Machinecollective.org » admin http://www.machinecollective.org Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:20:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 New Arduino family member: The Arduino Mega http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/26/new-arduino-family-member-the-arduino-mega/ http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/26/new-arduino-family-member-the-arduino-mega/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:40:30 +0000 admin http://www.machinecollective.org/?p=424 The Arduino team have released a new board called the “Arduino Mega”, it’s built around an ATMega1280 microprocessor, featuring 128 kilobytes of FLASH ROM, 4 kilobytes of EEPROM and 8192 bytes of RAM, which should be more than plenty for your next big Arduino project!

The Arduino Mega is equipped with 4 hardware serial ports (UART), 54 digital I/O pins (of which 12 can be used for PWM), 16 analog inputs and a dedicated I²C port (two wire interface). The rest of the specs are similar to the Arduino Deumilanove: it’s equipped with an USB Port, ICSP header, reset button, external power input socket and it’s  compatible with almost all standard Arduino shields, so no need to upgrade your current Arduino shield collection.

A new Arduino IDE with support for the Arduino Mega will become available when the official announcement has been made. We have a limited quantity of Arduino Mega boards available, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

Check the official announcement on the Arduino blog for all details about the Arduino Mega.

Arduino Mega - ATMega1280 - top

Arduino Mega with ATMega1280

]]> http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/26/new-arduino-family-member-the-arduino-mega/feed/ 2 Order page online! http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/21/order-page-online/ http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/21/order-page-online/#comments Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:37:35 +0000 admin http://www.machinecollective.org/?p=398 Our all-in-one order page is now online. Make sure to read all information on the ordering information page before placing your order. You can find the order form at the following URL:

http://www.machinecollective.org/pages/orderform/

order form

Click to visit the order form

We’re now preparing our protomodule kits and the new wide enclosure kits and our on demand laser cutting service is almost ready for launch. Stay tuned for more updates.

]]> http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/21/order-page-online/feed/ 2 Product information update http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/20/product-information-update/ http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/20/product-information-update/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:47:15 +0000 admin http://www.machinecollective.org/?p=347 The site has been updated and new product information pages have been added. Check our Arduinome enclosure kits and faceplates, monome faceplate kits and an overview of available material options.

The order form is almost done, we just need to add some final details to each product. The form automatically calculates shipping weight, order total and VAT. We hope that this new system gives a clear overview of available options.

]]> http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/20/product-information-update/feed/ 0 Switching webhosts and a progress update http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/10/switching-webhosts-and-a-progress-update/ http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/10/switching-webhosts-and-a-progress-update/#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:02:37 +0000 admin http://www.machinecollective.nl/blog/?p=1 Machinecollective.org switched to a webhost that could provide us with more bandwidth, better spam filters and SSL support for the webshop. I installed a new WordPress blog with a simple design template, so updates and modifications of the website are much easier. The previous e-mail order process wasn’t very customer friendly and it was difficult to keep track of everything, so I started development of an automated order form where people can order Monome faceplates and Arduinome enclosure kits until the webshop is fully up and running.

Some Arduinome builders have maintained a project or photo log during assembly, here are a few links to various blogs and websites (please post your URL in the comments if you want your project added to this list):

Basementhum posted a nice video of his Arduinome running a SuperCollider MLR clone and some people are in the process of adding midi support to their Arduinome!

We have started development of a new wide enclosure kit for projects that won’t fit the protomodule form factor. This kit will fit up to 16 big slide pots, 32 rotary pots or 32 Sparkfun buttons. Support for Sparkfun SPI controller boards will be added soon!

220 x 220 mm Arduinome and a new 220 x 110 mm enclosure kit

220 x 220 mm Arduinome and the new 220 x 110 mm enclosure kit

]]> http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2009/03/10/switching-webhosts-and-a-progress-update/feed/ 0 Arduinome enclosures and status update http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2008/10/07/arduinome-enclosures-and-status-update/ http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2008/10/07/arduinome-enclosures-and-status-update/#comments Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:13:58 +0000 admin http://www.machinecollective.nl/?p=3 A lot of things are going on behind the scenes and we’re making good progress, but sometimes you’ll have to take a couple of steps back before you can take a step forward… Our web shop was progressing nicely until we encountered a few nasty bugs and some limitations that would have needed lots of work.. so we decided to switch to different webshop software… This will add some extra delay to our launch, but I’m positive it will all be worth the extra time and effort.. Our new shop system supports lots of automated options, highly configurable products (think on demand manufacturing) and a smart cart system which will hopefully make our lifes a lot easier..

