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We're big believers in lifelong learning here at oomlout: regardless of your age or experience - or lack of either - there's always something to learn. We're not alone in this belief, either, which is why our countdown to Wuthering Bytes 2016 continues with a look at Ken Boak's OSHCamp talk on open education. If the name sounds familiar, you've likely come across one of Ken's open hardware designs: from the Arduino compatible Nanode developed for the London Hackspace to the upcoming MyStorm with its embedded field-programmable gate array (FPGA), Ken has always sought to design and build low-cost boards...

Our countdown to Wuthering Bytes 2016, the UK Maker Belt's prestigious festival opening on the 2nd of September, continues today with a look at a tool many electronics hobbyists may find rather handy: Kitnic.it. Created by Kaspar Emanuel, Kitnic.it is designed to make it as easy as possible to dive in to the world of open hardware. Projects can be uploaded to the site, where they are given a permanent project page containing a preview rendering of the circuit board and a list of parts required to complete the build - known as the Bill of Materials, or BOM -...

With two weeks to go to Wuthering Bytes 2016's opening day, our attentions turn to OSHCamp. Taking place on Saturday the 3rd of September, with workshops following on the Sunday, the annual Open Source Hardware User Group (OSHUG) gathering is always a trove of interesting topics - not least of which, this year, take the form of two Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) community-driven radio networks. We've mentioned The Things Network before, in our look at a linked Calderdale-wide LoRaWAN implementation set up by our friend Andrew Back and colleagues, and we're thrilled to find Mike Beardmore and Mark...

We're in the final run-up to Wuthering Bytes 2016, the latest in the annual maker-themed festival just over the way in Hebden Bridge. Following the call for participation opening back in April, Andrew and the other organisers have put together an absolutely cracking list of speakers and workshoppers ahead of the event formally opening on Friday the 2nd of September. This year's Festival Day, the first entry in the week-long event schedule, has something for everyone. Confirmed speakers are: Dr. Lucy Rogers, currently judging the BBC's Robot Wars reboot, speaking on the subject of her experience hacking robot dinosaurs; Dave...

As regular readers will know, we here at oomlout have a passion for making things that make things. From designs to speed up our own workflows like the RECO resistor-cutting robot to clever projects like the Kiktronik's thread-winder and Ben Pirt's Mirobot manufacturing tools, we always keep an eye out for anything that could make life easier - which is why we've been keeping an eye on the SmartMini project from Derbyshire-based Quite Useful Stuff. Founded by three semi-retirees, Quite Useful Stuff's SmartMini project looks to expand the capabilities of the compact and low-cost Arduino Pro Mini microcontroller and compatible...