Arduino Create is now available to everyone on Chrome OS devices, with $0.99 per month subscription. An Arduino account and Google ID is all you need to use it, just follow the Create Getting Started guide on your Chrome OS device. We are actively working on specific licensing and pricing for schools, so stay tuned.

The new Arduino Create Chrome App enables students and other users to write code, access tutorials, configure boards, and share projects. Designed to provide a continuous workflow from inspiration to implementation, Makers can easily manage every aspect of their project right from a single dashboard.

Developed with the classroom in mind: The Arduino Chrome App allows you to teach and tinker with Arduino electronics and programming in a collaborative, always-up-to-date environment.

Built for Chrome OS: Code online, save your sketches in the cloud, and upload them to any Arduino connected to your Chrome OS device, without having to install anything locally. All the contributed libraries are automatically included.

The following Arduinos are currently supported: Uno, 101, Mega, Esplora, Nano (ATmega328), Micro, Zero, MKR1000, MKR Zero, MKR Fox 1200, Pro and Pro Mini (ATmega328). We are actively working with the Chromium team to restore support for the Arduino Leonardo in a future Chrome OS release.

The launch of this app would not have been possible without the following open source components:

• avrgirl-arduino by Suz Hinton
• dapjs by Microsoft,
• browser-serialport by Glen Arrowsmith
• browser-usb by Jacob Rosenthal

As usual if you encounter any bugs, issues, or have an idea on how we can improve the Chrome app, please open a discussion thread on this Forum page.
Please note that this app will work only on Chrome OS, if you click on the Google Store link on any other OS you will not be able to install it.

UPDATE: We are applying for the Google for Education Partners – Technology Track to learn how to offer bulk discounts to schools and classrooms.

Other Google Education apps that are part of this program can be found here.

Redditor “xmajor9x” has spent several weeks building a three-legged machine to balance a metal ball on top of a plate. The device uses three servos attached to a rectangular surface with linkages that translate servo position into linear displacement of the table. This allows it to keep the ball centered, or rotate around the perimeter in a circle or square pattern.

An Arduino Due controls the ball using a PID loop, and the ball’s position is sensed not by an external camera, but by the top “plate,” which is actually made out of a resistive touchscreen. Although this adds a very unique element, it means that the ball on top must be quite heavy to be reliably tracked, and its creator is considering switching to a computer vision system in the future.

Be sure to check out the project’s GitHub page for code and more info on the build! (more…)

It takes a lot to win best of show at a Comic Con, but Jason Caulfield’s Tauren Frost Death Knight named “Akulva” was more than up to the task. This beautifully detailed beast, his third try at this sort of costume, not only looks good but features backlit eyes that blink automatically, as well as a voice-changing circuit to allow Caulfield to speak in this creature’s deep tone.

The 8.5-foot-tall beast is equipped with a pair of Arduino Uno boards–one to control the eye blinking and another that uses an Adafruit Wave Shield to handle voice modulation. In addition, there’s a PicoTalk servo controller, which syncs the audio to the motor movement of the mouth. (more…)

As entertaining as watching Netflix may be, you’re not burning a lot of calories while binging on your favorite shows. In order to do both at the same time, hacker “Roboro” modded a stationary exercise bike to stop streaming if he’s not maintaining his fitness goals.

Bicycle speed is derived from the signal that’s normally sent to the built-in display. He uses an Arduino Nano to hijack the square wave, and sends this info to the streaming computer serially via USB. (more…)

If you’ve seen color sensors such as the TCS34725,  you may have considered them for projects that can pick out one colored object over another. On the other hand, if you were to take one of these sensors, mount them to an Arduino-driven plotter, and then take readings in an X/Y plane, you’d have all the elements needed for a simple single-pixel scanner.

In the video seen below, Kerry D. Wong does just this using his hacked HP 7044A plotter to scan a picture, recording RGB color values in a 128 x 128 grid. As the device scans, the Arduino Due used for control passes these values to a computer, which assembles them together into a low-resolution image. (more…)

Steven Gioiosa recently signed up for a “Makecourse” class at the University of South Florida, where he was required to build something that featured both an Arduino and a 3D-printed part. As a fan of Portal, and especially the sentry turrets in the game, it was an easy decision to construct one of these devices for himself.

Gioiosa’s turret recreation is based on an Arduino Uno connected to an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, and features motion-activated lasers that move back and forth, along with audio feedback, depending on how far away the human target is. The project also involves a bunch of servos: one to open the arms out, another to pitch them up and down, and two more to move each arm left and right. (more…)

Whether to enhance one’s abilities or to compensate for a loss of strength due to a variety of reasons, the idea of a robotic exoskeleton is an exciting prospect. As seen here, Kristjan Berce, not content to let well-funded labs have all the fun, decided to make his own prototype assistive arm using simple hand tools to manufacture a bracing system over his left arm.

Control for the device, which is called “ExoArm,” is accomplished with an Arduino Uno that powers a windshield wiper motor via a driver board. As set up now, it extends via sensor input, and contracts with the push of a button.

Though it can be seen helping him lift a bicycle at the end of both of his videos, figuring out how to balance any load on the system with his actual muscle’s input is a challenge he’s still working on, but hopes to solve this issue using a strain gauge. (more…)

Mechanical typewriters are, for the most part, a thing of the past. Though the tactile feedback of these machines is interesting, as is the ability to directly mark on a piece of paper, they lack the important ability to input instructions into a modern computer. Konstantin Schauwecker, not satisfied with this analog-only output, decided to retrofit a German Olympia Monica typewriter as a unique digital user input device.

To accomplish this, he created a PCB with phototransistors that sense when the linkages for each key are pushed down. The result is a keyboard that functions perfectly well as a manual typewriter, and pushes this data to a computer using an Arduino Leonardo. (more…)

If you work in a lab, the last thing you want is someone barging in when you’re about to complete your latest experiment or build, disturbing all of your hard work. You could use a paper note, or perhaps lock the doors, but if you’d like to inform potential disruptors of what you’re doing and give them a way to signal you, this system looks very useful.

The device, which is installed in a psychology lab’s door, uses an Arduino Uno to display an LED for “Experiment In Progress” or “Clear,” and has a backlit LCD screen below for more explanation. The screen’s backlight powers up via a sonar sensor if someone approaches, and messages can be updated over Bluetooth. (more…)

You can switch a tattoo machine on and off with a foot pedal, but this can be an issue when it’s time to pack it up with other gear that needs to be kept ultra-clean. To address this problem, YouTuber “Wildman Tech” made an Arduino-powered device in the shape of a beautiful wooden pyramid to control a tattoo gun with the wave of one’s hand.

Electronics-wise, the setup is fairly simple. An Arduino Uno detects the tattoo artist’s gestures via a distance sensor, and signals the machine with an on or off output.

This project uses an Arduino Uno, a distance sensor module, and an FET driver transistor module. They both take their power from the Arduino main board. The distance sensor output is fed into pin 2 on the Arduino and the FET driver input is taken from pin 9.

You can see more of Wildman Tech’s touchless switch, including its code, in the video below!