[svlug] SVOSUG 10/23, Arduino Night, buy a kit, build a kit, bring a board

[Alan DuBoff]

** THIS IS NOT AN SVLUG EVENT **

When:  Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008
Where: Sun's Santa Clara Campus Mansion
        (SCA07 just across the road from the Auditorium)
What:  Arduino Night, buy a kit, build a kit, bring a board
Time:  7:30pm-10:00pm

Yahoo Maps:
http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=37.393386&lon=-121.955218&zoom=16&q1=4070%20George%20Sellon%20Circle%2095054

We are planning our next SVOSUG meeting, and I have mentioned 
this idea to several folks with great response, so I would like 
to start planning early enough since this meeting will present a 
lot of options to folks attending.

To learn about the Arduino if you are not familiar with it, 
please go to the Arduino website at the following link. If you 
use Mac OSX, Linux, or Windows you can get the development 
software at a link from that site, and if you use FreeBSD you 
can find the development tools inside the ports collection, use 
pkg_add or make the port. If you use OpenSolaris, we will have 
the start of the tools available which you can use. We hope to 
continue working on these to have a stable set of tools just 
like the other platforms, and we are just getting this going 
(but do have it working).

http://arduino.cc/

As I have mentioned at several user groups, including the last
SVOSUG meeting, we have been planning to build the Freeduino
which is an inexpensive kit that is sold by Modern Device.

http://moderndevice.com/

These kits cost anywhere from $10-$15 depending on QTY in which 
you buy them. We will have some kits, cables, breadboards, and 
other chiatchkas which can be used with boards for development, 
but for many people we have determined it could be easier to buy 
a pre-assembled kit ahead of time. For that matter, if you want 
to ensure that you have a kit, should you want to build, buying 
one ahead of time will be the safest bet. You can get the 
Freedunio kit assembled from Modern Device, but I don't believe 
we will have any of those to provide, we will most likely only 
have bare bones kits. One of the big advantages of this board is 
that it can easily be plugged into a breadboard to connect other 
devices and/or route connections. This is convenient for 
development. You can get a serial to USB cable for these also, 
but that will cost about $20.

The Diecimilia is a pre-assembled board that is available from 
several places, and this design originates from Arduino, AFAIK. 
One advantage of these boards is that they have a lot of options 
you can buy and connect to them, please see the MakerShed page 
as they have a lot of stuff listed. The Arduino is very popular 
with the Maker Groups around the country. There are many options 
known as shields that plug onto the Diecimilia, for various 
audio type devices (sound, piano synth), sliders, lights, USB, 
Ethernet, serial, cables, etc...so this is a very attractive 
package for many folks.

http://www.makershed.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=43&Redirected=Y

Given that there are so many options, and such a diverse set of 
skills within all of the local communities, people attending 
will have to make some decisions on what model they would like.

I must add, 2 people have built the kits I know, one has done it 
in 20 minutes, and another person has done it in just over 1 
hour. We will have several soldering stations, but due to time 
constraints, we will be limited on how many can be soldered up, 
hence the 15 kits we have ordered to have on hand.

I like to build things, so building one is attractive to me. I 
have a kit already, but will most likely solder mine before hand 
and will use that as another data point. This is also a good 
opportunity to learn how to solder and build a kit, there will 
be folks to help you if you do not know how.

There is so much information, and so many places to buy, that we 
decided to reccomend only a few online stores to purchase from, 
but you can order from many more places on the net, and the Tech 
Shop in Menlo Park often has them for sale, but there is such 
demand for them that they sell out quickly.

The places that we reccomend are: (not in any specific order;-)

Modern Device, both kits and Diecimilia (BBB is the bare bones
board kit, i.e., Freedunio).

http://www.moderndevice.com/

Maker Store, shipping is quick but prices are a tad higher, good
selection.

http://store.makezine.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=43

Adafruit Industries, ladyada has done a lot of great stuff to
help the Arduino community, quick shipping, and good prices,
decent inventory.

http://www.adafruit.com/

Spark Fun Electronics, I love to look around this site, lots of
widgets, boards, and other goodies...

http://www.sparkfun.com/

If you are unsure what you think you might like, please attend 
the meeting and and see several different boards, it might help 
you decide and understand the best option to hook up one to your 
computer. You will ultimately need some type of cable, to 
connect to your computer along with the board.

We will have several cool demos to represent the type of 
development you can easily do with these boards, and that in 
itself will be interesting to many people, even if you are not 
interested in doing development yourself.

We hold no favorites, the kits we have available are on a first 
come first serve basis (i.e., ALL communities, SVOSUG, BayLISA, 
and SVLUG), but we haven't decided a good way to pre-sale these 
kits to people, other than taking your word on good faith that 
you will show up and buy it. We suspect the kits will go fast as 
they are inexpensive and fun to build, but I emphasize that it

is safest to get a kit or board ahead of time to have it in your
possession. Also, building is not the best option for all folks,
so keep that in mind. We will be available to help you if you
are not familiar with soldering.

--

Alan DuBoff - Software Orchestration