I’ve been lead programmer for the Fritzing application for 5 1/2 years and sole programmer for most of the last four. In that time I’ve closed more than a thousand issues; composed a couple thousand forum replies; pushed nearly 5000 commits; and cranked out more than 50 releases.
One can only run full-tilt for so long; it’s time for me to take a sabbatical. Before I go, I’d like to thank Reto and André for originating the project; Reto (and the government of Brandenburg) for the grants that gave the project such a strong start; and my past and present colleagues for putting so much of themselves into the work–the list is too long to display them all.
Finally, I’d like to thank the everyone in the Fritzing community for your enthusiastic (and early) adoption of our continual work-in-progress, and for your great patience with what has effectively been a distributed QA software releasing methodology. If I could, I’d buy you all a beer.
We just released Fritzing 0.8.6. Aside from some bug fixes and a few new features, it mostly addresses schematic view. To display the changes, here are two images of the stepper motor example. The first is from 0.8.5 and the second is from 0.8.6. They are both zoomed to 100%.
0.8.50.8.6
The most obvious change is that the grid size has gone from 7.5 mm to 0.1 inches. This will save some trees when you print. It also means we are using the same grid across all three views. But more important than the particular grid size is that all parts that ship with Fritzing now conform to it. This means that schematic diagrams will look much neater. In the past, there were a couple of competing standards (plus a few oddballs), so schematic diagrams tended to be pretty ragged.
In addition we have revised a number of schematic part images to bring them more in line with general usage.
So what happens if you load an existing sketch into 0.8.6? If you didn’t draw any wires in schematic view, Fritzing assumes you are not particularly invested in the current state of that view, and will use the new standard. But if there are schematic wires, Fritzing will give you a choice: open the sketch read-only and see the original schematic, or convert to the new standard.
The conversion process will change parts, but beyond some adjustment for the new part sizes, the wires will not be rerouted. So you will probably have some straightening out to do. Custom schematic images are not converted. I would suggest you use the Parts Editor to give the custom part a new schematic image. To assist you with this, if you switch to schematic view in the Parts Editor, under the File menu there is a Convert schematic to 0.1 grid option. This option will generate a standard rectangle-form schematic based on the existing part.
These days feel strange here in the Fritzing land. On the one hand, there is so much positive feedback about our project, services and products, on the other hand, Daniel and Amin left the Fritzing team.
Daniel, who was working several month very hard to clean up our Django web landscape, left in autumn to join another project. By this time he was almost done and it created the base for our new and improved website – yes, the front end is still work in progress, but the backend is now nice and shiny.
With Amin I worked together a lot. We had much fun, drank, cooked and traveled. (EDIT: Sorry for the funny misspelling :D )
He was my most important sparring partner in creating the Fritzing Creator Kit. It was a very good time and I already miss him. He is now up to work again in this former area, the solar technology.
We wish you guys all the best on your way and are looking forward to see you again, soon.
Confession - I hate huge electronics stores. You can find everything there, but there’s one big catch: the people at these kinds of stores are usually unhelpful and mean.* On my first electronics store adventure I didn’t have a perfectly detailed list of what I needed and it ended something like this: I almost cried,** left in a rage, and questioned my Arduino abilities.
When I signed up to attend Open Tech School’s Physical Computing Club 1.0 I had instant nightmares of the electronics store. The computing club session was about audio and Open Tech School hosted it at the FabLab in Berlin. I thought that I needed all new components and imagined myself walking through each unmarked aisle staring - eyes glazed - at thousands of not-quite-right tiny electronics.
Open Tech School's Physical Computing Club
Instead of facing fear head-on, I ignored the store and woke up on Sunday with no new parts in my toolkit. Slightly worried, I blindly chucked my Fritzing Creator Kit and computer in my bag and headed off toward the meetup.
At FabLab I shyly sat down and started setting up my work area. Arduino mounting board - check. Instruction book - check. Wire components - check. Resistors - check.
I flipped through the Creator Kit book for ‘audio’ and found an activity within a minute. I felt immense victory:
I imagined all the parts that I didn’t have and an electronics expert patronizingly waving an “I told you so” finger at me. I persevered and started assembling the project.
To my surprise, all the supplies were in the kit. All of them!
I was ready to go. With the book in my lap, the Fritzing sketch on my screen, I came up with this set-up in about 10 minutes:
Two potentiometers and a Piezo
10 minutes!
Then the fun part began. I used the potentiometers to alter the tone of the sound and the frequency that the tone played. The result was quick and rewarding:
Me as a professional DJ
With the Creator Kit, I was able to head to a meetup without any preparation and jump into the topic at hand. From there I could experiment and play with other parts of the kit. Huge electronics stores are still intimidating and frustrating, but the Creator Kit helped me jump into a hackday without any extra preparation.
*Mad props to the nice old man who always smiles and is patient with me. There is good in the world, after all.
