As the topic states, what prototype shield would you recommend?

Yesterday I received bunch of these shields ordered from Adafruit:
http://www.adafruit....&products_id=51
http://www.adafruit....products_id=187

Haven't tried them yet with Netduino, but I had used the first one in past with Arduino and I think its very well designed. Especially if you plan to test some ICs than it has a dedicated pads for it (up to 20 pins). You also get two LEDs and general use button. Important to note that reset button is brought up so it's not obscured by the shield. Important to note that board is double-sided so you can solder on both sides.

If you don't need the extra components you can order just the PCB for half the price:
http://www.adafruit....&products_id=55
But you also need the headers http://www.adafruit....&products_id=85
Or if you don't plant to stack shields simple break-away headers like this (you can cut them easily to proper length):
http://www.sparkfun....products_id=116

The other shield is just regular single-sided prototyping surface but you get lots of free space.

Sorry! I'll keep quiet until I've actually used my Netduino Plus and know what I'm talking about.

No worries. Maybe what you had in mind was using DHCP insteado of static IP configuration, which Chris warned that its not officially supported yet.

DNS is definitely supported in the Netduino Plus.

The optional TimeService component is not included in the Netduino Plus firmware (to free more flash/RAM for apps)--but it would certainly be possible to add on such functionality...

Chris

Indeed DNS is supported and works fine for me.

I think for network connected data logger or similar web enabled scenario it would be beneficial to synchronize to proper local time. Even more because Netduino board doesn't include Real Time Clock so the time needs to be set after each reset.

Michael Schwarz shows how to query the NTP server in managed code and this doesn't look overly complex (I will try it today): http://weblogs.asp.n...rk-devices.aspx

If this is not adding much to the firmware size it would be good to have it implemented.

I don't know, don't have my Netduino Plus yet but maybe try the IP address of the NTP server, maybe DNS is not implemented yet, or what you said maybe NTP is not fully ready yet.

I have tried the same code with the Tahoe II board and in the emulator. Both work fine so I guess this is simply not implemented in the Netduino Plus firmware.

Hi,
I'm trying to use the TimeService class (from Microsoft.SPOT.Time assembly) to synchronize time on Netduino with NTP server. Here is my code:

  var timeServer = "time.nist.org";
  IPHostEntry timeServerHostEntry = Dns.GetHostEntry(timeServer);

  var status = TimeService.UpdateNow(timeServerHostEntry.AddressList[0].GetAddressBytes(), 200);
  Debug.Print("Current time UTC"+status.CurrentTimeUTC);

But I get this exception when calling any method on TimeService:

    #### Exception System.NotSupportedException - CLR_E_NOT_SUPPORTED (1) ####
    #### Message: 
    #### Microsoft.SPOT.Time.TimeService::UpdateNow [IP: 000a] ####
    #### NetworkTest.Program::Main [IP: 0044] ####
A first chance exception of type 'System.NotSupportedException' occurred in Microsoft.SPOT.Time.dll
An unhandled exception of type 'System.NotSupportedException' occurred in Microsoft.SPOT.Time.dll

Is this function implemented in Netduino Plus firmware?

Ah so that's you! We should chat some day I made my own LCD Transfer Provider based on your class as concept at the moment. I did this so it can use multiple 74HC595 IC's with the same latch pin. With my provider it's also possible to link multiple LCD's to the same SPI-pins as well If you like, I can send you my code, so you can take a look at it?

That would be great extension! If you'd like to join the project just send me your login at CodePlex.

Thanks!
-Szymon

Hi Rob, I wrote a library that simplifies connecting with various types of LCDs. You can read about it on my blog http://geekswithblog...id_crystal.aspx The library is hosted on CodePlex: http://microliquidcr...l.codeplex.com/

I am thinking down the road as far as projects are concerned, but I was wondering if the Netduino can be programmed to transfer data to and from the Netduino running in a standalone mode to a PC. For Example, a button is pressed on the Netduino or an analog value is registered and it sends useable results to a program running on a PC - outside of the Visual.net framework.

