CHICAGO – August 13, 2014 – element14, Plotly and Texas Instruments (TI) are proud to announce 10 finalists in the Internet of the Backyard challenge, a competition designed to elevate summer activities. During this unique competition, designers will use the all-new SimpleLink
Wi-Fi
CC3200 LaunchPad from TI and the online collaborative platform Plotly to bring Internet of Things (IoT) technology to traditional backyard elements.
“IoT is obviously a key trend in the electronics and engineering fields, and element14 is the place where engineers are building the internet of things,” said Dianne Kibbey, global head of community, element14. “We received some great proposals from people in the U.S. and abroad, and we’re looking forward to seeing how their builds could make summer more connected and enjoyable for people in the future.”
The participants and their proposed projects include:
- Janis Alnis (Latvia) – automated tomato irrigation system
- Christopher Bailey (U.S.) – moisture-detecting garden watering system that also deters pests
- Don Bertke (U.S.) – storm detector; or a squirrel detector to keep them away from a bird feeder
- Bill Crum (U.S.) – backyard gate monitoring system
- Colin Gerrish (Ireland) – grass length monitoring device
- Steve Hamilton (U.S.) – garden monitoring system measuring humidity, temperature, precipitation, sunlight and wind, among other factors
- Lukasz Krysiewicz (Poland) – intelligent garden umbrella
- Timothy Nott (U.S.) – automated bird observation system
- Matthias Stutz (Germany) – rooftop weather station
- Brian Sutherland (Canada) – humidity-sensing sprinkler
The finalists will post blog updates on element14.com/backyard every two weeks to show their progress, and the winner will be announced October 17, 2014, with the prize being a trip to an upcoming Maker Faire to show off their build.
In designing the CC3200 LaunchPad, TI has produced the industry's first Wi-Fi solution with a user-dedicated, programmable MCU. At the heart of the device lies a high-performance ARM Cortex-M4. Combined with onboard temperature sensors and a 3-axis accelerometer, TI’s new product is ready to drive an entire IoT application with a single IC, right out of the box.
Plotly makes it easy for design engineers to capture, stream, and visualize data from their development kits, and they have developed a custom API just for LaunchPad users to easily connect their development kits to the Internet.
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About the Premier Farnell Group
Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl) is a global leader in high service distribution of technology products and solutions for electronic system design, production, maintenance and repair. It trades as Farnell element14 in Europe, Newark element14 in North America and element14 across Asia Pacific. With sales last year of £968m, the Group is supported by a global supply chain of more than 3,500 suppliers and an inventory profile developed to anticipate and meet its customers’ needs.
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