What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

Workshopshed — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 08:29:40 GMT

Just spotted this one, today. Right size and functionality but still does not solve the single supplier conundrum. Also 3.3v rather than 1.8v

https://onion.io/omega2s/

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

ipv1 — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 05:40:05 GMT

Intel's intent was to dip their toes in the maker market. People buy one or two PCs but the number of duinos is a lot more. The idea was to test how the world responds to a tech especially since there is a lot of IP take over in the last few years.

I Intel Galileo was evolved into a full fledged IoT Industrial Gateway aka the Siemens IoT2000 which is marketed by RS. Fitting they kill the hobby version since they have all the data they need. Microsoft migrated their Windows IoT from Galileo to RPi3 so naturally it was time to move on. The Edison is a wearable tech and you can be sure to see more of it in a different package. The Joule also will take a new shape as an industrial IoT Gateway as seen on Intel's IoT web pages. The 101 is migrated to the tinytile which is a lot more cost effective.

They killed the names and their users. The tech still exists and is evolving. I feel the lack of embedded Linux guys drove these platforms away from the maker community.

Just my two cents worth.

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

Workshopshed — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 13:56:02 GMT

Here's a teardown of the PLC

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IQhSz1mtW4:440:330]

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

mike_lm — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 02:57:46 GMT

Hello Randall,

Having lost my job and not being able to keep on paying rent, I had to come back to my parents' house, where I have been trying to make any possible change to give them a more energy efficient house, to avoid raising costs around here, with my presence :-)

The Pocket IO Development Platform could help us make an integrated home monitoring platform, with three immediate uses (more to come):

1 - Control the motors in the solar tracking system I intend to build for two small solar panels I am building to replace the rooms lights at night (we would then be using LED bulbs or LED strips fed by 12 V batteries).

2 - Help us keep track of the quality of the energy that the power company is providing us (three devices/appliances burnt last month due to spikes in the mains and power outages). Here in Brazil, we need to prove that the problem is the variation in the mains supply so we could take legal action and make them pay for the damages. A monitoring circuit built around Analog Device's Metering ICs like ADE7880 or similar could be left measuring and storing the data 24/7, so we could track the problems in the energy line, using RS-485 to send the data.

3 - Our house was built in a good community some sixty years ago. We never needed alarms and cameras. But, now, things are changing: two or three months ago, someone jumped the wall and robbed some electric tools from my brother that were in his garage. I bought some cameras and presence sensors that will need to be monitored and have servo motors to change the camera's targets but hadn't had them installed yet just because I was thinking on how to control their motors.

Well, I think that these are the most immediate uses I could think of for an integrated system built around Pocket-IO!

Regards,

Miguel L. Martins

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

Workshopshed — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 05:26:59 GMT

A PLC is a great way to control a complex Electro-mechanical project. I know Tim Hunkin uses old controllers to control his animatronic games such as i-Zombie

My main concern with this module is that it's based around the Edison. A very functional board but given that Intel have stopped development it does raise the question of product life and support.

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

cybermah — Thu, 04 May 2017 01:59:36 GMT

I would attempt to build a 3d printer. But unlike regular 3d printers, I would use a robotic arm design. The Pocket IO looks like it would be an excellent alternative to the regular arduino and stepper motor drivers.

Thanks

Dana

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

ipv1 — Mon, 01 May 2017 17:20:48 GMT

[mention:55e535b498a841ed8f2949266bc56dc3:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] sir I just tried out some basic functionality on the Edison and sure enough it works but I don't yet know about the software support that comes for the Pocket IO. Is there any reference material or is part of this exercise creating example applications? I would be in favour of creating an example application for the device given a decent timeframe and planning. Please keep me posted on any developments.

Sincerely,
IP

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

dougw — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 18:08:30 GMT

I like the functionality in this product and would consider it if the need arose. It is a bit of struggle to break into the PLC market as the industry seems very conservative and leans towards proven rugged industrial products, and it often needs to be compatible with legacy systems and their software development infrastructure. I used lots of PLC equipment when I was designing test stands for gas turbine engines and engine subsystems, but I no longer have much involvement with PLC applications. Actually now that I think about it, at work we have started to build some HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Test) systems for some of our products and it might be great for those. They involve electro-mechanical-pneumatic cycling rigs. As a maker/hobbiest I have not yet come across applications where this would be a compelling solution. It has caused me to start thinking about the possibilities though...

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

balearicdynamics — Sun, 23 Apr 2017 22:57:28 GMT

If I have one of these in my hand I recall my memories... It was the mid of '80s and I was an active member of the Italian Society of Ergonomics. With the collaboration of the University of Turin Dept. of Anthropology and SIE (the mentioned society) I have developed a PLC based industrial data collector. It was a non-conventional use of the AEG PLC (one of the most advanced in that period). The project was developed to the "Carmencita Lavazza" coffee machine production plant near Turin (Design Paradiso, la fabbrica del linguaggio presente - Lavazza ) Every working machine has been equipped with a PLC collecting information on the worker: working time, stress calculation, number of pieces etc. All these information was collected by every work area PLC and send to a 386 graphic PC using a RS242 network with a multi-serial card on the PC. The information collected from every work area was integrated real-time with the stress indicators accordingly with the industrial work area optimisation principle as described in the sacred-text by GrandJean Fitting task to the human that I own in my library.

Starting from a initial pause and work cycle based only on the production needs, the worker detected stress level was progressively updating the initial machines work-area parameters and the new work-pause cycles was automated dynamically to adapt to every single worker to optimise their working conditions reducing the stress.

As a result the global productivity has not been influenced during the daily cycle but the redistribution of the work timings contributed to define a more comfortable working environment.

It will be very interesting to replicate this approach with a modern view and a better and faster hardware, optimised data flow and a more accurate sampling analysis. The availability of this device with a wide set of differentiated I/O ports and the possibility to communicate via BLE and WiFi seems the optimal PLC device for fast and easy customisation on different kind of work-areas.

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

ipv1 — Sun, 23 Apr 2017 20:52:36 GMT

One if the points not mentioned here is the presence of BTLE. I have been struggling with the Edison Arduino Breakout board and this seems to have a lot of desired features.

If I were to get my hands on one of these, I would probably it for a power logging device I have been planning. The concept is to have a battery powered device that can monitor a voltage and current and then record and calculate power consumption. The data is to be sent via BLE and I am working/struggling with Cordova and iOS for creating a compatible app that can collect the information and send it via MQTT as well as log it to local storage. The routines can be written in C++ and the onboard ADCs can measure the values. It's an overkill for the Edison but makes it easy to prototype and run off a battery making it portable.

If anyone else wants to jump at the idea, please feel free as well.

RE: What Would You Build with the Pocket IO™︎ Development Platform?

DAB — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 17:21:51 GMT

Very intriguing.

I have been looking for a controller to integrate into an old CNC Kit I never finished.

I could use the Digital IO to control the stepper motors and monitor the stops.

I no longer need it as a CNC device, but I have been wanting a 3D axis controller for a microscope project I have in mind.

Caveat. With my ADD, it might take me a while to fully explore the device, so this would have to be a long term project for me.

On the plus side, I can provide a very good review on how easy it is to integrate based upon how user friendly the UI and documentation is written.

Just a thought.

DAB