Arduitter is live

So, that's it. Arduitter is ready and it's live. After a few months it can now be broadcasted so anyone can see, enjoy, comment and maybe build one themselves. First of all let me tell you what Arduitter is and where the idea came from and what it is not.
Arduitter came from the fact that i wanted to build something related to Twitter and what could be better than build a device that could read tweets in near real time. So i did a little research on the Twitter API and found JTwitter wich is a Java wrapper of the API and fitted (does this word exist?) well for what i needed. After that i implemented my Java code that from 5 to 5 seconds runs a search on Twitter and refreshs a pool of status. Then went straight to the electronics part and made Arduino talk to the Java via serial (COM3 in my case) and show tweets on the LCD connect to it. There's also a Wave Shield connected to Arduino responsible for making Arduitter "tweet". Here's the post that ilustrates this part of the project.

http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/06/its-working.html

Next i had to put everything i had into something, then i decided to google a twitter bird paper toy and here's what i found (here). Tested for the correct size in order to put the whole thing inside and started the building part. Next are some post on the tests.

http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/06/building-bird.html
http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/06/progress-i.html
http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/06/here-we-go.html

Now starts the hardest step of arduitter's building. I had to model pieces on 3mm MDF, cut, sand, glue, paint and glue again, this time was the skin. About the skin here's something you should know, the original template belongs to Josh Mckibillo that also owns a page on these kind of paper toys, NaniBird. Here are the results.

http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/07/arduitter-is-done-for-now.html

After that i had to publish and show that it really works. Here's Arduitter live on UStream.

 What i expect from here:
- I intent to add a RTC breakout board to the project in order to make it more usefull when it is not showing tweets.
- Put it to work wireless, via RF links, and by wireless i mean half the way, since i'm still going to need the PC part.
- I'll also publish the schematics of Arduitter so others can build one themselves.
- And, since the building part was the hardest step, i'm going to work on an Arduino based desktop CNC Router and here's the design i intent to follow. With that i'll be able to build a second version of Arduitter and correct some mistakes i made with a little bit more speed than the first one.

At last but not least, Arduitter was Made in Brazil.

So, got interested and want to build an Arduitter yourself? Build it, take pictures and send it to me so it appers here and others can see your work. In the meantime, follow Arduitter on Twitter and get to know all the news before everyone else. And, don't forget to send a tweet to Arduitter (@arduitter) or use the hashtag (#arduitter) to see your tweet live.