The New Arduino Esplora

Arduino Esplora is a new Arduino board just launched today. It has game joystick shape.

The Esplora uses an Atmega32U4 AVR microcontroller with 16 MHz crystal oscillator and a micro USB connection capable of acting as a USB client device, like a mouse or a keyboard. Esplora also has lots of input/ouput:

– Analog joystick with central push-button two axis (X and Y) and a center pushbutton.
– 4 push-buttons laid out in a diamond pattern.
– Linear potentiometer slider near the bottom of the board.
– Microphone for getting the loudness (amplitude) of the surrounding environment.
– Light sensor for getting the brightness.
– Temperature sensor reads the ambient temperature
– Three-axis accelerometer measures the board’s relation to gravity on three axes (X, Y, and Z)
– Buzzer can produce square-waves.
– RGB led bright LED with Red Green and Blue elements for color mixing.
– 2 TinkerKit Inputs to connect the TinkerKit sensor modules with the 3-pin connectors.
– 2 TinkerKit Outputs to connect the TinkerKit actuator modules with the 3-pin connectors.
– TFT display connector connector for an optional color LCD screen, SD card, or other devices that use the SPI protocol.

With a lot of features so you can do almost everything using Esplora.

Setup Shared DVD in Ubuntu for Mac OSX Lion

For you who have diskless Macs like MacMini, or Macbook Air with OSX Lion loaded will obviously need to have access and use the external DVD drive. I have Ubuntu 11.04 and would like to use its DVD drive. It’s a bit tricky to do it in Ubuntu 11.04 box. This guide will help you how to solve the problem.

 

Waiting for supermoon tonight

Tonight, the moon will reach its perigee at 19:09 UT, 2:09 a.m. local Time. Its distance from the Earth at that moment will be 221,565 miles, or 356,577 kilometers away only!

I am ready with my telescope and camera. I have been waiting this moment since I read the news last week. But the local weather is not so friendly tonight. There are thick clouds, so windy and lightnings too.

I really hope wind is blowing away the clouds. I got to see it or I shall wait for another 18 years.

Our colleague in Rusia has taken the super-moon yesterday and published at space.com. Below is the picture com when moon reach at its perigee.

The full moon of March 2011, as it appeared to skywatcher Dmtriy S. Benbau in Ekaterinburg, Russia in the early-morning hours of March 19. CREDIT: Dmtriy S. Benbau

After a worth while waiting finally the weather compromised with me. It was not as big as I thought. According to space.com the size is 30% bigger. At about 12am there were still thin clouds, but the sky was much cleaner.

I could take some good pictures. It is a bit tricky to take picure of moon. Below is one of the best I could get with my Nikon D3100, taken at 00:27. I use standard Nikon 18-55mm lens. I also tried to take under the telescope but couldn’t get what I want.

Supermoon above Jakarta

I should have done some trials a night before. But the result is pretty good, isn’t it?