CoAction Hero: Tiny 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 Microcontroller on Kickstarter

The CoAction Hero is a new tiny microcontroller launching on Kickstarter.

It comes with with a 120 Mhz processor, 1 megabyte filesystem, lots of I/O pins and built-in OS.  When I say tiny, this is small.  It has a companion display and bluetooth module.

I start to look at how easy it is to program this and I think of the hours I spent getting the Arduino Due trying to work.

This is better compared not to an Arduino (Orange County Chopper vs. Italian Scooter) but other small Cortex based micros like the Teensy which is just slightly cheaper but runs only 40% the clock speed of the Hero.  Both have extensive software support which put the Arduino IDE to shame.

This looks like a great project - the right combination of polished hardware and mature Open-Source software.  Definitely one that I'd like to take for a spin.

Twine Available for Purchase

The Twine sensor is one of the more successful Kickstarter projects completed.  It is a battery-powered wifi sensor node.  It has internal temperature and orientation sensors and can use other sensors purchased separately.

It looks like they have fulfilled Kickstarter orders as they are now available for purchase from the designers website Supermechanical and from Amazon.com.  They are more expensive than the $99 preorder price: $125 from Supermechanical, $140 from Amazon.

My opinion: this could be the basis for a household Internet of Things but the price point has to come down, probably by half at least.  Thoughts?

Arduino Shields on Your New Raspberry Pi Gertboard

The Gertboard hardware expansion board for the Raspberry Pi is now shipping.  I received my Newark confirmation last week.  Besides many cool driver chips, it has an Arduino ATMega chip and all the breakout pins along one side.  In my opinion, I believe the Pi + Arduino is a good fit - expanded hardware and peace of mind that Linux will not interrupt real-time control at a crucial moment.

The one issue folks may have an issue with is Arduino shield (expansion board) compatibility. There are not "standard spaced" headers to place the pins so shields may be used by plugging them in.  More of a mechanical issue than compatibility really.  Clever people are wiring them up directly (an example Youtube video is here).  But I had an epiphany - use the Gertboard and the Kickstarter Breadboard Shield Adapter which adapts a shield header format to a pin inline format which can be mapped to the Gertboard easier.

The adapter's inline pins would map well to the Gertboard below

Gertboard ATMega pins on the left would map to the pins placed in the breadboard above.

Now it is only a matter of a few months until some cleaver person actually makes a direct adapter to plug shields into the Gertboard (you read it here first).  In the interim, I say buy a Breadboard Shield Adapter and then pat the pins yourself, either on a breadboard setup or a custom cable or just by wiring things yourself - it'll work much better than using individual jumper cables to to a test setup (that would not travel well).

Anyone game?

Supporting "Breadboard Shield Adapter for Microcontrollers or Arduino" on Kickstarter

Another one of those "duh, cool, I want one!" Kickstarter projects.  The "Breadboard Shield Adapter for Microcontrollers or Arduino" project is brought to us by Chuck Hellebuyck.  It allows electronics in the "Arduino Shield" form factor to be plugged into this board and all the pins are brought to a 0.1 inch spaced breadboard friendly layout.

Have a PIC or a Nano / tiny form factor microcontroller?  No problem to get to a shield's pins.

Prices are reasonable - I chose the $12 level for the board only (I have lots of headers from previous projects).  You can also get a kit with unsoldered headers or an assembled board.

Head over to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/818225433/breadboard-shield-adapter-for-microcontrollers-or for more information.

Instilling Confidence in New Projects: Talk to the Crowd

The Raspberry Pi Foundation and good Kickstarter projects share an important feature when it comes to instilling confidence in a newly developed customer base: talk, and lots of it.

When one has a concept but no shipping product, how do you convince potential customers?  Certainly not News Releases (which are ignored regularly).  No, blog posts, spec sheets, and lots and lots of answering questions from the Internet.  Nothing appeases the masses like information - when no product is in hand, it is the only currency you may have.

Does a plethora of information help?  Yes - look at the Pebble watch Kickstarter and many more.

So if you plan to do "something wonderful" and need (or want) support then put the word out, frequently, and ensure you engage your customers' questions.