learning journey, head to his Programming Electronics Academy for a booster of knowledge and confidence!

    The post UNO R4 Stars: Meet Michael Cheich appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • UNO R4 Stars: Meet Daniel Jansson

    UNO R4 Stars: Meet Daniel Jansson

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.

    That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.

    We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

    Daniel Jansson first came into contact with Arduino in 2011, while at Umeå Institute of Design for his master’s degree in interaction design. The experience was empowering to the point of being weird: “It was like, now I can create things which only engineers and developers could make before. It felt like I was doing things that I should just not be able to do.” 

    Curious by nature, he instantly realized that – while the technology could have helped him in his studies – it was a lot more fun to create quirky interactive objects that made people smile. So he kept going, experimenting with various Arduino boards to create big and small devices with connectivity, sound, lights and interactivity. 

    “There are few things I enjoy more than taking disparate subjects and joining them into new creations, oftentimes with Arduino acting as the glue to help things sense the world around them, or interact in new and unusual ways,” he says. 

    A great example of this is his favorite maker project: the YouTube Subscriber Levelometer, which repurposes a device once used to measure the level of liquid in tanks using pressure. Adding his signature blend of “physical interaction, programming, sound, connectivity and a healthy dose of humor,” Jansson built a phygital system that keeps track of his key influencer stats. He integrated speech synthesis by combining an Arduino Nano with the Talkie library, which was based on work done by Texas Instruments in the 1980s, and programmed everything via the Arduino IDE

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn6QWb816jo?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    As a long-time Arduino user, Jansson was excited to try the UNO R4: “It extends the potential for new projects to places where I did not imagine the UNO platform could go. It really feels like a leap forward, without compromising on the vast library of projects created over the last 11 years since the launch of the UNO R3.” 

    We asked Jansson, “What’s your favorite part of the UNO R4?”

    • The 12-bit DAC to generate higher fidelity sound, opening up huge possibilities for musical projects – even building entirely new instruments.
    • The native HID capabilities, which make creating native USB-MIDI super easy.
    • Compatibility with the UNO R3, allowing users to revisit and update old projects.

    Beyond any specific product, it’s the global community that makes Arduino unique: “It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, you can always find someone who has run into the same challenges as you have, and find help to overcome them to make your projects come true. The wealth of knowledge makes Arduino a democratic hardware platform in ways we have never seen before.”

    The value of shared knowledge and experiences clearly resonates with Jansson, who hopes to encourage others to learn, enjoy, and broaden their mind with his projects. To keep up with his many fun and interesting ideas – bound to bring a smile to your face – follow his Instagram account or subscribe to his “Switch & Lever” YouTube channel.

    The post UNO R4 Stars: Meet Daniel Jansson appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Replicating two of history’s most iconic BattleBots with the Arduino UNO R4

    Replicating two of history’s most iconic BattleBots with the Arduino UNO R4

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    When the BattleBots TV show first hit the airwaves in 2000, it felt like we were finally living in the future. Engineers and enterprising hobbyists from around the world would compete to build the most destructive robots, which then entered into televised mortal combat within an arena. The original series had many notable robots, but two of those most iconic were DeathRoll and Hydra. Max Imagination replicated those on a small scale for mini living room battles.

    BattleBots competitors could win their matches by either damaging their opponents to the point where they could no longer operate, or by making them unable to move. The most popular way to achieve that second goal was by flipping over the opposing robot and that is the tactic used by both DeathRoll and Hydra. DeathRoll did so with a spinning disc that catches on its opponents body, while Hydra used a hydraulic arm like a pancake spatula to flip opponents.

    Max Imagination wanted to create faithful reproductions of both bots, but at a size small enough to be 3D-printed. Because hydraulics are difficult at this scale, Hydra’s flipping arm is spring-actuated and cocked with a motor-driven gear mechanism. Otherwise, both replicas work in the same way as their bigger ancestors.

