Planet Arduino

 This is a guest post from Vaughn Shinall, Head of Product Outreach at Temboo. 

Making 20,000 cakes more safely and efficiently every day, improving engine manufacturing for lawnmowers so they run more quietly, and designing farms to need less water. These are just a few examples of how Arduinos are being used everyday by engineers, businesses, and researchers with Temboo. Our embedded code generation engine empowers all sorts of people and organizations to program Arduino to connect to any cloud service, enabling ideas and creative applications all over the world.

Today we’re excited to announce a big update to our support for Arduino devices. In line with the great advances that Arduino has made with its development boards and Internet-connectivity shields recently, we’ve upgraded our generated code and Arduino library to support the latest Arduino hardware.

Temboo’s code generation engine now officially supports the following boards:

• Arduino Yún
• Arduino Uno
• Arduino Mega
• Arduino Zero
• Arduino 101

As well as the following Internet connectivity shields:

• Arduino Yún Shield
• Arduino WiFi 101 Shield

Temboo will generate code for these Arduino boards that is production-ready and optimized for embedded devices. You can even select the sensors, actuators, and GPIO pins you are working with in our interface so that the generated code automatically converts sensor readings into real world units and handles conditional logic to, for example, send an SMS alert whenever high temperatures are detected.

Temboo also ensures that your sensor data and other information is protected in transit by establishing a secure connection from your board to the Temboo platform via HTTPS. As always, any information that you store on the Temboo platform is secured via military-grade encryption. Combining Temboo’s generated code with your Arduino board enables you to easily accomplish many common IoT tasks, from generating sensor data graphs viewable in any browser, to integrating with 100+ popular APIs, triggering sensor-based alerts via email and SMS, and remotely controlling actuators like LEDs, solenoids, fans, motors, and more.

Our customers in the food & beverage and manufacturing industries have been putting these features to good use on top of Arduino hardware, and they’re part of a growing trend. More and more types of engineers, from chemical and civil to mechanical and electrical, are incorporating Arduino and Temboo into their work and in the process acquiring new skills that can be applied to many engineering tasks, from retrofitting existing machinery for connectivity to remotely monitoring any type of physical asset.

We’re really excited about supporting the latest Arduino hardware, and will be regularly enhancing our Arduino library and generated code, so stay tuned for updates!

Twitter is not only a convenient way to consume daily news and converse with friends online, it has become an excellent platform for gaining insight on what’s important at any particular moment in time. With this in mind, Maker Chadwick John Friedman has decided to harness the social network’s data into web-connected physical representations with the help of Arduino and Temboo.

PrecogNation uses three 3D-printed geometric masks as real-time sci-fi future forecasters, which illuminate and change colors to reflect sustainability trends throughout the world.

The three geometric 3D-printed masks are wirelessly connected to the Internet via an Arduino Yún. The masks were printed using a Zortrax 3D printer and white Z-ABS filament. The masks are a remixed version of Stephen Kongsle’s “Low Poly Mask.” Each mask took approximately 16 hours to print. The masks are constantly scraping data from Twitter in real-time via Temboo Choreos. Temboo assigns special API keys for Arduino devices that allow the user grab real-time data from Twitter that would otherwise be difficult to gather. That live data is then fed to the Arduino Yún, which illuminates a specific 10mm super bright LED, connected to the masks.

One of the largest challenges in representing this overload of data physically was finding the correct terms and/or keywords that activate a specific color/thought in the Precog’s faces. The three colors present in the faces are scraping the Twitterverse for terms relating to sustainability, environmental threats, and political involvement. PrecogNation has its very own Twitter account, which allows the masks to scan through data specifically submitted by sustainability related users, corporations, and initiatives.

As seen in the video below, progress in sustainable development (green) is represented by keywords such as renewable energy, clean coal, water treatment and wind turbines. Threats to sustainability (red) include deforestation, global warming, record heat, extinction, pollution, pandemics and so on. Meanwhile, blue denotes an overload of data and contradicting results.

The overload of data in the color blue works like this… say the word ‘polar’ is found, but then the words ‘melting-polar’ are found, followed by the words ‘polar bear.’ This is an unreadable thread of information – it’s not really giving us threats or progress related to sustainability so the face reflects the color blue to signify that confusion. Coming up with the correct terms to represent the overload of information was especially tricky, and writing the code to reflect that confusion was equally as challenging. I eventually found a series of keywords and demands that elicited the response I was hoping for in this category.

It is important to highlight the fact that although the colors red and blue may be perceived as negative (and usually appear more than the color green), they also mean that there are discussions about those negative sustainability issues happening every time those colors are activated. This is, in fact, a positive outcome, as one of the main goals of this project is to highlight the importance maintaining a dialogue – even if that dialogue surrounds daunting threats to sustainability. It is important that the masks provoke a highlighted continuation of focus surrounding social and political sustainability issues.

You can read all about the project on PrecogNation’s page.

This was gonna happen – sooner or later. [matthewhallberg] built a “Smart” trash can that is connected to the Internet and can be controlled by its own Android App. We’re not sure if the world needs it, but he wanted one and so built it. He started it out on a serious note, but quickly realized the fun part of this build – check out his funny Infomercial style video after the break.

The build itself is uncomplicated and can be replicated with ease. A servo motor helps flip the lid open and close. This is triggered by an ultrasonic ping sensor, which responds when someone waves a hand in front of the trash can. A second ping sensor helps inform the user when it is full and needs to be emptied. A Leonardo with the Idunio Yun shield helps connect the trash can to the internet. An mp3 shield connected to a set of powered computer speakers adds voice capability to the trash can, allowing it to play back pre-recorded sound clips. Finally, a Bluetooth module lets him connect it to an Android phone and the companion app controls the trash can remotely.

