Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD

Arduino The Documentary 2010

Arduino started as a project

that we did at the Interaction
Design Institute Ivrea...

back in 2005

But it has some roots in previous
projects that we worked on

Cause we wanted to make a tool
for our students that was more

modern that what was available
on the market at the moment

Specially because the tool that
everybody was using,

this thing called the BASIC Stamp,

in Italy it was costing, at the
time, about 76€, that's like 100$

so it was very expensive
for the students

They wouldn't do any...
too much work

because they didn't want to
spend money on buying

many boards that expensive,
so what happened...

we started to look at possible
alternatives, and also we

were working on Processing,
the Processing language

because Casey Reas, one of the
founders, was one of the teachers

in Ivrea, so we thought: "Why
don't we try to figure out

how to make Processing for the
hardware?" So we worked with

a student who did a thesis on
the topic, and that produced a

wiring platform. Hernando
Barragán, a Colombian student,

worked on it. And then after
Hernando made Wiring

we started to figure out how
could we make the whole platform

even simpler, even cheaper,
even easier to use.

And then we started to essentialy
reimplement the whole thing

as an open source project. We
wanted it to be open source

so that everybody could come
and help, and contribute.

Then we had another issue: that
there was a lot of discussion

about the school closing, so
we decided: "OK, let's try

to make this platform and open
it up as much as possible."

Then we stopped talking about
what we would like to have

and started talking about
how to do it.

And when we started talking
about how to do it, Massimo

had been experimenting
with some technology,

I had been experimenting
with a different technology...

We had a talk to decide
what was best and I decided

to try this technology
Massimo had,

because of its
better compatibility

with different OS.

I checked the hardware, found
a couple bugs, we fixed that,

and well, we started
making boards...

I mean, the process from starting
to seriously work on it

to having a board was
a mere two-day one.

All the rest was software.

While I was kind of in
the middle of this I met with

David Cuartielles, who started to
sort of help me in the project,

then became a major contributor,
and then together we kind of made

the first Arduino hardware; then
we had David Mellis joining as

a student to write the software,
then Tom came in as an advisor,

and finally then Gianluca came
in as the person who was able

to manufacture the board, that's
how the team kind of formed,

by adding people by their skills.

We've been using Wiring boards
and wanted to port

a bunch of programs to a cheaper
microprocessor, basically,

to install in some installations;
and I helped write like

a lot of compatibility layers so
that all the old programs

could run in the new processor...
And then just being in Ivrea

and not wanting to spend too
much time on my actual thesis

I spent more and more time like
working with Massimo

and the other guys
developing Arduino.

I knew there was
this development of this

hardware equivalent to
Processing. And I went over

to Ivrea in June of 2005 to do a
workshop with them on another

subject, and they showed me the
Arduino board at that point.

And I looked at it and I said:
"You know, this is great, and it

definitely works for your school,
works for my school too, but

I think it could be a larger
thing, and I think more people

would want to use this." And
Massimo said: "Well, that's good

feedback, thanks." And then I
went back to the States,

and a couple weeks later they
wrote to me and said:

"You know, we want to go further
with this, and we want to try and

get it to the larger world.
Do you want to join us

as part of the team?" And I said
"Yeah". And it was just...

for me it was a case that
this is a tool I could see

using myself, and therefore I
could believe in actually

helping to get it out
to a wider world.

After the first prototyping
there was the need,

or the desire, to start
manufacturing something

in a more professional way,
and in a more commercial way.

because all the first example was
mounted, was done just to make...

to let them work. After
Massimo and David decided

and understood the prototype
was working they needed to

make a bigger batch. So we
decided to work on 200 units

and we made... I made a little
redesign, a little

design for manufacturing
in order to produce them.

It was a test; they agreed
with their school

the Interaction Design institute,
and the K3 of Malmö,

to buy 50 each. That was a
good starting point;

that means we will not lose
all the money but at least

half was coming back. The
selling price was exactly

what we paid; I think we earned
1€ for each board, that is

nothing considering all the
effort we put inside.

But after some advertisement,
after some speaking with friends,

this movement started to move.
And so we received the first

call, our first customer, asking
for one board, it was a friend

of Massimo and David. But this
was the beginning of something.

