SparkFun: Learn Blog
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ISTE Re-cap
Brian Huang
urn:uuid:25794a25-f5a8-4426-54e9-b11b93143a30
2016-07-01T16:45:23-06:00
<p>This was my first year at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference and the first year that SparkFun had a real strong presence at this conference. During the three days of ISTE, our team designed, delivered, and setup a brand new booth; presented at 3 workshops; and spoke at 3 different talks. We're all very excited about the new friendships and contacts we made this year. We can't wait for next year in San Antonio!</p>
<p>Here's a quick re-cap of this year's event:</p>
<h2>The New Booth</h2>
<p>This year, the events and marketing team at SparkFun did a fantastic job working with folks at <a href="http://www.skyline.com/">Skyline</a> to design a stunning new booth for ISTE 2016. The graphics of the booth are stunning and the design is the perfect balance between the roughness of a DIY Workshop and the polish of a mature company. This show was the debut of the booth to the public.</p>
<p>This was the initial design concept:</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/Booth_Concept.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/Booth_Concept.png" alt="alt text" /></a> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/Booth_Concept2.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/Booth_Concept2.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>And, we couldn't be happier with the actual results:</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/File_003__1_.jpeg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/File_003__1_.jpeg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>The new booth setup - complete with tool boxes, monitors, and LED lighting effects</em></div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/File_004__1_.jpeg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/File_004__1_.jpeg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>Side podium is for highlighting projects and specific demos in the booth.</em></div></p>
<p><a name="talks"></p>
<h2>Talks / Presentations</h2>
<h3><a href="https://conference.iste.org/2016/?id=100946843">ISTE 1-in-3 Sessions -- Round 2</a></h3>
<p>Each presenter will share their best technology integration moment in just three minutes.</p>
<ol>
<li>Create Virtual Reality, Without Breaking the Bank All in 3 Minutes!, Debra Atchison</li>
<li>Visual Math - Use the Camera, Not the Copier!, April Holloway</li>
<li>It's a Mystery: Skyping Connects Classrooms & Content, Nikole Blanchard</li>
<li>Approaching Digital Diversity Through Student Engagement, Robert Miller</li>
<li>Nurturing the Neglected C, Lisa Johnson</li>
<li>Libraries Transform Learning, Kristina Holzweiss</li>
<li>Don't Teach Proficiency. Challenge GAFE Proficiency!, John Salerno</li>
<li>Augmented Storytelling thru Student Collaboration, Suzette Mirabal</li>
<li>The Importance Of Teaching Kids How To Use A Screwdriver, Jeff Richardson</li>
<li><strong>Ten Inexpensive Reasons Not to Buy a 3D Printer, Beverly Ball</strong></li>
<li>Connecting Field Trips to the Classroom, Jennifer Pociecha</li>
<li><strong>Teaching the Machines: Coding Lessons from a Humanities Viewpoint, Jeff Branson</strong></li>
<li>Let's Write on Our Desks!, Robert Pronovost</li>
<li>Teacher Spin: Take Control of Your Classroom PR, Danielle Sloan</li>
<li>Using Photospheres to create Expeditions, James McCrary</li>
</ol>
<h3><a href="https://conference.iste.org/2016/program/search_session_detail.php?id=100946826">ISTE Ignite Sessions -- Round 2</a></h3>
<p>This was the second round in the series of ISTE Ignite sessions. Eleven presenters will have just five minutes and 20 slides each to share their passions in a continuous rapid-fire presentation.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/Ignite_SketchNote.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/Ignite_SketchNote.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>Courtesy of our friend Carrie Baughcum (@HeckAwesome) and her amazing talents with #sketchnotes</em></div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/ISTE_Ignite.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/ISTE_Ignite.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>All of the fantastic speakers and educators that I had the privilege to share the stage with</em></div></p>
<ol>
<li>Why Good Teachers Make Good DJs, Carl Hooker</li>
<li>Messy Making' with Paint & Pixels: Seamless Technology Integration & Hands-On Creative Classrooms, cathy hunt</li>
<li>Super enrichment program to explore what are outside classroom, Kunta Hutabarat</li>
<li>Cultivating Creativity in the Classroom, Melinda Kolk</li>
<li>Learning to Fail, Caitlin McLemore</li>
<li>From Basic to ACES: Access, Curate, Engage and Share with #ScannableTech, Monica Burns</li>
<li>What If We Could Really Be A Part of Global Learning, Debra Atchison</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/lxn57asv8mpum3r/ISTE_Ignite_bhuang.ppt?dl=0">Empowerment through Making: Physical Computing and STEAM Education, Brian Huang</a></strong></li>
<li>Classrooms should look and feel like coffee shops., Jaime Chanter</li>
<li>Because They Need More than the Single-Story, Katharine Hale</li>
<li>iWonder. (Do you?), Michelle Bourgeois</li>
</ol>
<p><a name="workshops"></p>
<h2>Workshops</h2>
<h3><a href="http://conference.iste.org/2016/?id=100433692">Create Digital Art with the Processing Programming Language</a></h3>
<p>Where do you go after the Hour of Code? <a href="http://www.processing.org">Processing</a> is a free programming environment created with artists, students and designers in mind. Learn this versatile language through hands-on participation, then discover how your students can use it as a creative medium for making digital art.</p>
<p>In this workshop we present <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/resources/77">materials</a> we developed that are ready for classroom use as well as material that eventually became the basis for the <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13313">SparkFun Guide to Processing</a> book by Derek Runberg.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13313"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/2/1/3/4/processing_book.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<h3><a href="http://conference.iste.org/2016/?id=100463395">Art-duino: Connect Computer Science, Art and Technology With Project-Based Learning</a></h3>
<p>Arduino is the go-to programmable hardware choice for artists, makers and hobbyists. In this workshop, you'll learn all about this low-cost microcontroller and use it to build your own light sculpture in a creative, open-ended, project-based learning environment.</p>
<p>Here were some Twitter highlights / examples from the class:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I made an Arduino monster! Thanks to the awesome folks at <a href="https://twitter.com/SparkFunEDU">@SparkFunEDU</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/isteconnects">@isteconnects</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISTE2016?src=hash">#ISTE2016</a> <a href="https://t.co/bdHFO8GHIJ">pic.twitter.com/bdHFO8GHIJ</a></p>— Lauren Roy (@iTeacherFlorida) <a href="https://twitter.com/iTeacherFlorida/status/747539794465423360">June 27, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I DID IT! All thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/SparkFunEDU">@SparkFunEDU</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/bri_huang">@bri_huang</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISTE2016?src=hash">#ISTE2016</a> <a href="https://t.co/waqSA2Y02Q">pic.twitter.com/waqSA2Y02Q</a></p>— Jessica Buckley (@BuckleyMethod) <a href="https://twitter.com/BuckleyMethod/status/747544371545808896">June 27, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Potentiometer control high/low LED; RGB LED; & view in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/processing?src=hash">#processing</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arduino?src=hash">#Arduino</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/artduino?src=hash">#artduino</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISTE2016?src=hash">#ISTE2016</a> <a href="https://t.co/MZJqSutNf3">https://t.co/MZJqSutNf3</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/bri_huang">@bri_huang</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sparkfun?src=hash">#sparkfun</a></p>— Sarah Sutter (@edueyeview) <a href="https://twitter.com/edueyeview/status/747540891842158592">June 27, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<h3><a href="http://conference.iste.org/2016/?id=100347280">Convert Recycled Materials Into STEM Robots With Arduino</a></h3>
<p>Popularity and excitement around robotics and engineering continues to grow in schools across the country, but many platforms are very cost prohibitive. We will show you how to build your own robotics platform using cardboard, recycled cans and found materials using Arduino, a low-cost, open-source microcontroller.</p>
<p>Here were some Twitter highlights / examples from our class:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">STEM robots created using <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arduino?src=hash">#Arduino</a> in a fantastic workshop presented by <a href="https://twitter.com/bri_huang">@bri_huang</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/SparkFunEDU">@SparkFunEDU</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISTE2016?src=hash">#ISTE2016</a> <a href="https://t.co/d2Btw21etp">pic.twitter.com/d2Btw21etp</a></p>— Autumn DeGroot (@ms_degroot) <a href="https://twitter.com/ms_degroot/status/748524103909408769">June 30, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thanks <a href="https://twitter.com/bri_huang">@bri_huang</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/SparkFunEDU">@SparkFunEDU</a> for a fun workshop, creating STEM robots with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arduino?src=hash">#Arduino</a> & recyclables! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISTE2016?src=hash">#ISTE2016</a> <a href="https://t.co/uFvDRYXS7w">pic.twitter.com/uFvDRYXS7w</a></p>— Autumn DeGroot (@ms_degroot) <a href="https://twitter.com/ms_degroot/status/748522482987048960">June 30, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SparkFunEDU">@SparkFunEDU</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/bri_huang">@bri_huang</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISTE2016?src=hash">#ISTE2016</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/arduino?src=hash">#arduino</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/robotdanceparty?src=hash">#robotdanceparty</a> <a href="https://t.co/SfGKU7FREC">pic.twitter.com/SfGKU7FREC</a></p>— Allison Levine (@edtechalev) <a href="https://twitter.com/edtechalev/status/748218082162675712">June 29, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Feeling so great about the convert recycled material into STEM robot with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/arduino?src=hash">#arduino</a> session <a href="https://twitter.com/bri_huang">@bri_huang</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISTE2016?src=hash">#ISTE2016</a> <a href="https://t.co/q4uLXtBsDM">pic.twitter.com/q4uLXtBsDM</a></p>— Fanny Passeport (@fanny_passeport) <a href="https://twitter.com/fanny_passeport/status/748202678593921024">June 29, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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National Robotics Challenge 2015
Jeffrey Branson
urn:uuid:afb425e7-80f0-b6b3-5d47-4ad518bc4a91
2015-04-23T08:53:46-06:00
<p>Every year for over 20 years the National Robotics Challenge (NRC) in Marion, OH, has hosted teams from around the country in a range of competitions aimed at highlighting robotics education.</p>
<p>SparkFun has been in attendance since 2011, and has been a sponsor since 2012. In the past two years we’ve stepped up our presence and hosted competitions. This year we were the judges and hosts for three competitions between April 9-12.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/8/0/9/robot.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/8/0/9/robot.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>A hacked data collector running a sumo robot</em></div></p>
<p>For our second year we ran an interactivity challenge that asks students to build an interface with data coming from a peripheral like LEGO, VEX, Arduino or a mobile device, and show it in a graphical interface such as Processing, Java, Python or an IoT channel. This year’s winner was an innovative EKG style data-logger that wrote values to a time-stamped sheet of paper.</p>
<p>This was the first year we hosted an Autonomous Vehicle Challenge based on the race that happens at SparkFun every year.
We scaled the size of the course slightly, and despite very questionable rain and thunderstorms, we had nine teams compete with three teams completing the course. We saw a range of vehicles, from LEGO and Vex-based vehicles, to Arduino driven rigs that would have been right at home at our race in Boulder.</p>
<p>The highpoint was the team from Cedarville University with an elegant, non-GPS based solution that was reliable and performed very well.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/8/0/9/Untitled.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/8/0/9/Untitled.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>Student starts practice run in the pouring rain</em></div></p>
<p>In addition, this year SparkFun ran an optional cryptography challenge. This challenge wasn’t advertised and students could participate on a “drop-in” basis. The challenge was centered around four XBee radio beacons that were hidden on-site at the event. Students were given XBee Explorers to access the hidden beacons. Through a series of radio channels that responded to specific radio “pings,” the hidden beacons would return four strings of encoded text. The students then had to decode the text and reconstruct the original message. Kenton Robotics from Kenton, OH, was the first team to finish, and through the course of the day, four teams finished the puzzle. The event was wildly popular and we look forward to running it again, both at NRC and in other locations.</p>
<p>The NRC has grown to be a tremendous resource and we look forward to it every year. If you think your students would be interested, more information about NRC can be found <a href="thenrc.org">here</a>.</p>
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SparkFun Returns to the White House!
