ARM will be chairing a symposium on the sidelines of the upcoming Sensors Expo and Conference in Chicago on Jun 24th from 9AM to 5PM. Titled Making the Internet of Things a Reality: A Toolkit for Designing “Smart,” key speakers include Atmel’s Adrian Woolley, ARM’s Zach Shelby and Sensor Platforms CTO Kevin Shaw.
According to ARM’s Will Tu, Kevin Shaw will be kicking off the session with an overview of how IoT devices can evolve to optimize their interaction with humans – ultimately becoming invisible and predictive.
“We can see sensor fusion at work with smartphones, tablets and wearables and today as they apply the concept of contextual awareness of where a user is and what he or she might be doing,” Tu writes in a recent blog post. “From this awareness a device can respond to offer a service, enable features on a device, conserve valuable battery power or delight users in some novel way. Sensor fusion will bring the same type of value to embedded devices and these software algorithms will be the key to unlocking the commercial value proposition of future IoT device.”
Next up is ARM’s very own Zach Shelby, a thought leader in the industry who has been heavily involved in connectivity from his early days as co-founder of Sensinode. Zach is currently a key contributor at the IETF for IoT standards with contributions in 6LoWPAN, routing, web services and security related standards, ETSI and OMA standardization on M2M and in several top international research programs.
Atmel’s Adrian Woolley will then discuss the hardware side of the IoT. A 25-year veteran of the semiconductor market, Woolley is the Director of Strategy and Business Development at Atmel’s microcontroller business unit. He has an extensive background in mobile and communication markets, along with a considerable amount of embedded experience in microcontrollers.
“When you are talking about hardware building blocks, Atmel can offer more than just MCUs; they also provide radio technologies,” says Shaw.
“Mr. Beam is able to process materials of variable thickness. Height adjustable legs allow an easy setup for thin paper as well as for a large piece of wood,” a Mr. Beam rep explained.
“[The platform] cuts lighter materials like paper and foil in one pass and thicker materials [such as] leather and cardboard in multiple passes. As with all laser cutters, the ability to cut materials properly is determined by their thickness. Most of the mentioned materials can be engraved in a single pass, others like wood might require several passes.”
So, how does Mr. Beam work? Well, the Raspberry Pi (running Raspbian) operates the web interface responsible for generating g-code from the user-supplied input files (the motif). Meanwhile, the Uno runs the grbl software tasked with taking g-code and converting it into stepper motor actions (effectively controlling laser diode intensity). Last, but certainly not least, the custom Beam shield is equipped with various electronic modules and components that handle the input from Arduino/grbl – powering the steppers as well as the laser and regulating the hardware buttons.
On the software side, Mr. Beam’s user interface can be used to select motifs and kick off the cutting process. Future additions are slated to include the ability to easily position, rotate and scale various patterns.
According to Paul Huang, Display Product Line Manager at FTDI Chip, the VM800 family offers engineers a comprehensive platform to implement more effective human machine interfaces (HMIs) with display, audio and touch elements, as well as data processing aspects.
“These units can be programmed via the Arduino IDE (using a pre-programmed Arduino-compatible bootloader), thereby taking advantage of the popularity that this open source development ecosystem now has amongst the global electronic engineering community,” Huang explained.
“With comprehensive support for various Arduino libraries provided, every VM800P incorporates an FTDI Chip FT800 EVE graphic controller IC and its FT232R USB interface IC, as well as an ATmega328P 8-bit RISC-based microcontroller (running at 16MHz).”
Additional key specs include:
Touch-enabled display LCD panel
Backlight LED driver
Audio power amplifier + micro speaker
3.5-inch, 4.3-inch or 5.0-inch display form factor
USB serial port for firmware upload and app comms
Battery-backed real time clock (RTC)
Micro-SD socket + 4GByte SD card with pre-loaded sample apps
Runs off a standard 5V via micro-USB cable or direct external supply
“[The] PLUS boards are complete stand-alone display sub- systems based on Arduino with all the attributes necessary to create game- changing HMIs – from the initial conception phase right through to final deployment,” Huang added.
“They can be utilized solely for development purposes or alternatively they will be easy for engineering teams to integrate into end product designs if this is preferred.”
Meanwhile, the software environment is hosted on a Raspberry Pi (model B) that connects to the Atmel-powered board.
Levis says he created Pepino as a final project for his degree at the Afeka College of Engineering in Israel, with source code and installation instructions expected to go live at some point in the near future.
The Nanite is an uber-mini dev board built around Atmel’s ATtiny85 microcontroller (MCU). The board – which measures 0.4″ wide – boasts the same pin configuration as a DIP ATtiny85.
“[I wanted] to have my own ATtiny85 based development board based on a USB bootloader and optimized for the ubiquitous 170 point mini-breadboards. [The Nanite] sports a reset button, but lacks an integrated voltage converter as it is supposed to be powered by USB,” Nanite creator Tim explained in a recent blog post.
“Apart from the size considerations, the Nanite also uses a neat circuit trick to share a single pin with the LED and the reset button. The circuit of the board is shown below, the circuit attached to the reset pin, PB5, is to the right.”
Meaning, if PB5 is configured as the standard reset, the push button will simply act as a reset button, with the LED taking on the role of a pull up for the reset button. However, if reset is disabled and PB5 is configured as a normal I/O pin, the state of the button can be polled by simply reading from the port.
“The LED can be turned on by setting the output to ‘low’ and turned off by configuring the output into a high impedance state. It is not advised to set the output ‘high’, since in that case the pushbutton could short the output to ground,” said Tim.
“I use micronucleus in a configuration where it only starts when the button is pushed. This means that the user program is started without a delay after the device is powered up.”
Meanwhile, the functionality of the reset button is emulated via software, periodically polling the state of the button and activating the watch dog timer if it is pressed. If the watch dog times out, the device resets.
“Apart from the LED output, user interaction and soft-reset button, PB5 can also be used as a simple serial debug output – connected to the RX input of a serial to USB adapter. I use a simple software-UART implementation and a macro to redirect STDOUT to the serial output. This allows very convenient debugging with printf(),” he added.
“WatchDuino is not only programmable, it’s fully hackable from hardware to software. You can build your own out of [inexpensive] components [available] at a local electronics store,” a WatchDuino rep explained.
“[Plus], you have the full source code of the watch’s operative system at your disposal. The ability to build the whole thing from scratch and being able to hack at every level of it will greatly appeal to electronics hobbyists and Makers.”
Currently, primary WatchDuino features include:
Time and date (analog and digital output)
Alarm / countdown (with custom music)
Games (Pong & Snake)
Rechargeable battery (via USB) and meter
Low-battery mode (lasts up to two years with a 240mAh battery)
Integrated screen light
Compact design
Framework-like architecture to easily program custom screens
On the software side, the WatchDuino can be programmed via two methods: hacking the system itself or simply customizing various features and apps.
“Since WatchDuino’s software is open source, you have the full source code at your disposal to make any modifications you like,” the rep added.
The WatchDuino will likely hit Kickstarter at some point in the near future as a fully assembled device. In the meantime, you can check out the project’s official page here.
“I’ve always loved watches; not only are they aesthetic and beautiful, but they are functional, precise and useful. An elegant fusion between engineering and art; two normally opposed perspectives, now joined in harmonic unison,” N.fletch explained in a recent Instructables post.
“However, all technologies like the dial-up internet, the CVT monitor and the abacus, inevitably will become relics of our past with the advent of advancing technology and have since become less pragmatic for the typical person to own. Unlike these archaic technologies, the wrist watch still thrives on the wrists of many, standing forever as a testament to one of mankind’s greatest inventions: the measurement of time.”
Aside from Atmel’s ATmega328P, key ChronosMEGA specs include binary time encoding (via 10 Blue 1206 LEDs), a slew of buttons to control time, sleep mode and display, a 32.768kHz external crystal and an 8MHz internal clock source.
Additional key features?
Micro-USB and charge management controller (for 400mAh Li-ion battery)
Draws 4uA in its Deep Sleep mode to last up to 11 years on a single charge
Battery indicator 0603 LED
Boost TI switching regulator for power regulation
Low loss PowerPath controller IC for power source selection
Total form factor of 10mm x 40mm x 53mm
Custom 3D designed case cast in pure polished silver
Genuine crocodile leather watch band
As you can see in the videos above, the layout of the watch configured in a circular array of 10 LEDs. Four of the LEDs account for hours, while six of the LEDs account for minutes.
“The LEDs count in binary to display the time on the watch face. By utilizing a combination of the 10 LEDs, the watch can display any possible time accurate to the minute,” N.fletch continued.
