News

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...

The hard working folks over at Wingshield Industries have kindly bundled up a few of their latest kit and sent them our way. The Screw Shield is perhaps the most useful shield we've seen to date. It breaks out every digital and analog pin on an Arduino Duemilanove to sturdy screw terminals. Allowing for the use of many more wire sizes, and eliminating the headaches caused when a wire, unnoticed, slips out of place. (available in the oomlout web shop for £8.00)

One thing we really love doing around .:oomlout:. HQ is taking things apart. Be it an 'antique' printer or cute fuzzy toy nothing is safe. However this habit leaves us with box upon box of great components begging to be used. With many of the funner pieces (motors, solenoids, little light bulbs) the current they require is much higher than a single Arduino pin can provide. To get past this we found ourselves using chips (integrated circuits), and a pair of chips kept finding their way into our projects. Given our quest to fill every electronics parts bin with the...

It's no secret that around oomlout HQ we're huge fans of the open source Arduino microcontroller. The pre-made Duemilanove board is an amazing prototyping platform, but sometimes its fun to make something for yourself. What follows is a guide on how to take a breadboard and pile of components and turn it into your very own Arduino compatible machine. All the steps below are summarized in a fun printable guide down-loadable (here) (shameless plug) We also sell a kit with all the parts (a breadboard, printed layout sheet, and printed guide) so you can get making right away. (in the...

We're always working to add neat items to our online shoppe. Recently we've had three little additions, nothing too spectacular but perhaps the perfect answer to spiff up your current project, or to inspire the next undertaking. Product 1 - Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) Interlink 402 A fun addition to any project, a simple variable resistor with an added twist. The resistance varies dependent on the amount of force applied to the touch pad. Use it to sense the presence of an object, as an analog button or let your imagination go and do something truly crazy with it. (£4.25...