Arduino, Awesomesauce, Physical Computing

Sparkfun Electronics Comes to VT – Teaches our Teachers

Jeff Branson from SparkFun

On April 17 +18, 2012 Jeff Branson of SparkFun conducted workshops in Burlington, Vermont. These workshops taught our teachers approaches to conducting classes on the Arduino micro controller. We are very thankful to both Jeff and to SparkFun for their generosity and for helping us plan our educational program.

SparkFunis a passionate company with a DIY spirit very much aligned with Vermont’s independent streak. They offer special education pricing to schools and do workshops all over the country. They also have a great website, check it out! Thank you Jeff, for coming to Vermont!

Also a big thank you to Laboratory B and to Champlain College’s MFA in Emergent Media Program for providing space for the workshops.

Arduino-Compatible PTH Kit
Look Ma! I soldered it myself!

 

We look forward to working with our friends at SparkFun Electronics on many more projects!

Arduino, Awesomesauce, Physical Computing, Things to Do, Vermont Makers

Resources + Pics: Blinkies, the Quadrotor, the Thing-O-Matic and more

Thanks for coming out to our first public gathering at the Miller Center and thanks, Ken Howell and the Emergent Media MFA Program at Champlain College for sponsoring this Vermont Makers event. It was a great turnout!

Below find photos of the event and links to resources, as promised.

Photo Gallery from Blinkies, the Quadrotor, and the Thing-o-Matic – April 3 2012:

Get Smart with These Presentation Resources:
(new resources added 4/14/12)
Presentation Resources

Click here for information about the event. Missed it? That’s OK, there will be plenty more! Stay tuned and sign up for our email list (form right) or follow us on facebook + google+ (links right).

Resources

Illuminate Your Life Resources

There are an almost infinite amount of resources on the web for LEDs.  I’ve picked a couple that should whet your appetite.  Also, feel free to ask questions here and on facebook if you need guidance on anything specific.

A good starting place for the science behind LEDs is Wikipedia. There are a lot of linked resources here, some of which you’ll recognize from my presentation slides. I still have not been able to click through all that I wanted to!

If you’e interested in making some LEDs blink, a good place to start is with Adafruit’s Arduino tutorial series. Number three is specifically about LEDs.

If you liked the simple lights I handed out, you can find the LEDs in packs of ten here. Adafruit also has a ton of other LED related stuff.

If you have questions about anything else I discussed, or just want to pass along a link to a cool blinky project, you can find me on Google+ as ransomhall.  I also have a website where I post my electronic exploits at ransomhall.com, and finally my email is eric at that domain name (not linked here for spambot reasons).

On a final note, I noticed that Ken, who runs the MFA program at Champlain, referred to me in one of his pictures as “Lord of the Blinkies”. I kinda like that.  I generally like to stick to a science theme (the labcoat is a dead giveaway). I overheard one attendee say to another “that guy is blinkin’ mad”, which made me think my alter ego alias should be “Blinkin’ Mad Scientist”. What do you guys think? Got anything better? Free blinkies at the next meeting to the comment author with the best one. Mwahahahaha!

 Submitted by Eric Hall

Inspired by innovation, creativity + interdisciplinary education, we're artists + engineers. Our material is technology. Feeds managed by Jenn Karson.