    Each robot takes advantage of the new Arduino UNO R4 WiFi board for control. Max Imagination programmed those with self-hosted web interfaces, so users can pilot the bots through smartphones. The bodies were designed in Autodesk Fusion 360 to be entirely 3D-printable and Max Imagination is even selling those models for anyone who wants to construct their own fighting robots.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGK8LqaogvU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Replicating two of history’s most iconic BattleBots with the Arduino UNO R4 appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Electronics embedded in elastomer enabled this exotic dress

    Electronics embedded in elastomer enabled this exotic dress

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Integrating electronic components into textiles is usually a challenge, as they are rigid and most textile applications require flexibility. But new materials and fabrication processes are changing that dynamic. FashionTech designer Anouk Wipprecht and Chromatic 3D Materials were able to take advantage of those to develop this futuristic, motion-activated dress illuminated by embedded LEDs and circuitry.

    75 soft, flexible domes cover the body of the dress. Those contain LEDs and light up in response to people around it. And unlike similar designs, this garment is able to conform to the wearer thanks to the use of innovative new materials.

    The most notable of those materials is Chromatic’s ChromaFlow 70, which is a type of polyurethane resin meant for Reactive Deposition Modeling (RDM) 3D printing. The RDM process combines the benefits of conventional resin 3D printing with Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) by extruding layers of viscous resin that are immediately cured. ChromaFlow 70 is very strong and flexible, making it perfect for this application. And RDM is the ideal process, as it is possible to print directly onto the underlying textile while pausing to allow for placement of the electronic components.

    The illumination comes from Adafruit Flora RGB NeoPixel V2 LEDs, controlled by an Arduino UNO R4 and Nano board. Those are able to detect movement via a proximity sensor.

    Wipprecht and Chromatic 3D created this stunning dress for the Formnext convention in Frankfurt, Germany, where it will be on display from November 7th to November 10th in Hall 12.1.

    The post Electronics embedded in elastomer enabled this exotic dress appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Teaching an Arduino UNO R4-powered robot to navigate obstacles autonomously

    Teaching an Arduino UNO R4-powered robot to navigate obstacles autonomously

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The rapid rise of edge AI capabilities on embedded targets has proven that relatively low-resource microcontrollers are capable of some incredible things. And following the recent release of the Arduino UNO R4 with its Renesas RA4M1 processor, the ceiling has gotten even higher as YouTuber Nikodem Bartnik has demonstrated with his lidar-equipped mobile robot.

    Bartnik’s project started with a simple question of whether it’s possible to teach a basic robot how to make its way around obstacles using only lidar instead of the more resource-intensive computer vision techniques employed by most other platforms. The chassis and hardware, including two DC motors, an UNO R4 Minima, a Bluetooth® module, and SD card, were constructed according to Open Robotic Platform (ORP) rules so that others can easily replicate and extend its functionality. After driving through a series of courses in order to collect a point cloud from the spinning lidar sensor, Bartnik imported the data and performed a few transformations to greatly minify the classification model.

    Once trained, the model was exported with help from the micromlgen Python package and loaded onto the UNO R4. The setup enables the incoming lidar data to be classified as the direction in which the robot should travel, and according to Bartnik’s experiments, this approach worked surprisingly well. Initially, there were a few issues when navigating corners and traveling through a figure eight track, but additional training data solved it and allowed the vehicle to overcome a completely novel course at maximum speed.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdSDhdciSpE?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Teaching an Arduino UNO R4-powered robot to navigate obstacles autonomously appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • UNO R4 Stars: Meet Tigris Li

    UNO R4 Stars: Meet Tigris Li

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.

    That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.

    We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

    After competing as a national figure skater in her native Canada and attracting over 1 million views as a Minecraft YouTuber – all by the age of 12! – the good-vibes powerhouse that is Tigris Li now invites us all to explore our most human inner workings. Her goals? To help everyone develop heightened emotional intelligence, and to educate and empower a new generation of innovators. She does so through her eclectic practice as an artist and creative technologist – leveraging 3D design and every tool making has to offer, to create experiences that spark conversations about our relationships with technology, each other, and ourselves.

