Fritzing Fab now powered by AISLER

Your trusty PCB production service is taking a big step! Effective today, Fab is powered by AISLER, a smart and affordable electronics manufacturing service. Fritzing Fab powered by AISLER class= Yes, Fab has always been that, but with the support of our new partner, this will improve on all levels:
  • Smart: Fab now automatically renders high-res previews of your Fritzing files, so it’s much easier to check for mistakes. Plus it acts as a repository for your projects, enabling you to revise and share.
  • Affordable: The prices per cm2 are radically lowered, the checking fee is gone, shipping is free from 30€ – and you will get 3 copies per default. (Example: 1 Arduino Shield with the old Fab used to cost 42€ when ordering from Germany, now it’s 31€ and you’ll get 3!)
  • Manufacturing: The PCB is of even higher quality (three times as precise and with gold contacts) and still proudly made in Germany. Very soon you’ll be able to order parts alongside the PCB, and more services are on the roadmap.
The guys at AISLER made this an easy choice for us. Not only do they offer these excellent specs, but they also share the same friendly maker attitude all the while putting quality first. They are also based in Germany, in the up and coming Euregio area at the Dutch border. And they’re on a mission to build the production service we always wanted: The PCB is only the first step, next is parts, and eventually you’ll be able to order full projects - even assembled if you like. The ultimate goal is to create a maker market where you will get a share when somebody else produces your designs. Fab Preview class= A live preview of your board (Thanks to NITOS for providing these beautiful board designs) With every change one has to say goodbye to a couple of things one has come to love. The black on white design will be replaced by the more standard white on green (aka “professional looks”). We made sure it’s beyond what you get elsewhere, with matte green finish and golden pads! Give it a spin at fab.fritzing.org – we hope you’ll enjoy the new service!

New fritzing release 0.9.3b!

Finally, here's a fresh release of fritzing, coming with a nice set of new features. Head on over to fritzing.org/download to grab it. github parts repo class= Here's what's new:

Continuously updated parts library

The fritzing parts library is now stored online at github and is automatically checked for updates on every launch. This means you will now get new parts (or fixes) in the moment when they are created. No need to wait for the next Fritzing release to get new parts anymore! And we are actually using git itself inside of fritzing to do these updates, so this opens up many other use cases in the future, like for example direct user contributions.

Critical bug fix for messed up PCB traces

Many of you have been plagued by an annoying bug that occasionally caused PCB traces to get loose and flip around. It proved to be really tricky to track down but it's finally fixed, sigh.. Plus, the fix will recover any files that have been mangled by this bug. :)

High-DPI display support

Fritzing now looks properly on High-DPI (aka Retina) displays on all platforms. It's not really high-res but scaling nicely according to the higher screen resolution. No more eye squinting with your fancy 4K screen!

Easier handling of self-created parts

Custom / self-made parts and bins used to be stored in a hidden location on your hard drive, which made it really annoying to edit them with an external tool such as Illustrator or a text editor. They are now conveniently located in your ~/Documents/Fritzing folder for easy access!

Load/Save uncompressed fritzing files (.fz)

You can now alternatively save your fritzing sketches as an uncompressed set of files (.fz plus additional custom parts etc). This allows for proper versioning with systems like git or svn. For regular use, we still recommend using the standard .fzz format, which by the way is just a zip bundle of these files. Thanks to Sergio Oller (zeehio) for this contribution!

File type associations & icons

fzz, fzb, fzp, etc. now also have shiny file icons on Mac OS X (thanks to scribblemaniac) and Ubuntu Linux (thanks to el-j).  To get them to actually show up, you will need to wait a little on Mac for them to override the cache, and on Linux  you have to run the install-fritzing.sh script.

New Parts

Loads of new parts, many of them contributed, and all  revised by Fabian Althaus (el-j): Lots of new SparkFun parts, thanks to support from SparkFun: Contributed parts:

New/updated Translations

  • Czech, thanks to Vasekdvor
  • German, thanks to Atalanttore and aknoerig
  • Italian, thanks to Gianpaolo Macario
  • Polish, thanks to jacekjaros
  • Portuguese, thanks to Bruno Ramalhete
  • Spanish, thanks to bazza
  • Turkish, thanks to Kaan Özdinçer
  • Vietnamese, thanks to Duyệt Đinh Xuân
..and various smaller improvements and fixes, including contributions from Duane Johnson, Luke Benstead, Nicolas Raynaud, scribblemaniac and duff2013. Thanks!

