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Pierre Parent and Ael Gain's LibreCalc, a project to create an open-source and open-hardware scientific calculator capable of running an algebraic system in its internal operating system, has shown off a new feature of the latest prototype: the ability to drive an Arduino from its on-board USB connector. In a video demonstration of the pair's second prototype, the LibreCalc is shown powering and controlling an Arduino board via USB - a neat trick aided by the fact that the calculator is, in reality, a fully-functional microcomputer in a compact casing. Although the team has demonstrated Arduino compatibility in the past,...

It's been a couple of months with a holiday in the middle, so we'd forgive you if you'd forgotten that the Maker Faire UK is heading to the Life Science Centre in Newcastle on the 25th and 26th of April this year. That may sound like a decent amount of time to get prepared, but if you were hoping to exhibit the organisers have issued their deadline warning: anyone interested in setting up a stall at the show has until the 25th of January to do so, after which applications will be closed. If you're on the fence, we can...

It's no secret that we're big fans of the light-emitting diode here at oomlout, and while we'd love it if you availed yourself of our wide-ranging stock of traditional and digital RGB LEDs there's something to be said for rescuing the parts for your next build from the scrap pile. As a result, we were thrilled to find Robson Couto's guide to using the lamp from an old scanner as a programmable RGB LED source. Using an Arduino to provide control logic, Robson was able to make use of the low-power light source as an adjustable RGB LED lamp without...

There has been a lot of coverage in the mainstream technology press of late for the concept of a modular smartphone. The general idea, as demonstrated by Google's Project Ara, is simple: a mainboard plays host to a selection of rectangular add-on modules which can be used to build a device tailored to the needs of a particular user. Saltburn-based maker David Barker has taken that concept and applied it to the world of Arduino, creating StickyBUG: a modular shield for Arduinos and compatibles. The StickySHIELD acts as the mainboard, connecting to the Arduino itself; half- or quarter-sized modules are...

Arduinos occasionally find themselves in projects that are impressive yet impractical. Chris Fenton has admirably demonstrated that with the Fenton Heavy Industries Numbotron. Inspired by electromechanical computing machines of the past, the Numbotron features physically rotating drums for its components. Eight three-digit counters provide 80 bits of memory, an instruction drum offers 560 bits of read-only storage, and the machine can perform four increment/decrement operations per second. The Arduino provides none of its own processing power or memory for this: it simply acts as a control system, replacing unreliable electro-optical state machines to read user input. A video of the...