Lindsay Diamond
urn:uuid:a356c8ee-3562-d598-33b4-86e1f4e6c2b7
2015-04-08T10:50:00-06:00
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/WhiteHouseblog.jpeg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/WhiteHouseblog.jpeg" alt="White House" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>Admittedly, not the exact view we had after passing through four layers of security checkpoints to attend the Science Fair.</em></div></p>
<p>If you ever want to experience the feeling of being completely humbled and optimistic about the future, the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/science-fair">White House Science Fair</a> is the place to be. I was truly honored to have the privilege of walking around, talking to the students about their projects and breathing in all of the excitement and enthusiasm swirling around in the air. Of course, it didn't hurt having the energy of science heroes like Bill Nye and Leland Melvin in the crowd. Here is a quick <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF5c8JzJGeA">highlight video</a> of the event.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/scienceheroes.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/scienceheroes.jpg" alt="Bill Nye and Leland Melvin" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>Sneaking in a few pictures with heroes</em>. </div></p>
<p>As part of the event, the President released the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/23/fact-sheet-president-obama-announces-over-240-million-new-stem-commitmen">statement of commitments</a> from institutions of all kinds, including his pledge of $240M for STEM education. Our invitation to the event was tied to our sponsorship of a program with the United Negro College Fund, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to engage students in maker activities. The program will include the first-ever <em>Making for Change Showcase</em>, which will highlight innovative solutions to community-based challenges.</p>
<p>At the heart of every project is the desire to solve a problem or improve upon a current solution. For students like Kenneth Shinozuka and Harry Paul, the challenge at hand was close to home with inventions solving issues these students faced in their own lives or the lives of family and friends. For others, the projects ranged from rockets and robotics to clean water, saving the bees, encouraging exercise and mitigating hiccups. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/03/20/meet-exhibitors-2015-white-house-science-fair-1">Read more</a> about each of the participants or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvPEhk5v7nc">watch the video (55min)</a> of President Obama speaking with all of the amazing students.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/SuperGirlsblog.jpeg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/SuperGirlsblog.jpeg" alt="Super Girls!" /></a> </div></p>
<p>-><em>SuperGirls! Junior FIRST Lego League Team from Daisy Girl Scouts’ troop 411 and their battery-powered page turner that could turn pages for people who are paralyzed or have arthritis. <br />
Emily Bergenroth, Alicia Cutter, Karissa Cheng, Addy Oneal, and Emery Dodson, 6 (Tulsa, OK)</em> <-</p>
<p>While there was certainly some mention of intellectual property and patents, I was elated to see an open source project from Mohammed Sayed and Kaitlin Reed (both 16 years-old) who used a 3D printer to transform Mohammed's wheelchair into a cutting-edge piece of technology. I was able to catch Kaitlin for a few minutes and she was quick to highlight the fact that making the project open source allows for it to be accessible and affordable. Big high-five to these students and we look forward to visiting the NuVu program the next time we're in the area!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/LiliandPillMinder.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/LiliandPillMinder.jpg" alt="Lilianna Zyszkowski" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>Lilianna Zyszkowski exhibits her PillMinder prototypes</em> </div></p>
<p>The familiar sight of open source hardware led me to Lilianna Zyszkowski, 14, of Norfolk, CT. Lily and I spoke for quite awhile about her various projects and how she used SparkFun hardware in her prototypes. Lili's main project, the PillMinder, was created with a grandparent in mind. It uses capacitive touch sensors, LED lights and a networked microcontroller to remind people to take their medications on schedule. The device also alerts caregivers via Twitter and SMS whether the proper pills have been taken on time. As a Next Step Inventor with the Connecticut Invention Convention, Lili is also working with a Silicon Valley firm to bring the PillMinder technology to market.*</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/PresidentObamaAddressblog.jpeg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/PresidentObamaAddressblog.jpeg" alt="President Obama" /></a><br /> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>President Obama addresses the guests and exhibitors at the White House Science Fair</em> </div></p>
<p>It was an honor to be in the ballroom for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2LSXc-fBbg">President Obama's address</a>. He was genuinely enthusiastic, charming and even tossed out a jab at Congress to support his budget for research funding. President Obama highlighted these students' contributions to science and engineering while also emphasizing the importance of ensuring that there are laboratories and jobs for these students to pursue in the future. Admittedly, while I am biased in this regard, I dream of a day when science is a fully-supported bipartisan issue!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/WhiteHouseOSTP.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/8/7/WhiteHouseOSTP.png" alt="WhiteHouseOSTP" /></a></div><br /> <-</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"><em>We even showed up on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Twitter feed!</em></div></p>
<p>Until next time, White House!</p>
<p><small>_*<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/03/20/meet-exhibitors-2015-white-house-science-fair-1">Project descriptions from White House</a>_ </small></p>
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On the Origin of Thermal Sensors
Amanda Clark
urn:uuid:187ea0fa-a0de-53e9-4d89-73d35189d5dd
2015-03-03T15:49:50-07:00
<p>The arctic is changing, and unfortunately we don't really know how or why. The question of why
is one that people can become overly argumentative about, so let’s focus on the how instead.
We've been tracking the extent of ice and snow for a long time now. <a href="http://www.natice.noaa.gov/ims/">NOAA</a> has a whole division dedicated to that. However, they only
track the surface area of the sea ice. This tells us clearly that the area of sea ice is shrinking
but leaves out any information about the actual volume of ice. Naysayers can use this to their
advantage by saying the ice could be decreasing in area but increasing in depth keeping the
volume the same. Although this argument glazes over many other issues with changes in the
sea ice, it can be made.</p>
<p>The need to determine the volume of the sea ice brought my research group from the
Southwest Virginia Governor’s School and Radford University to the arctic. It is an amazing
place, and anyone who has not gone should try to visit. There is nothing more invigorating
than stepping off an airplane, taking a deep breath, and realizing that your entire nasal cavity
has frozen together (keep in mind doing this is a bad idea).</p>
<p>On the initial visits to Barrow, Alaska, our group tried to use different geophysical equipment
to measure the resistivity of the sub-surface structure. However, this was never enough so a
few trips back some of my students from the Southwest Virginia Governor’s School came up
with a new idea. They wanted to measure the surface temperature to see if there is a
correlation between the thickness of the ice and the surface temperature. They had just
finished the chapter on thermal conduction in my physics class a few days earlier. The idea
was that if the ice is thin the warm water, which is at about -2.1C, would conduct heat to the
surface, which is at around -20C faster than thicker ice. So we set out to find thermal
sensors. We started with <a href="http://www.maximintegrated.com/products/ibutton/ibuttons/thermochron.cfm">thermochrons</a>, however, the first year we lost about five because they were so small, and they would take almost 20 minutes to come to equilibrium after they were touched for a few seconds by a glove.</p>
<p>This lead my research team and me to develop an Arduino based non-contact thermal
sensor and then to revise that system on subsequent trips. The final product was named
Whistler, for no better reason than it needed a name, and made use of many SparkFun
products. The workhorse of Whistler is an <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11113">Arduino ProMini</a>. The ProMini coordinates between the <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9530">SparkFun OpenLog</a>, <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9341">switches</a> and wires, LED indicators (it turns out knowing the thing is on is important), a <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10988">linear temperature
sensor</a>, a <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9312">hall sensor</a> to determine distance traveled, a <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8484">LiPo and power
cell</a> and most importantly the <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9570">MLX90614</a>. All these parts worked together fantastically, and I was able to run code that looped in under 15ms. Even with more sensors, this was over 2x as fast as version 2.0, known as Therma. I also started using <a href="https://github.com/swvgs/Arctic-2014-thermal">Github</a> to track all the changes so you can actually
see all the files for the PCB, data sheets (I love a good data sheet), and the code for the microcontroller.</p>
<p>The other big change we implemented was that everyone going on the trip had to learn how
to use an Arduino. Luckily our Governor’s School had 20 <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12643">SIK’s</a> from the <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1372">SparkFun National Tour</a> in which we took part. We let each student check out his or her own SIK to learn how to use an Arduino. By the time we got up to the arctic all members of the research team could successfully program an Arduino, fix code, and use the sensors
that were part of Whistler.</p>
<p>The actual Whistler unit was relatively cheap to build, considering geophysics equipment
usually starts at around $50,000, and worked well. The team used the setup for almost two
weeks in the frigid cold and had little to no trouble. The SMD microUSB connector on the
power cell was manhandled a little and broken off, but that's why we brought spares. In fact,
they took all the equipment out one day when it was around -55F with the <a href="http://vimeo.com/88872040">windchill</a>, and Whistler was the only piece of equipment that was still
working after three hours. The only reason they didn't test it longer was because the
students stopped working at that point!</p>
<p>The best part about this was that the students had direct input on the design, development,
survey techniques, data analysis, fame, and glory associated with it. Usually they only get to
use something pre-built, but now they've had the opportunity to see why it’s so hard to
make something that works. They found out that shadows on ice can cause a temperature
difference of around -4C compared to ice that is in direct sunlight. So the next group of
students will have to answer “is this albedo or emissivity that’s the problem, and how can we
account for it?” Time to start planning version 4.0 (project Snobird)!</p>
<p>Melissa Brett examines the TMP36 with Dr. Rhett Herman before leaving for the trip.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_1.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_1.jpg" alt="Melissa Brett and Dr. Rhett Herman" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Melissa Brett gets personal with the Redboard.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_2.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_2.jpg" alt="RedBoard" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Jesse Dodson and Corey Roadcap stare longingly at the Arduino IDE.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_3.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_3.jpg" alt="Jesse Dodson and Corey Roadcap" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Governor’s School students, Ashley Jordan and Austin Owen, fight for supremacy to find out
who can get the TMP36 sensor to work first.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_4.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_4.jpg" alt="Ashley Jordan and Austin Owen" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Whistler’s first trip out on the ice with Austin Owen and Erica Martin.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_5.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_5.jpg" alt="Whistler" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Corey Roadcap forgets what he was going to say as he shows the raw unprocessed Whistler
data.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_6.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_6.jpg" alt="Corey Roadcap" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Sarah House shows the temperature, -20F (real feel -49F).</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_7.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_7.jpg" alt="Sarah House" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Jessi Basham, Jordan Eagle, Dr. Rhett Herman, and Jesse Dodson examine Whistler while
reminiscing about arcade buttons from their childhood.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_8.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_8.jpg" alt="Whistler group" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Whistler actually has a fraternal twin who is badly in need of having her zipties clipped.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_9.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_9.jpg" alt="Fraternal twin" /></a> </div></p>
<p>The innards of Whistler!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_10.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_10.jpg" alt="Inside Whistler" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Close ups of the Hall sensor, MLX90614, and TMP36 sensors. The meat and potatoes of
Whistler!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_11.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_11.jpg" alt="Hall sensor" /></a> </div></p>
<p>The next image is the resistivity data plotted with the thermal data on top. You can start to see the general trend in the data. Maybe the next trip will be the one that gives all the glorious data we need to confirm!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_12.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/6/4/photo_12.jpg" alt="Chart" /></a> </div></p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1764#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1764/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
Small Soldering Classes at Port City Makerspace
Amanda Clark
urn:uuid:08a4ecf8-2a6a-5931-6433-ca6d4ecbc589
2015-02-12T11:18:09-07:00
<p>Alex Nunn is from one of the two makerspaces in New Hampshire called <a href="http://www.portcitymakerspace.com/">Port City Makerspace</a>. He's the manager of the shop, but he also does the monthly soldering classes and hosts hacker nights.</p>
<p>Recently he had people doing two basic kits at his classes. One was the <a href="http://www.makershed.com/products/learn-to-solder-skill-badge-kit">robot solder badge</a> from the <a href="http://www.makershed.com/">Maker Shed</a>, and the other was SparkFun's <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10723">WeevilEye kit</a>. Both of them turned out to be really fun for people, and those two kits together made for a great learning process.</p>
<p>Check out some of the photos from his class!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/8/2013-11-29_19.14.16.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/8/2013-11-29_19.14.16.jpg" alt="Girl Scout workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p>This is one of the first large group soldering classes Alex did. His class was online and listed as free, yet for a couple weeks he had no takers. Pretty much the day before the class was scheduled, he was asked if he could teach a class for eight Girl Scouts. He had luckily prepared enough of his own kits, so he said sure! It was a little alarming, and he kind of stumbled through it, but the girls got some good practice and went home with a circuit they put together themselves!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/8/2015-02-07_13.25.11.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/8/2015-02-07_13.25.11.jpg" alt="Simple kit" /></a> </div></p>
<p>This is the kit they put together. It's not the prettiest thing, but the point was that it was simple, fun, and cheap. He did the class for free this time for that reason.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/8/2015-01-02_20.27.25.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/8/2015-01-02_20.27.25.jpg" alt="January soldering class" /></a> </div></p>
<p>This is a picture of his January soldering class. It was a good group! The girl on the left was more interested in soldering for jewelry rather than electronics, so she decided to take the class just to practice.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/8/2014-12-05_19.18.21.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/8/2014-12-05_19.18.21.jpg" alt="First class" /></a> </div></p>
