This year, I’ve been invited to the Scouts JOTA/JOTI event on October 18 & 19th. JOTA (Jamboree on the Air) & JOTI (Jamboree on the Internet) organises Scouts all over the world to communicate via radio and the internet.

JOTA/JOTI 2014 Flyer

Primarily, I was invited to launch a High Altitude Balloon for the Scouts to track and receive telemetry but I suggested that it might also be a good idea to get the Scouts to assemble a minDUINO to take home with them to aid their education in electronic engineering. It will also give them an introduction into microcontrollers and how they are programmed. I decided the minDUINO v1.6 was the best board to make a kit out of since it can be used as a general board, a programming board or for prototyping, with an inexpensive additional breadboard.

minDUINO v1.6

Making fifty kits of parts is a fairly costly proposition so I looked for a likely sponsor. The company I chose was RS Components. This is a very well established organisation, renowned for it’s quality products and first class customer service. I was extremely pleased to get a swift reply to my initial inquiry:

“We are always interested in supporting the Engineers of the future, especially in promoting an interest on Electronics. The Jamboree sounds very interesting and is something that we could possibly help with.”

I have since supplied RS Components with a full list of parts for the minDUINO v1.6 and they have them on order. I have also ordered the PCBs which are being fabricated by Hackvana as I type this article.

I am very much looking forward to making the kits up and especially looking forward to assisting the Scouts in building their minDUINOs. This is the sort of opportunity I would have relished as a young lad myself and I’m very happy to be contributing to the countries up and coming engineer base.

RS Components – New Products