标签: SparkFun

One way I keep myself out of trouble is to always have a bunch of hobby projects on the go. A few years ago I started playing with Arduino microcontroller development boards. The great thing about these boards: they have so many add-on boards (called "shields") available, such as motor control boards, real-time clocks, and so forth.   There are also lots of cool things you can control with these devices, like tri-color NeoPixel LED rings and strips from the folks at Adafruit and the MSGEQ7 audio-spectrum analyzer chip from the guys and gals at SparkFun .   As you will know if you've played with the Arduino yourself, you often end up with a stack of boards mounted on top of each other. In the case of my Vetinari Clock, for example, I have an Arduino Mega at the bottom of my stack. On top of this, we have a large prototyping board containing the circuits used to drive my antique analog meters. Next, we find a smaller prototyping board carrying a real-time clock (RTC) and a temperature sensor. And, in the fullness of time, I'm going to add a sound effects card.   Now, one tiny fly in the soup, as it were, is the fact that — when you have a board stack like this — it can be a pain to locate, isolate, and debug any problems. So you can only imagine my surprise and delight when I came into contact with Guido Bonelli.     Guido, who is an Independent Consultant, has created a capriciously cunning device called a Dr. Duino , which he describes as "A shield for your shields!" The image below shows a Dr. Duino (the green board) sitting on top of an Arduino Uno (the blue board). In addition to providing a bunch of switches, LEDs, potentiometers, and suchlike, the Dr. Duino also allows you to monitor signals going up and down through the header terminals forming the stack. Furthermore, by means of jumpers, it allows you to break the vertical connections and inject your own signals into the mix.     If you have a stack of shields mounted on top of an Arduino Uno, for example, you can insert the Dr. Duino between the Arduino and the first shield, or between the first and second shields, or between the second and third... or you can have it sitting on the top of the stack.   As an aside, I typically use the larger Arduino Mega for my projects, so I live in hopes that Guido will develop a Dr. Duino Mega. If he decides to do so, he says that I can have some input into its design. Guido may live to regret this, because I have ideas rocketing around my head like fireworks, but we digress...   The reason I'm waffling on about this here is that Guido will be giving a presentation on the way in which he designed and implemented the Dr. Duino at the forthcoming ESC Boston .   But don’t just take my word for this; take a peek at this video and hear what the man himself has to say:     For your delectation and delight, I asked Guido to pen a few words describing his presentation, and he kindly responded as follows:   Please join me, Guido Bonelli, for an exciting dive into the world of “Making” using Arduino at this year’s ESC Boston 2015. There will be giveaways, so don’t miss out! Learning and debugging your Arduino project will never be the same again after you sit in on this session! So come learn how to effortlessly get started with Arduino and debug like a pro. In this session, we will delve into the blissful highs of building stackable hardware, coupled with the lowest of lows when trying to debug our megalithic towers of Arduino awesomeness. New to Arduino and don’t know where to start? Well this session is for you too! During this presentation, you will learn how to use a new type of shield called a Dr. Duino to kick-start your entry into Arduino development. We will start off with an introduction into the Arduino landscape, followed by a brief discussion of a personal project called Orbis -- The Amazing Kinetic Sculpture. In fact, it was the problems I encountered while building Orbis that spurred the development of the Dr. Duino Arduino shield. In addition to a teardown of Orbis’s hardware, we will discuss how 3D printing, Arduino shields, and laser-cut wood were used to realize Orbis. Next, we will review all of the pain-points associated with building a multi-shield Arduino stack and the difficulties that can arise with this method. Finally, we will take a more in-depth look at the Dr.Duino shield, which is like a Swiss Army Knife when it comes to debugging one's Arduino-based projects. I am very excited to be presenting at this year’s ESC and look forward to changing the way you Arduino!   Well, this is certainly one of the talks I'm planning on attending, not the least that I can corner Guido and hound him with regard to the Dr. Duino Mega I so badly desire him to create in order to make my life easier; after all, isn’t that what it's all about (LOL)?

