Ask Massimo Anything...well almost anything!

[mastrolinux]

Open Q&A Session with Massimo Banzi

Date: Arduino Day, 16th March 2019   Time: 18.00 - 19.00 CET during the streaming of the talks from the Official Arduino Day in Milan (info here)

(important: please submit your question by 18.45 CET on March 16th)



1 + 1 = 3... join in the Ask Massimo Anything session to hear the answers to everything you've ever wanted to know about Arduino, open-source and the tech space.
Don't be shy! your question will only be shared live with the thousands of other Arduino enthusiasts who were just waiting to ask the same thing.

Accessibility, simplicity and openness are all underlying principles of Arduino...by questioning the norm, listening and sharing together we will continue to push the boundaries of creativity around the world.



ASK MASSIMO ANYTHING (AMA) - GENERAL RULES OF PARTICIPATION

• Please be respectful to others - no offensive or discriminatory language - Arduino is open for all the family to enjoy!
• Please respect Massimo's privacy - questions relating to family, religion, health, politics etc are not appropriate

General Notes for Submitting Questions:

• Please keep to relevant topics - Massimo will be happy to answer questions relating to: Arduino products, future Arduino developments, product functionality & usability, future tech, open-source etc
• Please look to the future - the Arduino events of the past are well documented and don't need to be covered
• Constructive criticism is fine - please add an explanation though as Arduino are always trying to improve for the future
• Try to avoid duplication - please use the search button prior to submitting your question (use this method and we'll add your name to the question too)
• Don't repost deleted or removed information - it's been deleted for a reason, let's keep it polite and follow decent behaviour as you would do in real life

[adafruit]

hi arduino,

i did not see any other questions here, so figured i'd toss one in.

here's our ama for massimo and the arduino team...

can we get the number of downloads for the libraries from arduino?



you can find out are things like the total number of authors, libraries they have, and a few more things - the site arduinolibraries.info (https://www.arduinolibraries.info/) displays what is available (GitHub here - https://github.com/njh/arduino-libraries).

here are the top 10 Arduino library authors as of March 11th, 2019 9:00 PM EDT.

• adafruit: Adafruit Industries 168
• sparkfun: SparkFun Electronics 88
• seeed-studio: Seeed Studio 58
• arduino-libraries: Arduino Libraries 52
• stm32duino: STM32duino 45
• pololu: Pololu Robotics and Electronics 34
• paulstoffregen: Paul Stoffregen 25
• faboplatform: Fabo 24
• hideakitai: Hideaki Tai 23
• luisllamasbinaburo: Luis Llamas 21

there are a total of 2,081 libraries and 864 authors.

the way arduinolibraries.info works is that it gets the JSON file (https://downloads.arduino.cc/libraries/library_index.json) from the arduino library manager and uses the information there to match up what is on GitHub and display it on the site. It generates a static site, clever way to display things, there is also a twitter account that tweets out new libraries and updates too: @arduinolibs.



i poked around the JSON file and saw that the libraries are stored on arduino's servers, for example here's one ours - Adafruit_NeoMatrix-1.0.0.zip, so that means there are some logs or stats somewhere that could also be displayed for the developers and community to know which libraries are downloaded the most, and which ones to make sure are updated and worked on if they are popular.



arduino has the number of downloads of the IDE and users to the site, so this is something that arduino likely has and would be really useful for developers and the community. image above is from Arduino Day 2018 (video).

we have a blog post about this here:
https://blog.adafruit.com/2019/03/11/10-arduino-library-authors-arduino-arduinolibs-arduino/

cheers,
pt / adafruit

[pjrc]

Any idea when Arduino IDE 1.9 might become a non-beta, official release?

Or as a sort of general philosophical question, how long should beta test periods be for a widely used open source project like Arduino?

[neferbea]

Hi, i'm Beatrice, a 13 years old beginner maker.
I have a very simple question for Massimo Banzi, my favourite genius maker: in your opinion, what are the top 5 qualities of a maker? I think this topic is relevant for young people like me. Thanks!

[ykrorand]

Hi sir,

Is it possible to copy a program from an Arduino to the computer ?...

I mean that I suppose my computer crashed and the past program was running on my Arduino...is it possible to retrieve it ?

If yes, how to perform that ?

Thanks very much !!!

[tamberg]

Hi Massimo,

regarding

> questioning the norm

Is there any chance of a Feather-compatible Arduino board?

Kind regards from Zürich,

Thomas

[Jacksok]

Hi Massimo,

I'm looking to transform my Arduino project into a commercial product - If I use an open-source HW and SW should I release also my project in open-source?

