Arduboy is a card-sized Arduino micro-computer

It may sound crazy having a complete micro-computer in a card-sized format, but that's exactly what this Arduboy is all about: a computer you can place in your wallet, measuring just 1.6mm thick.

As you'd might imagine this Arduboy won't be breaking any speed records or compete with your Xbox or PlayStation. But on the other hand, try and put any of those inside your wallet. The Arduboy uses a Arduino, has capacitive touch buttons (layout is similar to a GameBoy, although the current chip isn't powerful enough to run a GB emulator - though a future version might), has a piezo-speaker, and a OLED monochrome screen. It's button battery is enough to keep it runnig for over 9h, though when it runs out, you'll need to solder a new one in place (guess a wireless charging super-capacitor could have done the trick here.

It's creator hopes to be able to sell a Arduboy kit for just $30 (you'll need to assemble it yourself), and I'm sure you'll be already thinking on something original to use it - from an original visit card to a password management system, or even try and replace the OLED screen with a low power eInk screen similar to Coin).

The Arduboy should popup on Kickstarter in the coming weeks, and I'm sure it won't take long to achieve it's goal.

Digispark - the Tiny USB-sized Arduino

If you're a fan of Arduinos and electronics, you won't want to miss this amazing project that popped up on Kickstarter: the Digispark, a tiny Arduino-compatible development board you can connect directly to a USB port.

This means you can use your familiar Arduino IDE 1.0+ (OSX/Win/Linux) to program it, and use its 6 I/Os to do whatever you can imagine. Though you can simply start by using its on-board LED to flash whenever your computer receives new emails... or something more advanced, like using its 3 PWM output pins to create fully fledged RGB LED lighting controller, or use the analog to digital converters to turn it into a module that can track your home temperature, brightness and humidity. It's up to you.

For just $10... what more could you ask for?

Arduino The Documentary

You've probably already heard about the Arduino. This open-source electronics development platform is being used by thousands and thousand of people around the world.

I've shown you some projects using it: like photographing at the speed of sound, individually addressable LED strips, and a Portuguese made Arduino made of paper.

If you're into this kind of stuff, don't miss out the following video: Arduino The Documentary.


Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.

Photographing at the Speed of Sound

It sounds a bit strange to talk about sound when photgraph is all about light, but sometimes... sound is the exact trigger we need to capture that exact photo we're looking for.

With a little help from a friend - in this case a trusted Arduino - we can easily create our own sound sensitive high-speed photo trigger that will allow us to capture the exact moment something goes... pop/bang/crash/blam/etc. :)

PAPERduino

While attending Codebits I came across a very interesting project by Guilherme Martins: PAPERduino.

Considering that the PCB is one of the most "troublesome" aspects of building your own Arduino - unless you opt to buy a ready-to-assemble kit - Guilherme had the excellent idea: why not bypass the PCB completely and use paper and cardboard instead?

The PAPERduino thus becomes one of the easiest and cheapest methods to build your own Arduino.

Considering you'll soon be able to print electronic components on paper using nanotube ink I don't think it's too far-fetched to think of a time when you'll be able to print all your electronics in a similar way.