Saturday 29th August 2009, 2pm, Steamshift HQ

Steamshift have kindly offered to host our next meeting which is targetted at introducing us to the Arduino and similar development boards.

No prior knowledge is necessary, but if you already have an Arduino/Freeduino/PICAXE/etc board, please feel free to bring it along, and if you like you can even teach the rest of us about it. Andy from Steamshift will be bringing a number with him, and there are a number of people on the groups who will be bringing theirs too.

I don’t feel knowledgeable enough to tell you much about Arduino, so instead, I suggest you go to Wikipedia, or the Arduino website:

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).

The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs.

Arduino received an Honory Mention in the Digital Communities section of the 2006 Ars Electronica Prix.

Please, if you have any friends who you think might be interested, spread the word! Arduino is a very flexible platform and can be used for hardware hacking, home automation, robotics, and millions of other things.

Bring as much of the following as you can (all are totally OPTIONAL):

• Laptop with a free USB port
• Arduino/Freeduino/PICAXE/etc boards (I suggest marking them in some way so they don’t get mixed up!)
• Components: breadboards, LEDs, resistors, capacitors, Arduino shields, light dependant resistors, proximity sensors, speakers, buzzers, switches, …
• Cash (in case a quick trip to Maplin might be required, or in case you want to buy an Arduino board/some components off of someone else)
• Camera/camcorder to document the day!

If you can make it, please let us know in the group or by commenting on this post so we know how many people to expect.

My thanks go out again to the guys at Steamshift, especially Andy, for making this next meetup possible: