Atmel just did a great 4th of July infographic celebrating the resurgence of American manufacturing. The US still manufactures 75% of everything it consumes. As a former auto engineer who saw millions of jobs lost and trillions of dollars washed down the drain, this really delights me. When I was an EDN editor I attended a presentation by Beacon Economics. This outfit was started by Chris Thornberg, the UCLA professor that predicted the 2007 housing crash in 2006. It was at this presentation that I learned that US manufacturing has never crashed, as many people popularly believe. Indeed, in dollar terms the output of US manufacturing has been on a pretty steady upward march.
In dollar terms, US manufacturing has been on a steady and impressive rise for 40 years.
What has declined is US manufacturing employment.
The huge increase in productivity means we don’t need as many workers in manufacturing, even though output has climbed.
The output per US worker has steadily increased over the last 70 years.
A century ago agriculture took 70-80% of the US employment. But tractors and the green revolution has allowed American food to be grown by 2% of the work force. The same revolution that improved farming is now improving manufacturing.
Indeed the future of US manufacturing has never looked better. Many companies are continuing to invest in their US operations. Atmel just created a new production line in its Colorado fab for our XSense touch sensor film. And though the 2007 crash made for a dip in manufacturing output, there is a slow but steady recovery back to the historical trend lines of healthy growth.
Indeed, the rising costs of off-shore manufacturing have caused a lot of companies to bring manufacturing back to the USA. As noted in this link:
“The reshoring trend is rocking global business, with hundreds of companies working to bring their manufacturing operations back … to North America.”
“…the recent surge in reshoring has shocked even experts and researchers.” Hal Sirkin
I myself saw this trend 4 years ago when I visited Trail Tech up in Washington State. They are a power sports manufacturer with a line of HID (high-intensity discharge) headlamps for trail bikes. Their representative told me that they were getting the vacuum-impregnated transformers from an offshore supplier. But they just could not get the quality they needed. Once the transformer was potted there was no method of incoming inspection that would reveal poor potting or construction. So they moved the transformer manufacturing back to the US.
This HID head lamp from Trail Tech uses a transformer that they make in the USA, so they can maintain strict quality standards.
Indeed, many companies are bringing manufacturing back. We have seen GE move its hot-water heater production back to the USA. GE will spend $1 billion to tool up its U.S. appliance production. This will add 1,300 jobs in Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia and Indiana. NCR (National Cash Register) moved its ATM machine production from overseas to Columbus Georgia. Farouk Systems hair driers and Coleman water coolers are coming back to US production. And good-old Converse has a line of shoes made in the US because of strict quality requirements. New Balance, American Apparel, and Timbuktu now make products in the U.S.
Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris has declared that they intend to return production lines to the United States. Indeed, Hal Sirkin, of the Boston Consulting Group forecasts that two to three million manufacturing jobs will come back to the U.S. during this decade.
So don’t despair about the state of manufacturing in the USA. There are good reasons to buy American and there are good reasons to buy imports. Don’t forget the economic principle of comparative advantage, and don’t forget there will always be different advantages for different countries. David Friedman, son of Nobel laureate Milton Friedman has noted there are two ways to make automobiles. One way is to mine ore and make steel and build factories and put together cars. The other way is to fill a big boat with wheat and float it to the West. It will return full of cars. What a miracle modern economics is. So don’t worry and be happy, and if people tell you how the US is lagging, show them this chart:
This chart shows just how healthy US manufacturing is.
The spurring growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has taken rise in business, with a number of startups stemming from the software alley, Maker Movement and crowdfunded space already contributing to the industry. Within idea making and product baking, various origins ferment the constant demand for transparency and community. This reveals strong elements of Conway’s law.
The Internet of Things cannot evolve into what everyone expects it should without the larger open source component. Let’s go back and take a look at Conway’s law. In perspective of both systems of the individual and organization, we are trying to create and the organization also creates it. Interoperability, integrations and the ability to share across communities hold the vital keys in the system.