    Indeed, she says the project that best represents her is a “playfully absurd” installation she built in 2021, focusing on the very concept of love: the Incu-dater touches on the speculative future by welcoming couples in a futuristic pod, where they can assess the emotional status of their relationship and, based on the results, are prescribed a recommended dose of oxytocin to compensate any imbalances.

    More in general, Li was always excited about turning imagination into reality by building physical objects: “Being a maker today is a very radical thing. It’s very radical to be independent against consumer and commercial objects, to be able to create something on your own that stems from you and your individuality.”

    And today, she is able to inspire millions of followers to do the same, by sharing her projects online. Check out her latest one: a custom DJ controller based on the UNO R4 Minima and loads of fun retro style.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlwWOm8Ltbc?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

     We asked Li, “What’s your favorite part of the UNO R4?”

    • The 12×8 LED matrix in the UNO R4 Wifi, because it allows her to build “hardware as an intimate art experience which you can hold in the palm of your hand.”
    • The ESP32 module (also featured in the WiFi variant), great for wireless connectivity.
    • How the entire Arduino ecosystem is able to transcend borders and accessibility limitations, to offer new opportunities for exploration and connection to everyone.

    Li is currently based in London but of course you can catch up – and keep up – with her many projects anywhere in the world: just check out her portfolio on her website, or join the thousands already following her on Instagram and X!

    The post UNO R4 Stars: Meet Tigris Li appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Arduino Nano ESP32 becomes an ultra-low-powered, pocket-sized Linux PC

    Arduino Nano ESP32 becomes an ultra-low-powered, pocket-sized Linux PC

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    While many users get them confused, microcontroller development boards and single-board computers are very different things. Single-board computers can run full operating systems, like your desktop PC or laptop does. Microcontroller development boards, like those from Arduino, are usually limited to simpler firmware. But as microcontrollers become more powerful, the line gets blurrier. To prove that, Naveen Kumar built an ultra-low-powered portable Linux computer based on the new Arduino Nano ESP32 development board.

    By modern PC standards, the ESP32-S3 microcontroller in the Nano ESP32 board lacks both processing power and memory. But just a couple of decades ago, the 240MHz clock speed and 512kB of SRAM would have been considered respectable for a lightweight operating system. Clearly, that is still enough to run an operating system today. But there are other challenges that Kumar had to overcome to make that work.

    On the hardware side, Kumar used a Nano ESP32 along with an Arduino UNO R4 WiFi, a CardKB mini keyboard, and a 2.8″ Adafruit TFT touchscreen. The Nano ESP32 acts as a headless computer, while the UNO R4 WiFi, keyboard, and touchscreen act as a terminal to access that computer’s command line. Most Linux distros wouldn’t run on an ESP32 microcontroller, because they expect a different architecture and instruction set. But Max Filippov already ported Linux to work with the Xtensa instruction set used by the ESP32.

    Kumar explains how to compile the kernel for that port and flash it to the Nano ESP32, as well as the UNO R4 WiFi sketch. Hardware setup is quick and easy. You won’t be able to use this to run the latest triple-A games, but you will be able to work with a real Linux OS through the terminal.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpjRqMPWrAg?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Arduino Nano ESP32 becomes an ultra-low-powered, pocket-sized Linux PC appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • UNO R4 Stars: Meet Monica Rikic

    UNO R4 Stars: Meet Monica Rikic

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.

    That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.

    We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

    Born and based in Barcelona, Spain, Monica Rikic is an award-winning artist who has chosen coding and creative electronics as her expressive media. Currently a PhD student at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s Network and Information Technologies program, she first encountered Arduino at school and quickly realized the platform would open up infinite opportunities for interactive works capable able of perceiving inputs from the physical context and generating different actions in response.

    “Being a maker means not simply consuming technology, but taking on an active role in the dynamic where, every day, we are in contact with devices and applications that have become our gateways to relate to the world around us, to other people, and to ourselves as well,” she says.

