PICAXE

PICAXE is a brand of micro-controller, running inside PIC micro-controllers from Microchip. These chips come in many flavors and sizes, from 8 pins to 40. They are very cheap and come with free software for programming in BASIC (MAC, LINUX, Windows) or with flow charts (Windows).

PICAXE is a nice alternative to other micro-controllers used in education in that it's cheap if you already have an electronics lab, the software is free.

I have used PICAXE to make data-loggers, for light, temperature, and wind speed. I have also made a MIDI controller, where the PICAXE interprets potentiometer metrics into MIDI controller signals; this is useful for running TRAKTOR, see MIDI and DJ mixers.

The main web site for PICAXE is here: http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe/

Very nice site!

Very nice site!