Hi Greg,
Please see here for discussion of this topic http://forums.netdui...talking-to-wpf/

I received my frist Netduino that I ordered on August 4 from Proto Advantage and it was shiped next day via Air Mail from Canada. Arrived today so it took 2 weeks to get it to Poland. Thanks god we have European resellers now :-) Small box looks cool and I got the USB cable inside the envelope. Anyone can tell me what was the motivation to use micro USB instead of more common mini USB ? The board itself loosk little empty when you compare it to regular Arduino - I guess if you'd trim all the empty space you could put it on a board half that size (Netduino Nano parhaps?). But overall it looks great. Nice work guys!

Hi, Few months ago there was discussion about 802.15.4 support in .NET MF core and according to the last entry it will be included in the next release after .NET MF 4.1: http://www.netmf.com...62-a93f5d3fc110 Can anyone confirm that .NET MF is in fact working on this? And if so I wonder what will be the relationship to uIP project? Personally I'm very interested in the 6lowPAN standard, but I guess this will require appropriate hardware as well. So if Secret Labs can add member to Netduino family with built in 802.15.4 radio this will be perfect. -Szymon

Hi Pascal, Thank you for detailed explanation. I would really love to have all devices communicate over IP. But as a short term goal with Netduino I agree that we should concentrate on the IPv4 stack first. I hope that you will manage to squeze it take less of Netduino ROM than implementation in current Netduino Plus firmware. Please keep us posted on your progress. -Szymon

Hi, In the tech specs the digital pins 7-8 are labeled as UART 2 RTS, and CTS. I'm thinking to use it with XBee since the RTS and CTS is nicely available on the header in adafruit's xbee adapter that I'm using. But I'm not sure how to enable the hardware flow control. I looked at the SerialPort class and don't see any options in the constructor or otherwise. Did I missed something here? Thanks, -Szymon

Have a look at SerialPort.Handshake property.

Thanks CW2, it didn't occured to me that this property would be related. However there is only Handshake.RequestToSend (RTS) value, so should I assume it will enable CTS as well?

@greg
Probably I don't need it right now, but asked out of curiosity since it was mentioned in Netduino tech spec. I'm also reading the documentation for XBee module that mentioned flow control (p.27) thus I wanted to see how this works.
http://ftp1.digi.com.../90000976_F.pdf

Slightly out of topic: does anyone here looked at the ZigBee application profiles? I wonder if it would be hard to implement one in .NET MF. In particular I'm looking at the home automation profile: http://www.zigbee.or...n/Overview.aspx

Hi Pete,

Did you look at this thread
http://forums.netdui...__fromsearch__1

Actually I think this explains it better http://forums.netdui..._2411#entry2411

According to this post the PWM is currently set to fixed clock of 10KHz http://forums.netdui...findpost__p__42 Current implementation of PWM.SetDutyCycle uses values in range 0 from 100 to express the duration of high state in the cycle as percentage. So duty cycle 0 is always off and duty cycle of 100 is always on. But if I understand correctly this is with the default 10KHz clock. On the other hand PWM.SetPulse lets you control the period and duration of the waveform directly. So you should use one of the functions - not both at the same time. Chris also mentioned they want to expose more PWM functions in next firmware.

Szymon

Waiting for that, will help me a lot

Thanks

segu

I have published the article on my blog: http://forums.netdui...-blinking-leds/

Now I will look into writing the driver for one-wire DS18B20 sensor.

On arduino I used these two temperature sensors:
DS18S20 One Wire Digital Temperature Sensor
SHT15 Humidity and Temperature Sensor

Both are very easy to use and produce good results. Last year I've built several wireless units that were measuring temperature, humidity and light level around the house. I put them in the repurposed AirWick Mini automatic refreshners (so I also got a motion sensor as bounus). Here are some photos: http://cid-4c7ec0c21...tal electronics

Anyway, if anyone here is interested I can look into converting the drivers for these sensors to .NET MF.

