.:UPDATE:.

The Maker Faire 2013 is over and we’ve had a winner. There were 2659 LEDs in the box.

.:ORIGINAL POST:.

We’re at the UK’s best (or only official) MakerFaire this weekend (March 27-28). At the event we’re having a rather traditional “Guess How Many LEDs In a Box” competition and we thought those not attending might like to have a go at it as well, so we’re having a two pronged approach.

In Person
Come and see us in person, write your guess on a slip and pop it in the guessing box.

Twitter
Give it a guess on Twitter, simply tweet your guess to @oomlout and include the hash tag #guessTheLEDs

It’s two separate contests so two separate prizes, who ever is closest in each contest will win one of our lovely ARDX kits ( http://oomlout.com/AEA/ )

1. Only one entry into each competition (ie, one paper guess and one twitter guess)
2. If there’s a tie in either we’ll pick one at random.
3. We’ll ship the kit anywhere in the world within reason (ie. nowhere with export restrictions)

Around oomlout hq we’re gearing up for the Christmas season. Working hard on adding a few fun new products (arriving shortly), posting orders, and making sure we keep as many items as we can in stock (all items shown as in stock will ship within 24 hours (on week-days)).

Luckily the good folks at Royal Mail and The Post Office are working just as hard, making sure every package gets to its destination as quickly as possible.

With that in mind ordering earlier is advised but here are the absolute limits for ensuring your oomlout order gets in the post before Royal Mail’s deadlines.

Christmas Order Dates:

First Class: Order before Noon Thursday December 20th

Special Delivery: Order before Noon Friday December 21st (Selectable at check-out)

For all the details visit www.royalmail.com/greetings.

The long awaited successor to the Arduino UNO has been announced, The Arduino Leonardo.

It has a new chip, and promises some fun features. For full details visit the Arduino Leonardo Hardware page on Arduino.cc

Quantities are limited at the moment so sadly we’re not able to place them on sale. That said we have some at oomlout HQ and want to put them in our lovely customers hands.

We’re going to be giving away one a day this week.

Simply send us an e-mail ( info@oomlout.com ), with one of your previous order numbers (as well as something you plan to try with it) and we’ll put you in a draw.

Good luck, and once they are available in quantity we’ll list them in the store.

UPDATE: Arduino has now published a Getting Started Guide. You’ll also need to download Arduino IDE 1.0.1 (available here)

We’re winding things down at oomlout HQ for a small Christmas break. The web store will be open as usual but there will be no shipping the week between Christmas and New Years.

Around oomlout hq we’re gearing up for the Christmas season. Working hard on adding a few fun new products (arriving shortly), posting orders, and making sure we keep as many items as we can in stock (all items shown as in stock will ship within 24 hours (on week-days)).

Luckily the good folks at Royal Mail and The Post Office are working just as hard, making sure every package gets to its destination as quickly as possible.

With that in mind ordering earlier is advised but here are the absolute limits for ensuring your oomlout order gets in the post before Royal Mail’s deadlines.

Christmas Order Dates:

First Class: Order before Noon Tuesday December 20th

Special Delivery: Order before Noon Thursday December 22nd (Selectable at check-out)

For all the details visit www.royalmail.com/christmasposting.

We’re winding things down at oomlout HQ for a small Christmas break. But realizing that not everyone will receive that lovely piece of Arduino based hardware as a gift, we’ll be shipping the week between Christmas and New Years, full details:

Around oomlout hq we’re gearing up for the Christmas season. Working hard on adding a few fun new products (arriving shortly), posting orders, and making sure we keep as many items as we can in stock (all items shown as in stock will ship within 24 hours (on week-days)).

Luckily the good folks at Royal Mail and The Post Office are working just as hard,offering extended opening hours, and extra deliveries (including Sunday December 19th). For all the details visit www.royalmail.com/christmasposting.

With that in mind ordering earlier is advised but here are the absolute limits for ensuring your oomlout order gets in the post before Royal Mail’s deadlines.

Christmas Order Dates:

First Class: Order on Sunday December 19th (Posted on Monday December 20th)

Special Delivery: Order on Wednesday December 22nd (Selectable at check-out) (Posted on Thursday December 23rd)

Oomlout HQ is a buzz with activity as we prepare for our upcoming trip to the UK’s second Maker Faire. With the UK’s best (and if last year was any indication nicest) makers/hackers/crafters descending upon Newcastle for a weekend of fun we’re really looking forward to it. If your in the Northeast or able to make it over swing by and say hi.

The Details:

Around oomlout hq we’re gearing up for the Christmas season. Working hard on adding a few fun new products (arriving shortly), posting orders, and making sure we keep as many items as we can in stock (all items shown as in stock will ship within 24 hours (on week-days)).

Luckily the good folks at Royal Mail and The Post Office are working just as hard,offering extended opening hours, and extra deliveries (including Sunday December 20th). For all the details visit www.royalmail.com/christmasposting.

With that in mind ordering earlier is advised but here are the absolute limits for ensuring your oomlout order gets in the post before Royal Mail’s deadlines.

Christmas Order Dates:

First Class: Order on Sunday December 20th (Posted on Monday December 21st)

Special Delivery: Order on Tuesday December 22nd (Selectable at check-out) (Posted on Wednesday December 23rd)

Around oomlout HQ we have many loves, and its safe to say that both “fun” and “robots” count among these. So when Make magazine asked for our thoughts on where the future of robots was headed we were only too happy to toss our two cents into the ring.

Our thoughts on the future of robotics…

The Oomlout Team (makers of open source robot and microcontroller kits)

The coolest thing in robotics right now is fun!. It sounds hokey, but for the first time, the mechanics, electronics, and programming tools required to make really amazing robots are available to just about anyone. No longer are robots forced to live out their days mindlessly assembling cars on factory floors or sliavishly performing demos in university labs. Robots are moving onto our walls, our floors and countertops, and our balconies. They’re making pretty pictures, entertaining us at parties, even twittering the “mood” of the tomato plant on our porch.

Are they doing these things because they are necessary? No. they’re being put to these ends mainly in the interest of fun and exploration. We believe that from this atmosphere of frivolity, the serious robotic future we’ve long been promised will finally take shape.

We were a bit awed by the robotic elite we were featured beside, from our favourite, the creator of some of the funnest and most emotionally evocative robots we’ve ever seen (I-Wei Huang of Crabfu Steamworks). To the big players in the industry (Mark Tilden of WowWee, Matt Trossen of Trossen Robotics, Ken Gracey of Parallax, and Dave Hrynkiw of Solarbotics). Admitedly robot development around oomlout has slowed of late, but we have several projects in development which we think will show that our place within this crowd is warranted (and show that fun and robotics go hand in hand).