Hi volleynerd,

You are correct that the Netduino Go is a bit older (originally released in 2012) and the Netduino 3 is the most recent Netduino (released only a few weeks ago). I covered a bit of the Netduino Go's history in my blog post/review here.

Chris will probably be able to tell you more about the Netduino Go's future, but my understanding is that it's only temporarily missing from the main product lineup page. It's still receiving firmware updates, support, etc. at this point.

If you're only using Go modules, need more than 3 GoBus ports, and don't need Wi-Fi or Ethernet, the Go mainboard is still a good choice. Otherwise, I'd choose the Netduino 3

Matt

Hey everyone,

I've just posted an update to my MicroTweet Twitter API library. Some of you may remember the first version of this library from a few years ago -- here's the original forum thread. This library can be used to post and retrieve tweets from NETMF devices.

MicroTweet 2 is available on GitHub here: https://github.com/m...ower/MicroTweet
I also have a blog post about it here: http://mattisenhower...6/microtweet-2/

Twitter now requires SSL to access their API, so the only Netduino model this library currently works with is the Netduino 3 Wi-Fi.

Enjoy!

Matt

+1

Microsoft have posted a ton of great tutorials for their Windows IoT Core platform on hackster.io. Netduino would be a great addition

Matt

Interesting idle power numbers!

The Raspberry Pi 2 will need much more power than that during actual use I even had some trouble powering mine with a 1A USB adapter.

Also, I don't have actual numbers for this, but power usage on the N3W does shoot up a bit during Wi-Fi operations (as you'd expect). Still way less than a Pi, though.

How are you measuring this, did you just cut a USB cable?

I used a simple "charger doctor" from Adafruit

Oh, interesting! I hadn't seen this product before. I see they also have this, which would allow you to connect it to a (probably more precise) multimeter: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1456
 

I run my Pi 2 headless and I find it's using about 280mA - 320mA under a reasonably normal load.

It's possible that the adapter I was using was a bit dodgy, too -- I really should take some actual measurements to confirm.

It looks like there have been a few nice additions to the GO! Which mean a few software modifications are required.

Great overview of the differences in the new GoModule base class. Just to add a little background, the SPI changes became necessary because (as of NETMF v4.3?) it was no longer possible to have multiple SPI objects open on the same SPI bus. In my experimental library I just create/dispose of an SPI object for each message, but I think in Chris' library he routes everything through a central, shared instance.

This change and the IRQ/GPIO line changes also help prepare for changes that could come with GoBus 1.5 (for things such as routing messages to GoBus hubs, etc.).

Making the module GUID an abstract property is mostly cosmetic but it does help simplify/standardize the module discovery and instantiation processes. It also makes sense since the ID is literally a property of the module

Matt

Hey everyone,

I've just posted an update to the seven segment display driver that targets NETMF v4.3. This update brings support for the Netduino 3 Wi-Fi and fixes a bug with DateTime values. You can download the installer and source code here.

You might also notice that each public member of the driver now includes XML documentation, which means you'll see documentation like this when writing code for the display:


This documentation doesn't increase the size of the driver assembly -- all text is stored in a separate XML file on your computer.

This driver is built for use with the NETMF v4.3 version of the GoBus driver. The Netduino SDK hasn't been updated to include the new GoBus driver yet, but Chris tells me anyone who needs a copy of it should contact him and he'll send the files over.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or issues! Thanks,

Matt

Matt--are there any demos of the 7seg module running on Netduino 3 that you can share photos of here? You have an awesome weather demo, IIRC?

Oh, thanks for the reminder -- near the bottom of my Netduino 3 Wi-Fi review I have a sample app that pulls weather data from wunderground.com's API and displays it on the seven segment display.

I also show the display in a few examples on my other post, GoBus: An Alternate Approach. These examples use a different version of the driver, however, that is based on an alternative/experimental GoBus library.

Matt

And I hope the microusb connector is throughhole for the attachment?, so they don't tear off ?

It is, and it's soldered in, too (like the NP2, unlike the Netduino Go).

Here's a photo of the bottom of mine -- you can also see the new silkscreen and mini JTAG connector pads, which have been moved to the bottom of the board (and are now surface mount instead of through-hole).

On multicast: are you wanting to subscribe to multicast groups?

I'd like to second this feature request! That could open the possibility of adding Bonjour (mDNS/DNS-SD).

P.S. Even the MicroUSB jack is new.  We obsessed over finding a jack which gave users a satisfying "click".  And then obsessed over a lot of other seemingly-insignificant-but-important things.  This board is over-engineered, as usual; we admit it.

Don't forget about the new mini button too

First off, congratulations to Chris and his team on the release of Netduino 3 Wi-Fi! I've been testing this board for the past few weeks and it really is awesome. I posted some initial thoughts on my blog here.

Being able to use GoBus on a board with network connectivity is huge. This is something I've wanted to have since the Netduino Go was first released I've included an example project in my blog post above where I pull weather data from wunderground.com's API and display it on a seven segment display module. It's remarkable how easy it is to implement something like this with NETMF and GoBus.

When I first received my N3W it was running very early firmware that didn't include the GoBus library. This gave me a chance to think about an alternate approach for GoBus implementation that would allow for more flexibility when using Go modules and their drivers. I ended up implementing this idea in an experimental library and had a lot of fun trying out some of the new possibilities it enabled. I wrote about this in a separate blog post here: GoBus: An Alternate Approach.

Anyway, congratulations again to Chris and his team on another awesome Netduino! I'm looking forward to see what everyone does with their new boards

Matt