Today there’s a thriving website with sample code, tutorials, and a forum that serves as the meeting point for Arduino developers. While the original developers still give workshops, the project is increasingly a standalone endeavor, with newcomers taking up the idea that electronics can be a community effort.

A scant year later, the project has spread far and wide the message that electronic design doesn’t have to be a solitary, complex, and painful process, and that it needn’t cost much if you have a little help along the way. Says Ren Wang, a student at China’s Xiamen University who used the Arduino to power Eye, a walking robot: “Arduino is open and friendly. To make a cool robot was always my dream, and the Arduino made it come true.”

 

Back in Ivrea, a friendly Italian manufacturer, who was courageous enough to support the project from its inception, still provides low-cost Arduinos, in both assembled and kit form. In Europe, the price is € 20; Sparkfun ( sparkfun.com) is the United States distributor and sells the USB version assembled for $30. And since the project is open source, all the plans, code, and instructions are available online free for those who prefer to roll their own.

Asked what’s next, Cuartielles says: “Arduino for kids! We have been asked to evaluate the use of Arduino for technology classes in secondary schools

Arduino assembly workshop (previous page) at Malmo University in Sweden.

“Eye” (this page top) is a robot based on Arduino,
designed and built by Ren Wang, a student at
Xiamen University in China.
Arduino (bottom) in the palm of a hand.

 

in Madrid, Spain. Can you imagine one million kids a year making experiments in electronics based on this open hardware platform? It would be massive!”

To get in on the massiveness, and to become a contributor yourself, check out arduino.cc.

 

Daniel Jolliffe is the designer of One Free Minute, an anonymous public speech project. He wrote "Throw Your Voice!" in MAKE, Volume 04.