AMC2010

Arduino Miniconf 2010: Wellington, NZ

Content migrated from its original location at http://www.practicalarduino.com/amc2010 for historical reference

Limited space and the need to provide personal assistance has forced us to limit the number of people who can actively participate in the hardware assembly / soldering tutorial. The plan is to pair people up with a total of up to 40 people doing the assembly, that is, 20 pairs of participants. Each pair will have access to a set of tools including a soldering iron, solder, and cutters.

Experienced hackers will also be on hand to assist so we will probably have about 50 people in the room, with space for a few extras to come and watch but not do actual assembly.

Registration for the assembly tutorial is on a first-come, first-served basis, but if the numbers are high we may need to give preference to those with less experience to give them an opportunity to try soldering for the first time.

The tutorial will be run using an Arduino expansion shield known as a "Pebble" (see twitpic.com/sztkt) which combines a number of I/O functions into a single board and includes spare PCB area for adding your own parts. It's a great board for experimenting because it incorporates several different functions that are commonly used in different projects. The board features:

* 20x4 LCD module
* 3 push-button inputs
* 1 variable input (potentiometer)
* Temperature sensor
* Luminance sensor
* 2 relay outputs
* Support for ZigBee wireless mesh networking (XBee module required: not included in basic kit)

After the tutorial the Pebble board is yours to keep and use for your own projects.

This registration form does not require any payment. Once we've collected details of interested people to gauge the number of parts required we'll contact you regarding payment.

NOTE: we now have enough "half-assembled" registrations to fill the available space. From now on only "fully assembled Pebble" (or "no hardware, please pair me with someone" as a last resort) registrations are likely to be accepted, but if you want to register for half-assembly please mention it in the notes and we'll put you on a waiting list.

Hardware For Tutorial

We've already had plenty of registrations for "half-assembled" pebbles, so our preference now is for people wanting fully-assembled boards. We'll then pair you with someone doing assembly so that both of you will end up with a fully assembled board each by the end of the tutorial.

Optional Hardware

General hardware such as an Arduino, USB cable, etc, can be obtained from a number of suppliers in both Australia and New Zealand. Depending on demand we may be able to arrange a bulk purchase, so if you're interested in any of the items below please let us know. It will be on a best-effort basis though, and the prices are merely indicative.