Wow... I am so tired of these 50 year old has been old school myopic elitist ass hole engineers that think they know everything and don't know the world around them in the slightest. This is a great idea, design and in no way is responsible for the anti arduino, vernacular troll bs you are dumping. CELIBRATE CREATIVITY AND DIVERGANT THINKING! The main goal this has is to disrupt an industry that is overpriced with an open source appliance. That is revolutionary and worthy of praise.For the last 20 years I have been the head of special R&D projects and I have learned to see talent above mindless automatons that can use cad programs and do as they are told. This shines heads and shoulders above many of the projects ive seen here and is starkly contrasted with the negative bs. This is visionary, the type of visionary that solves real world problems, founds companies and employees mindless drones that know it all and troll post comments because of there superior intellect.
Now to address the arduino side of things....If you don't get it, I'm sorry for you. But arduino is here to stay and frankly is our countries only hope to get more highly skilled technical engineering capability in the job market in the future. Unless you like shipping our work to India and China because they have more degree holders now than the USA. Arduino is not hardware alone. It's a movement. And it has massive weight and potential. We can troll all day long but your job security still sucks just as much. Our future will need ideas, innovators and those brave enough to make steps regardless of all the negative muck that holds back progress. We need an army of kids going into the work force with a understanding of these concepts. And I applaud arduino for doing just that. Then couple that with it being in fashion or vogue that helps propel it even further and we have a win.
So in short... stop trolling and start helping make it better, otherwise your just old, pathetic and feeble and will be replaced soon by younger, more vibrant stars.
While I agee, I'd point out that leaving out all those paranoid details makes the Arduino much more beginner friendly. I've been working with one for eight months and it amazes me how much you can do and have it just work.
Also would point out that there are several other micros available in the Arduino form factor that could be used with the Sprout board with Arduino shields. I think this is because there is a critical mass of Arduino shields out there that are useful to any architecture.
It seems that every time someone re-discovers a largely forgotten technology, they invent new terms. I used to build micro-processor computers based upon the infamous Z-80. I wrote EVERYTHING, and burned it in to an EPROM.
As long as we're acting curmudgeonly, here's my rant:
These days, the focus for I/O seems to be quite different. One thing I find disturbing is the continued lack of anyone teaching people how to properly ground and harden inputs and outputs. Things such as power supply decoupling, galvanic isolation, snubbing a relay coil, how to properly shield a device, or signal wiring integrity are STILL barely even mentioned in schools or hobbyist publications.
The end result is that guys like Howard Johnson make lots of money teaching what should have been taught before.
This board appeears to be designed for a rack mount system. I doubt most casusal Arduino hackers need a rack. It would be more appropriate to eliminate the fragile connection strip and put the connectors on the main board, perhaps as a second board spin. Better yet, add holes for a pair of double row headers right at the junction between main board and the connection fin. Then you could saw off the strip, move it anywhere and connect it up with an old hard drive cable. Finally, get Adafruit or Evil Mad Science to stock them.
There are two meanings for "hacking", the original constructive usage from MIT, and the destructive term used badly by the media. We've failed to replace the latter with "cracking", so we're stuck with two meanings. The first meaning is not going to go away and shying away from using "hacking" in the proper way is no way to encourage proper usage.
We should all be educating people on the proper, better usage. One of the best developments has been the emergence of "hacker spaces". I'm a member of Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, CA. There are many more, popping up all over.
You can find the list of parts to build the board if you scoll down the story. Als, at the very bottom you'll find detailed build instructions. We always run parts and build instructions with our Gadget Freak postings.
I work with kids in the Lego robotics world and have run across a LOT of kids that would love to get into something like this but have no way to even see into it let alone get access to this sort of thing.
You want to help this country get out of the mess were in? Get this into kids hands! In weeks they will blow you away with what they can do!
I applaud the newly-rediscovered enthusiasm for "homebrewing" and "hacking" -- though I do find the negative connotations of the latter term somewhat disturbing.
Building stuff and, in too many instances cases, filling my parent's basement with the pleasing aroma of charred electronic components was my path to a career in electronics. I think this has been lost for the past 30+ years simply because it wasn't considered "cool" or some other equally stupid reason.
The bone I have to pick with all of this is that seems that it is being done in a vacuum. Perfectly good terms that we have used to name and describe things for years are being replaced by new ones for no good reason and, I believe, to the detriment of all.
For example, why would the Arduino (sp?) crowd feel it necessary to rename a "daughter" or "piggy back" card a "SHIELD"? Isn't that word already being used for something else? When I first started reading about the new, inexpensive hobby stuff built for and around this nifty new part I was confused by the continued reference to "shields" when there were obviously none (by my definition) present. Finally, I figured out what was going on. I just don't understand why. Do "they" not know what terminology already exists?
Also, when did machine code, programs, software, etc. become "scripts"? Has Silicon Valley been moved to Hollywood?
Wouldn't we all be better off to continue to use the terms that we have developed over the last 50-75 years and just add new terms for the things that are actually new. That way, we minimize the confusion, accentuate the new ideas and move things ahead.
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
3 
