As you may have noticed, the July meeting is the Mad Science Fair/Open Hardware Expo. In the spirit of cooperation, Squidwrench is adding Arduino as the unofficial theme of our Weekly Doings from now until the July meeting. If you're interested in playing with Arduinos or just seeing them up close and in use, come out to the Squidwrench Weekly Doing. If you've never touched an Arduino before or don't know what a microcontroller, there will plenty of people who can help you get started. If you're pretty good with your 'Duino already, you'll get to share ideas and experience with other people like you. If you're already an Arduino expert, come show off and help spread the knowledge.
We will also be holding a kick off event in the afternoon on June 6th. The focus here will be on two things: - help all the noobs get their environments set up (and hopefully running the hardware equivalent of "Hello, World", also known as Blink), and - generate ideas for things people could bring to the July meeting to show off and talk about. If you are interested in playing along, here's your Getting Started Checklist: 1) Reply here or directly to me so that I can gauge the level of interest and give you the details about the kick off event. Everyone is welcome, but since it's at a private residence we're not going to post the address online. 2) Get an Arduino. I would personally recommend an Uno for simplicity but there are several choices. a) Try this first: http://is.gd/869K5G , b) or read this for more info about your choices: http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/148 3) If you're really motivated, start reading some of the many, many excellent tutorials out there. Here are a few good resources to get you going: a) http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/ b) http://makezine.com/arduino/ c) http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/182 If enough people reply to me today or tomorrow, we may be able to find a bulk discount on Arduinos, so a quick reply might save you some $$. I'm also open to any feedback about what kind of specific workshops you might be interested in, so let me know. -- /thor
_______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) Vassar College Jun 6 - Why the Web Needs HTML5 Jul 11 - Mad Science Fair - Open Hardware Expo Aug 1 - Pimp My Network