An organization looking to build into IoT will need to help mature an open development organization, where we all have the ability to participate in the decisions, code, wiring, funding, and the ramp up of the work. By removing the attachment of intellectual property and changing the dynamics of the development team helps to keep things engaged and promotes the resolve attained by larger communities in moving forward and solving problems.
Partnerships across the breadth of business and enterprise will eventually surface the need to have wider and more comprehensive APIs; these APIs are agile and act as the seamless building blocks for sharing of data and bridging the real-time events into the symphony of various different devices, which can integrate easily into enterprise solutions. The API is the building block and cementing agent for innovative uses of connected devices — the Internet of Things.
For example, partnerships between two companies can quickly enable the creation of smart energy service, opening up opportunities to integrate energy appliances combined with data analytics showing home heating and air conditioning as well as consumer usage. An output like this not only creates added value chain, but also helps unify the customer-centric view for businesses wanting to grow closer with their customers, allowing them choices in their activity and usage.
The connected home market ― even connected consumer devices to energy harvesting ― will all require partnerships between companies, enabling them to deliver a smart energy service that integrates energy devices and appliances with data analytics around air conditioning and home heating systems designed for a device-agnostic platform. The partnership allows pools of expertise (enterprises, startups, or newly-established IoT services) to draw upon energy efficiency algorithms to enhance customers’ home energy use and automation.
Partnerships have already been used to spark and create new services for U.S. households. A growing number of sensors are emerging into the marketplace as well as threading these aggregate sensor results to end-to-end to products/solutions.
As previously seen on Bits & Pieces, we talk about PubNub. This is a service that is already widely used, distributing traffic to 200 million real-time IoT devices across 14 data centers worldwide, serving 3 millon messages a second all within a ¼ second in latency. That’s close to global real-time one can get with that many tenets/nodes on the cloud. In shear numbers, there are well over 1000s of apps leveraging this solution. In fact, this company has really got big plans for the Internet of Things, as it’s already powering thousands of real-time apps streaming 3 million messages per second to over 100 million devices each month. For example, just take some of their notable customers who are already using their services and technology to scale real-time applications and devices onto their own domain expertise solutions.
App developers like CBS Outdoor and Coca-Cola are using these integrations with real-time data aggregation transmitted by the sensors to produce some really powerful results. CBS Outdoor integrates sensors on embedded controllers to sync content on real-life digital billboards with online web displays using PubNub. Another IoT integration is found with Coca-Cola enabling friends to chat and annotate live video in real-time on the red carpet at the American Music Awards. The beverage giant has also introduced live voting (“You Decide the Ending”) and IoT experience synchronization using PubNub during their Cokechase.com campaign.
As demonstrated by both Coca-Cola and CBS Outdoor, companies are using/scaling this real-time device connectivity across their services. With their availability of an SDK kits for both Arduino (AVR-based Microcontrollers) and Rasberry Pi, Pubnub is quickly on their way to establishing a hook into the Maker Movement; a class of hackers, crowdfunded makers, creative tinkers, and app coders who can wield the power of this API to help take their ideas from prototype to a product.
What factors do you consider when making a purchasing decision for your next smartphone, tablet or PC? It’s quite likely that every individual goes through their own unique selection criteria, ranging from price of the device to functionality. However, what are the true deciding factors, and why?
Smartphones
Smartphones are different than tablets and PCs in that they are almost always under a contract and tied to a carrier. On top of this, it is common that OEMs only release certain versions of the smartphone in specific territories or countries. With phones you have to factor in which carrier you prefer, where you have the best phone reception, which is offering the best deals, etc. There is less weight on the hardware and software itself, and more on outside influences of location and carriers. For this reason, I’m not going to focus on smartphones.
Tablets / PCs
Since tablets and PCs are not necessarily tied to a carrier, there is weight put into the hardware and software of the product offerings rather than other criteria. Hence, why we will focus on this particular category. So, what are these most important factors?
Functionality Is this a work PC or a fun device to store music on and play with friends? Pricing / value will shake-out of this. You need high processing capability for work, there is premium associated with the best processors. If you are going to be doing a lot of gaming, then processing power is again important, but so are graphics. What your primary use case is for the device will largely influence your purchasing criteria and therefore your willingness to spend.
Brand
It seems people are either Apple fanatics or not. If you are, you tend to buy all Apple products, claiming that the simplicity, elegance and ease-of-use are the reasons for your obsession, and therefore you pay the premium for these products. Apple is an amazing company with amazing products and has (at least had) the ability to revolutionize any industry it sought to. If you are not an Apple person, brand loyalty is likely less important on the pareto of purchasing criteria. Another factor here, do you have full authority to make your own selection, or is this a work device paid for by your company? Many companies have IT departments that will only support certain machines.
Pricing
No matter who we are everyone wants to feel like they are getting a good value associated with every purchase. This is as much a psychological topic as a hardware one. The story of a person sitting at in an air-conditioned home vs. a person crawling through a dessert, who do you think values a bottle of water more? Same idea, the traveler sitting on a plane for 12-hours with no movies playing vs. a person sitting in front of their TV, who do you think values a tablet more? The person whom is provided a PC for their work, vs. someone whom has to purchase one on their own? This criterion melds with the previous criterion in functionality.
Operating System (OS)
Let’s focus on PCs and tablets separately for this discussion. In terms of PCs, you primarily are on Windows or iOS — iOS if you are using Apple, and every other PC OEM is mostly running Windows. This is starting to fragment some with the introduction of Google Chrome, Linux, and many others, but the lion’s share in PCs is still between iOS and Windows.
For tablets, it’s a bit more skewed. Again, Apple iPad users are on iOS, but Android still has the largest overall OS share (smartphone / tablet / PC) with 48% (1.2B devices in 2014). With it being an open-sourced OS it invites all the OEMs to utilize it very easy. From a user’s perspective it has become very familiar and easy to use. Windows with their introduction of Win8 in October 2012 has been slowly gaining market share.
But when it is all said and done, do the users really care about which OS? Or, is the OS more connected to the functionality — in other words, when a user makes a purchase for a work PC, it just comes with Windows?
Form Factor
How heavy is the device? What screen size does it have? Is it a convertible, 2-in-1, or rotating screen device? The form factor again will be most influenced by the user’s primary use-case. If you are getting a computer for work, but you have to travel a lot, you definitely aren’t going to get a desktop. And on-top of that, you will want the lightest possible device you can get so you don’t have to lug around a heavy brick everywhere, but yet that still meets your processing needs. Depending on your supplementary use-cases, you might be inclined to get a 2-in-1 in that situation. Form factor is definitely a consideration, but tied to use case.
Applications
Being able to go to the app store and download the latest and greatest apps that everyone is talking about is a big deal. Apps are what make our devices more functional and important today than ever before. But different OSs have different quantities and qualities of apps available. Apple is leading this charge, then Android, and lastly Windows. Almost all developers were at least starting with iOS, apps first version available usually on iOS, followed by Android.
Advertisements
Catchy, fun, relative, and helpful advertisements are always good, but it should make less implication on decision criteria other than communicating the information associated with the previously discussed decision pareto.
Intended functionality / use case is likely the most important criteria, even including brand seems to fall out of this. This is definitely a topic that has far more breadth!
So my buddy Andy Aronson over at honored competitor Texas Instruments mentioned he has a photographer buddy in Australia (check out his pic above) that just bought a new HD camera drone. No footage from it yet, the fellow is still sussing it out.
I sent the link to a bunch of friends, noting that Arthur Clarke said “A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” but magic only sells when narcissists can use it for selfies. I also wondered if you had to have the fighter-pilot vision and reflexes of my buddy Bob Dible, who is an RC model racer champion in order to fly them. I guess so. My crack protege Francis Lau wrote back, noting:
My buddy got one and was showing if off to a few friends. He launched it and flew it straight up about 30 meters. It then promptly lost the GPS lock and started tilting forward towards the river. Controls were lost too and it was on its own in a trajectory towards the river. It wasn’t smart enough to just stay still if it lost connection. Alas, it was a short 30 seconds in the air before it hit the side pier wall of a house next to the river. It fell in and the quadcopter was lost forever. At least the thing was a freebie for my friend.
I’ve heard other stories of similar nature where the control isn’t very good and needs some work. Thousands lost and the promise of having an easy to fly drone not met.
Well the drone website says it will “…land automatically,” and I guess it did. So yeah, before you drop acid and take your new drone to the beach, you might want to work on your RC skills a bit, and make sure you know the limitations of the craft you just spend a few thousand bucks on. Otherwise what starts out like a Pepsi commercial might end up like a Greek tragedy.
What platform has become the most sophisticated and intimate personal electronic environment ever? The car. To paraphrase a famous automotive company’s top executive, car companies are transforming the car into a powerful smartphone that allows drivers to carry around, customize, and interact with their digital world. Automotive electronics are currently centered around people (infotainment and communications) and the machine itself (to run the car and provide safety and convenience). Now a third element is emerging; namely, Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications.
Just like that sounds, cars will soon “talk and listen” to one another — automatically. They will share information like proximity, speed, direction, road conditions, as well as other things that have yet to been imagined. The chief driver of V2V is signaling impending collisions so that the cars can automatically take countermeasures. That, of course, means the V2V network will become a critical technology for self- and assisted-driving cars.
While it may seem revolutionary, V2V is really an evolutionary branch of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, which are creating a world where smart, secure, and communicating, sensors will become ubiquitous in planes, trains, and automobiles; inside homes; inside commercial buildings; on highways; in cities and towns; in agriculture; in factories; in retail spaces; and worn by and implanted in humans and animals. The Internet of Things could eventually connect everything from cars to cats.
A term that is being used to describe the technologies making such a smart, sensor saturated world is “sensor dust,” which captures the Zeitgeist that super tiny, smart, communicating sensors will be everywhere — like dust. Sensors, of course, are never just sensors. They are always connected to other things–mainly microcontrollers (MCUs). With the advent of ultra-low power and energy harvesting technology, the sensor-MCU combination has become an ideal, clear, and present foundation for widespread sensor roll out. Sensing often implies by its very nature detection and communication from a distance, and that is where wireless communication comes into play.
The dark side is that remote sensing and communication open the door very wide for bad actors who want to intercept, spoof, and misuse the data streaming freely through the air. So, security (encryption and/or authentication) becomes the final piece of the picture, and arguably the element that makes IoT even possible to be widely adopted. Huge amounts of information are already being collected every day about traffic flow from phone users worldwide (without their knowing it). Such storehouses of data can be mined real time and used to provide personal traffic reports to subscribers while driving. At least that is the story. As the car moves from one place to the other, social networking can be effectuated in real time to locate friends or certain activities and happenings (automotive flash-mob, anyone?). But, what consumers really want their whereabouts and other information out in the open in a completely uncontrolled way? No one. People are becoming extremely sensitive to data insecurity and there is a growing need to trust how the information that is being collected will be used. Without some type of trust, the IoT could be doomed. Maybe the term “Internet of Trust” should be coined to make that point obvious.
V2V & IoT
The evolution of V2V and IoT are intimately related because they both will be composed of the very same technological blocks. The overlap is easy to see. The foundational components of each are miniaturized MCUs, sensors, wireless technology, and security devices that operate using ultra low power. Describing IoT and V2V as equations, they could be expressed in the following way:
Equation one might imply that companies that can integrate the factors will lead in the build-out of the IoT market. Equation two effectively states that V2V is the IoT on wheels. In any case, there are certain basic blocks that must be integrated, and they must be integrated in the right way for the particular use-case. IoT and V2V design flexibility and time to market will matter, a lot. (But that is a topic for another time.) The growth of the connected car platform is expected to be remarkable. That makes sense since the car is the one place that GPS/NAV systems, smart phones, tablets, DVDs, CDs, MP3s, Bluetooth, satellite radio, high power stereo amps, speakers, voice control, and the Internet can all come together and interact with each other.
Such convergence is making the car into an advanced personal hub. Market researchers have estimated that revenue for the connected car market will grow from $17 billion in 2012 to $54.5 billion in 2018 for hardware and services (telematics, telecom, and in-vehicle). Unit sales of embedded, tethered, and smartphone equipped cars are expected to grow from around 10 million units in 2012 to 67 million by 2018, with over 50% of that volume being embedded systems that are controlled by media and sensor control systems.
Media control systems are not only becoming a standard feature in new cars, but according to consumer electronics and auto industry researchers, a chief reason that people are selecting certain cars over others. Electronics are becoming a main forethought rather than a minor afterthought for car buyers. Sophisticated electronic systems are becoming mandatory, and this powerful dynamic will only accelerate as more electronics products, features, and services are sped to the market by the car makers, consumer electronics companies, smartphone makers, and software providers.
However, all this electronic stuff has presented a huge challenge, which is safety. Using products such as the cell phone in the car actually interferes badly with driving. Anyone who has placed a call, or even worse tried to text while driving (and who hasn’t), can testify to the fact that dial-driving is a bad idea. So, what can be done to get cars electronics, phones, and humans to play well together in a safe way? The solution has been summed up succinctly by the CEO of a major auto maker who refers to in-car control systems as being able to free the user from the tyrannies and dangers of messing with that little phone while you drive. Rather than a car and phone (and other electronics) being at odds with each other, the car is transforming into the newest electronic platform: one that is highly integrated, easy to use, and distinct from anything else to date. It is easy to see that the emerging alloyed car-plus-consumer platform is primed for cars to talk to one another without the need of human intervention.
The list of electronics functions in cars is evolving fast and will likely include multi-person gaming; GPS with location-based services such as real time traffic and road condition updates; vehicle monitoring for maintenance status, performance, and eco-friendliness; vehicle and personal security; connection to home control/security systems; social networking opportunities related to location, and especially safety. In fact, the US Deportment and Transportation (DoT) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are partnering with research institutions and auto companies to collaborate on technology development and interoperability of V2V to promote traffic safety. V2V can transform the automotive experience more than anything since Henry Ford’s assembly line made cars available to the working class. The notion of a car driving itself still sounds like pure science fiction, but prototypes are already driving themselves. So, it is just a question of time before we have auto-automobiles. (auto2mobiles) where you simply have to tell your personal digital assistant where you want to go, then take a seat in your personal infotainment pod until you get there.
But, well before that happens we will see significant improvements in safety due to V2V. It is clear that the lucrative auto electronics platform is already right in the sights of all car makers, and they clearly plan to take it to the next level and the next level after that, with no end in sight. As noted, electronic things sell cars, and more advanced electronics will show up in the more advanced cars. Then, last year’s advanced systems will naturally move down-market, so even more advanced systems will be needed for next year’s up-market cars. This endless cycle of innovation will drive automotive companies to create V2V and self-driving ecosystems sooner rather than later. As we move towards the self-driving omega-point we will see V2V and IoT showing up very early in the journey.
V2V (the IoT on wheels) will make it hard to tell where the car ends and the phone, tablet, computer, and sensors begin.
Interested in learning more about Atmel’s automotive portfolio? Check out our automotive-qualified category breakdown below:
A talented Maker by the name of Taylor Alexander, co-founder of Flutter Wireless, has recently gained a large amount of support for the company’s innovative wireless electronics development platform based on Arduino.
No novice to DIY, Taylor has spent a life of hacking, making and transfiguring things to have them do all sorts of different actions than these electronics were originally made to do. At the early age of five, he would break things down and rebuild them to create something entirely different — taking parts from old cameras, stereos and other electronic components, then transforming them into electric cars. From early on, it was evident Taylor was an innovator in the ‘making.’ Now, as everyone has witnessed, there are crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, a startup incubator platform where individuals like Taylor and his co-founders can create value from their extraordinary talents and early fundamental interest.
Not only has Kickstarter offered a new way of doing things, but the platform is reshaping the business and creation cycle for people with talents in technical and creativity. The site has enabled people to get financing, allowing inventors to obtain the investment needed much faster at the early stage of incubation and product development. This money can then be better used to scale faster and prove its concepts early on via social acceptance and crowdfunding with the merits of community and validation.
The powers of the Maker Movement — a fabulous combination of getting the media, bloggers and influencers onboard, riding pre-existing trends, thinking outside the box, conducting frequent demonstrations, all while responding to the ideas and wants of the community. Arguably the most important aspect of the DIY revolution is the validation and acceptance of the community wanting to endorse and witness an idea come to fruition. At an individual level, it’s an exciting and opportunistic time for an inventor or anyone looking to contribute to the landscape of technology or where it is going. These are some of the most compelling reasons as to why Flutter Wireless is able to prove innovative ground, validate their product ideas and infuse the necessary capital to promote more success across communities. As in its Kickstarter’s illustration, the wireless electronics development platform can be communicated from of a large 3,200 ft (1km) usable range. It is packaged with a powerful Atmel ARM-based SAM3S processor, coupled with integrated encryption using Atmel’s ATSHA204cryptographic chip as the device to secure it’s system.
So, how does this wireless platform work? Well, as the Flutter Wireless site explains:
“Creating Flutter networks are easy, even if it’s just two boards. Specify networks in Arduino code or configure Flutter with our mobile app. Once configured, devices can enter and exit the network seamlessly. This makes it extremely easy to set up a network at home (or anywhere else) where all of your projects can reliably communicate. Flutter is like a second network for your devices.”
In fact, in the landscape of connecting devices and IoT, an individual building out of a wireless project shouldn’t have to be too expensive. “Flutter was built from the ground up with cost in mind, that’s why our boards start at just $20. We’ve worked hard to keep costs as low as possible and deliver you a quality product you can afford to use in as many projects as you’d like,” explains Taylor. The startup extraordinaire Taylor has helped further the ecosystem development by leveraging the concepts of “shields” and designing a handful of various protocol shields for Flutter. It’s really focused on individuals who want to get started quickly and build heterogeneous nodes of connected devices on a network. The Flutter boards come shipped with breakout boards and socket headers, combined with the power of connectivity to various protocols (Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy or conventional Bluetooth 2.1). The Flutter Wireless platform is comprised of the network shield which connects to your home router, creating a bridge between mobile devices (M2M) the Internet and Flutter. For a wireless system, the important factors are range and reliability. According to Flutter Wireless Kickstarter:
“We use WiFi everyday, but take a few steps down the driveway and coverage quickly becomes scarce. Flutter is a different kind of wireless system, completely self-contained with over a half-mile range. This allows for a wireless platform without borders, and no longer being chained to a router means your projects are free to follow you out the front door, through the yard, and down the street.”
As previously discussed in Bits & Pieces, the combined Flutter Wireless Development platform is quite comprehensive, considering it’s Kickstarter and crowdfunding origins. Flutter Wireless comes packaged with Atmel’s ATSHA204 to ensure maximum secure storage and protection of encryption keys. Flutter is designed to address security and wireless in a combined package. The platform is comprised of a design, which encompasses a special cryptographic hardware (Atmel’s ATSHA204) that integrates cryptography into every communication layer of the software. In essence, this gives the user ultimate control over who can and cannot communicate with their devices.
The project is given strengths by making it accessible via the Open Source community – ensuring the possibility of enhancing the roadmap by contribution to improve upon Flutter Wireless foundation though the power of the community. Furthermore, Flutter’s wireless concept seamlessly routes messages across a varied number of connected devices to reach their destination. It’s sort of like a lily pad of daisy chaining across many nodes or protocols. With that said, there is a world of potential in the IoT buildup for a number of reasons. Arduino already has a big open-source following. First, this is already proven (via the Maker Movement and Maker Faire) and it’s one of the easiest ways to bridge the physical and digital worlds together. Flutter Wireless can be a node in a larger mesh network, which could be useful for large public projects. (i.e. Let’s say, a hobbyist or passionate drone user wants to fly his drone to the next town over, keep it connected across RC and mesh networks all within good range and security).