A few months after meeting he
said "Hey Nate SparkFun, you guys

should carry this thing called
Arduino." And I looked at it and

at that time it was the through
hole version, the RS-232 version,

and I said "This looks very
interesting" but I didn't really

understand it. And... I hadn't
wrapped my head around it.

And so I said: "You know, Tom,
I don't think it's for us, we don't

really do kits, we're not sure
how people are going to react

to this" and so I decided
against it. It was a few months

later, six, seven months later,
that Arduino came out with

the full USB version, fully
assembled and tested and

ready to go, and Tom again
came to ask and said:

"Hey, SparkFun, you should
really carry this." And I said

"OK, well, I'm not really sure,
you know, we'll bring in 20

and see how they sell." And
that was the first 20 out of

about 40,000 at this point.

The first time we heard
about Arduino was

when David Cuartielles came
to an activity called

"Thursdays at Medialab",
which actually was

the first session of that
still ongoing activity.

So he keeps talking about stuff
and at the end, after 90 minutes

of listening to all of
David's tales, he says

he's involved in this
project, but it was a really

small thing, you know?
And I thought "At last!

Come on, David, why wasn't
this the first thing you said?"

I want to talk to you
about Arduino...

Arduino is the last project,
I finished it last week.

I talked to Ivrea's technical
director and told him:

Wouldn't it be great to do
something we can offer for free?

- For free?
- Yeah.

And after that, well, we
worked with Gustavo, and

also kept in touch with
David, and we

organized an Arduino
workshop in October 2005,

which was one of the
first Arduino workshops,

if not the first one ever...

On the last day David proposed
creating some small prototypes.

He called it "Bring your old junk
and let's do something with it."

That led to some quite
interesting projects...

And these people kept on
doing small electronic

instruments, small robots...

At the time I was senior editor
at MAKE, MAKE was only

a couple years old, and I had
heard about this Arduino project.

And I saw it online and I said:
"Well, a lot of people are

starting to talk about this,
I should check it out."

And I got one of the boards and
said "Whoa, this is fantastic,

beginners are gona love this. It
runs on Mac, it runs on PC, it

runs on Linux... this is exactly
what everyone wants."

At the time a lot of people were
using BASIC Stamps, were using

all sorts of microcontrollers,
and I come from using design

tools like Flash and Processing,
and I'm like "Oh, this is

perfect, it's exactly what I
think everyone's going to

want." And this was in the
beginning of when MAKE

was starting to have a store,
and so it took a little while

and you know, it's very hard to
do international money transfers.

Basically we started selling
Arduinos in MAKE right away,

And then later on, when I
started working with Limor,

who's part of Adafruit,
she's a founder, we also

said right away "This is a
fantastic tool for getting

people doing the things that they
want to do with electronics."

Not necessarily learning
everything first, but getting

the application done, like
I want something... I want

my dress to blink. Very hard
to do if you just want to learn

electronics; with an Arduino you
get that done in a few minutes.

Just turn the confetti video...

So this is sort like a demo bay.

We have a number of our
projects set up

This was a project we did
for a single night event

that used Arduino as sensors

and the way it works,
we made these

giant maracas that when
you shake them,

it creates this explosion
of confetti, and

in the original install it was
on a giant sphere, but here...

Each one of these has an
accelerometer in it

and a Bluetooth controller
sending it to the computer

and then we generate
these graphics.

And it's all related to an
specific event

where we wanted people
to lighten up, it was at

a cocktail party, and we wanted
people to really let loose,

and feel more free.

And I wished to show you the
Luminodes project over here...

This was a project we did
early on in the lab,

thinking about networked
lighting,

and the way it works is
there's sort of a family

of lights, and the main light
here, you pick it up

and you can sort of tune
the color by twisting it.

It will set the color, and these
others are sort of children...

As the user plays with them
they all sort of come into sync.

So we're really into social
relationships that people create

through technology.
So in this case it was

sort of syncing a number
of people up who were all

using the same thing. And
then we extended it out to

use architectural
scale lighting and

and off-the-shelf
lighting equipment.

The very first thing I tried
to do with an Arduino

was to run a 3D printer on an
Arduino. Which...

I probably should have started
out with something simpler,

because it was really difficult,
and I didn't know anything

about electronics. It was just
like stumbling blindly and trying

to get it to work, but eventually
I got it to work, and now

we sell these MakerBot 3D
printers which actually run on...

