New Courses!

EDIT (2011.09.23-13.15): Updated Buy Now buttons after an error was found.

Greetings Thinkers,

We are offering two courses soon. Please bring your laptop, and take note that we are limiting the courses to 40 students each with a firm deadline of Monday at 1200. By the way, these should be held in ENG1-388.

Arduino Level 1 - Arduino Basics - 2011.10.02 at 1700

We've hosted this one before. Thanks to feedback received, we are ready to offer it again with vast improvements.

Students choosing this course will learn a lot about using the Arduino. An Arduino is a microcontroller that is very easy to work with and can be used to control electrical components for many purposes (automation, robotics, data collection, turning pretty lights on, etc.). The course covers the history of the Arduino, installing the IDE, basics of programming, custom sketches for the course, and students making their own sketches to use on their Arduinos. This course offers students the option to pick up an Arduino through us ($38), or on their own ($5). Food will be provided to sweeten the deal.

Arduino Level 1 Tickets

Need an Arduino $38.00Food Only $5.00

Arduino Level 2 - Displays/Motors/Sensors - 2011.10.03 at 1900

The students have spoken, and Arduino Level 2 won over the ZomBadge [7:5 votes].

This course involves students learning to use LCDs, servos, buttons, potentiometers, and force sensors. To aid in using these, each student will get a breadboard and jumpers to quickly prototype many projects of their own devising. These components can be combined in numerous ways to interact with surroundings and to easily gain feedback from the Arduino. Students have the option of picking up a set from us ($65), a set without a servo [save money and use one from a Boe Bot set] ($55), or source their own parts ($5). Students will have dinner provided (comment on what you want to eat, or I'll probably pick sandwiches this time). This one is a bit pricier than normal, but take a look at the BOM to see all the cool things you'll be getting. I'll try to make sure Arduino Level 3 is cheaper.

Arduino Level 2 Tickets

Full Set $65.00No Servo $55.00Food Only $5.00

Weekly Update 2011.09.19

Greetings Thinkers,

Tuesday had [Scott Tanner] continue work on his bike lock holder, with some nice improvements. As well as the creation of our new forum. Feel free to use the forum to create groups, discuss projects, ask questions, or just continue to foster the community of makers that we are working on and with.

Thursday had [Scott Tanner] finish his bike lock holder, and it works like a charm. Very impressive for a first time designer. [Scott Tanner] went from a need, to a design, to a product in one week in this lab. Good work. Just think what we can all do this semester.

[Scott Tanner]'s finished Bike Lock Holder

Over the weekend, [Matthew Hellmer] went to Maker Faire and had a blast. Most of his time was spent learning new ways to help the lab by speaking with people that ran their own hackerspaces, as well as attending shows and courses. The rest of his time was spent goofing off. The important thing to know is that some very important people in the maker community are really happy with what we are doing in this lab. Which means we are on the right track preparing you all to work on your own projects, or find jobs more interesting than cubicle positions.


Monday, we held our first course, Arduino Level 1. The comments so far have been pretty positive, so we'll definitely hold more. We've learned a lot about how to make these courses run smoothly, so expect us to just keep making improvements. Materials for the course are located here, and expect these 'live' files to be updated as we continue to make improvements. By the way, the room was packed and we'll work on getting a larger one next time.

Packed Room

Other news of interest:

• It looks like we'll be offering another course soon. Expect an announcement on the blog/twitter, as well as in the Introduction to Engineering class.
• The Arboretum at UCF is very interested in working with us on some very enterprising projects. Projects such as a green house, water cistern, automatic composter, de-weeding robot, a rope bridge, and many more projects. [Alex Stringfellow] from the Arboretum should be in the lab on Thursday around 1500 to further talk about projects he's interested in us working on.
• The Arduinos finally arrived. Swing by during lab hours to claim yours. Again, sorry about the delay in getting them. Pending a disaster/emergency, due to new policies on our end a delay like that is unlikely to ever occur again.

Weekend and Course Updates

Greetings Thinkers,

[John Cope] will be running the ideaLab on Saturday from 1200-1700. He is unable to run it on Sunday, so it will remain closed that day. Research some fun projects for Tuesday.

We have a room for the Arduino Level 1 course: ENG1-388. [Matthew Hellmer] will lead people unfamiliar with the school layout from the ideaLab room (ENG2-180) to the course room at 1645 on Monday.

