Embedded system platforms are becoming cheaper every day. While they are also getting simpler to approach over time, it seems to be slower than the price drop. In order to begin working with an Arduino or Raspbery Pi someone must get the right cabling, download an IDE (or at least understand how to write some source code and get it onto the device), learn a C style language (esp for Arduino) or some other computer language, begin to understand serial communication, etc.
LaunchPad is an embedded system platform for building various simple (for now) applications while requiring no more of the developer/maker than:
- the ability to access a webpage from a computer on the same Wifi connection,
- some knowledge of HTML and Javascript, and
- building circuits with sensors and actuators on a breadboard
The hope is that removing some of the barriers of entry to play with embedded systems will bring in more new and creative minds into the world of embedded system development.
In that sense LaunchPad is also an ambassador from the state of software and embedded systems to the world of makers, artists, tinkerers or anything else.
HW
- Arduino
- Raspberry Pi
SW
- TinyWebServer (Arduino server)
- NodeJS (Raspberry Pi server)
- HTML5
- Javascript
- Coffeescript
- AngularJS
MIT and Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
- Arduino (support for Raspberry Pi coming soon...)
- TinyWebServer compatible networking sheild/module (currently tested with Arduino Ethernet, Wifi coming soon...)
- SD card sheild/module
- ability to load a sketch onto the Arduino
- ability to load files onto SD card
Or just grab a LaunchPad kit (coming soon...)
- Install Arduino library dependencies of: Flash (http://arduiniana.org/libraries/flash/) and TinyWebServer (https://github.com/ovidiucp/TinyWebServer)
- Assemble Arduino, networking sheild (if not built-in), SD card sheild (if not built-in)
- Load all files in /webapp directory onto SD card
- Tweak launch_pad.ino sketch in /arduino/launch_pad directory to represent your network configuration
- Load sketch onto Arduino
- Hit your Arduino's webserver at the IP addr you chose in step 3.
- Navigate to /index.htm if not auto-redirected and see a page which constantly graphs the state of Analog Port 0, in both ADC counts and mV. OR
- You should be brought to a webpage describing how to build off the LaunchPad (coming soon...)
Help in building any of those (comming soon...)'s above. Start from scratch or ask if there are any initial thoughts to start from.
!!!More to come!!!
Old Content:
What: Embedded system used collect data for or communicate output from IoT sites like Mission Control or Cosm
Why: A great project to contribute to for anyone who is interested in wirless sensor networks, client-side web application development, and any embedded system applications which could make use of these technologies to collect or communicate.