    Over the years, her philosophical and artistic approach have translated into projects such as Hipertèlia, of which she has recently set up a 2023 iteration at the Sala Apolo club in Barcelona thanks to a brand new Arduino UNO R4 WiFi: 20 “balloons” with LEDs inside, interacting with visitors thanks to a camera that tracks their position and communicates it to the system via Wi-Fi. The installation will be on-site until early November — if you are in Barcelona, check it out!

    Rikic has also already developed a new project leveraging the UNO R4 Minima variant: “It’s a weird machine that generates infinite classical music, in collaboration with Rodo. Visitors at the Palau de la Musica can modify the output as they get closer to the installation, speak or even sing to it.” 

    What’s next? She is working on Hipèrbole, a new conceptual project for her EMAP European Residency with Hexagram at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, exploring the intersection between art and AI from an original standpoint — not to test machines’ creative possibilities, but to experiment with the characteristics that artificial cognitive systems must have to be considered sentient organisms. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biUfhRrCY4E?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

     We asked Rikic, “What’s your favorite part of UNO R4?”

    • The 24V tolerance: “Being able to connect to a single power source, even when controlling multiple motors, makes my work a lot simpler.”
    • The built-in mechanism that detects and prevents runtime errors: avoiding short circuits that could potentially harm the board and ruin a whole project is great, especially to keep students motivated.
    • The Qwiic I2C connector: because it allows you to connect different sensors and actuators without soldering.
    • The LED matrix: having a form of direct output helps you immediately see what you can create with electronics.

    To find out more about Rikic’s artistic research and keep an eye out for the new installations she is setting up around the world, bookmark her website or follow her on Instagram.

    The post UNO R4 Stars: Meet Monica Rikic appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Turning a Barbie dreamhouse into a screamhouse with the Arduino UNO R4

    Turning a Barbie dreamhouse into a screamhouse with the Arduino UNO R4

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    With its bright color scheme and generally upbeat tone, the recently released Barbie movie evokes many of the same feelings as the toy brand. In keeping with this idea, Jaimie and Jay of the Wicked Makers YouTube channel decided to take it in the opposite direction by transforming a Barbie dollhouse into a haunted mansion for Halloween — complete with all of the requisite eerie effects and lighting.

    The duo started by disassembling the interior and repainting the structural components, outside walls, and several other movable objects such as the door and various props. Once this had been completed, the next step involved finding LED filament, many small, discrete LEDs, and a miniature fog machine for creating an additional spookiness factor. The individual LEDs were placed into SLA printed skull lighting fixtures, custom-made clay candles, and inside of the previously pink chandelier where they could then be controlled by an Arduino UNO R4 WiFi

    Beyond these effects, a strand of LED filament was laid into the upper floor to produce a glowing ring for summoning spirits. While a pair of iPads and a phone were placed behind acrylic windows on the second floor and on the ceiling in order to play high quality videos of ghosts and a portal opening up above the summoning ring. 

    To see more about how Jaimie and Jay’s Barbie dreamhouse conversion using an UNO R4, watch their video below!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RullE9aL68?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Turning a Barbie dreamhouse into a screamhouse with the Arduino UNO R4 appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • UNO R4 Stars: Meet Greta Galli

    UNO R4 Stars: Meet Greta Galli

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.

    That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.

    We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

    Greta Galli is a 20-year-old maker – as well as a content creator, student and teacher! – focusing her high energy levels on robotics and 3D printing. If you think that’s a lot, it is. But keep in mind she got her first taste of making at the young age of 11, when she took part in a kids’ workshop at a tech fair. Fast forward a few years and she heard her high school would start teaching with Arduino, so she jumped the gun and bought her first board.

    But guess what? She couldn’t figure out how to get her first blink. And while she can laugh about it now – with 160+ tutorials uploaded to YouTube and the Minion robot she built running around her house – she had to quickly come to terms with the fact that failing is a huge part of making. She got help at the store where she had bought the board, and kept going.

