Arduino is one of the coolest board to start learning microcontroller programming. You can get a whole lot of documents from the internet. It’s an Open Hardware project. So that you are free to distribute it, copy it, modify it…. like a free software. Open hardware is a latest trend in the electronics field.
One of the problems of Arduino was that, it’s designs were done using a proprietry software named Eagle. Although free version of eagle is available from the net, it is not a free software. Also the free version of eagle has a limitation that we cannot design large boards.
So I thought of redesigning the Arduino Single-Sided Serial Board (version 3) board using free software gEDA (GNU Electronic Design and Automation) tool. These are the design files of the board.
GNUdino-AVR-0.1.pcb
These files are released under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License 2.5. You can use this file anywhere you want same as like the arduino license. Please give me proper credits while using this file and also give a link back to my page http://jeffrey.co.in/
I have designed this board by tracing the pcb layout of arduino which was designed using eagle. A small tutorial of tracing pcb’s by DJ Delorie is shown here .
Similar to the tutorial above, I am giving the files which I had first used for designing purpose.
125_90.ppm
ard.pcb
Place these two files in a folder. Now in the terminal run the command
pcb –bg-image 125_90.ppm ard.pcb
You can see the pcb tracks over the arduino pcb design which was done using eagle. The pcb tracks were drawn on the component side. While loading the file, PCB will be showing the component side. So you will be seeing the tracks not sitting on the background image. To switch to the solder side press the “TAB” button. Now you will see the track alligned.
Please check the files for any mistakes. If there is any, please comment it.
If you have any comments please do it… 
Octave is a kind of FREE SOFTWARE replacement to matlab. But still these days matlab is being used by colleges for their lab purposes.
Even my B-Tech syllabus of calicut university has matlab to be learned. So I thought of moving towards octave. These are some cool links to start with OCTAVE. You must have installed octave in your PC for using this.
http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/docs.html
http://www.aims.ac.za/resources/tutorials/octave/
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~kpl2/dsts6/octaveTutorial.html
http://www-mdp.eng.cam.ac.uk/web/CD/engapps/octave/octavetut.pdf
These tutorials are not written by me. But I am planning to write one. It will contain some basic commands and also the experiments solved for the B-Tech Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Octave Introduction
Experiments using Octave for B-Tech course
Soon this page will be running up. Now I am going for my final year tour to Hyderabad (INDIA) .After that the tutorials will be setup…
You can just see a small experiment implemented by my friend using octave.
http://kishoreathrasseri.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/dsp-lab-week-1/
Brief report on the talk conducted at Government Polytechnique college, Chelakara
Yesterday (19-02-2009) Krishnan Unni and I went to conduct a talk on Free Software, Python Programming and Open Hardware. These talk’s were conducted as the request from students of poly technique.
I and unni reached the college almost at 10.00 AM. There was a small inaugural session. After that we were asked to start the talk . The morning session was on Free Software Philosophy, GNU/Linux installation steps and general GNU/Linux doubts. this was handled by Unni.
All the students were eagerly hearing the talk. There was a very good response from the students. And the important thing is that all the students were very interactive. Questions were coming from all sides on general GNU/Linux tools, virus removal methods, installing games, accessing internet….. This session had an end at 12.30 PM.
The afternoon session was split into two, the python programming and the other was Open hardware. Python Programming was handled by unni. There was a small programming contest on python. He also showed how to develop software’s using python.
My topic was Open Hardware. Actually what I had in mind was introducing what is open hardware, common electronic designing tools and programming the AVR microcontrollers using GNU/Linux. But everything changed after seeing their syllabus.These guys had to study about ATmega128 and also about ARM processors. I was shocked seeing it. Even the calicut university Electronics Engineering syllabus didn’t have these latest topics. I introduced about open hardware. But programming the AVR microcontrollers was not that much nice. There was a parallel port failure and the other fact was that the students knew how to program all these . What I showed was LED blinking. But they had studied blinking LED’s in their 6th semester itself. Anyway I could have made it more fun if I knew about the syllabus by adding some superb videos like Big Buck Bunny 
Now I am in a shame to say that I am learning Electronics engineering because a lower course like the diploma had a lot more to study than engineering course…. these students were more practical.
Anyway the response form the students were fantastic. Thanks to Yamini Madam and all the computer science students of chelakara.
Day before yesterday was FSUG Thrissur inauguration. I am sad to say that I was not there because of my stupid university exams. I reached at the end around 5.30pm for the eating ceremony. Here are some of the reports that can be checked
Pramode Sir’s blog
Aswin’s blog
Jain’s blog
Hi all
Welcome to the inauguration of Free Software User Group, Thrissur. This will be held on 4th December 2008.
More details can be found on the FSUG Thrissur wiki page. As a member of FSUG Thrissur, I am unhappy to sat that I wont be there to attend the inauguration. I am having my university lab exams. But I will reach at the end of the event.