I am personally quite keen on SparkFun. I think it's a great company that really shines in the open-source arena. It does a lot of educational work and puts out really great products. When I saw this news item pop up on the SparkFun blog, I read it, but then needed to take a little while to digest and contemplate what was going on. It appears that SparkFun has lost an entire shipment of 2,000 multi-meters because the yellow case and dark face of the meter infringes on Fluke's trademark.   SparkFun's Generic Multimeter   My initial response, as a person who owned a small business for a while, was outrage. SparkFun was out $30,000 worth of product because an inspector deemed that it was yellow? That is insane. How can a company trademark yellow? What the heck is going on here? After a taking a little while to think, and doing a little more research, I found myself empathizing with Fluke as well. Compare the Fluke 17B below to the SparkFun multi-meter above. The similarity is hard to deny. Add on top of that the fact that SparkFun is now going public complaining about Fluke protecting its trademark, and it doesn't look great for SparkFun.   Fluke 17B Then again, in SparkFun's defence, how many designs for multi-meters can there possibly be? In the end I find that I can see the frustration from both sides, and ultimately I'm just happy not to have to be involved. So, what do you think of the situation? Should Fluke settle on a specific shade of yellow as Tiffany's did with Tiffany Blue, as SparkFun points out? Is the fact that the face is grey enough of a similarity to justify the confiscation? Let us know your thoughts. Caleb Kraft is Chief Community Editor at EE Times.  

多亏了它的开源平台和易用的软件硬件，在线有详细的数以千计的Arduino项目，供每个爱好者享用。这个项目展示了，如何改装一个不昂贵的RC小车套件，并可以用网络界面控制。你可以在这个Arduino板子上编程，让这个小车实现任意方向的行驶~ 第一步：备齐材料 来自Sparkfun的迷你Bot套件 我使用了如下材料： Sparkfun的迷你Bot套件：ProtoSnap MiniBot提供一个Arduino兼容控制器，发动机控制器板，红外接近传感器大量的原型空间都在一个单板上。 WIZnet的无线插板：WizFi插板利用完全认证的WizFi210无线模块，提供Arduino无线功能。SPI接口用来提供更快的传输速度空出Arduino UART接口。所有的软件硬件的材料都是免费且开源的 锂电池 第二步：将WizFi插板与迷你Bot套件连接 要用Wi-Fi控制RC小车，我们需要6个GPIO和1个模拟引脚（如下）。   描述 Arduino 兼容板 WizFi 插板 SCLK D13 JP2.13 MISO D12 JP2.12 MOSI D11 JP2.11 /SS_WIFI D10 JP2.4 Data_ready D9 JP2.3 WIFI_RST D8 JP2.2 电池电压检测器 A2 分压后 连接电池输出 第三部：代码 Sparkfun的教程使用3个引脚来控制，但是我们需要6个引脚来分别控制两个轮子。代码如下： #define LEFT_PWM 3 #define LEFT_1 4 #define LEFT_2 2 #define RIGHT_PWM 6 #define RIGHT_1 5 #define RIGHT_2 7 void pinSetup() { // Motor control pins- the PWM pins are speed control while the other pins // control the "mode" of operation- forward, reverse, stop, brake. These // functions are abstracted in some utility functions below, so a user need // only call the "driveFwd()" function, eg, to move the robot forward. pinMode(LEFT_PWM, OUTPUT); pinMode(LEFT_1, OUTPUT); pinMode(LEFT_2, OUTPUT); pinMode(RIGHT_PWM, OUTPUT); pinMode(RIGHT_1, OUTPUT); pinMode(RIGHT_2, OUTPUT); } void driveStop() { rightStop(); leftStop(); } void rightStop() { digitalWrite(RIGHT_1, LOW); digitalWrite(RIGHT_2, LOW); analogWrite(RIGHT_PWM, 0); } void leftStop() { digitalWrite(LEFT_1, LOW); digitalWrite(LEFT_2, LOW); analogWrite(LEFT_PWM, 0); } void moveForward() { rightFwd(); leftFwd(); } void moveBackward() { rightBwd(); leftBwd(); } void turnRight() { rightBwd(); leftFwd(); } void turnLeft() { rightFwd(); leftBwd(); } void rightFwd() { digitalWrite(RIGHT_1, LOW); digitalWrite(RIGHT_2, HIGH); analogWrite(RIGHT_PWM, current_speed); } void rightBwd() { digitalWrite(RIGHT_1, HIGH); digitalWrite(RIGHT_2, LOW); analogWrite(RIGHT_PWM, current_speed); } void leftFwd() { digitalWrite(LEFT_1, LOW); digitalWrite(LEFT_2, HIGH); analogWrite(LEFT_PWM, current_speed); } void leftBwd() { digitalWrite(LEFT_1, HIGH); digitalWrite(LEFT_2, LOW); analogWrite(LEFT_PWM, current_speed); }   当你用网络浏览器连接你的WizFi插板时，你可以看见如上的网页，并且可直接控制RC小车。如果你点击按钮，网络浏览器发送HTTP GET信息WizFi插板会解析以下用以控制发动机。 下面的代码说明了怎样解析HTML请求，控制发动机并制作HTML页。   myHTMLParser.Parsing((char *)rcvdBuf); if((rcvdBuf == 0x0A) (rcvdBuf == 0x0D) (rcvdBuf == 0x0A) (rcvdBuf == 0x0D)) { retval = myHTMLParser.GetParam(); if(retval == FW_CMD) { Serial.println("FW_CMD Rcvd"); myHTMLParser.SetParam(NO_CMD); moveForward(); }else if(retval == BW_CMD) { Serial.println("BW_CMD Rcvd"); myHTMLParser.SetParam(NO_CMD); moveBackward(); }else if(retval == RT_CMD) { Serial.println("RT_CMD Rcvd"); myHTMLParser.SetParam(NO_CMD); turnRight(); }else if(retval == LF_CMD) { Serial.println("LW_CMD Rcvd"); myHTMLParser.SetParam(NO_CMD); turnLeft(); } while(myHTMLPages.GetNextLine((char *)rcvdBuf)) { myClient .write((byte *)rcvdBuf); }   myHTMLParser.Parsing() 函数是解析接收数据 GetNextLine() 函数使HTML页根据浏览器请求应答。   感谢阅读！ 与我们更多交流： WIZnet邮箱：wiznetbj@wiznettechnology.com WIZnet中文主页：http://www.iwiznet.cn WIZnet中文博客：http://blog.iwiznet.cn WIZnet企业博客：http://e.weibo.com/wiznet2012