New Book: "Fritzing for Inventors"

There are a zillion books that make use of Fritzing to illustrate circuits, but this one is the first on fritzing itself. We're honored that the one and only Simon Monk, author of many a maker book, took it up and created the ultimate guide for using fritzing to "take your electronics project from prototype to product." We provided technical review for the book, so you can be sure it's using all the tricks. Fritzing for Inventors class= It does a really great job at  giving a quickstart introduction. Then it walks you through each of Breadboard/Schematic/PCB view in detail, and also gives you background tips on approaching electronics projects in general, reading datasheets, etc. The second half of the book focuses on PCB design and production all the way to testing and distribution. It's all very thorough and keeps a great balance between bird's eye and detail discussion. So it's not just a  software reference, but a really practical handbook on creating prototypes and using Fritzing as the central tool for that. All in all, "Fritzing for Inventors" might be a great holiday read. Here's the full table of contents (the one on the publisher's website seems to be from a draft version):
  • Ch 1. Introduction to Fritzing
  • Ch 2. Quickstart
  • Ch 3. Electronic Invention
  • Ch 4. Breadboarding
  • Ch 5. Schematic Desgin
  • Ch 6. PCB Layout
  • Ch 7. Fabrication
  • Ch 8. Fritzing Arduino (and Other Boards)
  • Ch 9. Custom Parts
  • Ch 10. Example Projects
  • Ch 11. Testing
  • Ch 12. Funding and Distributing
  • Appendix: Resources

A new fritzing discussion forum

The good old forum that has lasted us since 2009 has finally been replaced by a shiny new one. Please head over to https://forum.fritzing.org and help make it such a friendly and lively place as with the old one. 67166fd55b183b9cc31c69825f4044c038edc3b1 class= We have selected the fantastic Discourse as the new forum's engine, that we found to do a great job at nurturing a community in places like OpenFrameworks or Particle. It's interesting to see how something as simple as a discussion board has evolved since back in 2009. Tools like phpBB provided a ton of features, but it totally overloaded the user interface. Discourse also provides a lot of functionality, but it's all focused on keeping your participation in discussions simple and easy. Plus it helps with community building by letting you build up your reputation. You can use your existing fritzing.org login, but your profile will start blank–we didn't find a good way to migrate the old forum content, because the systems are too different. You can find the old forum's archive here, and it will remain a valuable resource.

New Fritzing version 0.9.2b released

Hi everyone, here's a nice little Fritzing update!

New Parts

This one brings you a bunch of the latest new popular parts, several of them created in collaboration with their (hardware) makers: release092 class=
  • RaspberryPi 2, the new version of the Model B
  • WeIO, the web of things platform (thanks to WeIO)
  • RaspIO Duino microcontroller (thanks to RaspIO)
  • DQuid IO microcontroller (thanks to DQuid)
  • STM32 Nucleo microcontroller (thanks to Colin Grant)
  • SODAQ Mbili microcontroller (thanks to SODAQ)
  • Netduino Plus2 microcontroller (thanks to Colin Grant)
  • SIM928A GSM module (thanks to Pierrot)
  • Large 8x8 LED matrix (the one used in the Fritzing Creator Kits)
  • WS2812, the popular RGB SMD LED
  • Plus various part bug fixes to pin headers, FET, Arduino FIO & Yun

New Translations

  • Romanian, thanks to titus08
Head to the Downloads section and enjoy!

"Eyes of the IoT" workshop at Mobile World Congress

Our colleagues at design studio IXDS will hold a workshop during Mobile World Congress next week in Barcelona. Together with tech company Rambus and facilitator MLOVE, the workshop will investigate the opportunities of Rambus' new image sensors. They are so tiny, inexpensive yet powerful, that they can be integrated into almost any IoT device. The workshop will take place on coming Monday, March 2nd. If you're lucky enough to have a ticket for MWC, the workshop itself is free. Just RSVP to the mail address in the invitation. Eyes of the IoT Workshop Invite class=

Build a Tinkercup, an IoT starter project for your office desk

Tinkercup is a coffee cup connected to the internet that shows the user the temperature of his cup and how many cups he is drinking per day. The project was created by our colleagues at IXDS for the fresh German edition of WIRED. <% include picture.html class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1313" img="tinkercup-wired" ext="jpg" alt="tinkercup-wired" width="768" height="768" %> You can build your own Tinkercup with the kit that’s available now from Tinkersoup Berlin for 39,90 € -- including the Spark Core. The latest issue of WIRED also features an interview about IoT and the Tinkercup with the founder of IXDS, Reto Wettach and managing partner Nancy Birkhölzer. Get yours, connect it, drink coffee and share your temperature with other - and most importantly, start tinkering!

It's Fritzmas! New Fritzing "Code View" release, and a little present

f-xmas-head-blog class=

Dear Friends of Fritzing!

It's the time of the year again and we are happy to announce a new release featuring a brand new "Code View" that allows you to program and upload to your microcontroller straight from Fritzing. To celebrate this, we give you a nice discount on the perfect christmas gift, the Fritzing Creator Kit. Use the discount code FRITZMAS14 to get the kit for 89€ (instead of 95€) and make someone (or yourself) really happy this year. :) Read  more on the release below. code-view class= This is the new "Code View"! It lets you write your code directly inside Fritzing, and even upload it from there to your microcontroller. It even has a serial monitor. :) We love this, because it makes it even easier for beginners to get started with interactive electronics. And for more advanced people it's great because you can now keep your code together with the matching circuit--no more confusion! You can also link to files somewhere else on your hard drive, for example in your local Arduino folder. When the link gets broken, or you just send someone your Fritzing file, don't worry, because there's always a backup stored in the Fritzing fzz file. Right now the upload functionality supports Arduino and PICAXE, but more can be added as long as the platform's IDE has a command line upload option. 091-parts class= The new release also brings with it many new parts, many kindly sponsored by their respective makers. Now you can easily document your circuits and fabricate shields/caps/hats etc. for: Last but not least, the new release fixes a couple of annoying bugs and generally makes it easier for you to contribute to the code. Setting up your build environment is now just a few easy steps. See the full release notes here. Download Fritzing 0.9.1b from here, and think about a Fritzmas donation on the way to it. Happy Fritzmas to everyone!