There's multiple Arduinos in
the machine.

So this is a 3D printer,

and what that means is it takes
a 3D model from... you can

download one from the internet,
or design it yourself, or

scan in a 3D model of an object;
and then it prints with plastic,

so this right here is a filament,
and so what happens is

this plastic is slowly pulled
down into the extruder head here

and when it's done you'll get a
real object that is exactly

what you wanted.
So you have a digital

file that you give it, and you
basically say "make me one

of this", you hit print, and this
machine will make it for you.

It will make one, or a hundred,
or 1,000 of them if you want.

Which is great, because there's
all sorts of cool open source

things that this will make for
you. So you don't need to have

a laser cutter, or a PCB
fabrication thing to really

participate in open source
hardware. You can just design

something, this will sit on your
desk and print you out stuff.

One of the things I really like
about this is that this allows

you to apply the idea of open
source hardware to things

that are very very basic, that
you would not otherwise

consider to be open source
hardwares. So we have...

There's an open source
whistle, for example.

There's an open source bottle
opener... Over here on the wall

we have a... right here, there's
an open source coat hook.

So we have a coat hook...
this is open source hardware.

There's a file on the internet
you can download and

if you have a 3D printer you
can print out as many

coat hooks as you want, and
you don't have to pay anybody

anything. If you want a bigger
coat hook you can make it bigger.

And it is just this wonderful
idea that we can apply this idea

of open source to all of these
common everyday things

that we use in our life, like...
what we're trying to do is

open source everything.

What sort of can have been a
crazy idea 10 years ago,

are now... actually there's a
path that we can take

to get there. And people are
starting to take it seriously.

Open source hardware is a
fantastic way to make sure

other people can look at your
designs and improve them.

Open source hardware is a
fantastic way so you don't have

to answer e-mails of people
asking "can they use something?"

You've put the license out
there, you've said...

Open source hardware for us
means you can take our stuff,

you can do whatever you want
with it... you just have to do

the same thing we did: release
it back, allow other people

to do whatever they want with it
and they can sell it as long as

all the attribution, all the
credits, all things that you've

requested, are respected. And
so far it's worked out great:

If you look at Linux, it's a
perfect example. If you look

at Apache, all these things that
run the web, it's all open source

If you had to pay someone, or
talk to someone, or license

something every time you wanted
to put up a website,

we wouldn't have the fantastic
world of information sharing

we do. So I look at Arduino as
a physical representation of

all the great things you got
with open source software,

but now starting to happen
in hardware.

We will hit a level where
people will be creating...

people will be creating hardware
on the same way that people

were creating books after
movable type became cheap and

easy to replicate. And I really
think that that's the level

of the open source hardware
revolution, as we are looking

at something like a Gutenberg
event, where movable type

will change how people read,
write and share information, only

in this case it will be how we
create and use physical objects.

The idea behind having control
over these physical objects

and being able to manipulate them
at will and not be afraid

to take them apart, to see
what's inside, to really

know everything that's going
on... That's something really

behind the open source
hardware for me,

and something I'm really
passionate about.

You know, of course open source
means that you are

making it for the community
at large, based on work

that other people have
done. So it's kind of like I'm

taking one step up a ladder, and
then I'm helping other people

go further up the ladder.

The current problem is that

because of both standardisation
and the patent system,

a lot of people were left
without the possibility

of learning how things work;
this ended up being

possible only to a group
of people: the hackers,

whose technical knowledge
allowed them... made them

feel able of opening an
electronic element to see

what it had inside. And that's
open source hardware for me:

it means to once again
be able to check

what is inside of stuff,
but in a way that is allowed,

that is also ethically "right",

legal, and that allows us to
improve the educative methods.

All things considered, what
open hardware is for me

is a system that makes people
able to learn about the way

things work in this world
we live in, where there are

more computers than
people. So we need to

understand how our stuff
works, not only for being able

to repair it, but also to
understand how our own

life works. And I thing that
is really necessary nowadays.

At the beginning, on the whole
question of open source

hardware versus open hardware,
open source, it's still very

a very complex situation, there's
still not very defined standards

or licenses or processes...
For us at the beginning

it was a specific need: we knew
the school was closing, and we

and we were afraid that lawyers
would show up one day and say

"Everything here goes into a box
and gets forgotten about."

