http://blogs.msdn.co...here-is-it.aspx

Microsoft is looking for hardware vendors who are interested in developing kits and modules, so you could contact them if you are interested.

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?

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 ?

I have somewhat of a mixed background in that I am a radio amateur (ham radio) as well as working as a programmer all my life.

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.

Very nice tutorial, it got a tweet from me ;-)

Here is a nice presentation Powering your embedded devices with C# and .NET Micro Framework in which Netduinos are featured.

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.

How do develop and deploy for the Arduino in Visual Studio:

http://www.adafruit....-visual-studio/

Another option is to get a good used analog oscilloscope, I picked up a used Tektronix 100 Mz dual channel unit that is absolutely top quality. If you shop around you should be able to find one for $100 or less, often much less. Look on Craigs List and E-Bay. It is best if you find one locally as they are big, heavy and easily damaged in transit if not packed properly for shipping. Plus if you buy locally you can verify that it works before handing over your cash. I have heard of many people who were poor students without much money who have asked around and gotten used scopes for free, although that route will probably take you longer. Good luck!

For an audio device you most likely want a logarithmic rather than a liner taper. In looking through the data sheet (quickly), figure 2-2 (page 17) seems to show this as a linear taper.

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

Indirectly related, here is a blog post about the Beta of the NETMF port to the STM32 F4.

Additional information on NETMF for STM32.

Where can one find the bill of materials for the existing Secret Labs go modules? In particular I would like to know the manufacturer, part number and sourcing information for the socket. Thanks.

I would like to start by building two modules: 1) A slide potentiometer first to get my feet wet. Circuit should be the same as the existing potentiometer module with a slider instead of a rotary control. 2) A rotary encoder module. Of course I have plans for more, but one needs to crawl before one walks or runs ;-) And I should add that both of these will be open source hardware and software.

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.

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

Hello Avax,

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

If you would like to see the .Net MF runnng on a M3 take a look at:

http://blogs.msdn.co...ce-project.aspx

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).

The design surface in Visual Studio for .Net Gadgeteer is very cool, particularly for documenting how the modules are connected. The code generation is of less interest to me for Netduino GO.

Here is a blog post showing how it works.

Has anyone given any thought to having this for Netduino GO?

I was surprised to see that at least one supplier has started discounting Netduinos and apparently has both Netduinos and Pluses in stock.

http://www.seeedstud...etduino&x=0&y=0

This definitely looks interesting, thanks for posting. A Netduino Go module that used their card would be quite useful.

Will anyone else be at ESC Boston (Sept. 26-29) http://esc.eetimes.com/boston/?

Interested in meeting up?

In another thread Chris stated: The modules should be flashable via go!bus, no special hardware required. And with the upcoming standard virtual I/O firmware, you'll be able to just say "use pins X, Y, and Z on the STM8S for the following features" and no knowledge of C or STM8S architecture will be required. Those pins/features will simply become "part" of the mainboard. WHat is the current status of this? I would like to flash a potentiometer module.

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.

First off, let me say how glad we all are that your son is safely home again. Also welcome to the Netduino community.

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.