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Scientist Shrinks Arduino To Size Of An AA Battery (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the fits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Johan Kanflo has managed to make the already small Tiny328 Arduino clone into an even smaller computing platform about the size of a single AA battery. Not only will it fit in a typical AA battery holder, but it will actually draw power from the batteries beside it as it's wired in "backwards" (with the + and - poles reversed). The Arduino platform consists of open-source hardware, open-source software, and microcontroller-based kits, making it easy to (re)program the processors, and develop software for hardware applications using a java-clone and an easy-to-learn IDE. For those interested in the AAduino, Johan has made his creation available online on Github with instructions and schematics to build your own.

10 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. The perfect spy-device by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just put one in any other the target appliances and listen to everything. (until the batteries die and the device gets thrown out with them obviously. :-)

  2. Intelligent Vibrators? by BigU+03C0in · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can only imagine...

    1. Re:Intelligent Vibrators? by baker_tony · · Score: 4, Funny

      With the size of the batteries a decent vibrator takes, you can fit in a full water cooled i7.

    2. Re: Intelligent Vibrators? by Type44Q · · Score: 2

      I wonder how long it'll be before people start trying to maximize how much processing power they can fit in their ass...

  3. Re:Im a Scientist Mom! (Not an Engineer) by leftover · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Really none too impressive. Off-the-shelf devices include this
    https://tinycircuits.com/colle...

    --
    Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
  4. Not without some easier IO.. by thesupraman · · Score: 2

    So, it makes connecting power marginally 'easier' if you happen to have a suitable 3 cell holder.
    And makes IO significantly more difficult?
    IO is generally the whole point of microcontrollers - he has included a nonstandard Wireless interface, and a couple of temperature
    sensors, so it appears to have perhaps one purpose, but is kind of overkill for that (an esp8266 would be far easier).

    Progress!

    1. Re:Not without some easier IO.. by Sloppy · · Score: 2

      I think the point of the RFM69 hardware is to use less power (and also get more range!). Wifi might be "standard" but not necessarily the right tool for the job. It's not that hard to have another little "gateway" arduino-like with same kind of radio -- listening, powered by and communicating over USB to a "real computer."

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      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  5. Eagles and Gerbers by Fnord666 · · Score: 2

    If anyone is interested the Eagle and Gerber files are downloadable from links on the bottom of the article page.

    --
    'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
  6. Re: Im a Scientist Mom! by Type44Q · · Score: 2

    Don't know why scientists always get credit.

    It's simply 'cause they always get the hot chicks.

  7. Java???? by mark-t · · Score: 2

    I thought that the arduino was typically programmed in a language more like c, or c++.

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