This year the Hour of Code will be the biggest and best ever. There is so much I can’t wait to share, and it starts with a special video!
Source: The Hour of Code is coming. What will you create? – Code.org – Medium
Categories
Introducing Arm Mbed Linux OS | Mbed
By joining the Open Invention Network, Microsoft is offering its entire patent portfolio — with the legacy exception of its Windows and desktop application code — to all of the open-source patent consortium’s members.
Source: Microsoft open-sources its patent portfolio | ZDNet
Bluetooth is a ubiquitous wireless technology that is increasingly being used in smart building applications and devices.
Source: Bluetooth basics and how it’s used in smart buildings
Categories
State of VSCP
Just a short info about what is brewing in the VSCP world.
Over the years that VSCP has existed it has been times with pretty good interest and times with very low-interest. This comes and goes and have done so many times. At the moment we are in a low period. Contributions to the project has never been very high even in periods of high interest, almost non existing in fact, and of course that is not better during a low period like this.
I have been working with this for so long now and coded a lot of code with other people’s needs in mind. Mostly broadcasting free stuff with a lot of effort behind it out in an empty space. It feels a bit awkward to continue that road ahead forever. As it feels now I will switch to do more “fun stuff” for my own needs instead of doing a general package for m2m/IoT in the future.
New drivers on the way
For my own projects I need some drivers for the Raspberry Pi and I therefore is building three Raspberry Pi specific drivers at the moment
vscpl2drv-rpigpio and vscpl2drv-rpigpio-if2
This is a driver that handle general GPIO on the Raspberry Pi (used pigpio/pigpiod). It can be programmed with a decision matrix so you can send for example CLASS1.CONTROL, TurnON/TurnOff event(s) to control specific I/O, PWM, Servo and frequency support is there. Also input monitoring. Event based and periodic. It comes in two versions one that uses thew pigpio lib and one that use the pigpiod server.
vscpl2drv-rpilcd
With this driver you can control a LCD connected to the Raspberry Pi by sending/trigger on VSCP events. parallel mode and I2C supported.
vscpl2drv-rpimax6675
Interface a MAX6675 for K thermocoupole temperature measurements.
The driver is build if –enable-rpi is used in the configure script. It will be a month or so before they is officially released.
Abandon wxWidgets
I have decided to leave wxWidgets for future work. This affects all components except VSCP works. Expect this to take a year or two before it is completed. The new drivers mentioned above already have this change in them.
XML configuration
For the future all Level II drivers will use a XML variable for configuration. This is true for the drivers mentioned above and will be for all current drivers as well. The old variable model will still be there for backward compatibility.
Bluetooth mesh
I have used a lot of money to collect Bluetooth mesh capable hardware for some time. And this winter will be used for work with these. VSCP is very well suited for Bluetooth mesh. I can’t almost wait before I can start this work. Excited!
OK that’s all for now folks.
Add a little more smarts to each device, while having a long healthy life on a small battery
Source: Announcing a New Wireless Chip with Longer Lifetime, More Space
Categories
Debugging tools
Of all debugging tools in my lab the LED + a resistor is the most used ones. Always had been, always will be.
New Z-Wave owner Silicon Labs has launched a public developer site for the Z-Wave home automation wireless standard with public documentation, a public Z-Wave SDK, a Raspberry Pi image, and a forum.
Source: Z-Wave opens up with new public SDK and developer site