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There have been 70 items by JonnyBoats (Search limited from 27-September 23)
#15098 .NET Gadgeteer
Posted by JonnyBoats on 06 July 2011 - 12:40 AM in General Discussion
Microsoft is looking for hardware vendors who are interested in developing kits and modules, so you could contact them if you are interested.
#16750 .NET Gadgeteer availibility
Posted by JonnyBoats on 16 August 2011 - 04:00 AM in General Discussion
Sneak peek inside the lab...
When we build new products, we usually spend about 6-9 months: design, parts sourcing, testing, building test jigs, etc.
To make Gadgeteer affordable, we needed to make our own plastic sockets for Gadgeteer accessories. [These sockets are drop-in replacements for the normal, more expensive sockets. You'll also be able to make your own boards and accessories...all open source.]
We just received the first batch of sockets, so I took a photo of a handful of them.
Now we'll do temperature testing (to make sure they survive the industrial reflow oven) and hand-assemble a few prototype boards.
BTW, a big thank you to the MSR team in Cambridge for their work on Gadgeteer (past, present and future).
Chris
Disclaimer: We haven't officially announced a Gadgeteer product lineup... We do sometimes cancel projects. But I thought I'd share a sneak peek update since you have shared your enthusiasm about Gadgeteer
Chris,
I was looking at the specifications for the connectors used by the .Net Gadgeteer and I see they are rated for an average life of only 500 insertions, which seems incredibly low.
What is the MTBF for your connectors?
#19379 .NET Gadgeteer availibility
Posted by JonnyBoats on 18 October 2011 - 11:05 PM in General Discussion
We actually did a bunch of engineering on a SAM9G45-based open-source Gadgeteer mainboard. Basically, we offered to create a $99 open-source Gadgeteer mainboard, an open-source NETMF port for SAM9G45, and a bunch of open-source Gadgeteer accessories if MSR would open-source the Gadgeteer software. They worked hard on that and were able to open source the smaller core but unfortunately they didn't have the engineering resources to write all the Gadgeteer drivers.
So they felt that they needed to launch Gadgeteer with a closed-source partner. So we had to scrap a ridiculously awesome board.
Chris
Is/was your mainboard similar to this: http://www.armkits.c...CFdU55QodtTGCMw ?
#17204 A Software guy drowning in the Hardware world...
Posted by JonnyBoats on 28 August 2011 - 05:25 PM in General Discussion
In reading this thread (and lots more like it on other forums) I believe that often times people overlook that there is a big difference between knowing enough to get something to work and thoroughly understanding it.
Consider changing the oil in your car. That is something most people can do without an understanding of how an internal combustion engine works. By the same token there are some basics that one needs to know in order to do it safely and not ruin the engine. Things like "Shut the car off before crawling underneath to drain the oil" and 'Be sure to check the oil level on the dipstick before restarting the car and then check for leaks."
Now consider a simple electric lamp. One needs to have a power source, a lamp and some wire to connect them. One does not need to understand the difference between AC and DC current, or for that matter even care.
A good electrical engineer will understand Maxwell's equations, just as someone with a degree in computer science should thoroughly understand design patterns. That having been said, I know lots of people making a living as a programmer could not implement a state machine if their life depended on it.
The plain fact is that for _most_ of the things that beginners want to do with single board computers, knowledge of graduate level engineering is simply not required. What is helpful is the level of knowledge typically required to earn a boy (or girl) scout merit badge. Much of what one needs to know is best learned in a group environment with hands on labs. One could take EE courses at a university or one could simply go to a local hackerspace and learn by doing, benefiting from the experience and knowledge of others.
For those wanting an on-line resource to gain greater exposure to basic EE, two sites I have found helpful are the EEV blog and The Signal Path. If you are rusty on the math or other academic topics (like differential equations) the Khan Academy is a great resource.
Just keep in mind that learning electrical engineering and building simple projects are not always the same.