The guys and gals at Sparkfun always seem to be enjoying whatever it is they are up to at any particular moment in time... Based in Boulder, Colorado, SparkFun is an online retail store that sells the bits and pieces to make electronics projects possible. As they say: Whether it's a robot that can cook your breakfast or a GPS cat tracking device, our products and resources are designed to make the world of electronics more accessible to the average person. In addition to products, SparkFun also offers classes at their facility (from soldering to Arduino programming) and a number of online tutorials designed to help educate individuals in the wonderful world of embedded electronics. Anyway, I was chatting with Aaron Weiss, who is an engineer at SparkFun, and he was telling me about their latest product – the Electric Sheep . Yes, I know what you are thinking... I must admit that this gave me pause for thought... but it all makes sense when you know a little more... So here's the deal... let's assume that you want to use your Android-based device to "talk to the outside world" (by which I mean use it to control some sort of external system). In the early days of the Android operating system, the only way to do this was to connect to the audio port or to use Bluetooth. More recently, it became possible to use the USB connector by means of something called the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) . Now, I don't know too much about this; I'm told that the ADB is a really robust protocol that gives you a lot of access, but my impression (and I may well be wrong here) is that it's not as easy to use as one might hope. More recently, in May 2011, Google released a new protocol called the Open Accessory Protocol. Along with this is something called the Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK), which provides an implementation of an Android USB accessory that is based on the Arduino open source electronics prototyping platform. All of which brings us to SparkFun's Electric Sheep board, which is a development tool (similar to the Arduino Mega ADK) for creating custom Android accessories. Based on the ATMEGA2560-16AU and carrying the same bootloader as the Arduino Mega 2560, this board communicates with your Android device over USB by taking advantage of Android's Open Accessory Protocol. During our conversation, Aaron started to talk enthusiastically about the things you could do, for example, using your Android-based smartphone or tablet computer to open your window blinds in the morning. Personally I think it would be easier to get out of bed and do it myself, but I get the idea (grin). Now, I'm not saying that any of this is easy. My understanding is that this is a multi-step process. For example, you have to create an application in Java that runs on your Android platform that can talk to your Electric Sheep (if you see what I mean) and also program the Arduino on the Electric Sheep to (a) communicate with the Android platform and (b) control whatever it is that you are trying to control. Having said this... ...it's important to remember that SparkFun's mission in life is NOT to provide us with finished products and solutions – what they specialize in is giving hobbyists the tools they need to start creating wonderful things. To this end, the Electric Sheep comes with schematics, example code, tutorials on using the ADK, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Last but not least, just in case you were wondering why it's called an Electric Sheep, Aaron explained that this started with the concept of "Android", which led to the film Blade Runner, which was of course based on the book Do Androids Dream or Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick (Aaron was very impressed that I actually knew about the Blade Runner / Electric Sheep connection). Our conversation ended with Aaron muttering to himself "This is what happens when you allow engineers to name a product..."  