The winning formula:
ARM + Encryption + Easy Development + New IoT-Based Radio + Mesh + Shields + Open Source + Community + Crowdfunding = Thousands of lines of agile code, mesh support, tagging, and various protocol features required to support IoT buildup
Flutter still finds itself under development and continually evolving. The prototypes were designed with the Sparkfun Arduino Pro Mini for rapid development and proof of concept. Out of this ideated adventure, a new generation of boards are in the process being developed with Atmel SMART™ ARM-based SAM3S, a very affordable, versatile and powerful ARM core processor with a capacity for speed and storage space to suit any designer’s connected device project.
Earlier today, Atmel announced a definitive agreement to acquire Newport Media, Inc., a move which further expands the company’s wireless portfolio to include Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth. In just hours, the acquisition was covered by a number of prominent tech publications, including Reuters, VentureBeat, PC World, Bloomberg, Fox Business and eWeek.
Soham Chatterjee, Reuters
“Atmel said its chips paired with Newport’s gears can be used in a variety of products ranging from home and building automation equipments to consumer devices that require longer battery life.”
Dean Takahashi, Venture Beat
“The Internet of Things market is expected to be huge as everyday devices become smarter and connected to the Internet. Atmel, which makes microcontrollers and touchscreen tech, wants to be a player in this emerging market. By adding Newport Media, a maker of low-power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, Atmel will expand its portfolio for the Internet of Things, where large numbers of sensors have to communicate data wirelessly to the Internet.”
Agam Shah, PCWorld
“Arduino boards are largely based on Atmel’s MCUs, but mostly don’t have wireless due to their size and cost constraints. With devices becoming more connected, Atmel will be able to package wireless on electronics or developer boards used to prototype wearable devices and robots.”
According to a company rep, Chirp uses capacitive sensing as opposed to resistive humidity sensing.
Meaning, it does not actually make an electric contact with the soil, thereby successfully avoiding electrode corrosion and soil electrolysis – resulting in optimized accuracy and extended battery life.
On the hardware side of things, a standard AVR 6 pin ISP programming header is available on the board for programming and serial communication. The device acts as a I2C slave, so the header can be used to read the moisture and light levels. It should be noted that another microcontroller or a dev board such as Arduino can be used as I2C master to read those levels.
The alarm level is set for each plant individually, with Chirp configured to detect low moisture level and emit rare short chirps as appropriate. As more water evaporates, Chirp increases the alarm rate.
Arduino has debuted two new shields for use with the company’s wildly popular lineup of Atmel-based boards.
First up is a USB host shield based on the MAX3421E. This USB peripheral/host controller contains the digital logic and analog circuitry required to implement a full-speed USB peripheral or a full-/low-speed host compliant to USB specification rev 2.0.
Next up is the ArduinoISP (AVR-based in-system programmer) based on David Mellis’ project FabISP and useful to anyone needing more space on their Arduino board.
While perusing my latest copy of American Motorcyclist magazine, I was pleased to see an article on how vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication might make roads safer for motorcyclists. V2V is where vehicles have their own dedicated micro-controller and wireless chip and security chip. Atmel makes all three, both as separate parts and combined into one. The vehicles will have a wireless RF “bubble” that travels with them. When two vehicle’s bubbles “touch”, then they will authenticate it is not some hacker on a bridge embankment. Then the vehicles can exchange information. It is anticipated that the system will have GPS, so each vehicle will know its exact position.
While drunk driving fatalities have plummeted, distracted driving is killing twice as many people.
As a guy with a broken collarbone that got hit from behind while my motorcycle was stopped for a red light, I think this is great. If vehicles can communicate they can warn each other of impending collisions. Auto manufacturers anticipate verbal and “shaker” warning for the cars, or so-called “cages” as we motorcyclists call them.
The AMA publishes the magazine and I am a proud supporter. One thing I disagree with is that the AMA wants motorcycles to be nearly silent. Now I hate open pipes, that is a moron thing to do since you can’t tune the motor because of the reversion pulses coming off the end of pipes. But silent bikes are too far in the other direction. With half the driver’s noses stuck in a smartphone while they drive, a little noise alerts them to my presence.
This V2V technology may make all this moot. I won’t need loud pipes if vehicles actively work to avoid collisions. I touched on this in an earlier blog post—Car-to-car communication.