    Today, her work is inspired by the idea you can make anything you can imagine. The stranger the idea, the better! With robotics, 3D printing, and coding, you can create your own project from scratch – and learn everything you need to learn as you go.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8nVpNL0ayo?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    We asked Galli, “What’s your favorite part of the UNO R4?”

    • The built-in PWM on pin 13, which allows you to make an LED blink gradually – so cool! 
    • Wi-Fi connectivity makes the UNO R4 WiFi variant incredibly easy to pair with the Arduino Cloud.
    • UNO’s standard is compatible with most shields on the market.

    You can follow Galli on Instagram and YouTube, where you can also find her tutorial on how to make a memory game with the new Arduino UNO R4 Minima (in Italian).

    The post UNO R4 Stars: Meet Greta Galli appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Building a dedicated 3D printer hot end controller with the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi

    Building a dedicated 3D printer hot end controller with the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    3D printers need to set their hot ends to a very specific temperatures suited to the filament material and keep them at those temperatures throughout the printing process. Most use PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) control for that purpose, which modulates power according to an algorithm that prioritizes stability and prevents feedback oscillations. But what if you want to control a hot end that isn’t connected to a 3D printer? In that case, Michael Klements has a guide on how to build a dedicated hot end controller.

    This dedicated hot end controller is useful if you’re building something like a filament extruder. Klements designed it for the PET Bottle Recycler, which turns garbage into useful filament. That machine needs to melt down the plastic and, naturally, it uses a hot end to do so. But because it isn’t connected to a 3D printer, Klements needed some way to control the temperature of the hot end. A full 3D printer controller board would have been overkill, so he created this dedicated controller for the job.

    Because Klements designed this for the PET Bottle Recycler, it includes a stepper motor driver as well. It is meant for use with a Creality Ender 3 hot end, but should work with others that have standard thermistor feedback (which is crucial for PID control). The custom PCB hosts an Arduino UNO R4 WiFi, which is brand new and has a lot of great features like a built-in LED matrix. That PCB also contains a MOSFET to control power to the hot end, a small OLED screen, and a rotary push button for navigating the menu.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43kFDSPJl6w?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    After assembling the PCB and flashing the provided sketch, you’ll be able to directly control a hot end or a complete filament extruder like the PET Bottle Recycler.

    The post Building a dedicated 3D printer hot end controller with the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • UNO R4 Stars: Meet Gustavo Silveira

    UNO R4 Stars: Meet Gustavo Silveira

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.

    That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.

    We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.

    Officially a composer and multimedia artist, Gustavo Silveira has been a self-proclaimed “nerd musician” ever since he discovered the technological tools to build his own instruments. His most iconic project so far is the XT Synth — a mix of guitar, violin, and MIDI controller with a slightly psychedelic look he is particularly proud of.

    What motivates him in his work is the possibility to create objects that didn’t exist before, to make art in completely new ways. After all, for Silveira making is a form of creativity: when he started “messing with Arduino” he immediately felt he could express himself artistically – not only through the results of his projects, but also through the process itself.

    Sharing his work came naturally, as a way of giving back: “I learned everything I know from the community, so nowadays being able to teach – by making videos for YouTube, writing the blog, posting on Instagram – for me is really, really cool.”

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is5q697Wqgw?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

     We asked Silveira, “What’s your favorite part of UNO R4?”

    • This new version is now HID, so it can be recognized as a USB device. So you basically have a plug-and-play, MIDI-class compliant tool to create all your next “nerd music” projects.
    • It’s equipped with a very fast processor and already has a DAC and an amplifier: as a musician or sound designer, this means you can test, prototype, and then listen right there on the UNO R4 and do synthesis or audio processing.
    • It can replace any UNO project, but also opens up new possibilities for making that were simply not there with the previous versions.

    Find out more about Silveira on his website and follow him on YouTube or Instagram. You can also check out the XT Synth project in detail here, or explore his playlist on MIDI programming with Arduino.