<p>This was the class that took place in either December or November. He couldn't remember exactly when. There were only a couple of people, but what made it more interesting were the questions they had when it was a smaller group. Several were in depth questions about the types of solder, heat transfer, what flux is and so on. One man was interested in a specific electronics project he was planning and wanted advice on battery connectors and power ratings.</p>
<p>All in all the classes went really well!</p>
<p>Thanks SparkFun, for all that you do!</p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1748#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1748/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
Guest Blog: Experience Fab10 Barcelona
Brian Huang
urn:uuid:67e2068c-f381-a469-b10a-57910a1e2fb0
2015-02-10T20:37:00-07:00
<p>A good friend of mine, <a href="https://terencefagan.wordpress.com/about/">Terrence Fagan</a>, Engineering Chair at <a href="http://www.cpcc.edu/et?searchterm=engineering">Central Piedmont Community College</a>, had a unique opportunity to be part of the Fab Academy class and attend the <a href="https://www.fab10.org/">Fab10 Symposium</a> in Barcelona last summer.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/3/20140701_012325.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/3/20140701_012325.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Fab10 was the 10th annual conference around the growing network of <a href="http://www.fabfoundation.org/fab-labs/">FabLabs</a> across the globe, and focused around what it looks like to provide people in all neighborhoods access to a freely available production facility. They are pushing greater access, democritization of technology, and the teaching and spreading of knowledge in communities world-wide.</p>
<p>At last year's conference, the tag line read: "from Fab Labs to Fab Cities." Terrence Fagan's account of his trip inspires me and everyone I know to attend <a href="http://www.fab11.org/"><strong>Fab11</strong></a> -- this time to be held state side in Cambridge / Boston / Somerville, MA. It is a must attend for anyone interested in developing and working digital fabrication into the education space.</p>
<p>In my search for material, I found this great short documentary on Fab10:</p>
<div class="flex-video-wrap clearfix">
<div class="flex-video widescreen img">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MyMl_Qedd7c/?autohide=1&border=0&wmode=opaque&enablejsapi=1" frameborder=0 allowfullscreen width="560" height="315"></iframe>
</div>
</div>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Fab10 - the documentary</div></p>
<p>As shared by: Terrence Fagan -- Experience at Fab10 - Barcelona</p>
<p>Being an engineering educator for almost 15 years now I have been to a lot of conferences. The good the bad and the ugly. I have been to engineering, education, science, sustainable, and the list goes on and on. In July, I had the pleasure of being a part of <a href="https://fab10.org">Fab 10</a> -->
). I was blown away by this conference. I was invited to the conference after undergoing an intense <a href="http://www.fabacademy.org/">Fab Academy</a> class modeled after the MIT class “How to Make Almost Anything”</p>
<p>I knew I was in for a treat when my colleague, Adam Harris, showed up to register. The whole look and feel was tremendously different than any conference I have been before. First off, it was pure chaos from the start. I don’t mean in a bad way. I mean it in a great way. This was part of the charm of Fab 10.</p>
<p>The night we showed up at <a href="http://www.fablabbcn.org/">IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture at Catalonia)</a> people of different races, background, countries, styles, education levels were mixing and mingling all night long. Music was blasting, art demos were going on. I have never met such an eclectic group than I did that night. This was the first time I felt at home at a conference. For some reason, I always feel a little out of place at conferences, BUT not this time. This lasted throughout the conference.</p>
<p>The conference was was actually three different but interlocking conferences all rolled into one; Symposium, some workshops, and Fab Festival.</p>
<p>The symposium was your typical venue of speakers. However, I was never bored and wanted to listen. (Which to my dismay does not happen at some other conferences) Each speaker was very engaging and were all thought provoking. There were a couple of speakers who I could not help but to be more engaged. One of which was Bert Crenca, a visual artist, performance artist, and musician from AS220. First off he was boisterous, however what resonated with me was his passion and very candid nature. Another speaker to whom I connected with was Nadeem Mazeen, CEO of <a href="Nimblebot.com">Nimblebot.com</a>, cofounder of <a href="DangerAwesome.co">DangerAwesome.co</a> and Cambridge City Councilor. What resonated with me was not his founding of various enterprises but the fact that he took it upon himself to get elected to Cambridge City Council. From this position he is transforming Cambridge for the better.</p>
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<p><br></p>
<p>I cannot begin to tell you about all the countless workshops where we do the same thing and listen to a person talk and talk about what they have done. However, this was not the case for the workshops at Fab 10. Workshops are actually workshops where you learn by doing not sitting listening to a lecture about making you actually are making and learning through making. There were less rules, more like guidelines. You were encouraged to go off script. One workshop I was at was <a href="http://reshalaser.org/">build your own laser cutter workshop</a>. Here the audience was split into two different groups to build a laser cutter.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/3/20140703_165133_.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/3/20140703_165133_.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Halfway through putting the laser cutter together, we realized we were missing a critical part to the carriage. In typical Fab Lab nature we asked someone if we can borrow a 3D printer and print out the piece. In typical Fab Lab nature they responded kindly. Although it took longer it was a great experience.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/3/20140708_180307.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/3/20140708_180307.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Barcelona is known as the first Fab City. There are numerous Fab Labs within around the city. Fab City is concept spearheaded by Vicente Guallart. Each with its own focus from a mountaintop Fab Lab, <a href="http://www.valldaura.net/">Valldaura Self Sufficient Lab</a> focused Sustainability (Jonathan Minchin), the <a href="https://www.fablabs.io/fablabsitges">Beach Lab</a> focused on economic empowerment for the area (Francisco Sanchez), and <a href="http://www.iaac.net/fab-lab/intro">IAAC</a> (Luciano Betoldi) to name a few. All which were genuinely notable experiences.</p>
<p>If I was to sum up my adventure at Fab 10 it would be honest to goodness the people and the belief we can do our part to change the world. This is a must attend conference for all persons and organizations interested in transforming the school and classroom to the ultimate student learning experience.</p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1723#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1723/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
Soldering Workshop at Craftsbury Public Library
Amanda Clark
urn:uuid:51d74caf-d851-6519-242d-1bd4f502332e
2015-02-09T10:05:09-07:00
<p><a href="http://www.craftsburypubliclibrary.org/">Craftsbury Public Library</a> just held a workshop where 19 people learned how to solder. They had four instructors consisting of two teenagers and two adults. Participants ranged in age from 8 to 50+. They even had three mother/daughter teams! Everybody successfully soldered their <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10723">WeevilEye</a>, and the room was a chaotic mess of happy people feeling empowered by their new skill!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/4/IMG_1207.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/4/IMG_1207.JPG" alt="Students soldering" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/4/IMG_1219.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/4/IMG_1219.JPG" alt="Learning to solder" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/4/IMG_1211.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/4/IMG_1211.JPG" alt="Soldering class" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/4/IMG_1216.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/4/4/IMG_1216.JPG" alt="Light up WeevilEyes" /></a> </div></p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1744#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1744/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
Guest Blog: Circumventing Science Lab Budget Cuts with Open-Source Hardware
Ben Leduc-Mills
urn:uuid:0291e055-15e2-237c-79b9-db9e2620ccdc
2015-01-23T14:47:05-07:00
<p><em>by <a href="http://www.mse.mtu.edu/~pearce/Index.html">Joshua Pearce</a>, Ph.D.</em></p>
<p>Education in the U.S. is financially challenged, but academic programs that involve students working in laboratory experiments are perhaps the hardest hit. Experiments can be virtualized and there are many good DIY experiments designed for high school curricula, but these types of experiences lack the gravitas brought by real scientific research with modern instruments.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, both “research grade” and even educational scientific equipment has been historically expensive, and has become increasingly prohibitive as education budgets dwindle. A potential solution to this problem has been provided by open-source concepts. Free and open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form and that can be used, studied, copied, modified, and redistributed without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients have the same rights. The open-source method of development has been so successful that much of the Internet now relies on it. You use it every day as the Internet giants all run it behind the scenes. This process of developing technology has become a real movement as the method that has succeeded in software is now being applied to hardware. Most interesting to science teachers it has been adapted to scientific hardware (Pearce, 2014).</p>
<p>There have been two recent opensource hardware developments that make this possible: the Arduino microcontroller (and other OS electronics like the Raspberry Pi and Beagleboard) and the RepRap 3D printer (see Figure 1).</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/8/fig_1_3students_with_printer.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/8/fig_1_3students_with_printer.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Figure 1. A student team building a MOST RepRap 3D Printer. </div></p>
<p>Arduino microcontrollers are a family of low-cost completely open-source integrated circuits that contain a core processor, memory and standardized analog and digital input/output peripherals. As Arduinos are relatively easy to learn and use, they have been applied in a vast number of science research and education areas including lab kits (Sarik & Kymissis, 2010). They are versatile – so that a single Arduino can be used in dozens of different types of student experiments and integrated into research grade equipment (Pearce, 2012;2014). As everything about this technology is liberated there is now an enormous databank of small programs that make the Arduinos capable of providing starting points for lab automation, data collection, robot experiments and more.</p>
<p>One of the useful automation projects in the vast Arduino collection for the high school science teacher are open-source 3D printers known as RepRaps (self-replicating rapid prototypers capable of making >50% of their own parts). RepRaps can be made with off-the-shelf components for under $500, which makes 3D printing accessible to most schools. The RepRap can use designs from most CAD packages such as the free OpenSCAD, an open-source, script-based computer aided design application. It is used by writing code to describe the geometric specifications of the required object by using primitive shapes, complex polygons, and extrusion commands. OpenSCAD is a good way to teach students geometry and coding (Knill & Slavkovsky, 2013). It also allows for parametric designs, which is the ability to alter a design to specifications by changing the parameters of the geometry of an object. This allows changes to be made to the design easily and quickly by simply changing the value of user-defined variables – so once one person designs it, everyone can quickly customize the design for themselves. Dozens of scientific equipment designs are already flourishing in Youmagine and Thingiverse, free and open repositories for digital designs of real physical objects. The latter also maintains a customizer application that converts OpenSCAD scripts into easily manipulatable designs (Figure 2).</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/8/Fig2_-_screenshot_with_inset.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/7/2/8/Fig2_-_screenshot_with_inset.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Figure 2. A screen shot of an open-source lens holder in the Customizer App, which allows anyone to quickly design and then print an ideal holder for their experiments. Printed holder shown in inset. </div></p>
<p>To appreciate this approach consider the recently developed open-source optics library, built from standard low-cost parts available in most hardware stores, Arduinos and customizable printed parts (Zhang, et al., 2013). This collection of inexpensive 3D printable components from simple fiber optic holders to automated filter wheel changers is being used to radically reduce the cost of optics equipment in labs. For example to outfit a high school physics laboratory with 30 optics setups including optical rails, optical lens holders, adjustable lens holders, ray optical kits, and viewing screens, the total cost is less than $500 using the open-source optics approach as compared to $15,000 for commercial versions. Free and open-source hardware has simply made it less expensive to design and print scientific tools than to buy them, particularly if someone else has started the designs.</p>
<p>Finally, and perhaps most importantly, when you alter an open-source design you are obligated to share your improvements with the rest of the community under the open-source licenses. This can be built into the curricula so that by taking the extra step of sharing all of these designs, students can make a concrete contribution to help the acceleration of open-source scientific hardware for everyone. This can be a powerful motivating factor for students.</p>
<p>One of the most important conceptual shifts in science instruction as outlined by the Next Generation Science Standards is that, “K12 science education should reflect the interconnected nature of science as it is practiced and experienced in the real world.” This learning objective is addressed with students actively participating in the opensource community by modifying existing designs and creating original models. Open-source hardware and software are giving students unprecedented access to incredibly powerful design tools. These tools allow students to generate high resolution designs within the CAD software and ability to rapidly prototype their ideas with very low cost. This iterative process of designing, testing, and redesigning is at the core of the intention of the NGSS to further integrate engineering and technology into science instruction. Enabling students to participate in this open-source community allows them to see the reality of the design process by seeing the multitude of designs available on such sites as Youmagine. After browsing the site, the students are able to access files for modification or complete redesign.</p>
<p>Examples would include students modifying gear sizes for mechanical projects to varying scales and shapes of prosthetic limbs. Encouraging the students to upload their work to the open-source repositories give them a sense of genuine application and participation in the scientific community. This empowers students to begin seeing themselves as active participants and designers rather than passive consumers both of knowledge and products.</p>
<h3>Useful Links:</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.arduino.cc">http://www.arduino.cc</a></li>
<li><a href="http://beagleboard.org/">http://beagleboard.org/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/">http://www.raspberrypi.org/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.openscad.org">http://www.openscad.org</a></li>
<li><a href="http://reprap.org">http://reprap.org</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youmagine.com/">https://youmagine.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/">https://www.sparkfun.com/</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>References</h3>
<p>Knill, O., & Slavkovsky, E. (2013). <em>Illustrating Mathematics using 3D Printers</em>. arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.5599.</p>
<p>Pearce, J.M. 2012. <em>Building Research Equipment with Free, OpenSource Hardware.</em> Science 337 (6100), 1303.</p>
<p>Pearce, J.M. 2014. <a href="http://store.elsevier.com/coArticle.jsp?pageid=18200010&utm_source=Joshua+Pearce&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=Open-Source+Lab+Free+Access"><em>OpenSource Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs</em></a>, Elsevier.</p>
<p>Sarik, J. Kymissis, I. 2010. <em>Lab kits using the Arduino prototyping platform</em>. In Frontiers in Education Conference, 2010 IEEE (pp. T3C1).</p>
