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Arduino Miniconf 2013

What

The Arduino Miniconf is a 1-day event that runs in conjunction with the linux.conf.au conference. It gives participants an opportunity to learn basic hardware skills such as soldering, by assembling their own Arduino-compatible project, and then the afternoon is filled with interesting talks about various projects and techniques related to Arduino and open hardware in general. To give you some idea what to expect, this is the hardware assembly session at the 2011 Arduino Miniconf:

(Photo by Andrew McMillan, CC2.0)

After the assembly session is over the room is cleaned up a bit and the talks begin. It's a fun and educational event!

When

Monday, January 28th, 2013.

Where

Canberra, as part of linux.conf.au. Note that to attend you must first register for the main conference, which provides the venue. The Arduino Miniconf is part of LCA as a specialist stream for conference attendees: it's not a stand-alone event.

Registration

Attendance is free (to linux.conf.au delegates) but if you wish to participate in the hardware assembly tutorial you will need to purchase a kit. Space is limited so get in fast! If you just want to come along and watch or attend the talks, you don't need to do anything. If you wish to participate in the hardware assembly tutorial, please submit the registration form.

(Registration form to come)

Schedule

(Schedule still to come)

Hardware Assembly Project: HackCNC X/Y plotter

The hardware assembly project this year is something very special: not just assembling a PCB, it's a whole mechatronic box of magic. You'll get to play with electronics, stepper motors, servos, a pre-cut timber chassis, and have access to the design files and (of course!) all the source code for the firmware to drive it. Meet HackCNC, the Open Hardware X-Y platform:

(Picture to come)

The chassis, called "HackCNC", was designed by John Spencer as an easy-to-assemble X/Y/Z platform. It uses threaded rod and two stepper motors to move a toolhead in X and Y axes, and has a servo motor to allow something light such as a marker pen to be moved up and down in the Z axis. The base is large enough to comfortably fit an A4 sheet of paper. The chassis itself has been cut from MDF using a CNC machine, and prepared so that it can be clipped together in just a few minutes. The chassis also uses plastic brackets and clips that have been printed on a 3D printer.

HackCNC is intended to be a starting point: it gives you the basic structure of an X/Y/Z platform that you can then adapt to your own projects. We'd love to see what people come up with!

The control board, called "CNCPlot", was designed by Luke Weston and produced by Freetronics specially for the Arduino Miniconf:

• Arduino Leonardo compatible
• Two onboard stepper motor drivers
• One onboard servo driver
• 20x4 LCD
• Breakout connector for Nintendo DS touchscreen (not included)

The CNCPlot board was designed specifically to drive the HackCNC chassis, but it's also an extremely flexible general purpose board that would be brilliant for other projects involving stepper motors.

The CNCPlot board uses many surface-mount parts, so those have all been pre-fitted. You will only need to fit standard "through-hole" parts, so the soldering skill required is minimal. This project is therefore suitable for a beginner, even though the end result will be a very capable board. It may look scary and complicated, but don't worry, most of the parts will already be on the board.

The complete HackCNC kit will be $110, which includes everything required: parts for the mechanical chassis, the CNCPlot controller, the display, power supply, steppers, servo, even a USB cable.

Alternate Hardware Assembly Project: KitTen

The "KitTen" is a kit-based Arduino-compatible board that uses an FTDI cable to upload new sketches from your computer. These kits were a great success at the 2011 Arduino Miniconf so we're bringing them back as an alternate assembly project for those who need a cheaper alternative to the Pebble.

To get a preview of the assembly process, see http://www.freetronics.com/pages/kitten-assembly.

These kits will be $36, which includes a 5V FTDI USB-to-Serial cable for connecting it to your computer.

For historical reference: AMC2012