The Arduino board is a small microcontroller board, which is a small circuit (the board) that contains a whole computer on a small chip (the microcontroller). This computer is at least a thousand times less powerful than the MacBook I’m using to write this, but it’s a lot cheaper and very useful for building interesting… Continue reading The Arduino Hardware
Introduction
Arduino is composed of two major parts: an Arduino board, which is the piece of hardware you work on when you build your objects; and the Arduino Integrated Development Environment, or IDE, the piece of software you run on your computer. You use the IDE to create a sketch (a little computer program) that you upload to the Arduino… Continue reading Introduction
Collaboration
Collaboration between users is one of the key principles in the Arduino world—through the forum at forum.arduino.cc, people from different parts of the world help each other learn about the platform. We also set up a website called “Project Hub” where users document their project and make them available for other users to build. It’s so amazing to see… Continue reading Collaboration
Hacking Toys
Toys are a fantastic source of cheap technology to hack and reuse. With the current influx of thousands of very cheap high-tech toys from China, you can build quick ideas with a few noisy cats and a couple of light swords. I have been doing this for a few years to get my students to… Continue reading Hacking Toys
We Love Junk!
People throw away a lot of technology these days: old printers, computers, weird office machines, technical equipment, and even a lot of military stuff. There has always been a big market for this surplus technology, especially among young and/or poorer makers and those who are just starting out. This market became evident in Ivrea, where we developed Arduino.… Continue reading We Love Junk!
Tinkering
We believe that it is essential to play with technology, exploring different possibilities directly on hardware and software, sometimes without a very defined goal. Reusing existing technology is one of the best ways of tinkering. Getting cheap toys or old discarded equipment and hacking them to make them do something new is one of the… Continue reading Tinkering
Prototyping
Prototyping is at the heart of the Arduino Way: we make things and build objects that interact with objects, people, and networks. We strive to find a simpler, faster, and cheaper way to prototype. A lot of beginners who are approaching electronics for the first time think that they have to learn how to build… Continue reading Prototyping
Introduction
The Arduino Way is a philosophy based on making things rather than talking about them. It is a constant search for faster and more powerful ways to build better prototypes. We have explored many prototyping techniques and developed ways of thinking with our hands. Classic engineering relies on a strict process for getting from A to B;… Continue reading Introduction
What Is Physical Computing?
Physical computing uses electronics to prototype new and innovative devices. It involves the design of interactive objects that can communicate with humans by using sensors and actuators controlled by a behaviour implemented as software running inside a microcontroller (a small computer on a single chip). In the past, using electronics meant having to deal with engineers all… Continue reading What Is Physical Computing?
What Is Interaction Design?
Arduino was born to teach Interaction Design, a design discipline that puts prototyping at the centre of its methodology. There are many definitions of Interaction Design, but the one that we prefer is this: Interaction Design is the design of any interactive experience. In today’s world, Interaction Design is concerned with the creation of meaningful… Continue reading What Is Interaction Design?