Fritzing Fab now powered by AISLER

Fab, Products, , ,

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

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

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!

Fritzing Software

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

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”

Fritzing Software, Learning

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

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

Community

The good old forum that has lasted us since 2009 has finally been replaced by a shiny new one. Please head over to http://forum.fritzing.org and help make it such a friendly and lively place as with the old one.

67166fd55b183b9cc31c69825f4044c038edc3b1

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

Inside

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

  • 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 8×8 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

Events

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

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

Projects

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.

tinkercup-wired

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

Fritzing Software, Products, , , ,

f-xmas-head-blog

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 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

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!

An Intel Galileo Shield: Data Monster

Fritzing Software, Projects, , , ,

The Data Monster by Lucas Ainsworth is a robot arm that can move in any direction, actuated by servo motors. As he puts it: „Datamonsters are creatures that respond to you. They can see you and respond to your presence and movement. In addition to responding to immediate interactions, they can also be influenced by events happening in the world outside.“

Lucas’ Intel Galileo code for the Arduino IDE to get you started can be found on GitHub. With the code you can calibrate and control the monster and get basic reactions to objects.

A video from Lucas’ first test with the Data Monster.

To make it way easier to attach the required components easily onto the Intel Galileo board we now created a Galileo shield for it and produced it with our Fritzing Fab service. We used the new Galileo shield template that is part of Fritzing.

Get the full Fritzing file including board design from its Fritzing project page.

Galileo DataMonster Fritzing Shield

Das Fritzing Creator Kit im Schulunterricht

Learning, Products, , ,

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: http://shop.fritzing.org/arduino-schule

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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

http://fritzing.org
http://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.