[procypher]

Hello Massimo,
a question on the Arduino IoT Cloud or better, the software that powers it: do you have any plans/thoughts to release it for running in an edge computing scenario, preferably on my own bare metal?
With the development of 5G connections the idea of proximity and network/security optimization will become a major goal for the IoT solution architects.
Thanks.
Francesco

[mbanzi]

Hi Limor , Phil

I just released the first numbers. I'll publish them in a blog post next week.
We didn't collect any info before because we didn't violate anybody's privacy but we found a way to do it and from january we started to track the libraries that people download from the Library Manager.
The numbers are not perfect because we don't track the libraries used in the online IDE which has 800k users but we'll update it over time.

Good job to all the people who write libraries and submit them to Arduino!

thanks

m

hi arduino,

i did not see any other questions here, so figured i'd toss one in.

here's our ama for massimo and the arduino team...

can we get the number of downloads for the libraries from arduino?



you can find out are things like the total number of authors, libraries they have, and a few more things - the site arduinolibraries.info (https://www.arduinolibraries.info/) displays what is available (GitHub here - https://github.com/njh/arduino-libraries).

here are the top 10 Arduino library authors as of March 11th, 2019 9:00 PM EDT.

• adafruit: Adafruit Industries 168
• sparkfun: SparkFun Electronics 88
• seeed-studio: Seeed Studio 58
• arduino-libraries: Arduino Libraries 52
• stm32duino: STM32duino 45
• pololu: Pololu Robotics and Electronics 34
• paulstoffregen: Paul Stoffregen 25
• faboplatform: Fabo 24
• hideakitai: Hideaki Tai 23
• luisllamasbinaburo: Luis Llamas 21

there are a total of 2,081 libraries and 864 authors.

the way arduinolibraries.info works is that it gets the JSON file (https://downloads.arduino.cc/libraries/library_index.json) from the arduino library manager and uses the information there to match up what is on GitHub and display it on the site. It generates a static site, clever way to display things, there is also a twitter account that tweets out new libraries and updates too: @arduinolibs.



i poked around the JSON file and saw that the libraries are stored on arduino's servers, for example here's one ours - Adafruit_NeoMatrix-1.0.0.zip, so that means there are some logs or stats somewhere that could also be displayed for the developers and community to know which libraries are downloaded the most, and which ones to make sure are updated and worked on if they are popular.



arduino has the number of downloads of the IDE and users to the site, so this is something that arduino likely has and would be really useful for developers and the community. image above is from Arduino Day 2018 (video).

we have a blog post about this here:
https://blog.adafruit.com/2019/03/11/10-arduino-library-authors-arduino-arduinolibs-arduino/

cheers,
pt / adafruit

[mbanzi]

Hopefully around may for MF Bay Area but we want to change the way we release. Hopefully we'll release every 3 months at well defined dates, we'll freeze the code, beta test and then release.

Do you think every 3 months is too long, too short?


thanks!

Any idea when Arduino IDE 1.9 might become a non-beta, official release?

Or as a sort of general philosophical question, how long should beta test periods be for a widely used open source project like Arduino?

[GaiaPedro]

Hi Massimo, I have one question for you: what is the difference between a compatible Arduino board and a clone? Thanks )))

[mrnebbi]

Hi Massimo, love you work!

Im a Scout leader in Scotland and just wondered if you have any programs available we could use to get some free boards or kits for our Beavers, Cubs, Scouts to learn with?

Ciao,
Ian

[Ugolonix]

Hi Massimo,
Is there any plan of supporting a dark theme in the Arduino IDE?

[mbanzi]

Thanks for the question it's very difficult, i'll do my best.

1. Enjoy making , do it because you love it. Making stuff satisfying.
2. Just keep making and don't be afraid of making mistakes. the only way to improve is to keep making, learning from mistakes and move forward.
3. be curious about the world, cross disciplines, meet people, combine different interests. Use technology as a tool and combine it with all sorts of knowledge to hopefully improve the world.
4. Love people, build communities, collaborate with anybody from any culture and background. You learn a lot from other people .
5. Help others, make life simpler for other people. help other get where you are. Ideas are cheap, making things happen it's the only thing that counts.

thanks!!!

ciao

Hi, i'm Beatrice, a 13 years old beginner maker.
I have a very simple question for Massimo Banzi, my favourite genius maker: in your opinion, what are the top 5 qualities of a maker? I think this topic is relevant for young people like me. Thanks!

[mbanzi]

Well you can probably copy the compiled code (HEX) but you can't easily turn it back into the original code.
It's ok if you rewrite it it's going to be better than the original

Hi sir,

Is it possible to copy a program from an Arduino to the computer ?...

I mean that I suppose my computer crashed and the past program was running on my Arduino...is it possible to retrieve it ?

If yes, how to perform that ?

Thanks very much !!!