Massimo Banzi dropped into RadioShack headquarters last week, and we couldn’t help but squeal like starstruck girls at a Bieber concert. This is the man responsible for Arduino, the open-source programmable microcontroller that essentially breathes life into electronics projects. It has allowed those with no prior engineering or programming experience to build amazing gadgets, like remote-control lawnmowers and robotic marimba players. It’s an amazing device that’s revolutionizing DIY electronics, but don’t take our word for it. We sat down for a little Q&A with Massimo, so we’ll let the man himself tell you how he went from just a kid who liked to tinker with things to the instigator of the open-source revolution.
Make a robot friend with Adafruit’s CRICKIT – A Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on to our popular Circuit Playground Express, FEATHER and other platforms to make and program robots with CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. Start controlling motors, servos, solenoids. You also get signal pins, capacitive touch sensors, a NeoPixel driver and amplified speaker output. It complements & extends your boards so you can still use all the goodies on the microcontroller, now you have a robotics playground as well.