Finally allow me to say something to the EEs here. For a programmer who already knows C# (or VB) an .Net the Netduino is an ideal first single board computer. Why? because he already has the toolchain (Visual Studio) installed and running on his computer. While there are great, open source toolchains such as GNU on Unix available for a multitude of single board computers, for a programmer who uses Visual Studio on a daily basis that would simply be one more hurtle to getting started with micro-controllers. Similarly for a person with Unix PC who regularly programs in GCC, the Netduino may not be ideal.
Mention was made of the TI MSP430 which at a cost of $4.30 delivered has to be one best deals going. Personally if I am going to make a mistake and destroy a micro-controller I would rather make the mistake with one of my TI 430s than one of my Netduino Plus at $60. Heck, many places charge more that $4.30 just to ship a Netduino! The point being that there are lots of boards and parts available and it is usually best to try many of them and learn rather than fret over finding the one best one.
#15765 Accelerometers and how to use them.
Posted by JonnyBoats on 21 July 2011 - 11:08 PM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)
#18389 Another presentation featuring Netduinos
Posted by JonnyBoats on 25 September 2011 - 02:38 AM in General Discussion
#30255 Another worthwhile purchase?
Posted by JonnyBoats on 05 June 2012 - 07:52 PM in Netduino Go
I have been looking at Go module development and can see that another tool in people's toolset is a logic analyser would you say that this is he case?
With this in mind I was thinking of getting the sparkfun bus pirate as it's quite cheap. Would you say that this is a worthwhile purchase?
http://www.amazon.co...=A2UJ1UULX429TJ
Cheers,
Mike
Have you checked out http://dangerousprot...-pirate-manual/ ?
Keven is correct that a logic analyzer is a great tool, and will do more. That being said, the stuff from dangerous prototypes can't be beat for the money. $30 for the bus pirate is very cheap; of course you will probably want to buy some cables etc which will bring the price up some.
You may also like their logic sniffer - http://www.seeedstud...2.html?cPath=75 At $50 it too is very attractively priced.
#19832 Arduino with Visual Studio
Posted by JonnyBoats on 27 October 2011 - 01:16 AM in Visual Studio
#20156 Arm DSO Nano and family
Posted by JonnyBoats on 03 November 2011 - 01:14 PM in General Discussion
#22137 Audiomixer
Posted by JonnyBoats on 27 December 2011 - 07:26 PM in General Discussion
OK, more digging... I found two good candidates, one 129-steps and one 256-steps digital potentiometer at 10kohm for good money.
I think these will work fine. Now how do I control a bunch (5-8) of these with Netduino, can I do that?
http://se.farnell.co...ip14/dp/9758615
http://se.farnell.co...-spi/dp/1578436
/Ken
#29081 Blog post about the beta of another NETMF port to the STM32 F4
Posted by JonnyBoats on 15 May 2012 - 02:13 AM in Beta Firmware and Drivers
Additional information on NETMF for STM32.
#27346 Building custom go!bus modules for Netduino Go
Posted by JonnyBoats on 16 April 2012 - 05:23 AM in Netduino Go
#27341 Building custom go!bus modules for Netduino Go
Posted by JonnyBoats on 16 April 2012 - 04:41 AM in Netduino Go
#27354 Building custom go!bus modules for Netduino Go
Posted by JonnyBoats on 16 April 2012 - 05:54 AM in Netduino Go
As part of this conversation, we should put together a workflow of best practices for building modules.
Chris
Absolutely! That would be great. Lets also have a workflow for prototyping modules.
#27351 Building custom go!bus modules for Netduino Go
Posted by JonnyBoats on 16 April 2012 - 05:40 AM in Netduino Go
Would it help if we bought a few thousand of each and bundled them in 10-packs for $9.95?
Chris
P.S. All of the PNs are in the .BRD design files.
What would be even better would be a couple of sockets and pre flashed STM8S bundled together for $4.95
#31209 Can we CAN?
Posted by JonnyBoats on 26 June 2012 - 01:33 AM in General Discussion
Welcome to the Netduino forums.
In the past there has been some discussion of CANbus, but I don't know what the current state of that interface is for Netduino.