Meanwhile we’ve been very busy finalizing the design of our protomodules and our bigger matching enclosure kits. The Arduinome enclosure kit will be available within a few days. Have a look at our latest set on Flickr: Arduinome visual assembly guide.

Arduinome enclosure kit + protomodules

Arduinome enclosure kit + protomodules

Order details for Arduinome enclosure kits will follow shortly. More news and announcements regarding prototyping module kits will also be announced, so stay tuned…

]]> http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2008/10/07/arduinome-enclosures-and-status-update/feed/ 0 Prototyping PCB for use inside modules http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2008/09/04/prototyping-pcb-for-use-inside-modules/ http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2008/09/04/prototyping-pcb-for-use-inside-modules/#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:22:48 +0000 admin http://www.machinecollective.nl/?p=12 Today I finished my first printed circuit board design, it’s a prototyping PCB for use inside the prototyping modules. It will allow users to quickly add shift registers, (de)multiplexers and other components to the modules. The circuit has room for 4 x 26 pin headers or IDC connectors to easily connect wires or flatcable for the DB25 connectors. Every pin of the dual row IDC header is routed to a 21 pin single row header and 2 x 6 pads for V++ and GND connections. There is enough space to place up to four 20 pins IC’s and I added a bunch of pre-connected pads and rows so common connections between components can be made quickly.

The design is based on the idea that every Arduino pin can be mapped to a DB25 connector (which are used to attach the modules together). Users can selectively hook up a couple of wires to the Proto-PCB, depending on the functionality of that particular module. I’m currently working on documentation and drawings that explain a bit more about connecting the modules together, more on that subject soon…

I’m learning how to work with KiCad PCB suite, an open source EDA application. Designing this Proto-PCB was a nice exercise to learn KiCad’s common functions and the software to design the circuits: PCBNew. All KiCad files will be released under an open source licence as soon as I have verified the finished PCB’s.

I posted a .zip file with all board-layers as PNG to the forum. Courtesy of Circuitpeople.com, an online service to view and share your Gerber files. I used these PNG’s to create the preview image shown above. Let me know if you miss important features…

proto-pcb-layered-big

Prototyping PCB layers

3D views of prototyping PCB

3D views of prototyping PCB
]]> http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2008/09/04/prototyping-pcb-for-use-inside-modules/feed/ 0 Public beta, full launch soon! http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2008/08/19/public-beta-full-launch-soon/ http://www.machinecollective.org/posts/2008/08/19/public-beta-full-launch-soon/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:44:02 +0000 admin http://www.machinecollective.nl/?p=31 It took some time to get everything up and running, but it’s finally here: Machinecollective.org! The site is currently in public beta state as there are still some parts that need attention.

Our final prototypes will be produced this week and our website is almost completely done. Our prototyping modules will become available when the webshop is ready for business. In the meantime we would like everyone to sign up for our forum to discuss their projects, ideas and requirements.

Final acrylic prototypes
Final acrylic prototypes

The picture above shows our final prototypes. We made the sides from thin laser-cut acrylic so it’s easy to see if everything fits. The side panels of the final prototyping modules will be made from a high tech aluminum sandwich material which is also thin but much stronger than acrylic. The picture above shows a few different configurations, which are, from left to right:

  • - Rotarypot 16 – 16 x panel mount 10K rotary potentiometers
  • - 4.5″ LCD – for pal/ntsc video signals
  • - Monome 10h – for monome keypad kits
  • - Slidepot 16 – 16 x 10k slide potentiometer with 30mm travel
  • - Spark 16 – for Sparkfun silicone keypads with support for RGB leds
  • - Slidepot 6 – 6 x 10k slide potentiometer with 70mm travel
  • - Patchbay 25 – 25 x High quality banana jacks, can double as body contacts
  • - Toggle 16 – 16 x panel mount SPDT toggle switch
  • - Rotarypot 4 – 4 x panel mount 10K rotary potentiometers

We have created several dedicated pages and wiki sections for our products and services. Read all about the prototyping modules at their product page or in the Machinecollective wiki.

Our faceplate and acrylic parts manufacturing service will be available as soon as our webshop is launched, you can read more about it at the faceplates page and in our wiki.

Please let us know if you encounter bugs or if some parts need extra clarification.

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