<p>Zhang, C., Anzalone, N.C., Faria, R.P., Pearce, J.M. 2013. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0059840"><em>Open-Source 3D Printable Optics Equipment</em></a>. PLoS ONE 8(3): e59840.</p>
<hr />
<h4>Joshua Pearce, Ph.D., is the director of the Open Sustainability Technology Research Group at Michigan Tech University. Housed within the Materials Science & Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering departments, the lab explores the way solar energy can be used to provide clean sustainable electricity through photovoltaic devices and how the sharing of open source hardware and software can create sustainable and equitable means of production.</h4>
<hr />
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Teaching Near and Far
Amanda Clark
urn:uuid:3de98292-2ad3-320a-2d66-158465983461
2014-12-24T15:03:00-07:00
<p>On Wednesday, December 3rd we taught an electronic card crafting class at our headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. I want to share with your our photo montage of the evening. We had a sold out class, and everyone walked away with a functioning holiday card that lit up. For more information on this crafting activity you can go <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/let-it-glow-holiday-cards?_ga=1.18282993.997436480.1364071442">here</a>!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1559.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1559.jpg" alt="Crafting holiday cards" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1554.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1554.JPG" alt="Crafting holiday cards" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1556.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1556.jpg" alt="Crafting holiday cards" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1557.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1557.JPG" alt="Crafting holiday cards" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1558.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1558.jpg" alt="Crafting holiday cards" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1562.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1562.JPG" alt="Crafting holiday cards" /></a> </div></p>
<p>We had a blast with this class getting to see the variety of holiday cards that our students designed themselves.</p>
<p>About a week after the class we piled together our crafting supplies and mounds of hardware packing for our trip across the country over to Maine. We were asked to teach a full day workshop at <a href="http://www.berwickacademy.org/page">Berwick Academy</a>, Maine's oldest school established in 1791.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/Berwick_Campus_ISANNE2.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/Berwick_Campus_ISANNE2.jpg" alt="Berwick Aerial Photo. Courtesy of isanne.org." /></a> </div></p>
<p>Berwick Academy announced the addition of a brand new Makerspace housed within the Middle School, which opened at the start of the school year. Through the efforts and hard work of many of the Middle School faculty members who gave their time over the summer, a room that was formerly used as a faculty lounge was transformed into a colorful, dynamic, and inspirational space for “making". The Berwick Makerspace holds 3D printers, 3D scanners, sewing machines, kits related to circuitry, robotics, e-textiles, and programming, as well as materials and tools that will allow for various types of construction and fabrication.</p>
<p>Berwick Academy brought in SparkFun to help initiate some creativity within the school and spur up activity in the newly formed Makerspace. Our goal was to introduce electronics and related projects that can be used as a jumping off point into other innovative activities.</p>
<p>We kicked off the day crafting with Berwick's 5th graders for two morning sessions teaching them the very basics of circuitry. We used the same concepts taught during the Let It Glow class at SparkFun and created holiday electronic cards.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1571.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1571.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1572.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1572.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1573.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1573.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1574.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1574.jpg" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1584.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1584.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1590.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1590.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1575.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1575.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p>After lunch we spent the remainder of the afternoon with many of Berwick Academy's tech teachers and a group of hand picked students to act as mentors for others interested in using the Makerspace. The four hour workshop consisted of teaching a variety of topics including <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12651">Digital Sandbox</a>, PTH soldering with the <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10723">WeevilEye kit</a> and our <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10899">LilyTiny Board</a>. They sewed together some awesome <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/resources/28">plush monsters</a>!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/LilyTinyMonster_revise.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/LilyTinyMonster_revise.jpg" alt="An example of the LilyTiny plush monster" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1593.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1593.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1599.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1599.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1594.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1594.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1603.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/8/IMG_1603.JPG" alt="Berwick Workshop" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Our hope is that this workshop encourages the educators and students who attended it to take the information they've learned and apply it in fun and interactive ways to the rest of the school. We were able to show the fundamentals of electronics in a hands on classroom setting allowing the group to engage and experiment trying out different ways of making things. We encourage this for all schools. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and be experimental. It can make learning a lot more fun!</p>
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Skyline High School's Electronics Class Poster Day
Brian Huang
urn:uuid:58b5964f-d58a-2847-0f18-b7ec6c310463
2014-12-22T10:27:22-07:00
<p>Skyline High School is one of our local high schools that we've partnered with over the past couple years. Last Friday at Skyline High School, rather than taking a traditional final exam, students in the Advanced Engineering Electronics class prepared poster presentations of projects that they created during the semester. Students in this class were required to arrive dressed in professional attire and present to their teachers, peers, and invited guests.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/class_pan.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/class_pan.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Before jumping into the projects, I want to give a little background on this class. This class is a one semester Junior elective that is part of a sequence of classes within Skyline's <a href="https://classes.svvsd.org/course/view.php?id=1059">STEM Academy Program.</a> Each of these classes are modeled after the <a href="http://itll.colorado.edu/courses_workshops/geen_1400/">GEEN 1400 - First-Year Engineering Projects</a> class at the University of Colorado - Boulder.</p>
<p>Across the four years, the format of each class is fairly similar. Each class generally has two design projects -- one smaller / introductory project, and a second, larger-scale in-depth design project.</p>
<p>The first project allows students to navigate basic concepts, design principles, and team dynamics. These projects usually last 2 - 3 weeks -- allowing students to learn skills such as project management, requirements assessment, presentation skills, constraints, and budgets. Woven into this first project, the teacher is able to integrate technical concepts of engineering and design.</p>
<p>In this electronics class, students started with their first introductory project prompt: <em>"To Design and construct an Original Musical Instrument utilizing a MaKey MaKey Board and the program Scratch to perform a short (1-3 minute) composition."</em></p>
<p>In less than two weeks from the start of the school year, students in this class had rigged up a variety of interfaces to their <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11511">Makey-Makey</a> from: fish bowls filled with water to aluminum foil covered paper plates to the <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/jay_silver_hack_a_banana_make_a_keyboard">traditional fruits and veggies</a>. It was really impressive!</p>
<p>With this introduction to circuits, electronics, and basic programming, the class jumped into Arduino and circuit building with the <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/sik">Sparkfun Inventor's Kit</a>.</p>
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<p>The class spent the remainder of the semester working through various circuits in the SIK learning basic programming principles and electronics. Starting in mid-October, the students were introduced to their final design project for the class:</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/12-22-2014_10-09-37_AM.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/12-22-2014_10-09-37_AM.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>The initial project proposals varied from group to group and included:</p>
<ul>
<li>The project is a bike jacket with turn signal LEDs and other lights to draw attention to the bicyclist.</li>
<li>A heartbeat sensor that registers heart beats their speed and the absence of one as well. When too fast, the lights/display will freak out.</li>
<li>The project is an electronic version of the classic dice game “Liar’s Dice.”</li>
<li>A box LED that changes color based on temperature, changes the brightness, and acts as a motion sensor as well.</li>
<li>This project is called Power laces. The whole purpose of this project is to hook up an Arduino to a shoe in order to tighten up you shoe laces.</li>
<li>Game of Simon with a scoreboard, tracking the player’s score</li>
<li>A reactive LED coffee table that senses when an object is on it and lights up where the object is.</li>
<li>A halloween based project that has three different sensors that makes the head which is the main prop do something.</li>
<li>A tweet and you have your choice of decaf, regular, or pumpkin spice waiting for you when you get home.</li>
<li>An LED cube that lights up in different arrays when a button is pressed and the temperature sensor is pressed.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Final Projects</h3>
<p>Here are what the final projects ended up looking like - we hope that these projects will inspire you and your own students:</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_075426-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_075426-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Simon Says with a Scoreboard Counter </div>
<br>
<br>
<div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_075458-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_075458-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Interactive LED Cube </div>
<br>
<br>
<div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_075915-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_075915-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Twitter counter / bell ringer (rings the bell each time a tweet comes in) </div>
<br>
<br>
<div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_080450-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_080450-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_080455-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_080455-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Halloween-based project (Head spins on a servo and LEDs change blinking based on flex & soft potentiomenter </div>
<br>
<br>
<div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_082114-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_082114-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_084205-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_084205-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Interactive Coffee Table (turns on LEDs when you place an object over a photodetector) </div>
<br>
<br>
<div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_082151-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_082151-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Magic Crystal Mood Lamp </div>
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<br>
<div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_082215-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_082215-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Liar's Game w/ two LCD displays utilizing shift registers for addtl. I/O </div>
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<div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_084021-m.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/9/3/IMG_20141219_084021-m.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Interactive LED Lamp </div>
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Pretty awesome and inspiring! Congratulations to all of the students at Skyline High School in Longmont, CO and to Ms. Vadovszki for an amazing semester.</p>
<p>What cool projects are you doing in your school? If you have photos / projects / ideas to share, please send them to us at <a href="mailto:education@sparkfun.com">education@sparkfun.com</a>.</p>
<p>We hope you all are enjoying the time away from school. Happy Holidays!</p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1693#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1693/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
Go Speed Racer...Arduino Speed Test
Brian Huang
urn:uuid:27af9516-aeb9-288b-a72c-e420e8589b88
2014-12-18T12:54:49-07:00
<h3>How fast is an Arduino?</h3>
<p>We spend a lot of our time teaching educators and teachers the ins and outs of Arduino and basic microcontrollers.</p>
<p>When we introduce the standard Arduino Uno, we often point out that there's a crystal oscillator running at 16 MHz. Depending on the audience, we often generalize that the microcontroller runs at 16 MHz, or to put this into perspective, this means 16 Million operations (instructions) per second. Put another way, it takes 1 / 16 millionths of a second to perform a single operation -- or just 62.5 nanoseconds!</p>
<h3>Is that really true?</h3>
<p>So, I wanted to figure out how far off am I really? I know that the Arduino environment has quite a bit of overhead, and also every instruction actually requires multiple commands and memory reads and writes, but what is the 'maximum' running speed of the loop() in Arduino?</p>
<p>So, I devised a couple tests. The first was a simple sketch that looked like this:</p>
<pre><code>void setup()
{
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
}
</code></pre>
<p>This is about as simple as it gets. Anyone who's ever tried running this code knows that the LED will blink ON and then OFF faster than we can see. I was curious as to how fast this really ran. Well let's take a look:</p>
<p>Here is a quick trace of the pin:</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/8/7/digitalWrite_speedTest_uno13.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/8/7/digitalWrite_speedTest_uno13.JPG" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>It looks like the <code>digitalWrite(13, HIGH)</code> takes roughly 3.95 uS and the <code>digitalWrite(13, LOW)</code> takes about 4.55 uS. The total time being 8.5 uS. This is much longer than 62.5 ns. In fact, it's 136 times longer.</p>
<p>It appears that the <code>LOW</code> was longer than the <code>HIGH</code>. I wanted to see</p>
<pre><code>void setup()
{
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
}
</code></pre>
<p>Now, with two HIGHs and one LOW, I'd expect the HIGH to be around 7.9 uS (2 x 3.95 uS) and the LOW to still be 4.55 uS. Here's the trace from my oscilloscope:</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/8/7/digitalWrite_speedTest_uno13_HH.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/8/7/digitalWrite_speedTest_uno13_HH.JPG" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>The results? Well, the two 'HIGH' instructions looked like they took a total of 7.767 uS --> about 3.884 uS per instruction. That's pretty close. And the 'LOW' instruction stayed right at 4.563 uS.</p>
<p>Okay -- so, if about sending a sequence of HIGH-LOW-LOW?</p>
<pre><code>void setup()
{
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
}
</code></pre>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/8/7/digitalWrite_speedTest_uno13_LL.JPG"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/8/7/digitalWrite_speedTest_uno13_LL.JPG" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>The singular 'HIGH' instruction is right at 3.925 uS -- as expected. The two sequential 'LOW' instructions take up 8.5 uS in time -- a bit smaller than the expected 9.1 uS (2 x 4.55 uS).</p>
<p>All in all, I found this to be both intersting and insightful. What does this mean? Well - at maximum speed, it looks like within the main loop() of Arduino we can toggle a pin at a rate of about 117 kHz.</p>