Das Fritzing Creator Kit im Schulunterricht

Mit dem folgenden Rundschreiben wenden wir uns an alle Schullehrer in den MINT-Fächern (Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaften und Technik). Das Creator Kit hat sich mittlerweile im Unterricht an vielen weiterführenden Schulen bewährt. Falls Du selbst ein Schüler oder bist, kannst Du Dich mit diesem Schreiben an Deine Lehrer wenden.

Liebe MINT-Lehrer und -Lehrerinnen,

mit dem Fritzing Creator Kit auf Basis von Arduino haben wir ein Lernpaket entwickelt, das Schülern auf projektorientierte, unterhaltsame und motivierende Weise das Programmieren näher bringt. Fritzing ist eine Open Source-Initiative, die interaktive Elektronik als kreatives Material für jedermann nutzbar macht. Mit über 200.000 Nutzern hat sich die freie Fritzing-Software als Standard-Werkzeug im Kontext von Arduino und Raspberry Pit etabliert. Mit diesem Rundschreiben möchten wir die Vorzüge der Fritzing-Umgebung im Schulunterricht kurz für Sie zusammenfassen. fritzing-desk-800

5 Gründe für das Creator Kit

1. Der spannendste Weg, Programmieren zu lernen
Eine simple Programmiersprache, aber mit großem Effekt: Mit dem Creator Kit lassen sich LEDs zum Leuchten bringen, Motoren steuern und die Umwelt wahrnehmen. So werden if/then & co. begreifbar gemacht.
2. Entwickelt zusammen mit Lehrern und Schülern
Das beiliegende 144-seitige Buch führt die Schüler durch aufeinander aufbauende Beispielprojekte, die durch kleine Aufgaben und Theorie-Einschübe ergänzt werden. Die Verpackung ist robust und taugt für den Schulalltag.
3. Eine populäre, offene Plattform
Mit Arduino setzt das Kit auf eine weit verbreitete Plattform, zu der man online wie auch in der Bibliothek viel weiterführende Unterstützung findet. Die Fritzing-Software bietet mit ihren anschaulichen Darstellungen zu Code und Schaltplan eine integrierte Lehr- & Lernumgebung.
4. Umfangreiche ergänzende Lehrmaterialien
Neben dem Buch und den unterhaltsamen Bastelfiguren gibt es zu dem Kit eine 22-teilige Videoserie, die durch alle Inhalte führt. Darüber hinaus erhalten Lehrer eine Bildschirm-Präsentation, die sie im Unterricht für die Lehre verwenden können.
5. Ansprechende Gestaltung
Das Erscheinungsbild trägt sehr dazu bei, dass das Kit bei den Schülern akzeptiert wird. Die freundliche Ansprache und liebevolle Gestaltung von Dino, Roboter und Wahrsager hilft auch technisch weniger interessierten über die Hemmschwelle hinweg. FritzingCreatorKit_DE_ausgepackt

Spezielles Angebot für Schulen

Speziell für Schulen haben wir die Fritzing Teaching Bundles zusammengestellt. Sie enthalten neben einem Satz Kits inklusive Arduinos das umfangreiche Arduino-Kompendium von Erik Bartmann, sowie die Unterrichtspräsentation. Wir empfehlen das Kit für den Unterricht ab der 9. Klasse. Die Teaching Bundles erhalten Sie zum reduzierten Preis nur für Schulen und Universitäten bei uns im Shop: https://shop.fritzing.org/arduino-schule 139-FTBMDE class= Bei weiteren Fragen nehmen Sie gerne mit uns Kontakt auf. Vielen Dank für Ihr Interesse! Herzliche Grüße, Ihr Fritzing-Team --- Fritzing Paul-Lincke-Ufer 39/40 10999 Berlin +49 (0)30-69519400 https://fritzing.org https://shop.fritzing.org Fritzing ist eine Initiative, die die Demokratisierung des Technikwissens vorantreibt. Die freie Fritzing-Software ist ein populäres Werkzeug für Erstellung und Teilen von elektronischen Schaltplänen. Das Fritzing Creator Kit ist das ideale Arduino-Einsteigerpaket mit vielen Projekten zum Selberbasteln auf Basis der Fritzing-Philosophie. Für fortgeschrittene Bastler bietet Fritzing Fab eine günstige und einfache Möglichkeit, eigene Platinen fertigen zu lassen. Fritzing ist 2007 an der FH Potsdam im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojekts entstanden, und wird heute vom Friends-of-Fritzing e.V. und dem Designstudio IXDS weiterentwickelt.

Fritzing has moved to github!

fritzing-github

 

It took us a while, but we have finally decided to move all Fritzing code to the amazing github. Find it now at:

https://github.com/fritzing

When we started hacking on Fritzing back in 2007, Google Code was all the hype, and SVN had just replaced CVS as a versioning system. All this has changed for good, and today git (and github) have become the reference for collaborative, open-source development.