So we thougt "OK, if we open
everything about this,

then we can survive the
closing of the school."

So that was the first step.
Then we started to figure out

that there was a way to get a
very nice ecosystem of people

participating and making
extensions, making derivatives,

and helping. And then our
activity of talking to

manufacturers, and making
them to build things,

became an interesting study
on how there could be

a business model that would
apply to open source.

For us it was really important,
as a cultural space

for experimentation, to try
and apply the logic of

free tools to the
actual process of working.

That was the idea behind
"Interactivos?", a space

where people could develop
their own projects but where

other people could also
get involved in them

as collaborators. Because
the process is open for

anyone to participate.
That is, for us, a quite...

how to say it, a strong
relationship; we feel that

we are always trying to get
inspiration from something

as surprising as all free
software processes are,

and in this case... we had never
heard about the existance of

"free hardware". So all started
buzzing with possibilities

that went in all kind
of directions.

I love open source hardware.
I think everything should be

that way. It's great for
education, I like sharing

what we've learned, and it's
easy for the kids to find out

more and it would be great if
they could build their own things

I did not learn
microcontrollers until my

middle years in college, til
the end of college.

And I was really blown away
by how easy it was to use

Arduino, namely, being the
forerunner development board.

I think, given the right series
of events, and if Arduino and

electronics could be taught in
high school, I think there's a

big future for not only
engineers, but also artists.

Also digital media interactive
design people. If they can learn

that in high school, imagine
how much more they can do

later in life.

When the Arduino
sends the signal,

it controls exactly the same
these two buttons would.

This is made for
recording and playing

when you manually touch
the keys. But if you put in

opto-isolators,
these two things here,

you can bridge the keys
through the controller

and activate them with an
electric signal that comes

from the controller,
that is programmed.

That's why Arduino is
so powerful, because

you can control any
machine that works...

It is an amazing tool
for giving young people

this age get in contact
with all those...

an awful lot of realities
they live in.

First to get them to learn
that the consumer side

-this "use the remote
with the machine" side-

is not the only one;
that it is possible to

understand what's inside
and get the control back.

Because now all these kids
have a huge amount of

gadgets which they have
no idea how they work at all.

With Arduino you can get a
small glimpse of how all this

stuff works, show them some
schematics that allow them to

have a certain way
of looking at all

the technological world that
is going to surround them.

And it is also quite funny,
can be used to teach electronics,

to teach them how to think,
it teaches them how to have

less short-term projects
and work as a team,

how to participate in a
community, get information...

The potential for students
when they're just learning

how to use the computer, to
learn how to make things

with computers... to me that...
that's powerful.

And what that would
actually mean long term

for students with only 50$,
be able to plug something

into their computer and
make something with it

over and over and over again
and then really share it...

The type of creative community
that can engender in young people

to me I think that is... That's
going to change everything,

and I'm really excited to see
what happens as it develops.

Arduino has 120.000
users nowadays,

or 130.000 users...
I just count the number

of sold boards. The traffic
that we are now getting

in our website is close
to 15 million hits per month.

Which means around
600.000 hits per day.

That is knowing it is actively
used in universities,

also used by people who work
on their personal projects...

Now imagine it was to
start being used

in high school education.

Its future will not
be "technological",

it will be quite more social;

it will be some kind of
big boom where a lot

of people will start
using it.

I definitely see Arduino
taking one path of

being just very easy to use,
even easier than it is now.

So making it easier for
beginners to get into it.

All my favourite distortion
pedals... a Big Muff...

with my favourite
microcontroller board, Arduino.

The user base would get
10 or 20 times bigger.

If all of a sudden these
people started sharing

their files on the network,
it would just not support all that.

It would just not work.

Here's a robot.

If I tilt, you see the light
goes left... I go up...

I want Arduino to always
be a tool that people

who have no understanding
of computers can look at

and can get an understanding
of how a computer works.

But I sell this. So that's part
of how I make my living.

For this to keep working like
it does ten years for now

we need to be able to keep
creating new hardware,

we will need the continous
feedback of the community,

and to be able to include
their changes and

their proposals with all
the necessary upgrades.

And after those 10 years,
I hope we have

at least one Arduino
computer... why not?