<p>Ok - so, this is quite a bit slower than the 16 MHz clock, but -- I'm sure if we integrated into the <a href="http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/Timer1">timer interrupts</a> directly or stripped things down a little more, we might be able to manipulate bits / pins at a faster speed. For me, for blinking LEDs, driving motors, and reading sensors -- 117 kHz is plenty fast!</p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1687#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1687/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
Turkey Scratch -- Thanksgiving, Programming, and a 'lil Data
Brian Huang
urn:uuid:15a7d395-9e01-96fd-7024-4e502aa2f88f
2014-11-30T21:22:52-07:00
<p>Happy Thanksgiving everyone! A while back when I first started working with the <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11888">PicoBoard</a>, I couldn't help but notice that the 2.5 mm "audio" jacks on the side for auxiliary sensors were identical to the standard meat thermometers sold at your favorite <a href="http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/etl-dual-probe-thermometer/?cm_src=AutoRel">kitchen supply store</a> or places like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Polder-Original-Cooking-All-In-One-Thermometer/dp/B0000CF5MT/ref=lp_289810_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1417323154&sr=1-1">Amazon</a>. This Thanksgiving, I couldn't help but try and make my own Turkey Temperature Probe using <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> and the PicoBoard.</p>
<p>-> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/IMG_20141127_090801.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/IMG_20141127_090801.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a>
<a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/smoking_temp.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/smoking_temp.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> <-</p>
<p>While you can go to a place like Bed, Bath, and Beyond and buy these probes -- I figured we could probably source these cheaper -- a quick search on-line, and we found a few suppliers on <a href="http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Electronics-Thermistor-CWF0072-Stainless-Steel-Temperature_60085923351.html">Alibaba</a> and got a couple samples in.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/alibaba_screenshot.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/alibaba_screenshot.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>From working on the tutorials for the <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/vernier-shield-hookup-guide">Vernier Shield</a>, I figured that the probe must be some kind of thermistor. One that probably could be approximated using the <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/vernier-shield-hookup-guide#example-4---temperature-probe">Steinhart-Hart</a> equation. Unfortunately, we need the coefficients of the equation in order to use it.</p>
<p>With no datasheet for this probe, I figured there must be another way to find the coefficients. A quick search on-line for "steinhart hart coefficients calculator" resulted in this site from <a href="http://www.thinksrs.com/downloads/programs/Therm%20Calc/NTCCalibrator/NTCcalculator.htm">Stanford Research Systems (SRS)</a> that performed a curve fit to three points of resistance and temperature.</p>
<p>For this, I needed three known temperatures. I used a <a href="http://www.vernier.com/products/sensors/temperature-sensors/gw-temp/">Vernier Go Wireless Temperature Probe</a> that we received during one of our meetings / collaborations with Vernier. This thing is pretty sweet. It connects through Bluetooth to my phone and works seamlessly with Vernier's latest app.</p>
<h3>Data</h3>
<p>I used three glasses of water -- ice water, room temperature water, and hot water from our coffee machine. These resulted in the following data points:</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/calibration_meas.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/calibration_meas.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<table border = 1 align ="center">
<tr><td width = 50><b>Temp<br> (deg C)</b><td width = 60><b>Resistance (Ohms)</b><td width = 70><b>Notes\Memo</b></tr>
<tr><td align = "center">1.9 <td align = "center">627k <td>Ice water</tr>
<tr><td align = "center">19.8 <td align = "center">255.1k <td>Room Temperature water</tr>
<tr><td align = "center">65.9 <td align = "center">37k <td>Hot water</tr>
</table>
<p>And, using the Stanford Resarch Systems's Steinhart-Hart Coefficient Calculator:</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="http://www.thinksrs.com/downloads/programs/Therm%20Calc/NTCCalibrator/NTCcalculator.htm"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/SH_ThermistorCalculator.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>We found these coefficients for the Steinhart-Hart Equation:</p>
<p>k0 = 0.6150260350e-3</p>
<p>k1 = 2.147838217e-4</p>
<p>k2 = 0.6457281614e-7</p>
<h3>Scratch</h3>
<p>Now, for a few tricks in Scratch.</p>
<p>A little known feature of Scratch is that is supports many advanced math functions including all of the trig functions, logs, and inverse functions. I pulled together a few things and came up with this code:</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/ScratchTurkeyProbe.gif"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/ScratchTurkeyProbe.gif" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Whoa! I know it looks like a lot, but it's really pretty simple. Take a minute to go through it and compare it to the standard Steinhart-Hart equation. Click <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/Turkey_Probe.sb">here</a> to download a copy of my code example.</p>
<p>This code assumes that the temperature probe is plugged into Port A of the PicoBoard. It measures the resistance across the thermistor - relative to the 10 k Ohm pull-up resistor that is on the PicoBoard. It applies the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinhart%E2%80%93Hart_equation">Steinhart-Hart Equation</a> for converting the resistance of the thermistor to a temperature.</p>
<p>To smooth our the data, this code averages 5000 measurements and graphs this onto the screen. It also saves this data to a list variable that can be used for data analysis in Matlab, Excel, or your favorite data crunching tool. Pretty cool, huh?</p>
<h3>Your turn!</h3>
<p>So, next Thanksgiving - or the next time you roast something in the oven and want to do a little data collection / analysis - give my <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/Turkey_Probe.sb">example code</a> a try with our <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11888">PicoBoard</a>. And, let us <a href="mailto:education@sparkfun.com">know</a> how it goes! We always love seeing pictures of your projects!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/TurkeyScratch.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/6/3/TurkeyScratch.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1663#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1663/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
The Mothership: A Visit to the New SparkFun Building
Ben Leduc-Mills
urn:uuid:021c92ad-06f0-3a44-417e-b296fe63a4ae
2014-10-29T09:57:00-06:00
<p><em>Garth Sundem, author and Geekdad contributor, came by the new SparkFun HQ with his family. Here's what he had to say about it. (We promise we didn't change a word).</em></p>
<p><strong>The Mothership: A Visit to the New SparkFun Building</strong></p>
<p>I’m more science geek than technology geek, but lately I’ve been doing my best – learning how to solder and code by building SparkFun kits along with my kids (6 and 8), first the WeevilEye, then Herbie the little mouse kit and now into the world of Arduino. (My daughter, Kestrel, bounces off furniture and people and walls as if she were the cue ball of a billiards trick shot, but she’ll sit and solder for a straight hour.) What this means is that instead of looking at soldering kits from the perspective of an electrical engineer who, I’m sure, sees these kits as simple teaching tools, I’m completely flabbergasted along with my kids when Herbie hits a wall and his electrical whiskers make the mouse turn. Wow! When we reach the great moment of flipping the switch to "on", my armpits sweat.</p>
<p>All this is to say that when I scheduled a tour of the new SparkFun building just outside Boulder, CO, I told the education director that my kids were really excited. But in fact, I was Charlie waving my golden ticket while the offspring played the part of Grandpa Joe.</p>
<p>Who do you usually get as a guide when you take a corporate tour? Usually it’s the intern who hasn’t mastered the all-important corporate skill of looking harried and over-busy. At SparkFun we got Ben Leduc-Mills. Ben has a PhD in computer science. Ben was really excited about the <a href="https://data.sparkfun.com">open source SparkFun data site</a> where users can publish streams up to 50mb. My kids were really excited about the fact that SparkFun employees can bring their dogs to work. Leif counted seven dogs and I’m sure there were more. Production manager Adam Silva explained that he had raised three dogs at SparkFun.</p>
<p>The thing is, we’ve all been in the offices of “creative” organizations that overreach for hipness – from somewhere upon high, the corporate overseers imagine that a scooter track will totally help recruit talent from MIT and Stanford. And then no one uses it.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/3/5/Screen_Shot_2014-10-29_at_11.09.14_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/6/3/5/Screen_Shot_2014-10-29_at_11.09.14_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Garth's kids enjoyed the visit as well. <em>Photo courtesy of <a href="http://garthsendum.com">garthsendum.com</a> ©2014</em> </div></p>
<p>SparkFun has some of the same uber-hip accoutrements, but it felt like the ideas grew organically from the employees. The shipping department was full of dudes with asymmetric facial hair on skateboards. An engineer had picked up about a thousand <a href="http://www.kevaplanks.com/">Keva planks</a> and on an upstairs wrap-around counter space, there was a crowdsourced build going on – in which you could tell the crowd had higher than the average bear’s level of design thinking skills. Strung on a wall was a DIY art piece made of light bulbs and wire that was set to ripple in response to sounds. A trigger-operated race car track wound underneath a 7-foot tall version of one of those wooden dinosaur skeleton kits. The office of their e-textiles engineer is painted like a fairy forest, with a rack of antlers framing the chair’s headrest. These are the essentials. I'm sure that with a second month in their new building, additional interesting oddities will bloom.</p>
<p>Ben explained the cool things you could do with an Edison Board – it is WiFi enabled, which seemed to be really important to Ben. I am still severely limited by my lack of imagination but look forward to grokking the possibilities, just as soon as I finish the tutorial for my Digital Sandbox...</p>
<p>But the cool thing about visiting the SparkFun mothership was that despite being one small step above e. coli in my ability to build and code, as I walked out of the building everything seemed possible. I felt like I could go home, download some open-source SparkFun code and program a drone that would drop water balloons on my wife as she bikes to work. I could make the limbs of my front yard tree grab tick-or-treaters as they step on the welcome mat. I could insert small Arduino-driven electrodes into the brains of my children that would force them to open and close their mouths in the presence of broccoli.</p>
<p>People at SparkFun are psyched to build. And after visiting, I am too.</p>
<p><em>More about Garth, from Garth:</em></p>
<p>I write books, speak and blog about science, math and the brain. Usually this includes interviewing people who actually know what they’re talking about, namely scientists. Other than keeping a close eye on the ecology of my backyard from the vantage of the semi-converted garden shed that is my office, this is my favorite part of the gig: talking to people who are absolutely passionate to the point of excess about things like the mathematics of graph theory used to describe a soccer ball passing through the system of a team, or how to mimic the brain states that make us ready for insightful solutions, or the differences in wisdom between old and young people as they play games that simulate mineral extraction.</p>
<p>I grew up on Bainbridge Island, WA, a short ferry ride from Seattle, where my dad — a former president of the American Accounting Association — taught for 34 years in the U.W. business school. We played with math growing up, scribbling through issues of Games Magazine cover-to-cover. Later, I studied math and music composition at Cornell University and then at Western Washington University, and was an adjunct professor at Montana State University. I live in Boulder, CO with my wife, two kids and a pack of Labradors.</p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1635#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1635/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
Digital Naturalism: Hiking Hacks in the Wild
Ben Leduc-Mills
urn:uuid:4efdb53d-a5c4-6858-0ec6-390c3a30b60c
2014-10-20T09:05:00-06:00
<p>The Hiking Hack is the first of a proposed series of research expeditions led by <a href="http://dm.lmc.gatech.edu/people/student-profiles/andrew-quitmeyer-phd/">Andrew Quitmeyer</a>, a Ph.D. researcher at Georgia Tech, investigating the role of situated design for wild animal interaction. This workshop trekked through the Panamanian Rainforest (with some SparkFun gear!) to explore how context shapes the crafting of technology and to probe the limits of constructing and utilizing DIY physical computing systems in harsh environments.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/9/aq4.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/9/aq4.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>From Andrew:</p>
<p>My goal is to lead a series of <a href="http://www.digitalnaturalism.org/">"Hiking Hackathons"</a> across various ecosystems throughout the world; I research how field biologists use digital technology. In my research, I look to discover techniques with field biologists for crafting inexpensive sensors and tools specialized to their own specific target ecosystems.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/9/aq1.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/9/aq1.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Digital Technology is changing the way we do science, but almost all this innovation targets and is built within the laboratory. In contrast, comparatively fewer research tools are being developed with field biologists, and within proximate feedback to their experimentation in the wild. To confront this problem, I gathered funding for, and lead an expedition we called the Hiking Hack. I assembled a diverse crew of biologists, documentarians, and hackers, for a transect across Panamanian Neotropical rainforests. We set up a basecamp hackerspace midway through the expedition, and using only the tools we could carry in, built instruments and robots to probe the behavior of nearby animals.</p>
<p>Budget:</p>
<p>My original Hiking Hack expedition had a shoestring budget of $1500 which I funded through small art grants and personal cash.</p>
<ul>
<li>$17,000 for equipment (Hiking, Hacking, and Documentation Gear) (If you would like more details about specific equipment, like sensors, drones, etc… just ask!)</li>
<li>$33,000 / 5 = $6,600 per expedition
Per Expedition Budget:</li>
<li>$4,500 Travel (Personal, Scholarships)</li>
<li>$600 Permits and Fees</li>
<li>$800 Food</li>
<li>$700 Documentation and Editing</li>
</ul>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/9/aq2.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/9/aq2.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>On top of the standard hardships of living in and traversing little known jungle routes, came the additional challenges of carrying extremely heavy gear, teaching first-timers electronics, and building in low-light conditions. There were many problems also atypical of your average hackathon, such as bullet ant stings, venomous snake encounters, contagious infections, and even an army ant raid in the middle of a workshop. Despite these complications, the Hiking Hack was successful and taught us an incredible amount about packing technology, power requirements, forest crafting, weather proofing, and animal interaction.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/9/aq3.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/9/aq3.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>I plan to carry out five different hacking hikes around the world. We will hack through a diverse range of biomes such as deserts, tundra, taiga, grasslands, and rainforest. Everything in this series will be thoroughly documented and shared as open hardware and software licensed into the public domain, so that others can learn and contribute to these ideas.</p>
<p>The success of the first hiking hack has led talented volunteers from various fields to sign up for the next iteration. Hopefully we can all make these adventures happen!</p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1599#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1599/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
MakerCamp: Berlin Recap
Ben Leduc-Mills
urn:uuid:cde8719b-179e-8efb-0814-c77d0aade2aa
2014-09-22T15:41:00-06:00