We were hesitant until now mostly because of our issue tracker: The one at Google Code has served us wonderfully, and the one at github lacks many of the features that we have come to love (like file attachments and powerful tagging/prioritizing). Also, with the move, original issue reporters will not be notified of changes. Ouch. Luckily, all issues have a backlink to their original Google Code issue, so at least the full history is preserved.

We have also taken the opportunity to move our developer docs over to the github wiki. This way it’s all in one place and you can directly edit it if you have enhancements.

So, we welcome all developers to take a look, watch us, star us, fork us, and most importantly, send us pull requests!

 

Minor fixes for Linux release

We just noticed that the Linux release did not contain the latest patches, most notably it is missing the Linino boards, an issue with number boxes in languages using comma as decimal separator, and a schematic issue.

The downloads have now been refreshed, so we recommend all Linux users who have already downloaded 0.9 to update. Sorry for this extra step!

Maker Camp Berlin is looking for coordinators

Download

In August, the first Maker Camp Berlin is opening its -container- doors. The busy team around Stefania Druga of hackidemia has prepared a wonderful setup, in which 15 makers will get together for a month in a temporary makerspace.

Sign up for the opening party on August 8th, and also don’t hesitate to visit during the process.

We’ve also been told they still have a coordinator position to fill. If you consider yourself a “Master Builder & Designer”, check it out!

New fritzing release 0.9!

090b-release We’re happy to announce the release  of a new fritzing version! It comes with a bunch of improvements on the inside and outside. Here’s the scoop:

Upgrade to Qt5

Fritzing is written on top the Qt cross-platform application framework. We have upgraded to their latest version Qt5, which brings stability and speed improvements (especially for Mac OS X users). This also enables us to port fritzing to Android, iOS, etc. – that is, in theory. We still need to give that a try. Thanks to Jonathan and contributor Rohan Lloyd!

Major part family additions

This release brings a number of new parts, especially a number of popular microcontrollers, as the result of several collaboration efforts:

  • ADI analog parts, which make use of split schematics and SPICE output, a new feature sponsored by Analog Devices we will write more about soon
  • Intel Galileo, sponsored by Intel Education
  • Arduino Yún, supported by Arduino
  • Linino One, sponsored by doghunter.org
  • ChipKIT WF32, MX4 and shields, thanks to Digilent (more to come)
  • Spark Core, thanks to spark community member technobly
  • Atlas Scientific sensors, thanks to Atlas Scientific
  • more Raspberry Pi versions (A, B, B rev2)
  • Teensy 3.0/3.1, because we love it
  • several contributed parts, thanks to FrodeLillerud and others

In addition, there are  several new PCB shapes for Raspberry Pi, Intel Galileo, SparkCore that will make your boards look cooler. Here’s a snapshot of the Intel Galileo shield in action for the Data Monster: Galileo DataMonster Fritzing Shield Finally, the usual set of bugfixes, and nicely updated translations: French (thanks to Arnold Dumas!), German (thanks to atalanttore!), Ukrainian (thanks to netavek!).

Download Fritzing 0.9.0b here. And while you’re at it, kindly consider donating. Thanks!

A fresh new Fritzing shop

new-fritzing-shop

We have just released a fancy new online shop at shop.fritzing.org. This finally gives the Fritzing Creator Kit, the awesome beginner pack for everyone getting started with Arduino and Fritzing, an adequate stage.

The Creator Kit contents and variants are well explained, and we now offer free shipping for Germany and reduced international rates. Also check out the special deals for schools and universities.

Besides our own shop, you can also purchase the kit through our fine resellers.

As usual, the profit goes towards the continued development of the Fritzing ecosystem.

A little bit of advertisement

You might have noticed the little Google Ad placed in the right column of fritzing.org, and we hope you don’t mind! We have started experimenting with embedding ads into our websites and you will likely see more of this over the coming weeks. Fritzing is in need of additional revenue streams to continue to serve you with the coolest electronics tool and keep it free-as-in-freedom.

In March we started to combine downloads with donations, a model pioneered by our friends at processing.org. More than 200 fine people have donated since then, thank you so much! It has shown us again that you are out there and continue to support us.

This is about 0.1% of the people who are downloading Fritzing, and we understand that not everyone can spare the money or sees a monetary value in using it. That’s where the ads come in. Turn off your ad blocker and remember that clicking ads effectively means supporting the website that displays it. (Disclaimer: Of course only do so if you are actually interested in the advertised product.)

And as always, let us know what you think. :)

 

Fritzing is hiring a shop/production manager!

ad-shopmanager

At Fritzing, we are looking for a committed, reliable person to take over the day-to-day management of our online kit shop and production services.

We are selling the Fritzing Creator Kit: the kit helps anyone to learn to work creatively with electronics. You will be responsible for production of these kits (together with our wonderful team of packers), and fulfilling sales orders through our different sales channels.

We are also offering a simple, high-quality PCB manufacturing service together with our fabrication partners (Fritzing Fab). You will be responsible for the handling and shipping to our customers.

As we intend to extend these offerings and make Fritzing an even better service for the community, you can also play an instrumental role in crafting the strategy and implementing it.

We are looking for someone who speaks German and English and who has work experience in offline/online retail, small scale production or warehouse management. This is a full time position, though we can talk about other models.