I truly love the folks at Sparkfun because of their love for making electronics fun everyone. You often hear that the days of people building their own electronics projects are over, but this really isn't the case. Take SparkFun, for example, which was founded in 2003, and which is growing from strength-to-strength providing everything from training courses in soldering to electronic parts and kits and ... all sorts of "stuff". Actually I regard SparkFun as being a real success story, because (a) they have grown to 120 people (b) they are helping folks (from young kids to retirees) learn about electronics and (c) they really enjoy what they are doing. Anyway, SparkFun recently announced a new line of products designed to help the novice electronics enthusiast ease into the world of programming, prototyping and design. Each product in the new ProtoSnap line features various input and output boards that are linked together, complete with traces, to form a multiuse prototyping platform. This allows users to experiment with embedded electronics without the burden of soldering, wires or other typical prototyping limitations. There currently are three different products in the ProtoSnap line—the ProtoSnap Pro Mini, the ProtoSnap LilyPad Development Board, and the ProtoSnap LilyPad E-sewing kit. We'll look at these in more detail in a moment, but first check out this video of Jim from Sparkfun telling us all about it. The ProtoSnap Pro Mini is an Arduino-compatible development platform aimed at teaching the basics of Arduino programming as efficiently as possible. It requires zero assembly, wiring, or soldering, so you can jump right into programming the ProtoSnap to control LEDs, buzzers, light sensors, and more. There's even a small prototyping space so you can add your own parts! ( Click here to see a tutorial) Once you've gotten a firm grasp of the programming, you can snap off the individual components of the ProtoSnap for use in future projects. Those components include an Arduino Pro Mini microcontroller platform and an FTDI Basic Breakout to program it. The ProtoSnap LilyPad Development Board is designed to get you started in the world of e-textiles (I hadn't heard anything about this, but the idea is to make things like T-Shirts or Pillows with flashing lights and suchlike). Combining a LilyPad Simple Board with other LilyPad components like a buzzer, a vibration motor, an RGB LED, a button, a switch, five LEDs, a light sensor, and a temperature sensor, the ProtoSnap LilyPad Development Board lets you dive right into wearable electronics. When you've learned how to program the LilyPad Arduino Simple Board, break apart the components and explore the power of the LilyPad platform. Last but certainly not least, the ProtoSnap E-Sewing Kit pairs a LilyPad coin cell breakout board with a switch, a button, and five LEDs. It comes pre-wired so you can plug in a battery and use the switch and button to turn the LEDs on and off. Once you've mastered using the board together, break off the individual components and use them just like you would with their normal LilyPad counterparts.. "The ProtoSnap line is really designed with the beginner in mind," said SparkFun Engineer Ryan Owens. "We really think it will help introduce people to prototyping in an easy-to-understand and user-friendly way." While the ProtoSnap line currently has three products, the range of possibilities for expansion is endless. The folks at SparkFun say that they are excited to see the implications this new product holds for beginner electronics enthusiasts, and they hope the ProtoSnap line will introduce a new group of people to the wonders of embedded electronics. For more information, visit ( www.sparkfun.com ).