<p><a href="http://www.makercamp.co/">MakerCamp:Berlin</a> was a month long camp where makers, designers and mentors from different parts of the world and with varying skill sets came together to work on projects they wanted to dive deeper into. The group of participants flew in from all over the globe last month (August) to hack, make, teach, work together, and document their making process. In the end they came away with a global community of support for prototypes that can be kick-started into real life projects. As SparkFun was a partner in the camp, we wanted to showcase some of the awesome people and projects from the camp last month.</p>
<p>You can check out all the projects, tracks, and a 3D render of the shipping container they built (and used as a makerspace) here: <a href="https://github.com/hackidemia">https://github.com/hackidemia</a>.</p>
<p>There's also a video from the MakerCamp demo day: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD2THaHnT7I">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD2THaHnT7I</a></p>
<h3>Project 1: LEDP Smart Vase by Janez</h3>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.05.40_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.05.40_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>The LEDFlowerPot is an educational product that teaches children and adults about the best possible way of treating your plants. Our product solves the problem of people forgetting to water their plants by varying LED colors. It makes learning fun and interactive due to features such as the Disco Mode, Mood Mode and Yolo Mode. It has LEDs expressing the feelings of the plant, flashing red when it isn't satisfied. It also functions as a fully customizable decoration, letting you change the color and the on/off time of the LEDs. The prototype includes a humidity sensor, LEDs and an Arduino, but the future plans promise features such as light sensors, temperature sensors, wireless connectivity, and gamification all on a chip scale.</p>
<h3>Creator bio:</h3>
<p>JANEZ CIMERMAN (from Ljubljana, Slovenia )
Janez is an 18 year old developer of robotic systems, student of the Electrical Faculty in Ljubljana, Slovenia and a lifelong maker. He works at a laboratory for telecommunications where he is making autonomous robots similar to Roomba. He also built himself a small laboratory in his own garage where he spends most of his time after work printing on his homemade 3D printer and making dead electronics come to life. He keeps track of all of his creations on his open web blog: <a href="http://roby.splet.arnes.si/tag/cimerman/">http://roby.splet.arnes.si/tag/cimerman/</a></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.05.57_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.05.57_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/MakerLabLJ">@MakerLabLJ</a> </div>
<br></p>
<p>Excerpts from Janez's application to MakerCamp:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>My camp goals: To learn and understand how to develop a project from the idea to selling the product. To test my understanding of the whole process on this camp. To learn from and teach other people whatever I can. To have friends beside me who support me and for us to achieve great things together.</h5>
</blockquote>
<h5>Goals for myself: To learn how to establish this kind of community myself at home and to see how to keep it alive. To push myself and see where my limits are. To express my feelings openly and clearly wherever and to whomever. To achieve better organizational skills as they come in useful in personal and business life.</h5>
<p><br></p>
<h3>Project 2: Energy consumption monitoring IoT application [Motlakase Meter]</h3>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.06.15_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.06.15_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>The Motlakase Meter is an energy monitoring device that measures the electricity consumption in homes by focusing on managing voltage usage in particular appliances.</p>
<p>Problems it solves: it makes people aware of their electricity consumption at home, which in the long run will assist Botswana’s population with saving electricity in the country as whole. The solution is based on the current problems of electricity shortage in Botswana, which can lead to unpredictable power outages.</p>
<p>Technology it uses: Arduino Yun, Android programming environment, power adapters, CT sensors, a breadboard, capacitor and resistors.</p>
<h3>Creator bio:</h3>
<p>BOKAMOSO PALAI (from Jwaneng, Botswana) is a motivated, strong willed, hard working, and eager to learn student in the computing field. She is currently doing her 4th year studying a Bachelors degree in Computer Science. She finds great pleasure and interest in finding and solving new challenges in the field she is currently studying.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.06.28_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.06.28_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BokamosoPalai">@BokamosoPalai</a> </div></p>
<p><br>
Excerpts from Bokamoso's application to MakerCamp:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>I would like to improve my skills in project management and interaction with people so that I can be able to guarantee success in the launch of Afrimakers Botswana. This opportunity will guarantee me the exposure to fellow Afrimakers hence I can learn a lot from them to make our Afrimakers project in Botswana a success.</h5>
</blockquote>
<p>Her motivation and eagerness to know more in the field has lead her to encounter new innovative projects in Botswana with which she has excelled when taking part. She has been involved in a number of Hackathons, ICT competitions and outreach to fellow students interested in the field of computing. She is currently working on a system that will really impact the health sector in the whole country. In that project she works with a team of 3 students and two companies [First Step Ventures Center in association with Botswana Innovation Hub and Botswana Upenn Partnership in association with University of Pennsylvania] to help us excel in making the system a success.
For the period of 2013/2014 she was the president of a Computer Science Student Society in University of Botswana and 2012/2013 she was the vice president and head of computer repairs group in the same society. For sports and recreation Bokamoso is an occasional basketball player and she enjoys mostly working and helping out fellow students with issues they may have.</p>
<p><br></p>
<h3>Project 3: Petricity: Create-Connect-Play</h3>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.06.50_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.06.50_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Petricity is an electrical engineering toy brand for girls 8+up that connects nurturing with technology. Imagine a store that encourages girls to create their very own personalized pet by creating a unique toy and train it to do tricks by connecting it to a programming software. The programming interface of Petricity makes training (programming) easy and fun. Petricity encourages girls to program and code at an early age, and introduce them the wonderful world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).</p>
<h3>Creator bio:</h3>
<p>RUBY RIOS (from Zacatecas, Mexico)
Ruby is a toy designer, product design developer, woodworker, and maker. As well as a program mentor at DIY Girls where she engages young pre-teen girls in the Greater Los Angeles Area with innovative and creative do-it-yourself projects; specifically in the realm of 3D modeling, 3D printing, model making, power tool use, and creative problem solving. Ruby believes that obtaining multiple skilled talents will manifest into confidence, empowerment, and drive. In the near future she wishes to expand the maker movement to her home town of Pastelera in Zacatecas Mexico and create a local community of makers by empowering them to harness their skilled talents effectively; thus creating a positive impact and better future for her community members.She is also passionate, eager to learn, and loves working with children.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.07.06_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.07.06_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/rubyrios_">@rubyrios_</a> </div></p>
<p>Excerpts from Ruby's application to MakerCamp:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>I am passionate, eager to learn, and love working with children and their families. At HacKIDemia, I plan on diversifying the maker movement by further increasing the global community of makers. With my experience serving underrepresented youth, the skills manifested from my product and toy design profession, as well as my friendly work with children; I believe will be able to make great contributions to the HacKIDemia program. Throughout this program I plan on documenting this experience to show the girls back home and apply new projects learned to makerspaces in the Greater Los Angeles Area.</h5>
</blockquote>
<h3>Project 4: 3D Printing for Repairs</h3>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.09.17_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.09.17_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>The idea of using 3D printing for repairs has been inspired by the culture of re-using materials at HacKIDemia's MakerCamp in order to construct the makerspace inside the container. During this month Susanne spent time developing a moulding process to complement 3D scanning technologies, so that object repair using 3D printing becomes more feasible. Her process describes how to take a cast of the object that has to be repaired using clay, to 3D scan this piece, and to 3D print it in a material and colour to match the original object.</p>
<h3>Creator bio:</h3>
<p>SUSANNE BRUIJNZEELS (from Netherlands)
I find giving an answer to the question "where are you from?" pretty difficult to answer, but I can say I am from designing, making and problem solving; I have a bachelors in Architecture from Nottingham University and a masters in Smart Design from Nottingham Trent.
I currently freelance in Berlin, mainly within 3D printing and product design, but I've been involved in building a house and a nursery school, I helped govern a community café, trained student volunteers in communication skills and once co-organised a bamboo shelter building workshop.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.09.28_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/6/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_10.09.28_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/suebruij">@suebruij</a> </div></p>
<p>Excerpts from Susanne's application to MakerCamp:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Motivation for joining the camp : I see there being many MakerSpaces built inside containers in the future based on the model that we are going to develop in Berlin. For this to be a reproducible project, we will need to document everything clearly and publish it in an accessible environment.</h5>
</blockquote>
<h5>My goals: I want to help with the organizational side of the project, and be constantly learning about how to improve how I manage my time and prioritize projects.</h5>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1596#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1596/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
Makerspaces: Tool-informed-values or Value-informed-tools?
Ben Leduc-Mills
urn:uuid:fcad3c7a-dbdd-17c2-27c0-185945515fbe
2014-09-16T09:26:20-06:00
<p>Our guest today is Riley Meehan, a member of the <a href="http://www.ceeo.tufts.edu/default.aspx">Center for Engineering Outreach</a> and a graduate student in the <a href="http://lpc.cs.tufts.edu/">Laboratory for Playful Computation</a> at Tufts University. Riley is an engineer, maker, designer, educator, tinkerer, and can’t stop picking up new hobbies. His research lives in the worlds of education, engineering, design, and sociology – focusing on how educational institutions design and assess the use of makerspaces as reflecting the existing commitments of a school community. His biggest weakness is not being able to say no, so ask him to get involved with whatever you’re working on. Trust me.</p>
<p>From Riley:</p>
<p>Lately, my research group has spent a lot of time thinking about the maker movement with respect to education. In fact, a colleague of mine recently remarked that we’ve probably used the word “maker” more times in the last year than we have in the last ten years. It’s pretty evident that making is blowing up. Makerspaces have made their way into <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edutopia.org%2Fblog%2Fdesigning-a-school-makerspace-jennifer-cooper&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNH3IejT4XEce9y55NKR7_hXhFnLzw">blogs on education</a> hackerspaces are being featured in <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2013%2F05%2F02%2Fgarden%2Fthe-rise-of-the-hacker-space.html%3Fpagewanted%3Dall%26_r%3D0&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEd-iU7dOxZaVZN93dNIauBigAqIg">The New York Times</a>, and a <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitehouse.gov%2Fmaker-faire&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHg3ANwTNM0EaWOV4j3Sct0Dz_2yg">White House Maker Faire</a> was held in lieu of the annual White House Science Fair this year. I think it’s fair to say making is <em>so hot right now</em>.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/5/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_9.29.04_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/5/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_9.29.04_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> Adapted from <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sirmikeofmitchell.com%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHCMZE3MtfpKPubmoDbRD8j7T1fWw">Mike Mitchell</a> | via <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mondotees.com%2FInfo_ep_2-1.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEs2vjUlouEeAThJn3E_OHftVz4Cg">Mondo Gallery</a> </div></p>
<p>With the rise of the makerspace, the maker movement has understandably also found its way into schooling. Makerspaces, STEAM labs, and Fab Labs are burgeoning all across the country in cities, suburban areas, and even rural areas. Many take root in community centers, museums, libraries, or standalone community spaces and increasingly have begun to integrate into formal educational institutions from kindergarten through university programs. And why not? It makes total sense – in an educational climate where schools are being inundated with the notion that the U.S. is behind the rest of the developed world in STEM education and our students need to be able to think critically, problem-solve, work inter-disciplinarily, and collaborate in order to succeed – makerspaces provide a unique opportunity as educational spaces that by and large embrace the skills and learning styles that progressive education has preached for years.</p>
<p>Many of these spaces include a variety of digital fabrication tools that, with the expiration of certain parents on equipment such as 3D printers and laser cutters and the rapidly decreasing prices of electronics, have effectively ignited the democratization of digital fabrication. As a result, the publicized image of makerspaces features these tools and consequently it’s often the tools themselves that first come to mind and often take priority when the schools with which we work start designing their own spaces. Rather than first considering pedagogy, culture, and learning outcomes, most conversations center on the physical materials.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/5/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_9.29.43_AM.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/5/Screen_Shot_2014-09-15_at_9.29.43_AM.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> The types of images from which rising perceptions of maker activities are developed. </div></p>
<p>Though some of these spaces don’t include modern digital fabrication tools, and many preexisting hands-on learning spaces like art rooms and wood-shops already employ many of the ideals of the maker movement, implementation of new spaces frequently takes on a tone set by a dominant narrative that prioritizes specific tools and types of making. The prominent examples of existing makerspaces often prioritize the digital fabrication tools that revitalized making rather than the ideals in which making is rooted.</p>
<p>As educators, if our goal is to create spaces for productive meaningful engagement educational makerspaces, like schools, must reflect the existing values and commitments of community. That means makerspaces can and probably should look considerably different from school to school because a large community results in a variety of people, with a variety of tools, and a variety of interests, which inevitably results in issues of alignment between individuals values and commitments for these spaces.</p>
<p>The work we are doing at Tufts is in researching how a school designs a space such that is responsive to its community’s needs. So, how does a community of individuals going about the construction and use of a space come to develop shared values? That’s the question we’re currently working through, for now, check out the great resources from folks like <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Flearn.sparkfun.com%2Fblog%2F1530&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEcnQfpBRXbxxlB-UvenUm07PSVmQ">Jaymes Dec</a> who are thinking about maker pedagogy and for those that are building their own spaces, start by talking to your own school community of teachers and students and listening to what about making inspires them– it may not be the newest 3D printer.</p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1595#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1595/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
VEX + Arduino Control -- Best of both worlds!
