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Electronics for beginners: choosing a brain

I work with high schoolers and their teachers, and I often come across questions about how to get started with physical computing. This post is meant to compare some of the most well-known platforms. To begin, understand that the space is broadly separated into microcontrollers and single-board computers, with different strengths and weaknesses. Microcontrollers (MCUs) Microcontrollers are basic, general-purpose processors with limited capabilities compared to single board computers (SBCs). They offer slower processing speeds, smaller storage capacity, and fewer communication options. Unlike SBCs, which run full operating systems, microcontrollers typically execute only one program at a time. Despite these limitations, microcontrollers have several advantages. They are generally more affordable than SBCs, and their simpler architecture makes it easier to understand and control their behavior. Additionally, microcontrollers can begin executing their programs almost immediately after pow...
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Google Map Maker

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For those that don't know, Google Maps just opened up the Google Map Maker web application to allow normal users to enter data into Google Maps. After a review process, those edits can be published into the public Google Maps for the world to see. I was pretty excited when I learned about it in April, and I've been pretty active. Recently I received an e-mail from the Google Map Maker Community Team. Because I'm "one of the top mappers in the United States," they offered to send me a free t-shirt, and invited me to the Google Geo User Summit in Mountain View. I had to regretfully decline the offer to attend the summit, but the t-shirt is pretty awesome. From July 2011 My friends and I were trying to figure out what the map on the front is showing. At first glance, it looks like a map of the world's lights at night , but some major countries, like the US, Canada, UK, France, and Russia are not lit up. So what do the white areas represent? My speculatio...
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Buzzing XBees

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It's been a while since I've written, but I just have to share my experiences with this. I recently bought a pair of XBee Series 2 radios  along with  XBee Explorer break-out boards . I first heard about these radios in general back in school when I was working with CU's  RECUV  group, and then again in Tom Igoe's excellent book Making Things Talk , and I've been itching to try them out ever since. They're a bit like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, but seem to lend themselves better to microprocessor projects, generally use less power, and have some unique features that are great for sensor networks. I understand they're also being used for modern home automation products. However, getting these things configured and tested wasn't exactly a walk in the park! As it turns out, I probably should've gotten the Series 1 radios, as they use the simpler 802.15.4 protocol. Series 2 uses the Zigbee protocol, which allows for more advanced network topologies but is als...
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