RoadTest: MAXREFDES143#: DeepCover Embedded Security in IoT
Author: dannystaple
Creation date:
Evaluation Type: Evaluation Boards
Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True
What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?:
What were the biggest problems encountered?: Some issues with power (though perhaps I should have read documentation in more detail) and not detecting module absence.
Detailed Review:
This was my first outing with an mbed board, which was definitely a really pleasant surprise. The documentation for this was rich, detailed and comprehensive - most things were covered, perhaps some areas annotated where the secure aspects were covered, but in terms of the evaluation board and the main mbed board there were BOM's, layouts, schematics, links to datasheets.
The mbed compiler online was fantastic, saving the usual rigmarole of getting yet another development environment to work. It's web based, has great examples built in (much like the Arduino set up), and offers a very neat and simple workflow - although it would be nice if it didn't all land in your "Downloads" folder and you could "save as" to a project folder with the local binaries.
The example code specific to the board was easy to load into the compiler, although some issues mentioned were around having the shield plugged in when trying to upload new code - the sensors and modules on the shield perhaps pulled too much power.
I have made a further, and more detailed commentary in a video where I show how I got the thing working, close up views of the boards, how the kit comes out of the box and a little bit of debugging when I had issues.
This devkit is recommended first to examine the DeepCore security aspect and the specifics, perhaps to look at using code to further detect the absence of a board and get to know the not-demonstrated RF ability. It's also recommended as a playful way to start out with the mbed at all, and discover the polish of this platform.