I do know there are several people (including myself) who would like to see it on the Netduino.
Hopefully others may provide more detailed information.
Hi everyone,
I am a total newbie here.
I have a project I am working on involving LIDAR. The laser measurement device supports CAN bus and I would like to communicate with it using CAN.
I like the netduino platform because I am an experienced .net developer and would like to stay in visual studio if possible.
Anyway I did a search here on "CAN" and nothing came up, but it very likely could be a filtered word like "the".
If anyone has any information on an existing project or thoughts on what hardware would be required to communicate on a CAN bus it would be appreciated.
Regards
Avax
#18294 Cortex M3 Arduino
Posted by JonnyBoats on 21 September 2011 - 03:29 PM in General Discussion
http://blogs.msdn.co...ce-project.aspx
#21619 Current State of features
Posted by JonnyBoats on 12 December 2011 - 02:10 PM in General Discussion
The issue is that, if switching off the whole board, the Netduino wouldn't be able to wake up on time for the UI to flow nicely.
Have you measured the total time for your application to start from a cold boot? I am curious as I would have thought that it would be possible to get that into an "acceptable" range.
As for handling the keyboard and display, why not use a really low power chip (like perhaps the $4.30 TI MSP430 board) to handle that and cause the Netduino to boot as required (like when a key is pressed).
#29372 Design surface like .NET Gadgeteer for Netduino GO?
Posted by JonnyBoats on 18 May 2012 - 05:09 PM in Netduino Go
Here is a blog post showing how it works.
Has anyone given any thought to having this for Netduino GO?
#15703 Discounted Netduinos
Posted by JonnyBoats on 19 July 2011 - 08:37 PM in General Discussion
http://www.seeedstud...etduino&x=0&y=0
#29314 ElectricImp ... heard of them?
Posted by JonnyBoats on 17 May 2012 - 04:37 AM in General Discussion
#17994 ESC Boston?
Posted by JonnyBoats on 14 September 2011 - 01:22 PM in General Discussion
Interested in meeting up?
#29972 Flashing modules via go!bus
Posted by JonnyBoats on 30 May 2012 - 03:24 AM in Netduino Go
#30211 Flashing modules via go!bus
Posted by JonnyBoats on 05 June 2012 - 02:53 AM in Netduino Go
Status update: the basic flashing routine for STM8S modules is working, at this moment in byte mode (*). Now, when the reflashing app for STM32 is available, it can be extended to include flashing of STM8S-based modules, so we can have an unified interface.
(*) Byte mode is the slowest, word and block programming are faster, but a little bit more complex.
Would you be willing to give a status update as well as information on how to get a copy of the flashing routine?
Thanks.
#19408 GPS, GRPS and Google Latitude Tracking
Posted by JonnyBoats on 19 October 2011 - 02:05 PM in General Discussion
Before proceeding it is extremely important to remember the difference between a hobby project and a safety critical device involving life or death. The "gold standard" for being found in an emergency is a EPIRB (and it's little brother, the Personal EPIRB, or PLB that fits in your pocket). These are extremely rugged, waterproof, tested to the highest standards and have long life batteries. Unfortunately one needs to press a button to activate them, so this is probably a "show stopper" for your application.
Another common device with a built in GPS and communication capability is a cellphone or smart phone. In an emergency authorities can easily locate a cellphone provided it is turned on and within range of a tower. It is highly unlikely that you can engineer a solution with similar capabilities at a lower cost than a used cellphone.
As far as a hobby project is concerned, you might want to consider fox hunting, where you simply attach a small transmitter to your son that sends a radio tone for a couple of seconds every minute or two. To locate the transmitter one only needs a simple receiver and a directional antenna. This is how biologists track animals in the wild. See http://www.predatorc...diotracking.htm for details. Newer versions often include a GPS as well. Here is a link where someone did it on the cheap http://www.thefintels.com/aer/frs.htm to find model rockets.
Finally there are commercially available pet tracking devices such as the Garmin Astro.
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