Send your application to [email protected] and join our exciting team in a great location in Berlin-Kreuzberg!

Goodie Contest Finalists

We got many great submissions for our goodie contest through the projects gallery and via mail, and it is now time to announce the finalists. The overarching theme this time was definitely “sound”, which makes a lot of sense when you want to build something entertaining that has to fit into a small space.

Thanks to all participants, and special applause to finalists Zack Freedman, toylab, and Michael Franz for sharing their creations!

We will now produce these three gizmos with the current round of Fritzing Fab, and next week we will announce the winner!

Touch my piano by Zack Freedman, based on Jay Silver’s famous Drawdio, is, well, a cute little piano that generates sound with a 555 timer to a buzzer simply by touching the metal plates or attaching other things to it.

Calandria MkII by toylab is a funky little bird that generates quite convincing chirping sounds by twisting its wings. Check out the video!

Fritzing Amplifier by Michael Johannes Franz is a convenient little audio amplifier for playing your generated sounds into a proper speaker, instead of being stuck with those piezo buzzers.

 

 

New Book "Prototyping Interfaces"

Prototyping_Interfaces_Interactive_Cover2

We just got a note from Mark Lukas about the release of their book Prototyping Interfaces that teaches and showcases how to build interactive things with vvvv and Arduino. They used lots of Fritzing sketches to illustrate their examples. A really nice idea is that they turned the book cover into a capacitive sensor. It’s all in German, but I assume an English version will follow soon.

Find out more at https://prototypinginterfaces.com

Thanks to the team of authors: Jan Barth, Roman Stefan Grasy, Jochen Leinberger, Mark Lukas, Markus Lorenz Schilling

Prototyping_Interfaces_03

CNC'ing your Fritzing circuit

CNC'ing Fritzing Circuit

Our friends from FabLab Torino have created a wonderful tutorial (thanks to Federico Vanzati) on how you can prepare a Fritzing circuit for production with a CNC milling machine. It’s a relatively straightforward process using a vector software like Inkscape to convert the Fritzing DIY format to the “negative” format that the milling machine requires. The picture above shows the result. What’s nice is that they now also sourced the adequate DIY CNC machine. The Roland iModela is now available in the Arduino Store.

There have been attempts from others to mill Fritzing circuits: Checkout Don Roberts’ report, and also the tutorial from the FabLab Amersfoort (thanks to Peter Uithoven).

And then there’s still Fritzing Fab. :)

The Fritzmas Winners

Thanks to everyone for sending in your inspiring/cute/impressive projects via mail, Twitter, and our project gallery! It was tough for us to make a decision, let alone come up with a good set of criteria. …ta-dahhhh, and the winners are:

  1. The Super Upgrade Kit goes to hdf_mjf_de for his simple, yet fun and beautifully and completely documented Beep Game! Of course the built-in Fritzing hommage had us biased.

  1. The free Fab production goes to J_Hodgie for his impressive Mega Motor Shield, because of its mega-ness and for squeezing the latest bleeding edge features out of Fritzing.

  1. The Edgy Motor Breakout goes to RainerWierland for his Tilduino, a handy, compact Arduino clone he built for his son, again thoroughly documented.

We also can’t resist to give a special price to another delightful project, for the simplest project with the greatest impression: Mario Böhmer’s Show Love in a Heartbeat receives a free Fritzing Fab production to turn his project into a real product.

Congratulationsto everyone, and we hope we picked the right present for you all!

This post concludes the year for us and we hope you all had a wonderful one. It certainly has been an exciting time for Fritzing, with big new features, supportive partnerships, fantastic workshops, and most of all a rewarding community. Thank you all!

New Release 0.6.4!

Hi everyone,

just in time for the season we deliver a new release to play with over the holidays. Even though it’s a minor release it comes with a lot of nifty new features:

  • The new parts bin navigation lets you easily browse through your part bins and has dedicated bins for some popular manufacturers.
  • Fritzing got much faster - especially on the Mac! We owe this speed improvement to the wonderful folks at Qt, who released the new version 4.8.
  • Parts can now be rotated freely in breadboard and pcb view. Just hover a selected part over a corner, then drag around.
  • Our generic ICs now provide a dedicated pin label editor to make it easier to create custom ICs. You can find it in the inspector window.
  • On your PCB, you now can decide if you like to have a ground fill (empty spaces are filled with copper connected to the GND) or just a copper fill (not connected).
  • In preparation for the new Super Upgrade Kit you can find new example circuits for 7 segment displays, shift registers, rotary encoders and much more.
  • Lots of new parts from parkFun (thanks Lionel, Nathan, Ryan, Robert), Snootlab (thanks Lionel and Lionel), from the Fritzing team (shrouded pin headers, ECB transistors, 3mm LEDs, Superflux LEDs, 5 band resistors, the Atmega 2560, SSOP 28 footprint, rotary encoder). We also finally managed to include some of the wonderful community contributed parts (fuse, low dropout voltage regulator, Atmega644, HCF 4067, RTC breakout, HEF 4094, RGB 3W Star, DB-25 connector). Thanks to Johan, Macgyveremir, Forvellos, Mike, SorkiG, Niclas, Kungfumachinist.
  • An updated Portugues translation -thanks Nuno!