“This is a very clean and elegant way to display time. I also really like this technique because of its esoteric and mysterious nature.”
In terms of the MCU, the ATmega328P is wired in a straight-forward manner, connected to power and ground, with a pull up resistor on the RESET pin. Essentially, the AVR is tasked with driving all the LEDs from its GPIO, although one of the MCU’s AVR’s ADC pin is connected to the battery to detect the voltage level. As such, the watch is equipped with a small red status LED to indicate when battery power is low.
“The AVR has a 32.768 kHz crystal wired to its XTAL pins. It uses the 32.768 kHz crystal to drive its Timer2 module asynchronously for counting the seconds, [while] its internal 1MHz RC clock drives the SW,” N.fletch added.
“32.768 kHz is a very common frequency to drive Real Time Clock (RTC) systems because 32,768 in decimal is equal to 8000 in hex. Therefore, 32,768 can be evenly divided by multiple powers of 2 including 1024. Dividing 32,768 by 1024 yields 32, so configuring the timer to count to 32 with a 1024 pre-scaler will equal an exact second.”
Designed by TinkerForge, the Atmel-powered Starter Kit: Internet of Things allows Makers and engineers to easily control multiple home automation devices across a wide range of devices, both locally or over the Internet.
More specifically, the Starter Kit can be used to control 433MHz mains switches, dimmers and home automation components.
“With the kit, nothing stands in the way of turning your coffee maker on while you are heading home or to dim your living room illumination with your own cloud. [Plus], the IoT Starter Kit website gives you direct access to wireless actuators from any web-enabled device.”
The IoT kit comprises a USB-equipped Master Brick powered by Atmel’s ARM-based ATSAM3S4C MCU and a Remote Switch Bricklet (+ antennae), the latter of which features a 433MHz transceiver.
Additional kit items include:
1x Bricklet cable 6cm
1x Remote switch Bricklet case
1x USB cable 180cm
1x Mounting kit 12mm
1x Mounting kit 9mm
“Over the USB connection of the Master Brick you can control remote control mains switches or similar. An (embedded) PC either does the switching itself or it can serve as a gateway,” the rep added.
“With an additional Ethernet Master Extension it is possible to go without a gateway.”
Writing for Reuters, Noel Randewich notes that Silicon Valley was originally made famous by hard-scrabble hackers and modders building radios, microchips and other devices.
“Now, a proliferation of high-tech but affordable manufacturing tools and new sources of funding are empowering a [new] generation of handy entrepreneurs, [while] laying the foundation for a hardware renaissance,” he explains.
Designers work at computer stations at TechShop in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, California April 24, 2014. CREDIT: REUTERS/ROBERT GALBRAITH
“[The] Maker movement [is] sweeping northern California and, in a smaller way, Europe and other countries. Renewed interest in tinkering with objects – versus apps or software – is attracting more money from investors and fostering a growing number of workshops, where aspiring inventors can get their hands on computerized milling machines and other high-end tools.”
Ann Miura-Ko, a self-professed tinkerer and partner at Floodgate, tells Reuters she believes nostalgia for the Valley days of yore plays a key role in the Maker boom.
“Just the same way you have kids who have been coding for 10 years at the age of 16, you’re going to see kids who have been making stuff for 10 years at the age of 16. If you see that, you’ll know we’re ready for the Mark Zuckerberg of hardware.”
As Randewich points out, the growing wave of do-it-yourselfers may very well hold the key to manufacturing innovation.
“Hardware is catching up to the open-source revolution, with common standards and a culture that encourages the sharing of designs and building blocks that save inventors the time and expense of reinventing the wheel,” he writes.
“Take the palm-sized [Atmel-powered] Arduino, ubiquitous in the Maker Movement. The roughly $20 item was developed for students, offering low price and relatively easy programming. Arduino lets do-it-yourselfers snap together and program interchangeable components such as GPS chips and motor controllers to run everything from robots to cocktail mixers.”
Meanwhile, Christine Furstoss of General Electric says products of the do-it-yourself movement – improved 3D printing, laser cutters, water jets and other tools – will help the United States safeguard and extend its lead in advanced manufacturing.
“We’re proud of our manufacturing heritage, but we don’t invent everything… The spirit and tools of the Maker Movement are something we want to engage with,” she concludes.