Just to reiterate:
Arduino Level 1
ENG1-388
2011-09-19 1700-2000
Bring your laptops.

More Tickets for Arduino Level 1

EDIT (2011.09.13.1925) : Dr. Ducharme asked for the deadline to be extended until Wednesday, so he could announce it in class.


We've been listening to you Thinkers and we know that you want more tickets, so we are offering another thirty. Make sure to tell your friends, as this won't be announced in class.

A couple explanations first.

• We will no longer use Eventbrite for hosting ticket sales as they only release the money five days after the event is held. To prevent this problem, we are hosting ticket sales directly through the blog and Paypal. This means less fees for students and the ideaLab receives the money in a more timely manner.
• All students that purchased tickets through Eventbrite will receive their Arduinos in time. We are fronting the money until Eventbrite releases the ticket earnings to make sure that students get what they paid for.
• The prices on the Arduino tickets are increased from $38 and $5 to $39.94 and $6.11 as that is what the students paid for the Eventbrite tickets and we want to be fair to everyone. The extra $0.49 and $0.64 earned (after factoring Paypal's fees) on each ticket sale will go directly to ideaLab costs. In the future, expect fees to be lower.
• We are unable at this time to use Google Checkout as a credit card is needed to create an account. We are looking in to finding a way to use Google Checkout.

As mentioned in the Eventbrite listing, this event is all about introducing students to using an Arduino. We will start with getting the Arduino IDE up and running on laptops, followed by a short introduction to programming, and ending with customizing the Blink program. This is all in preparation for Arduino Level 2 where we get to have the real fun working with sensors and displays.

We have two types of tickets:

• Need an Arduino

Choose this option if you don't have an Arduino. We will order one for you and have it ready for you on the day of the event: 2011.09.19.

Your $38 will cover the cost of your Arduino and cable with shipping/handling and food for the event.

• Don't Need an Arduino

Choose this option if you already have an Arduino, or plan to pick up your own from a site such as Sparkfun. Be sure to pick up a cable.

Your $5 will cover the cost of food for the event.

On the day of the event, meet fifteen minutes early in the ideaLab. We will be moving to a lecture room that is to be announced.

You'll definitely need to bring a laptop so that you can run the Arduino IDE on it.

Without further ado, here is the Paypal button for thirty more tickets to Arduino Level 1. These will likely go fast. The cutoff date for these is now Tuesday Wednesday at 1700.

Arduino Level 1 Tickets

Need an Arduino $39.94 Don't Need an Arduino $6.11

Introduction to Arduino Course

Greetings Thinkers,

The ideaLab will be holding a course to introduce students to microprocessors, specifically the Arduino platform. Microprocessors are capable of being programmed to carry out tasks based on timing or events you select. We feel it is about time students were introduced to them. The amount of things you can do with them are simply amazing, from automating a cup of tea brewing when you send a twitter message to opening a door when you sync your phone to an Arduino, you are really only limited by your imagination.

Arduino Level 1 will help students navigate the tricky installation process of the new Arduino UNO, go through the basics of the Arduino IDE programming language, create a script that will blink an onboard LED, and end with students coming up with creative uses for an LED with their own scripts. This is all just a precursor for Arduino Level 2 where students get to add sensors and motors to really get their Arduino working for them.

The course will be held in a yet to be decided classroom at UCF on 2011.09.19 from 1700-2000.
The course costs $38 (covers an Arduino, cable, and food) or you can provide your own Arduino and just pay $5 (food alone).
Important, you will need to bring your own laptop (make sure you bring your power cable) and it would be very nice if your OS was Windows 7, Ubuntu, or Lion.

Also, spacing for this is limited to 30 students so act quick. Don't fret if you miss this one as we will be doing this again, hopefully.

Here's the link for the event and we hope to see you there.

EDIT: That was phenomenal. Eventbrite just notified me that we are sold out (well, three tickets are currently pending). We will have your Arduinos soon and look forward to seeing you at the course. Just amazing, guys.
By the way, any feedback on this would be great. Do you mind Eventbrite? Want more tickets for the next event? Information like that helps us make the ideaLab better for you thinkers.

EDIT 2: We are now sold out of tickets. Amazing.