Give it a spin!

Your little Fritzing elves

New examples

New parts bin navigation

New parts

New pin label editor

The Fritzmas challenge - send in your projects!

Hi everyone,

It’s that time of the year again, and we would like to take the opportunity to re-cap what the last year has brought. So here’s the Fritzmas challenge 2011: You show us what you did, and we give you what we did.

How you can win

Take a look at what you’ve built with Fritzing this year, and snap a couple of photos/screenshots. If you think it’s an interesting concept, a technical masterpiece, or just fun, we want to see it all. Then either upload it to our projects gallery or mail them to info (ät) fritzing.org. (Also, you must agree that we may publish what you send us (if you prefer, anonymized).

Deadline is Sunday, December 18th.

The prizes

From all submissions, we will pick three winners. These will be awarded with the latest Fritzing developments:

The 1st prize is one of the all-new Fritzing Super-Upgrade Kits, to be launched later this year.

Super Upgrade Kit

The 2nd prize is a free Fritzing Fab PCB production for your project (one copy of your board), through our Fritzing Fab service that we launched in July.

Fritzing Fab PCB

The 3rd prize is the all-new Fritzing Edgy Motor, the first in a series of Fritzing breakout boards with a new, breadboard-friendly approach.

EDGY motor control

We’re very much looking forward to your submissions!

Your Fritzing team

Fritzing Starter Kit crosses 1500!

The Fritzing Starter Kit has been our first attempt in late 2009 to try to generate funding for Fritzing by ourselves. We weren’t sure at all whether it would work out – luckily it turned out to be a big motivation for us and to continue along this way. The kit is very popular and has just crossed 1500 sales!

It’s great to see that our customers are coming from all over the world, from individuals, companies, universities, and secondary schools. Sometimes we get mails from our customers telling us how they are using the kits for classes, which is a great way for us to learn how to improve the kit as well as the Fritzing software.

If you haven’t noticed, the kit is also now available through our resellers tinkersoup and watterott, so that you can get some other gadgets with your order.

To commemorate this nice event, Stefan Hermann has built us a little sales clock that alerts everyone in the IXDS office about a new sale with a nice ka-chinggg (we’ll upload this project soon). Stefan has also been working on a kit update so that it now contains a piezo speaker, a temperature sensor, big resistors and a zener diode for a lot of new project ideas. The next thing will be an “extension kit”, stay tuned!

Stefan Hermann

Fritzing Fab is finally here!

Fritzing Fab

Even though it didn’t take us as long as DNF, we are aware that we were a bit optimistic with our previous announcements. But now it’s finally here: Fritzing Fab is open for business!

You can now go to fab.fritzing.org and order a PCB directly from your Fritzing sketch. (Just use your Fritzing.org account to log in.)

We hope that you are pleased with how easy the process is. No long lists of parameters – no worries. The prices are very low, too, and the more you order the cheaper it gets.

This new video should also give you a taste how quickly you can turn your breadboard sketch into a sweet custom PCB:

With the opening of Fab we have now come full circle. When you look closely at the photo above, you can see that it is the realization of the original vision sketch that you can still find on our front page. :)

Why did it take us so long? Besides some technical issues, this is a bit of a risky undertaking for an open-source project like us. Because PCB production is only efficient when producing large quantities, this will only work when enough people are ordering. As with the starter kits, all profit goes back into the further development of Fritzing.

So let’s keep the fingers crossed and give Fab a try.

Comments from the old blog:

  1. isnoop #2. Aug. 2011, 19:26This is excellent! I can't wait to use it in the coming months.
  2. Jürgen B #7. Aug. 2011, 20:03Hi, sorry, have i understand it right? An PCB with 100 x 160 mm will cost about 80,- Euro? I can not believe :-( I think, it will be much to expensive :-( Bey Juergen :-( https://www.loetseite.de
  3. André Knörig #9. Aug. 2011, 15:37Hi Jürgen, remember that this is the price for a single, individual PCB. And even though we are really small, this is actually still cheaper than the best known pooling PCB service in Europe -- and the profit goes back into Fritzing. We'd be happy to learn how to offer an even less expensive service, while still delivering the same quality.
  4. darius #7. Okt. 2011, 13:14I read in the FAQ, that you might accept Gerber or eagle files at some point if enough interest raises. Is there a specific place where I can cast my vote for this?
  5. André Knörig #23. Okt. 2011, 09:54Hi Darius, You just did. :)

Fritzing 0.6 released!

Fritzing v0.6

Introducing the new Fritzing version 0.6 (actually 0.6.2 by the time of writing). With thanks to all the people who purchased Fritzing Starter Kits, plus our donors, and SparkFun, we added several major new features:

  • Support for SMD parts - You can now use those really tiny "Surface Mount" parts to make your PCB designs much smaller. In the parts inspector, you can simply change the 'package' of almost any part to 'SMD'.
  • SparkFun parts library - With SparkFun's generous assistance, we were able to bring a new bin of 74 SparkFun products to Fritzing! You can find them by clicking the little folder icon under the parts bin, and then Open > SparkFun.
  • Support for Stripboards - Not everyone works with breadboards, so by popular demand we added stripboards and perfboards. You can even cut and uncut strips! You can find the new boards right next to the breadboard, in our newly cleaned-up core parts bin.