I for one would definitely be interested!

Chris,
First I want to finish a little tutorial on using shift registers (74HC595) to extend number of outputs of netduino. I'm using 7 segment LEDs as example (this is actually one of basic tutorials for arduino too). I have all code working so hopefully it will be ready this week. Then I can add the temperature sensor so together it could make a digital termometer with LED display.

@segu & @dichotomousgal I'm working on my little tutorial right now, and it should be ready before weekend. I let you know here when it's published. Hope you like it :-)

Elze Kool has published Sensirion SHT11 classes (SHT1x series sensors differ only in precision).

Oh, thats right. I've seen it before but forgot about it. So I will just check how it works with netduino.

Oh, thats right. I've seen it before but forgot about it. So I will just check how it works with netduino.

I tested Elze Kool's SHT11 class and it works great on netduino. It compiled and run without any modifications (besides pin assignments in initialization). So this clearly demonstrates the power of .NET MF code portability (he was using Embedded Master in his demo).

Btw. Elze uses interesting convention to separate input providers from the driver code. I assume he did it in case the sensor would be attached on a different type of bus. For example via an I2C extender chip. I'm curious if you use similar pattern in your code? Are there any other best practices for .NET Micro Framework programming?

With my oscilloscope I see that the period is 115.28 uS. So it take 115.28 / 2 = 57.64 uS to change Digital Port state. To slow for OneWire communication.

Hi Pascal,
Great that you confirmed this with the oscilloscope. I tried this myself and came to the same conlusion like you and Pavel. See here http://forums.netdui...ntation-needed/

@Segu,
I'm afraid that right now if you want to use any OneWire devices you will have to use FEZ boards.

The wikipedia article on 1-wire talks about bridge chips. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Wire
For example I found this one DS2482-800 that works over I2C. This might be a viable short term solution.

The same article also mentions that UART ports could be used:

If a parallel port is inconvenient or the operating system interferes with the timing, a UART running at 100 kbit/s with a few resistors and special software can produce and sense acceptable 1-wire pulses.

Does anyone you know how to make this work?

I'm really enjoying the device so far.

The application I'm working on uses the Parallax RFID reader which is talking to the Netduino as a serial device on D0 so, I'd have to look at D2/D3 for getting data out. Having a way to talk over the USB would be huge, since it would keep the whole solution smaller, simpler and cheaper.

I would be happy to share once I get something that's ready to share.

I'm looking to port this WPF PING sensor application over to the Netduino as well.

Hi futileboy,
If all you want is get the RFID data to PC you actually don't need netduino for that. You can simply connect it directly with the FTDI Serial-to-USB cable.
http://www.adafruit....&products_id=70
http://www.sparkfun....roducts_id=9718

Or you can just get the USB version of the same Parallax RFID reader.
http://www.parallax....17/Default.aspx

Then it will show as virtual comport that you can access using System.IO.Ports.SerialPort class (I should have some sample code if you need help).

That's good advice. And I've looked at going straight to the USB version of the RFID reader. My big motivation for using the Netduino though is that I'd like to add more then one sensor and even some other inputs (switches, knobs, etc) and have it do all the physical device handling. That way, I only plug one device into the system and get an array of data out of it.

In this case you could try to turn your netduino into a proper HID USB device. I haven't tried it yet myself but there is a sample in the .NET MF SDK that shows how to make a virtual mouse.

Here is also excellent article written by Michel Verhagen on GuruCE that shows how to communicate with .NET application using WinUSB driver: http://guruce.com/bl...cation-over-usb Looks like bit more work but it might be worth to give it a try.

In both cases you will probably loose ability to debug on the device via USB so you will need serial cable anyway. I surly can't wait until netduino guys figure out how to make this easier.