Open-Source Microcontrollers for Science - Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs - page 82

designing scientific equipment under time constraints, the Arduino can act as both a prototype and your working
system. The power of the Arduino is in the ease and speed that it enables you to get an interactive tool running at a
very low price.
3 T 3The Arduino Project main page: htp://arduino.cc/ .
4 F ree and open-source Arduino software: htp://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software . Free and open-source Arduino librar-
ies: htp://arduino.cc/en/Reference/Libraries .
5 A n additional advantage to this approach is that running Linux on an old computer can often “resurrect” it with
high-enough performance to be useful for running lab equipment. Most institutions discard computers relatively reg-
ularly and you may have free access to all the computing power you need to operate the automated controls for your
lab.
6 Debian: htp://www.debian.org/ .
7 B e aware of course that as with all things of open source, the innovation rate is high and thus beter designs and new
products are constantly appearing.
8 T 8The Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized open-source board that plugs into a TV and a keyboard to make a functional
Linux-based computer. htp://www.raspberrypi.org/ .
9 A dafurit's Arduino tutorial htp://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/ . Lady Ada's tutorials are very good, but they
tend not to cover much in the process control realm, which will be the domain of most researchers interested in pur-
suing open-source scientiic hardware. For more information on that, I recommend a litle book by Emily Gerz and
Patrick Di Justo called Environmental Monitoring with Arduino (2012) published by O'Reilly and Maker Press.
10 A rduino Sheild List: htp://shieldlist.org/ .
11 GRASS is the Geographic Resources Analysis Support System , which is a free open-source GIS software package used
for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics/maps production, spatial modeling, and
visualization. GRASS is currently used in academic and commercial setings around the world, as well as by many
governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies. GRASS is an official project of the Open-Source
Geospatial Foundation: htp://www.osgeo.org/ .
12 Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program made available for free of charge to
download: htp://www.google.com/earth/index.html .
13 GPS visualizer is a free-of-charge utility found on the web that creates customizable maps and profiles from GPS
data (tracklogs & waypoints), addresses, or coordinates: htp://www.gpsvisualizer.com/ .
14 A dafurit's GPS Shield: htp://shieldlist.org/adafruit/gps .
15 I nstallation instructions: htp://arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage .
16 Wikipedia keeps a relatively up-to-date taxonomy: htp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions .
17 Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and util-
ities that make your computer run. Debian comes with over 37,500 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a
nice format for easy installation on your machine. This makes the installation of for example Arduino absurdly easy.
To get Debian, go to htp://www.debian.org/distrib/ .
18 L inux Mint is a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system, which is both powerful and easy to use. It is
fully free of cost and open source and the fourth most-used home operating system in the world. It is safe and reliable
due to a relatively conservative approach to software updates, a unique Update Manager and the robustness of its
Linux architecture. Linux Mint requires very litle maintenance (no regressions, no antivirus, no anti-spyware… etc.).
Linux Mint has beter performance than Linux Ubuntu and avoids some of the concerns created by the commercial
nature (adware) of Ubuntu's latest releases. To try it out, see htp://www.linuxmint.com/download.php .
19 I f you would prefer this “try before you buy” approach, use the link htp://www.debian.org/CD/live/ (Note: of
course there is no buying, it is all free as in freedom and free as in charge.).
20 I f you are an old-harcore Linux user, you can get it from the terminal “sudo apt-get install arduino”.
21 E arly versions of the IDE prior to 1.0 saved sketches with the extension .pde, which you may run across on the Inter-
net—particularly for the most basic sketches. It is possible to open these files with version 1.0 or higher, but you will
be prompted to save the sketch with the .ino extension.
22 T 22The latest version of this menu does not scroll. This can be cumbersome if you have a long list of sketches. So if you
need to open a sketch far down on your list, use the File | Sketchbook menu instead.
23 P lease note that the menus are context sensitive —so you will only be able to use the items relevant to the work currently
being carried. For detailed explanations of each menu item, see htp://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Environment .