Rob Taylor published a new build:

Read more about this build...

 

Thanks

That was actually my very first Arduino project, it's a very shallow learning curve. It took a few days to put together since I'm pretty rusty with programming but it works well enough for what it does, so I'm not complaining. I think the easiest way to think of an Arduino is a hardware BASIC loop controller that you write for in C++. I doubt that's technically accurate, but in terms of wrapping your head around structuring looping nests, it tends to help!

 

Thanks, @Brian Slee. That chart looks pretty solid, good find!

Thanks @kram242! Writing for Arduino or other open electronics hardware seems to be the key to unlocking the full capabilities of open hardware manufacturing. Especially for "unconventional" embedded systems, like say, sun-following solar panel mounts (aluminium's good at all-weather, after all) or other microenergy applications, or home automation.

That said, the question that really drives me at the minute is how to get multiple simultaneous outputs from such commercial open electronics for an off-the-shelf, plug-and-play CNC (mill/laser/printer, all three) solution. Arduino struggles, given its simple architecture, it's more suited for responding to specific inputs and single-axis control. I'm looking towards either multi-Arduino or maybe something more along the lines of RasPi or BeagleBone if they have better I/O and memory specs. I'm not really sure yet, but eventually I'd like to have a "buy this, this and this, copy this code over and you're ready to go" solution. Perhaps that involves some reinventing the wheel on my part (eg. Vector/raster interpreters, is Gcode the best solution, etc.), but that's rather what the FOSS movement is known for, after all!

 

I've looked through it now, it's certainly interesting! I'll take this over there though.