    The post UNO R4 Stars: Meet Gustavo Silveira appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Introducing UNO R4 WiFi support in the Arduino Cloud

    Introducing UNO R4 WiFi support in the Arduino Cloud

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We are excited to announce that the Arduino Cloud now supports the UNO R4 WiFi board, providing makers with seamless connectivity and enhanced features.

    Building upon the recent release of the much-anticipated UNO R4 in our store, this new integration significantly amplifies the capabilities of the Arduino Cloud. The UNO R4 WiFi is a revolutionary addition to the Arduino family, combining the widely popular UNO R3 form factor with built-in WiFi connectivity. It is perfect for all users, from beginners to experts, wanting to explore the forefront of innovation and IoT projects creation.

    How to connect UNO R4 WiFi to Arduino Cloud

    With the Arduino Cloud, connecting your UNO R4 WiFi board becomes a breeze. Our user-friendly interface and intuitive workflows ensure a smooth setup process. To get started, follow our usual “Add a device” workflow:

    • Visit Arduino Cloud.
    • Connect your UNO R4 WiFi to your PC.
    • Navigate to the Devices section and click on “Add Device.” Your board will be detected automatically.
    • The workflow will guide you through updating the connectivity firmware to ensure compatibility.
    • Once the update is complete, your UNO R4 WiFi is ready to be managed from the Arduino Cloud.

    UNO R4 WiFi + Arduino Cloud = Unleash your creativity

    Develop from anywhere using the web editor, share your sketches with your colleagues and friends, create dashboards to monitor and control your devices remotely from a browser or your mobile phone, share information between multiple devices, or integrate seamlessly your devices with Alexa. 

    About Arduino Cloud

    The Arduino Cloud is the next exciting journey for IoT enthusiasts to bring their projects to life quickly. It is an all-in-one intuitive IoT platform, supporting a wide range of hardware and backed by the vibrant Arduino community. Arduino Cloud removes complexity to empower users from all levels of expertise to create from anywhere, control and share their projects with stunning dashboards.

    Sign up for Arduino Cloud now and unleash the full potential of your UNO R4 WiFi board!

    The post Introducing UNO R4 WiFi support in the Arduino Cloud appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Predicting soccer games with ML on the UNO R4 Minima

    Predicting soccer games with ML on the UNO R4 Minima

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Based on the Renesas RA4M1 microcontroller, the new Arduino UNO R4 boasts 16x the RAM, 8x the flash, and a much faster CPU compared to the previous UNO R3. This means that unlike its predecessor, the R4 is capable of running machine learning at the edge to perform inferencing of incoming data. With this fact in mind, Roni Bandini wanted to leverage his UNO R4 Minima by training a model to predict the likelihood of a FIFA team winning their match.

    Bandini began his project by first downloading a dataset containing historical FIFA matches, including the country, team, opposing team, ranking, and neutral location. Next, the data was added to Edge impulse as a time-series dataset which feeds into a Keras classifier ML block and produces “win” and “lose/draw” values. Once trained, the model achieved an accuracy of 69% with a loss value of 0.58.

    Inputting the desired country and rank to make a prediction is done by making selections on a DFRobot LCD shield, and these values are then used to populate the input tensor for the model before it gets invoked and returns its classification results. Bandini’s device demonstrates how much more powerful the Arduino UNO R4 is over the R3, and additional information on the project can be found here in his post.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYTukgY9kEU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Predicting soccer games with ML on the UNO R4 Minima appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • UNO R4: The new dimension of making

    UNO R4: The new dimension of making

    Reading Time: 3 minutes
    Arduino UNO R4

    The revolutionary UNO R4, announced on Arduino Day, is now available on the Arduino Store!

    The fourth version of the iconic, beloved UNO adds a whole new dimension to the world of DIY and making revolutionized by the simple 8-bit microcontroller over a decade ago. Take your maker potential to new heights: UNO R4 has a speedy 32-bit Arm® Cortex®-M4 and offers a 16-fold increase in memory, as well as more connectors and connectivity options than ever – in two variants: UNO R4 Minima and UNO R4 WiFi

    What’s in the new UNO?