Brian Huang
urn:uuid:a9bb1e70-5020-3d2b-cb9b-be0db9973bd8
2014-09-12T16:11:41-06:00
<p>There are thousands of schools using VEX in the classroom. VEX started with a simple PIC microcontroller system and recently upgraded their platform to a Cortex based system. These are fantastic, high-powered, fast systems that work well in many classrooms. There are a variety of programming environments for VEX from <a href="http://www.vexrobotics.com/easyc-v4.html">easyC</a>, <a href="http://www.vexrobotics.com/robotc-cortex-vexiq.html">robotC</a>, to ModKit and <a href="http://www.flowol.com/Vex.aspx">Flowol</a>. However, there is also a fast growing population of schools using Arduino to teach basic microcontroller programming and electronics. How can we combine these two realms?</p>
<p>VEX has a fantastic building platform. If you are looking at expanding your robotics, mechatronics, or general structures program -- I encourage you to look into VEX. Their structural and mechanics system is fully modular and works with a minimum number of unique parts and pieces. One of the struggles I have heard from teachers is how can we integrate Arduino with what we do with VEX. Here's a quick summary of what we got working. A more in depth tutorial is in the works.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/3/20140912_155016.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/3/20140912_155016.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<h3>Human Control</h3>
<p>Using Arduino as an autonomous controller for VEX motors is a pretty easy problem to solve. The bigger problem to tackle is replicating the "tele-operated" human-control that VEX provides.</p>
<p>VEX offers a slick WiFi Joystick control and default firmware on their Cortex controller that allows a quick "plug-and-play" experience. I wanted to re-create the same experience with as few custom parts as possible.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/3/vexnet-joystick.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/3/vexnet-joystick.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>A quick search for USB joystcks on-line came up quite a few different options. I tried <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AEWTSWU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1">this</a> low-cost controller, but settled with the Logitech F310 instead. It's currently availble on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-940-000110-Gamepad-F310/dp/B003VAHYQY">Amazon</a> for $18.99 and features nearly all of the same buttons and controls as the traditional VEXnet joystick.</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/3/logitechF310gamepad.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/300-300/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/3/logitechF310gamepad.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<h3>Hardware Used</h3>
<p>Aside from the joystick and the <a href="http://www.vexrobotics.com/276-2600.html">Clawbot kit from VEX</a>, here is a wishlist of all the parts I used on this build. With the battery, the total retail cost is about $200. What I really like about this solution is that it opens up the controller to all sorts of other interfaces, sensors, and peripherals that you can build and hack on.</p>
<script src="https://www.sparkfun.com/wish_lists/95257.js"></script>
<p>If you want to try this, you will need to pair your XBee Radios. You can check out this tutorial if you've never done this before:</p>
<div class="tile-wrap">
</div>
<div class="clearfix"></div>
<h3>Control Programming</h3>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/3/DriverStation_screenshot.jpg"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/3/DriverStation_screenshot.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p>Now I had a comparable controller, I needed an interface to the Arduino. Naturally, I looked into Processing. The <a href="http://lagers.org.uk/gamecontrol/">GameControlPlus library</a> in Processing handles a lot of the back-end I/O for the joystick. Here is a rough <strong>DriverStation program</strong> example in Processing. You will need to install both the VSync and the GameControlPlus libraries to use this example. You can add both of these directly in Processing from the Sketch --> Add Library menu.</p>
<p>The code is pretty well commented. In general, what it does is interface a joystick controller and read in all of the inputs from the joystick and it sends this to the Arduino through the serial COM port associated with the XBee Radio. Alternatively, you can use a USB cable tether directly to the Arduino and for-go the wireless Xbee part - just make sure that you specify the correct COM port.</p>
<pre><code>// DriverStation.pde
//
// This example uses two community supported libraries - gamecontrolplus and vsync
// you need to install both of these libraries before running this example.
//
// gamecontrolplus handles the interface with any standard USB controller
// vsync is a great library for passing data between processing and arduino
//
// Written by: B. Huang, Sparkfun Electronics --
// rev. September 12, 2014
//
import processing.serial.*;
import org.gamecontrolplus.*;
import vsync.*;
Serial myXbee; // The serial port interface -- connected to an XBee for wireless serial to Arduino
/***************************************************************************************
// vsync objects
// Create a sender and a receiver for incoming and outgoing synchronization.
****************************************************************************************/
ValueReceiver receiver;
ValueSender sender;
// vsync public variables for passing to Arduino
public int leftX;
public int leftY;
public int rightX;
public int rightY;
public int hatPosition;
public int b0, b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8, b9, b10, b11, b12;
// variables for receiving debug data back from Arduino
public int debugVar0, debugVar1, debugVar2, debugVar3;
/***************************************************************************************
// gamecontrolplus objects
// Objects for managing and hangling interface to the joystick controller
****************************************************************************************/
ControlIO control;
ControlDevice device;
ControlButton[] button; // Array of buttons - one for each button control on joystick
ControlHat hat; // The 'hat' is the up/down/left/right control on joystick
Stick rightStick; // We are using a custom Stick class which combines two ControlSliders for each analog "stick"
Stick leftStick; // each ControlSlider returns a single axis. In the constructor for the Stick object,
// define the X and Y ControlSlider.
int controllerID;
String controllerName;
int numDevices; // number of 'gamecontrol' devices connected. This includes any I/O including mouse, keyboard, touchscreen...
int numButtons; // number of buttons on joystick
int numRumblers; // number of rumblers on joystick
int numSliders; // number of 'sliders' or analog joystick axes
String[] hatPositionNames = {
"Center", "Northwest", "North", "Northeast", "East", "Southeast", "South", "Southwest", "West"
};
/********************************************************
/ Misc variables for displaying text to graphics window.
/********************************************************/
int xPos = 10;
int yPos = 20;
int txtLineSpace = 20;
public class Stick {
float x;
float y;
public ControlSlider sliderX;
public ControlSlider sliderY;
public Stick(ControlDevice controldevice, int sliderXnum, int sliderYnum) {
sliderX = controldevice.getSlider(sliderXnum);
sliderY = controldevice.getSlider(sliderYnum);
}
public float getX() {
return sliderX.getValue();
};
public float getY() {
return sliderY.getValue();
};
}
/********************************************************
/ setup function
/********************************************************/
public void setup() {
size(800, 600); // Define the window size.
// List out and setup the Serial com port interface
print("Serial Com Ports Available: ");
println(Serial.list());
println();
// myXbee = new Serial(this, "COM6", 9600); // COM port can be specified explicitly or by index. On most PCs, it is index [0]
myXbee = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[0], 9600);
// Setup the gamecontrol device object
control = ControlIO.getInstance(this); // instantiated the controlIO object
numDevices = control.getNumberOfDevices(); // find the number of connected controllers
// Search for the "Joystick" controller on USB
for (int x = 0; x < numDevices; x++) {
println("[" + x + "] " + control.getDevice(x).getName() + " - Type: " + control.getDevice(x).getTypeName());
if (control.getDevice(x).getTypeName() == "Stick") // Tested using the Logitech GamePad F310
controllerID = x; // It enumerates as a type "Stick"
}
println();
device = control.getDevice(controllerID); // device object points to the joystick controller
controllerName = device.getName();
numButtons = device.getNumberOfButtons();
numSliders = device.getNumberOfSliders();
numRumblers = device.getNumberOfRumblers();
hat = device.getHat(0); // 8 position directional control
// define the right and left paddles on the controller.
// Stick class combines both the up/down and left/right sliders into one object
rightStick = new Stick(device, 1, 0); // Analog joysticks
leftStick = new Stick(device, 3, 2); // Analog joysticks
button = new ControlButton[numButtons]; // creates an array of button objects for all buttons on device.
for (int x = 0; x < numButtons; x++)
button[x] = device.getButton(x);
// setup for vSync control. Receiver object takes in data from Arduino. Sender object sends data to Arduino
// the number of objects and the order of these must match between Processing and Arduino.
receiver = new ValueReceiver(this, myXbee).observe("debugVar0").observe("debugVar1").observe("debugVar2").observe("debugVar3");
sender = new ValueSender(this, myXbee).observe("hatPosition").observe("leftX").observe("leftY").observe("rightX").observe("rightY").observe("b0").observe("b1").observe("b2").observe("b3").observe("b4").observe("b5").observe("b6").observe("b7").observe("b8").observe("b9").observe("b10").observe("b11").observe("b12");
}
/********************************************************
/ draw function
/********************************************************/
public void draw() {
xPos = 20; // starting text position
yPos = 20;
refreshLocalVariables(); // fetches the state of the button presses and joystick to local Variables -- used with vSync Library
background(255);
fill(255, 0, 0); // red for LEFT stick (slider)
ellipse(map(leftStick.getX(), -1, 1, 20, 780) - 20, map(leftStick.getY(), -1, 1, 0, 600), 20, 20);
fill(0, 0, 255); // blue for RIGHT stick (slider)
ellipse(map(rightStick.getX(), -1, 1, 20, 780) + 20, map(rightStick.getY(), -1, 1, 0, 600), 20, 20);
text("Joystick Controller: " + device.getName(), xPos, yPos);
yPos += txtLineSpace;
text("NumButtons: " + numButtons, xPos, yPos);
yPos += txtLineSpace;
text("NumSliders: " + numSliders, xPos, yPos);
yPos += txtLineSpace;
text("NumRumblers: " + numRumblers, xPos, yPos);
yPos += 2*txtLineSpace; // double-space
text("*********Dashboard*********", xPos, yPos);
yPos += txtLineSpace;
text("Left Analog Stick: (" + leftX + ", " + leftY + ")", xPos, yPos);
yPos += txtLineSpace;
text("Right Analog Stick: (" + rightX + ", " + rightY + ")", xPos, yPos);
yPos += txtLineSpace;
for (int x = 0; x < numButtons; x++) {
text("Button [" + x + "]: " + (int)(button[x].pressed() ? 1 : 0), xPos, yPos);
yPos += txtLineSpace;
}
text("Hat Position: " + hatPositionNames[hatPosition], xPos, yPos);
yPos += 20;
}
void refreshLocalVariables()
{
// type casts the boolean .pressed() to an integer type.
