Nice post about Minibloq on Maker Masters

Bill Griggs has made a nice post about Minibloq in his Maker Masters blog:

Thanks Bill!

Kickstarter campaign launched!

FUNDING SUCCESSFUL! Yesterday Minibloq successfully raised its funding goal @Kickstarter. Thanks! I will have news soon.


UPDATE #3: Yesterday we have reached our Kickstarter goal. Many thanks again for all your support!

UPDATE #2: Thanks to Sparkfun for their support! Here is a link to the article in their blog.

UPDATE #1: Thanks to Seeedstudio for their support. Seeeduino is going to be included in the official Minibloq package. Here is a link to the article in their blog too.

Today is a great day! the release is coming! This is the link to Minibloq in Kickstarter:

Any help making this public (Twitter, Facebook, blogs...) is very very welcome and will accelerate the project. Thanks!

Minibloq-RG tested in an touch Intel/Exo Classmate

This time was the turn of another netbook used in education: an Intel Classmate, shipped with Windows 7 and equiped with a pen-based touch screen. The target is a RobotGroup's DuinoBot.Kids (a not yet released Arduino-compatible robot controller, but as I was one of the designers, I have one :) here), and I'm running Minibloq-RG, the own RobotGroup's version (open source too!, which will be available together with the Minibloq standard version).

Here are the results:

Minibloq is running in the OLPC XO!

Working hard, as release day is approaching. This week (and thanks to Wine) Minibloq finally ran in an OLPC XO. As Wine is a compatibility layer, not a full emulator, the performance is pretty good! For the release, I will try to improve the GUI to make it more readable in small screens. Here is a small home-made video, programming an Arduino UNO:

And here is another test, with Mutliplo hardware (the new DuinoBot.Kids controller, with a basic Multiplo robot):

What is Minibloq?

Minibloq is a graphical programming environment for Arduino™ and other Arduino™-compatible boards, such as DuinoBot. It's currently under development, and I will soon launch a Kickstarter campaign, to finish the software and make it available to everyone. One of it's main goals is to bring closer Arduino™ and  Multiplo™ platforms to primary schools.

Features:

• Easy, just a few clicks and the first program is running.
• Fast: I'ts compiled with C++ (gcc), using wxWidgets. For this reason, Minibloq is suitable for low end computers and netbooks.
• Free and ¡with sources!: The program will be available for free, in its full version. No fees for advanced features or the like. Just download and start using it. In addition, the full source code will be available too. The license? Something called RMPL (RobotGroup-Multiplo-Pacifist-License). This license is basically a MIT license, but with a restriction that bans military projects. More on this soon...
• Advanced interface: Zoom, Copy, Cut and Paste, Undo/Redo, and keyboard navigation are just some of the features the Minibloq's interface has. And there are more...
• Modular and expandable: The user can easily create it's own new blocks.
• All-in-one-ready-to-use-solution: This is "batteries included software". The package includes everything to start working.
• Portable: It does not requires installation (except for the drivers required for the specific boards, like Arduino™). It can run from a pen drive too. Oh, and it runs completely off-line, all in your own computer. More: You can have parallel copies of Minibloq, even with different settings running in the same computer.
• Easy integration with new hardware: Adding support for new platforms and boards (in Minibloq are called targets) is straightforward. This may be not a feature for beginners, but it will not be so difficult anyway. Even different compilers and languages could be added.
• Ready for the transition to text-based programming: Minibloq shows the generated code in a syntax colored window. In the first version this will be Arduino™ code, so this may be very useful for the users and students who want to start fast with graphical programming, and then go to to the next step.
• Internationalization: The first release will be available in English and Spanish, but the user and the community can contribute with new translations, since this only implies editing a text file.