Custom PC, Issue 159

Custom PC Issue 159Hobby Tech this month covers the launch of the Sugru Rebel Tech Kit, the performance improvements made possible in the latest Arduino IDE, and ends with bad news for Arduino.cc’s new Genuino brand which, I’m pleased to say, has since been replaced by significantly better news.

Sugru, for those not familiar, is remarkable stuff. Straight from the packet it has the consistency of well-worked Blu-tack, if not slightly softer, but with nothing more than time hardens into a firm silicone rubber. It’s waterproof, heatproof, electrically insulative, and I’ve used it in the past for everything from mounting a tablet to the side of my monitor to customising the scales on a Leatherman multitool.

The Rebel Tech Kit, then, is Sugru’s attempt to grab some Christmas gift traffic. Featuring four sachets of Sugru, a guitar pick for moulding and removal, a storage tin, and a full-colour project booklet, there’s not much in there for those already experienced in the ways of “mouldable glue.” For newcomers, though, it’s a fantastic introduction, and one I can see appearing under trees around the world.

The Arduino IDE tests, meanwhile, were fun to carry out. Updates to the AVR Core – the toolchain used for ATmega-based microcontroller boards like the Arduino Uno and Arduino Mega – have brought with them the promise of smaller binary sizes and improved performance, which was an excuse to pull out my microcontroller benchmark family: the floating-point Whetstone, integer Dhrystone, and my own pin-toggling IOBench. The result is an in-depth look at the improvements you can expect from upgrading, complete with pretty graphs and even prettier screenshots.

Finally, the Genuino’s death knell. At the time of writing, noted Sheffield-based hobbyist supply house Pimoroni had revealed the outcome of months of negotiations with Arduino.cc: they would no longer stock the company’s boards. The reason: the ongoing legal battle with Arduino.org over international trademark rights, which had seen Arduino.cc launch the Genuino brand. A refusal to sell Genuino-branded hardware to resellers that would make them available in the US was causing headaches that Pimoroni could do without, which were detailed in the company’s blog post and expanded upon in the final page of my column this month.

Publishing, though, has considerable lead times, and in the time it’s taken this issue to hit shop shelves there’s been a welcome development: Arduino.cc and Arduino.org have merged, ending all legal proceedings between the two and meaning that the problems experienced by Pimoroni over trademark rights and product geo-fencing should no longer be an issue. The impact of this merger, and what it means for the Arduino user, will be explored in a future column.

All this, plus a bunch of interesting stuff from people other than myself, can be found at your nearest newsagent, supermarket, or digitally on Zinio and other distribution platforms.

The MagPi, Issue 50

The MagPi Issue 50This month’s MagPi magazine is a little bit special: it’s Issue 50, celebrated with a shiny foil cover in the physical edition. Inside, you’ll find two pieces of mine: an interview with Dark Water Foundation’s Barry Getty regarding his Dark Control motor boards, and a review of the Sugru Rebel Tech Kit which should be heading to shelves in time for Christmas shopping.

I first met Barry at the Liverpool MakeFest event in 2015, where he was running a workshop to build Arduino-based LEGO remote operated submersible vehicles (ROSVs) which could be piloted through an obstacle course installed in a fish tank at the end of the table. When he got back in touch a year later to show off his Raspberry Pi motor control board add-ons, I knew I needed to interview him on the topic.

The Dark Control boards differ from most motor control boards available in their scope: both models, designed for ESC and DC motor types, include six outputs for full freedom of movement. Various extras, including GPIO pass-through and room for additional hardware, are included, and it’s little surprise to find that Barry’s Kickstarter campaign closed with 145 per cent of its goal funding.

The Sugru kit, meanwhile, is something of a passion of mine. I’ve lost count of the number of things I’ve fixed around the house thanks to “mouldable glue” Sugru, and when they got in touch with details of an upcoming introductory kit I jumped at the chance to have a look. The bundle includes a storage tin, guitar pick for moulding, four packs of Sugru, and a full-colour booklet of projects. If you’re familiar with Sugru, there’s nothing there that’s a must-have compared to just buying a plain pack of the stuff, but if you’re introducing others to the wonderful putty that hardens into silicone rubber it’s a fantastic bundle.

Finally, the book review section of the magazine includes a pleasant surprise: a review of my Raspberry Pi User Guide Fourth Edition, in which it is described as “a reference which will become as essential as its three predecessors.” High praise indeed!

The MagPi Issue 50 is available in all good newsagents and supermarkets now, or can be downloaded free of charge in Creative Commons-licensed PDF format from the official website.