Digi-Key Makes AR app to support 2021 Boards Guide

Digi-Key Electronics has partnered with Make – the publishers behind the maker magazines and books – to release an augmented reality (AR) app to accompany its 2021 Boards Guide.

Divided into sections for microcontroller (MCU), single-board controller (SBC) and field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based boards, the guide helps students, makers and professional engineers navigate the latest technology for their possible innovations.

New to this year’s edition, highlights Digi-Key, is case study on new Raspberry Pi 2040 MCU-based solutions. Within its first year, there have been over 60 boards developed from various suppliers, it notes.

AR

To showcase this year’s guide, Digi-Key is using the AR app to make the most of the cameras, displays and sensors in mobile devices. Basically, with 50 of the boards presented via AR, it’s a way to virtually interact with the platforms.

“Having all the board descriptions, key features and add-on board functionality combined with the ability to place, zoom, and rotate each of the platforms really helps students, makers and engineers visualize how they can utilize each of the included boards to drive innovation forward in their designs,” said David Sandys, director of technical marketing at Digi-Key.

Boards covered include the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, the Micro:Bit V2, the Pimoroni Tiny2040, the Raspberry Pi Pico, the Microchip Curiosity Nano, the Nvidia Jetson Xavier NX, the Sparkfun Micromod Teensy, the Adafruit Neo Trinkey, and more.

The video includes contributions a wide variety of board creators:

Limor “Ladyada” Fried, Founder and CEO, Adafruit Industries
Eben Upton, CEO, Raspberry Pi Trading
Eric Pan, Founder and CEO, Seeed Studio
Paul Beech, Co-Founder, Pimoroni Ltd.
Zach Supalla, CEO, Particle
Bob Martin, Wizard of Make – Senior Staff Engineer, Microchip Technology

Note that you can use the app as a standalone experience, as well as in conjunction with the board guide. It’s available for both Android and iOS, via the Google Play store and the Apple App Store.

“The 2021 Guide to Boards is an incredible resource for anyone that is designing electronics-based products or projects,” said Make: executive editor Mike Senese. “Bringing the boards to life with the augmented reality app allows users to refine their component choices in an exciting way that provides so much additional hands-on value.”

The guide will be distributed with the November edition of Make: magazine. PDF versions of the guide and links to download the Digi-Key AR app will be available on the Digi-Key website.