[McHUG] Micro-Updates

[n3sb at qis.net]

Hi folks;

Here are some updates on a variety of topics:

Dayton Arduino Seminar:
Jim Kvochick WB8AZB did a great presentation on the Arduino. Many, if  
not most, of the audience were already familiar with the Arduino,  
which I think was a huge surprise for Jim. One interesting thing he  
stated was that he's seen very little ham radio related Arduino  
activity. I think the McHUG group may have a few surprises in store  
for Jim.

HEAP1:
There's a neat Yahoo Group that's been recently started by Jim WB8AZP  
called HEAP1 - Hams Exploring Arduino Programming. There's a place for  
storing files, which is going to be a nice way to share projects. You  
can also download his Dayton presentation there. I'll be posting some  
of my code there soon - the CW Receive code, as well as my Pack  
Transmit and Receive code, which I hope to spend some time cleaning up  
this weekend.

Ardweeny:
This is a VERY tiny Arduino module that consists of a circuit board  
mounted on top of an ATMEGA328 DIP. They're also pretty cheap - just  
under $10.00 (including the ATMEGA328 Chip), directly from the folks  
who created them -- Solarbotics. I just finished building one of them.  
It was easy and quick to assemble, and it works fine. It'll run OK  
with 2.5 Volts. Battery power with 3 AAA cells should be good. Its  
also a very light module, so it should be good for balloon experiments.

Fritzing:
The Fritzing package has seen some updates lately. It's now a very  
nice tool to document how a circuit should be wired up, and to even  
lay out a PCB (it also has an autorouter!) There are a bunch of  
library components to make circuit drawing easy.

Maple:
The Arduino concept is branching out to other types of  
microcontroller. PIC and ARM chips are now being used to make boards  
in the familiar Arduino form-factor. I got a Maple board today, which  
uses a 32 Bit Cortex M3 based ARM chip from ST Electronics, that runs  
at 72 MHz. The Windows/Mac/Linux IDE looks just like the familiar  
Arduino IDE, and many programs compile and run with just a few  
changes. This chip is FAST, has 128K of FLASH, 20k of RAM, and lots of  
other super peripherals like a 12 Bit ADC, extra I/O pins, and  
dedicated USB. The chip can do some DSP functions too! This new module  
is a great way to learn about this ARM Processor too, because its as  
easy to use as an Arduino. The down-side is the price. These modules  
are $50.00, a bit more expensive than the Arduino

EEVBLOG:
Don't forget to check out the website of David Jones. His EEBVLOG  
video blog covers all kinds of fascinating topics in electronics, and  
Dave is pretty funny to watch as well.

Ask an Engineer:
Don't forget that LadyADA will be doing a video chat this evening at  
10:00 PM. She frequently discusses Arduino topics. The link is a  
little challenging to find so I'll attach it here --  
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=chat

73; Steve, N3SB