b0 = button[0].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b1 = button[1].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b2 = button[2].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b3 = button[3].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b4 = button[4].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b5 = button[5].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b6 = button[6].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b7 = button[7].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b8 = button[8].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b9 = button[9].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b10 = button[10].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b11 = button[11].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
b12 = button[12].pressed() ? 1 : 0;
// scales the -1 to +1 state of the slider to -255 to +255
leftX = (int) map(leftStick.getX(), -1, 1, -255, 255);
leftY = (int) map(leftStick.getY(), -1, 1, -255, 255);
rightX = (int) map(rightStick.getX(), -1, 1, -255, 255);
rightY = (int) map(rightStick.getY(), -1, 1, -255, 255);
hatPosition = hat.getPos();
}
</code></pre>
<p>Right click <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/9/3/DriverStation_1.pde">here</a> and select file save-as to download this code.</p>
<h3>Arduino Code</h3>
<p>I learned a few things as I wrote this example. Interfacing the H-Bridge controller on the ArduMoto Shield was easy. The ArduMoto Shield is perfect for driving and controlling the VEX motors. However, the ArduMoto Shield only has two channels. Additional motors require an external motor controller. Thankfully, VEX includes these in their Clawbot kit. The VEX Motor Controller 29 has a small PIC microcontroller embedded inside it. It responds to a 50 Hz pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal with a pulse width that varies from 1000 uS to 2000 uS. 1000 uS corresponds to full speed reverse and 2000 uS corresponds to full speed forward. 1500 uS, logically, causes the motor to stop.</p>
<p>Using the Servo library, I wrote a small function <strong>vexMotorWrite(Servo motorObj, int speed)</strong> that scales a speed value (-255 to +255) to a Servo pulse from 1000 uS to 2000 uS. You must pass this function the Servo motorObject tied to the VEX Motor Controller.</p>
<iframe style="height: 510px; width: 100%; margin: 10px 0 10px;" allowTransparency="true" src="https://codebender.cc/embed/sketch:48631" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<h3>What's next?</h3>
<p>Look for an in-depth tutorial around this. A lot of tips around using Xbees, the Servo library, and integrating all of these things together. In the meantime, let <a href="mailto:education@sparkfun.com">us</a> know if you end up trying this in your own class! Happy hacking!</p>
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ScratchEd Releases its Latest Guide for K-12 Educators - Creative Computing
Brian Huang
urn:uuid:941c9b03-b331-9af2-c985-c2097b580308
2014-08-26T18:19:00-06:00
<p>Karen Brennan, Christan Balch, Michelle Chung from Harvard Graduate School of Education in conjunction with the ScratchEd team recently authored a <a href="http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/">comprehensive guide</a> for using Scratch in K-12 space.</p>
<p>This guide captures many tools, tricks, and implementation secrets to introducing and teaching Scratch to children of any age -- elementary to high school. The guide is broken down into 6 separate units:</p>
<ul>
<li>1 - Exploring</li>
<li>2 - Animations</li>
<li>3 - Stories</li>
<li>4 - Games</li>
<li>5 - Diving Deeper (Advanced Concepts)</li>
<li>6 - Hackathon (Projects and Open Challenges)</li>
</ul>
<p>There is a wealth of combined ideas, strategies, and activities that this team has compiled since the inception of Scratch in 2007.</p>
<p>At 154 pages and 65 MB in size, this is easily the most comprehensive guide available today!</p>
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/500-500/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/8/0/8-26-2014_6-20-19_PM.jpg" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><small><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1580#comments">comments</a> | <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1580/comments.xml">comment feed</a></small></p>
To consume or not to consume...
Brian Huang
urn:uuid:8df035e1-8b05-34e6-56e1-ab3507fabc2d
2014-08-25T14:02:18-06:00
<p>Physical computing and arduino projects are a great introduction to programming, building, and inventing. It's a great tool for students to use in the classroom. While in small, individual quantities, Arduinos are inexpensive -- as a teacher, these can get to be expensive as a consumable. Here are a few tips and tricks you can use.</p>
<p>One of my favorite projects to use in the classroom for introducing Arduino is to have students design and build a light sculpture - inspired by our friends at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFpd3exDtYk">Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy</a>. If students each build their own light sculpture with an Arduino, LEDs, acrylic light pipes, and power supply -- the cost can be upwards of $50 per student. There are a number of ways to cut costs, while preserving the quality and integrity of this project. Here are a few ideas:</p>
<h3>1) Substitute an <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11113">Arduino Pro Mini</a> for your Arduino Uno</h3>
<p>The Arduino Pro Mini is fully equivalent to the Arduino Uno at a fraction of the size and cost. The Pro Mini is priced at $9.95, 50% less than the Sparkfun <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12757">Redboard</a>. You will need an <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716">FTDI programmer</a> and a <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11301">USB Mini cable</a> -- both of these are re-usable, though! Using the Pro Mini will also provide your students with an opportunity to learn to solder their circuits together. We sell a nify <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9709">ProtoShield</a> that goes with the Pro Mini if you want to keep everything together.</p>
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SparkFun's minimal design approach to Arduino. This is a 5V Arduino running the 16MHz bootloader. </p>
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<span class="count">140</span>
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<h3>2) Use plain LEDs for Lilypad / eTextiles projects</h3>
<p>Rather than using the flat <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10045">LilyPad LEDs</a>, use plain <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12903">PTH LEDs</a> instead. Grab a pair of <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8793">needle nose pliers</a> and simply roll the legs of the LEDs into rings to sew into. I like to bend the shorter side (negative) into a square-ish ring and make the longer leg (positive) into a rounded / circular ring.</p>
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<h3>3) ATtiny85 & LilyTiny</h3>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9378">ATtiny85</a> is a small 8 pin "itty-bitty" Arduino. In quantities of 10 or more, you can get it for $2.56 each. Combined with the <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11801">Tiny AVR Programmer</a>, you have a very nice, low-consumable cost solution for your class. A nice tutorial on programming the ATtiny85 can be found <a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/tiny-avr-programmer-hookup-guide">here</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, the <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10899">LilyTiny</a> / <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11364">LilyTwinkle</a> are both lower-cost microcontrollers that you can use for your eTextile classroom projects. To re-program your ATtiny, you can use this nifty <a href="http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/5250/501-1311-ND/745102">SOIC clip</a> from digikey</p>
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<h3 class="title">Tiny AVR Programmer Hookup Guide</h3>
<h4 class="metaline">October 28, 2013</h4> </a>
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A how-to on the Tiny AVR Programmer. How to install drivers, hook it up, and program your favorite Tiny AVRs using AVRDUDE! </div>
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<p>Got other ideas? Please share these with <a href="mailto:education@sparkfun.com">us</a>. We're always looking for great ideas teachers are using to get more mileage out of their equipment and hardware.</p>
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SXSW 2015 -- Help us get to Austin!
Ben Leduc-Mills
urn:uuid:86f1306b-bc4e-7ae9-f267-5b4fde9c97f6
2014-08-13T00:00:00-06:00
<p><div class="center-block text-center"> <a href="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/6/5/logo.png"><img src="https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/home_page_posts/1/5/6/5/logo.png" alt="alt text" /></a> </div></p>
<p><a href="http://sxsw.com/">SXSW</a> is a massive music, film, and interactive festival where people from all over the world gather to learn and be inspired. Right before the regular festival is <a href="http://www.sxswedu.com">SXSWedu</a>, an education-focused event with the goal of fostering innovation in learning.</p>
<p>In considering proposals for acceptance, SXSW uses a tool called the 'panel picker' to take in public feedback and support, which substantially influences how a submission is judged. SparkFun has submitted ten (10!) proposals for things we feel strongly about sharing with the community. Today, we're asking you help us get to Austin by voting for our panels (if you find them worthwhile - and we hope you do!). Here are our submissions:</p>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/35006">Make First, Teach Later: A Classroom Manifesto</a> - by Derek Runberg</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>The recent questions about the maker culture that are asked the most tend to be around how it works in the classroom. The "Maker Culture" does not fit nice and snug within contemporary educational models. A classroom that adopts a maker model inherits radical change. Historically, radical ideas have always been documented through manifestos; sets of rules and ideas to live by. We present our classroom manifesto that strikes at the culture and values of making within the classroom.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/35265">Beyond "Pink-Washing": Including Girls in Making</a> - by Tara Tiger Brown, Leah Buechley, Kylie Peppler, and Ben Leduc-Mills</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>There has been a lack of gender equity since the beginning of the "maker movement". Solutions such as "pink-washing" are shallow and play into existing gender stereotypes. This panel will discuss different, deeper strategies focused on engaging girls and women in maker activities both inside and outside the classroom. Topics may include books, activities, websites, and other educational resources, tips on creating an inclusive environment, and other useful strategies for broad inclusivity.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/34591">Re-Making Education: Thinking about Thinking</a> - by Brian Huang and Silvia Lebow-Martinez</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>The Maker Movement is a global revolution of people learning to solve problems with modern tools and technology. Contrast this with the growth of high-stakes testing and standards-based assessments, which result in rote memorization, teaching to the test - ineffective practices for real learning. We will share our experiences in teacher professional development that supports authentic “Making in the Classroom” experiences at Constructing Modern Knowledge and Microcontrollers for Educators.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/34098">Game Changers: Tools for Constructivist Learning</a> - by Paulo Blikstein, Jaymes Dec, Carlyn Maw, and Ben Leduc-Mills</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>A panel of seasoned educators will share their experiences, strategies, tips, and tricks for running a successful "hands-on", constructivist learning space. This applies to teachers looking to incorporate new technologies into their classroom, after-school robotics club and girl scout troop leaders, district administrators looking for new ideas, and especially those interested in evolving a fab lab or "makerspace". Activities, curriculum, new technologies, and other resources will be discussed.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/39337">Collaborating through Data: Internet of Things 101</a> - by Jeff Branson</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>The Internet Of Things (IOT). What the heck does this mean?
Participants will find out by creating networked objects that feed data to an internet-based "data channel." We'll explore the quick-start way to take data from sensors and post it on an open-source, free service on the internet.
In many settings the ability to share data across the internet from local sources is a high-value topic. We'll build an example project, connect it with a server, and then look at some tools for expansion.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/35548">Playful Computing -- Programming All Ages</a> - by Brian Huang and Kate McDonnell</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>Learning to code & program is a new literacy requirement for our students of the 21st century. We will present a set of activities designed to engage students in programming and computational thinking using physical computing. Physical computing is an approach to programming that focuses on how we interact with technology through the use of programming sensors, actuators, and LEDs. We will demonstrate activities in physical computing that weave art with engineering, mathematics and technology.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/40706">The Ins and Outs of Kickstarter Fulfillment</a> -</h4>
<p>with Matt Bolton and Marcus Schappi</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So you’ve got an awesome idea for the next Oculus Rift or Pebble, and you’re ready to go to Kickstarter. But wait! How are you going to manufacture 10,000 units in your garage? You need a competent partner that can deliver on your Kickstarter project. SparkFun Electronics has provided engineering expertise, manufacturing, and fulfillment for numerous wildly successful Kickstarter electronics products, such as MaKey Makey. Come hear Director of Production Matt Bolton and Geek Ammo's Marcus Schappi talk about the MicroView, the newest Kickstarter success fulfilled by SparkFun. They'll discuss the best and worst parts of supplying a product designed outside the office and the insanity of sourcing, producing, and shipping Kickstarter projects. You’ll come away with a better idea of what you need to have on hand in order to find the manufacturing partner of your dreams.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/40665">Why Patents Are Killing Innovation</a> - by Nate Seidle</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>Gadgets. We all own one (or a hundred). But from Apple to Samsung to Oculus Rift, those beloved gadgets are drowning in a sea of intellectual property lawsuits, a tide that threatens to strangle tech innovation for good. Nathan Seidle, CEO and founder of SparkFun Electronics, happens to know a thing or two about IP and innovation. He made gadgets and their parts his life's work, building a multi-million dollar company for embedded electronics, all without filing one single patent application. Nathan will guide you through the world of patents, how long it really takes copycat products to appear in the marketplace, and show you how sharing can truly build profitable, growing companies. Makers, gadgeteers, and anyone interested in what the future of innovation and business looks like—come hear how open-source technology will save the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>ReplaceMeOpen</p>
<iframe width="500" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/o20hK2mvr6Y?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>ReplaceMeClose</p>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/40759">Phant.io - The Super-Lightweight Internet of Things</a> - by Chris Clark</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>You get what you pay for--literally. Almost any electronic device today can get online, including your car or your refrigerator, for a price, of course. But the Internet of Things is not solely accessible to big manufacturers with tons of resources. Christopher Clark, Director of IT for SparkFun Electronics, presents Phant--a tool for putting the power of building IoT networks into the hands of the average consumer. Built to be lightweight and modular, and open-source end-to-end, Phant is a free, open-source engine designed to run on the smallest devices. Phant powers SparkFun's free streaming service (data.sparkfun.com), and coupled with open-source hardware, it is a powerful tool to rapidly deploy sensor networks to collect rich data from the field. Christopher will take you on a full tour of the open-source technology that makes Phant go and give a demo of building a private sensor network using open-source hardware.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>ReplaceMeOpen</p>
<iframe width="500" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CV0alz65P_w?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>ReplaceMeClose</p>
<h4><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/35712">Can Fandoms Fix Tech's Gender Gap?</a> - by Jessica McDonald</h4>
<blockquote>
<p>According to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, 12% of 2012 computer science degree recipients from major universities were women. That number represents a staggering decline from just a decade ago. We talk a lot about closing the gender gap, but how can we if universities aren't producing more women in STEM fields? Jessica McDonald, Director of Marketing and Communications for SparkFun Electronics, argues that the answer lies in changing how we think about teaching technology. She'll present original research describing how participation in fandoms--yes, fandoms--through sites like Tumblr and cosplay are shaping a new generation of techie girls, as well as discuss initiatives her company has taken based on this research in an effort to help close the gender gap.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We hope some of these panels strike you as interesting - and we'll let you know which of these ultimately get accepted. Thank you for your help - and see you in Austin!</p>
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