We will discuss these features individually in future blog posts, but if they aren’t enough to whet your appetite, then have a look at our long list of new features, including a cleaned-up parts inspector, a document frame for schematics, text and graphics on copper, etc.

Plus we fixed a ton of bugs.

Download it here. Hope you like it!

– the Fritzing team

Comments from the old Blog

  1. Bret Comnes # 27. Juli 2011, 05:39 Wow, its like EagleCAD, but usable and free. Thanks!
  2. alkopop79 # 15. Aug. 2011, 13:03 It's everything I wanted: SMD and etchable mirrored export! Thanks!

Anyone missing a Barbie book?

And received a box full of lovely electronic goodies instead?

One of our customers sent us this great photo of his Fritzing Starter Kit unboxing experience – we can only imagine his surprised face. :D

Seems like Deutsche Post got something mixed up here. If we had only put a Lilypad into the kit, the little girl who is now the proud owner of a Fritzing Kit would not be quite as sad…

Comments from the old Blog:

aotto2011 # 6. Juni 2011, 11:22

Thanks for the awsome and easy solution to this strange problem.

4 new books illustrated with Fritzing

Four new books are making intensive use of circuit layouts created with Fritzing:

“Arduino: Praxiseinstieg”, by Thomas Brühlmann (mltp, German)

“Beginning Arduino”, by Michael McRoberts (Apress)

“Building Wireless Sensor Networks”, by Rob Faludi (O’Reilly)

“Praxisbuch Arduino”, by Ulli Sommer (Franzis, German)

Fritzing in Books

They are using breadboard diagrams, schematics, and part graphics to illustrate examples and guide the learner throughout the book. Some even offer the related Fritzing .fz files for download from their website.

We’re very proud to see Fritzing becoming a de-facto standard for documentation and teaching!

 

P.S.: Unfortunately, not all of them are making fair use–one forgot to reference Fritzing. This is required by our CreativeCommons license, and we think that’s the least a publisher can do when building on our work!

Comments from the old Blog:

  1. Thomas O'Brien # 30. Jan. 2011, 17:15 I have the "Wireless Sensor Networks" book, and have started reading it. I like the writing and explanatory style. It seems that just about everything is there to help me get going with a wireless network application. Now if Fritzing Fab would just get started...
  2. BobAnderson # 3. Feb. 2011, 05:25 I am sorry that some publishers have not referenced Fritzing --- most unfair, if not illegal. On the other hand, I found out about Fritzing from a reference (a live link actually) in the arduino.cc site. My plan is to use Fritzing for a while and if I find it as useful as I expect I will, I shall express my appreciation with a financial donation.

Fritzing in the press, across universes

Fritzing has always been at home in many worlds. It’s a tool that is equally used by designers and artists who are looking for a simple way to bring their concepts to life, as well as by DIYers and makers of all kinds who love to play with electronics.

Two recent publications exemplify this diversity: The exclusive British design-trends magazine “Viewpoint” (issue 27) writes about Fritzing as an example of the implications that DIY has for business, and the French hobbyist magazine “Eletronique Pratique” (issue 356) has an 8-page feature introducing Fritzing in-depth.

press images

Thanks to Kai Wiechmann for photographing us for Viewpoint and thanks to Yves Mergy for the French tutorial.

Fritzing is socializing

Yeah, we know we’re a little bit behind on this.. Better late than never, you can now follow us on Twitter and become our friend on Facebook!

We figured there are so many small things happening around Fritzing that never make it into the blog. That’s what the twitter feed will be for. The Facebook group will be used for more general announcements – and to get to know you!

Support for further microcontrollers - Wiring, Propeller, you name it

Fritzing is not tied to the use of an Arduino, in fact you don’t need to use a microcontroller at all. We are very aware that many communities exist around a wealth of other nice microcontroller boards, and we would like to support them as well!

So with some support from the producers of the board themselves, we are introducing further microcontroller alternatives into the Fritzing ecosystem. In the new release, due tomorrow, you will already get this sweet array of choices:

different controllers

Besides the Arduino and its variants Mega and Nano, you can now use:

  • Modified's pico, an Arduino-compatible micro-scale board (thanks to Brian Evans)
  • mbed, a new ARM-based microcontroller on steroids (thanks to Simon Ford)
  • Wiring and Wiring Mini, Arduino's sister project (thanks to Hernando Barragán)
  • Basic Stamp, the classic from Parallax in all its colorful variations (thanks to Ken Gracey)
  • Propeller, the new multicore processor from Parallax (also thanks to Ken)

Plus, in the community contributed section you can find: the Mignon Game Kit (thanks to Olaf Val), theBare-Bones Board (thanks to Janis), the Pks-01 (thanks to Michael Franz), and the Ardweeny (thanks to Cameron Behar).

And more are coming up!

What does it mean to you?  Well, besides being able to document and share your projects with everyone, this allows you to easily create pcbs for them, either as shields or with a plug for your favorite microcontroller.

Let us know which microcontroller you are still missing, in the comments!