    Both variants allow you to start making or easily upgrade UNO R3-based projects with more computational power, memory and speed than previous versions – courtesy of the RA4M1 microcontroller by Renesas – while maintaining the same form factor and 5 V operating voltage. 

    • More memory and faster clock: A 16x increase in memory and 3x the clock speed mean the UNO R4 can perform more precise calculations and handle more complex and sophisticated projects than ever.
    • New built-in peripherals: Among several exciting new peripherals, you get a 12-bit DAC, CAN BUS, OP AMP, and SWD port – each one expanding your maker potential, allowing you to easily tackle increasingly advanced projects.
    • A USB-C® Connector: Embracing the smaller, more powerful, and robust cable standard!
    • An HID device: This feature makes interactive projects a million times cooler, allowing you to create interfaces with minimal effort and in no time.

    You can get started on your next automation or audio project with the UNO R4 Minima – a top pick for first-time makers, with its combination of powerful technology and affordable price – or you can opt for the UNO R4 WiFi if you need more specific features.

    Connect to your inner creativity with the UNO R4 WiFi

    The UNO R4 WiFi variant is perfect for all users, from beginners to experts, wanting to explore the forefront of innovation. This full-fledged board features an ESP32-S3 coprocessor that handles Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® Low Energy connectivity, so the RA4M1 microcontroller can focus on other tasks. On top of all the features in the Minima variant, it offers:

    • Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® connectivity, plus Cloud-compatibility: build IoT projects, create interactive dashboard and control your project remotely.
    • A 12×8 LED matrix: imagine working on a creative project using animations or plotting sensor data, without any additional hardware!
    • A Qwiic connector to facilitate quick prototyping: thanks to a wide variety of compatible modules that can be connected over I2C, you can easily create custom projects and expand the capabilities of your UNO R4 WiFi.
    • A built-in mechanism that detects operations that might cause a crash: if it catches errors such as a division by zero, the board stops them before they can cause trouble and provides a detailed explanation on the serial monitor

    The Arduino ecosystem has evolved, over the last two decades, thanks to the powerful idea of open source and the stellar community of 30+ million makers who keep sharing, building, and improving. Every new hardware product, every new software solution has added new worlds – ready to welcome everyone. Now, the UNO R4 takes the ecosystem and the community to a new dimension of performance. 

    – Massimo Banzi, Arduino co-founder

    So, if you’re just beginning your Arduino journey, the release of the UNO R4 makes it a great time to start!

    Already an UNO fan? The UNO R4 makes it easy to port existing shields and projects to a whole new level, and selected contributors are already helping us update UNO R3 libraries. 

    A final big thank you goes to our community and early adopters, who have supported us these past few months by contributing their efforts to porting libraries.

    What are you waiting for?

    The post UNO R4: The new dimension of making appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Early adopters: We want you!

    Early adopters: We want you!

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    During Arduino Day 2023, we announced the new UNO R4 and we are now looking for contributors from the community to help support the portability of libraries and open source projects based on an AVR Arduino boards such as the UNO R3, Mega, Leonardo, and Nano.

    The Arduino UNO R4 is designed for maximum compatibility, maintaining the same form factor, shield compatibility, and 5V operating voltage as its predecessor. The board features a Renesas RA4M1 32-bit Cortex®-M4 processor, providing a significant boost in processing power, memory, and functionality.

    Software compatibility is also a priority, with most existing libraries and examples working seamlessly on the new hardware. To grant backwards compatibility for all libraries and projects, we launchedn early access program.

    If you are the author or a maintainer of a library or a popular open source project for Arduino, apply to join the early access program and ensure users will be able to also run your code on the UNO R4. 

    By submitting your request as well as proving some competence on Arduino libraries and projects, you can receive a free board and technical support for the Renesas RA4 architecture.

    We’d love to see you contribute in porting libraries!

    The post Early adopters: We want you! appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK