element14 Drives Open-Source Design, Innovation and Collaboration With New Arduino Products and Community Resources

CHICAGO, Jan. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- element14, a collaborative social community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts, today announced its online US store is now offering Arduino boards and components, giving design engineers and electronic enthusiasts access to an expanded range of open-source prototyping platforms. Based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software, the Arduino platform was designed to make the process of using electronics more accessible to hobbyists, DIY-ers and design engineers.

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"Open-source design is having a dramatic impact on technology innovation and the working culture of software and hardware engineers," said Jeff Hamilton, director of marketing, element14. "The addition of Arduino products at element14's store coupled with the unique collaborative resources of our online community directly supports the exchange of technology, insight and knowledge that helps open-source solutions flourish."

The element14 store now stocks a range of Arduino boards, shields and components, from the Arduino Uno to the Arduino MEGA2560 Board, as well as two reference books, "Getting Started with Arduino," and "Arduino Making Things Talk." The element14 community also offers a collaborative global network of peers and experts where engineers and enthusiasts can share information, testing and feedback in dedicated open-source and Arduino discussion groups.

A new Arduino tutorial series also began this month. The weekly videos, hosted by community member Jeremy Blum, a Cornell University engineering student and avid open-source supporter, are geared towards beginners without prior electronics experience, as well as veteran engineers looking at using the Arduino platform for the first time. They cover how it works, tips for getting started, and more complicated programming and circuits design.

For more information on Arduino, including products and access to tutorial videos, visit www.element14.com.

About element14

element14 is the first collaborative community, research portal and store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts. The website provides product data, design tools, technology information and top brand components to seamlessly facilitate the design process; users can consult industry experts and collaborate with peers around the globe. element14 is sponsored by Premier Farnell plc (LSE: pfl), a leader in multi-channel distribution and specialty services for electronic design engineers, trading throughout the Americas (Newark), Europe (Farnell) and Asia-Pacific (element14). The company has group sales of 795.3m pounds Sterling and over 4,100 employees globally.

SOURCE element14