Comments from the old Blog:

  1. Nathan Andrew Fain #16. April 2010, 02:59fritzing updates, ymmy! teensy and teensy++ would be great: https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/index.html
  2. André Knörig #16. April 2010, 11:10Yeah, they are nice and not so difficult to make. We'll try to include them soon!
  3. joshuajnoble #17. April 2010, 16:45Nice work! I definitely think teensy would be nice too.
  4. dmaugis #27. Mai 2010, 23:50I try to do a part for BV511, an ARM LPC2132 board by ByVac. https://www.byvac.co.uk/mi_bv511.php
  5. whitedragon #13. Juli 2010, 11:12Nice work just wondering when the ardunio pro mini will be ready

Paper templates for your breadboard prototypes

It was so obvious that we were surprised ourselves: not only can you transfer your physical breadboard sketch easily into Fritzing, you can also do it the other way around.

Just load a Fritzing sketch and print it on a sheet of paper, and you have a nanometer-perfect paper template which you just have to fill in with the real parts. Good thing that Dirk was so strict about matching the scale to reality.

Here’s how it goes:

  • Open any sketch

  • Click File > Print (be sure to turn off automatic printer scaling) and get your parts ready

paper templates

  • Cut off a corner of the page so it’s easier to align the printed breadboard with the physical one.

paper templates

  • Stick the parts and wires through the holes. You might want to use a needle to prepare the holes.

Paper Templates

  • Connect the Arduino and load the associated code - done!

Paper Templates

Now if that’s not a great learning tool..

Small caveat: Depending of your brand of breadboard, its power/ground lines might not line up perfectly. So double-check before trying to punch your parts into the plastic. ;)

It's Fritzmas! Get one of 24 free individual Arduino Shields

Fritzmas PCBs

That’s right - we’re finally coming full circle with the Fritzing project and are soon launching the much-wanted fabrication service that turns your Fritzing sketches into professional printed circuit boards!

So in order to kick it off, we thought why not celebrate this as a fritzmas present to the community. We will produce 24 of your Arduino Shields (or other) designs you made with Fritzing. You will receive two copies for free, including free shipping.

Deadline for receiving your design is December 9th. Head over to the Fritzing fab page to find out how to participate.

Workshop at Umeå ID Fall Summit

PCB

A few weeks ago we had the great honor and pleasure to travel far North to the Umeå Institute of Design in Sweden. We were invited by Camille Moussette to participate in their second Interaction Design Summit, as speakers as well as to give a two-day Fritzing workshop. It was an amazing experience and luckily the guys were keen on documenting everything that was happening.

On the first day, we had a series of inspiring talks from renowned pracititioners in the field of interaction design. Besides Reto Wettach and me, there were talks form German Leon (Vodafone), David Rose (Ambient Devices/Vitality), Jan-Christoph Zoels (Experientia), Karsten Schmidt (toxi/postspectacular) and Clive van Heerden (Philips Design). You can watch all the talks on Vimeo.

After that we held a two day long Fritzing workshop with more than thirty students from all over Sweden (and Canada, apparently..). On the first day, we gave an introduction to Arduino and Fritzing, and students gathered in groups to come up with some simple projects. On the second day, we taught them how to translate their circuits into PCB designs. Finally, we got our hands dirty and everyone etched, drilled, and soldered their own Arduino Shield, complete with fancy graphics.

You can find a lot of nice photos from the event here and here.

Thanks to Camille Moussette, Matt Cottam, and all the students and participants for this great experience!

Get a Fritzing Starter Kit (and support Fritzing)

Fritzing Starter Kit

We have been very grateful to be able to develop Fritzing as a publicly funded project for the last two and a half years. We were able prove that it is a much-needed tool, and could turn it into something people are actually using in their projects or for teaching.

But the sweet times are coming to an end, and we don’t want to let you down!  In order to continue development, we must now try to earn money with Fritzing. Don’t worry, the software will stay free and open-source. Instead, we are introducing complimentary services.

The first one is our own version of an Arduino kit. Dubbed the Fritzing Starter Kit, it contains everything you need to get started with interactive electronics, and a bit more. Check it out at https://fritzing.org/shop/starter-kit. Get one for your project, a set for your classroom, or one for your curious kid. A kit is 55,-€ plus taxes.

With every kit you purchase you are supporting one hour of Fritzing Development!

Stay tuned for more Fritzing services.

Show what you've created with Fritzing

Share your Arduino projects

Blog restored

Look forward to news from Fritzing

Project uploading!

YES! Finally we can all share our projects!

Rising from the ashes

You didn’t hear from us because we rewrote Fritzing from scratch.

New Round of Funding

Fritzing support until end of 2009!

Come to the Friends of Fritzing Summit '08

Workshop on the future of Fritzing and Physical Computing

Bauhaus University Weimar joins the Fritzing bandwagon

BU Weimar supports Fritzing with a research assistant position

We are hiring again!

Fritzing has received new funding and we are looking for collaborators

Part Development Kit available

A handy toolkit for making your own parts for use with Fritzing

First shields produced

Simon Wimmer’s mouse Lamp with a Fritzing PCB

Small update

Release 0005 with some fixes for use with Eagle footprints

We are hiring!

Work with us on Fritzing

Fritzing is born

And it seems to be a healthy little baby!