Olympia Circuits' Arno Shield lets Arduino newcomers bring their own board
While there have certainly been attempts at easing the Arduino learning curve, many of these still demand a new board or simplify just one aspect of a much larger universe. Olympia Circuits' new Arno Shield could help strike a better balance between starting fresh and diving into the deep end. It includes all the buttons, lights and sensors needed for 40-plus educational projects, but grafts on to existing boards such as the company's LeOlympia or an Arduino Uno. Owners don't have to add parts or wires; they just remove the shield once they've learned enough to create their own masterworks. The shield kit won't be cheap when it arrives on May 2nd for $60, but it may prove the real bargain for tinkerers who want a full-fledged Arduino board as soon as the training wheels come off.
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Olympia Circuits announces the Arno Shield
Olympia, WA, April 29, 2013– Olympia Circuits introduces the Arno Shield to expand their line of products for new Arduino users. The Arno Shield contains all the components necessary to learn Arduino programming when plugged into an Arduino compatible board without any messy wires. The original Arno Learning Kit was introduced last year and received a great response as an innovative approach to learning the basics of electronics and Arduino. The shield provides another way for new users to dive into the world of Arduino and breaks down barriers to learning about microcontrollers.
The Arno Shield will be available for purchase at olympiacircuits.com on May 2nd.
The Arno Shield shares the same features of the Arno, but in a familiar shield form factor. Bring your own Arduino compatible board, drop in the shield and start learning to write sketches.
The Arno Shield comes with the well regarded book "Learn Arduino with the Arno" which gives step-bystep instructions for more than forty projects. All the components for the projects are built into the Arno Shield, so no wiring is necessary, just plug and play. The Arno shield, like the original Arno, is fully compatible with the Arduino programming language and integrated development environment.
To allow for a wide range of learning projects, the shield includes the following devices:
- Four green LEDs
- One RGB LED
- One infrared LED
- Two momentary pushbutton switches for digital inputs
- One thumbwheel potentiometer to introduce analog measurements and controls
- One piezo element to create tones and measure vibrations
- One phototransistor to detect infrared and visible light
- An I2C digital temperature sensor to introduce between-device digital communication
Users of the Arno have enjoyed the ability to dive right in to programming without messing with wires and small parts. Like the original Arno, the Arno Shield and an Arduino compatible board make a good travel kit that won't get you hung up in security.
For more information see the product page at http://www.olympiacircuits.com/arno-shield.html and contact info@olympiacircuits.com.
Olympia Circuits was founded by Peter Gould and Kevin Warner to develop Arduino and other microcontroller projects. They produce the Arno and Arno Shield for learning Arduino, the LeOlympia board, a full-featured Arduino-compatible board, and develop application-specific products.
Olympia Circuits will be at Maker Faire Bay Area May 18 & 19, 2013. Stop by our booth to check out our products.