For the IoT side of things, [matthewhallberg] uses a Temboo account to send an email to the user when the trash can is full. The Arduino sketch, a header file to configure the Temboo account, and the Android application can all be downloaded from his blog. If this project inspires you, try building this awesome Robotic trash can which catches anything that you throw near it  or read the barcodes off the trash being thrown out and update the grocery list.

Is there a cool Internet of Things idea that you’ve wanted to try out with your Arduino, but just haven’t had time for?  Building a network that integrates multiple sensors and boards into one cohesive application can be time-consuming and difficult.  To make it a bit easier, Temboo just introduced new Machine-to-Machine programming that lets you connect Arduino and Genuino boards running locally in a multi-device network to the Internet.  Now, you can bring all the power and flexibility of Internet connectivity to Arduino applications without giving up the benefits of using low power, local devices.

Our friends at Temboo now support three M2M communication protocols for Arduino boards: MQTT, CoAP, and HTTP. You can choose which to use based on the needs of your application and, once you’ve made your choice, automatically generate all the code you need to connect your Arduinos to any web service. You can also save the network configurations that you specify, making it easy to add and subtract devices or update their behavior remotely.

With Temboo M2M, you can program flexible distributed device applications in minutes. From monitoring air quality and noise levels in cities to controlling water usage in agricultural settings, networked sensors and devices enable all sorts of powerful IoT applications. You can see it all in action in the video below, which shows how they built an M2M network that monitors and controls different machines working together on a production line.

Our friends at Temboo just introduced a new way to log data from an Arduino Yún to the cloud. Called Streaming, it lets you visually select the sensors attached to your Arduino that you have gathering data, and then stream that data to the cloud IoT platform of your choice.

Streaming also makes it easy to switch where you’re sending your data once your application is running, without requiring any hardware or software updates. Right now, Streaming works with Microsoft’s Power BI and Google’s BigQuery, but Temboo will be continuing to add more platforms in the future. As with Temboo’s other Arduino programming tools, Streaming lets you generate all the code you need for your application right in your browser, and tailors that code to the parameters that you specify. It makes it much easier to store sensor data from your Arduino in the cloud, and to analyze the datasets that you build.

This video shows you how it works:

Last week Temboo just added new Conditions features to its IoT Mode interface, making it even easier to connect your Arduino to the Internet of Things! Now, the functionality of Temboo’s Device Coder has been extended to all 2000+ Choreos in the Temboo Library, meaning that data collected from sensors attached to an Arduino Yún can be used to trigger any cloud process, and responses from the cloud can be used to trigger all sorts of hardware actions on your board.

Using IoT Mode on the Temboo website, you can automatically generate ready-to-run Arduino code to execute Choreos from your board without having to write a single line of code yourself—just specify which board and shield you’re using and what Choreo you’d like to run, and all the necessary code will be generated immediately in your browser. And you can also now visually specify what sort of hardware inputs and outputs you would like to use: the code to connect them to your Choreo will be generated as well.

The visual interface includes a pin selector tool that lets you choose which pins you want to activate and how you want them to interact with the Choreo you are running. The pin selector identifies the pins on your board that are available, and also indicates whether those pins are configured to work with digital or analog I/O. Like the generated code itself, the pin selector interface will change to reflect the board and shield you’ve chosen to work with.

Conditions make it quick and easy to build a massive range of IoT applications, like a thermometer that sends SMS alerts, or a motor that runs when it receives an email. Just specify how you want your pins to interact with the web services you are using, and thanks to Conditions, what you specify will be reflected in a complete, production-ready program generated instantly in your browser. Try it out, and email hey@temboo.com to let them know what you think!

Jochen Maria Weber is a Researcher and Designer at the intersection of Interaction- and Industrial Design. He shared with us Project Cuckoo, a project running on Arduino Yún and looking at our interactions with intercepted social networks and how alternative ways of communicating might change them:

Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and co. collect our data and are forced to have a backdoor for state surveillance. Therefore Cuckoo encrypts messages into randomly generated words, meanings and noise in order to scatter them over multiple communication networks simultaneously. Each letter of an original message gets translated into complex forms of certain length forming new sentences. Those sentences get posted to aforementioned social networks, next to randomly generated noise-sentences for distraction. The encryption method can be changed with every new message. Any receiving Cuckoo-unit following the respective social network accounts can filter and decrypt the important posts according to their encryption method and time stamp. Cuckoo combines social networks to build a hidden one on top of their infrastructure. An egg in the others’ nests.

Cuckoo uses an Arduino YUN to connect wirelessly as a stand-alone device to the internet. It also does the en- and decryption of all messenges and made it comfortable to connect to Twitter, Skype and Tumblr API with Temboo.

Take a look at the video on Cuckoo’s website.

December is finally here and we can start thinking about indoor or outdoor decorations for the holiday. Christmas lights are an excellent way to light up any event and a user on instructables wanted to be able to control the lights remotely with text messages.

Check his 12-step tutorial  and take a look at the bill of materials:

• An Arduino Yún – You could use another Arduino with a Wifi Shield though.
• A Protoshield with (or without) a tiny breadboard
• A regular breadboard will work as well, but will be less compact.
  If you want to solder more, you can just use a small circuit board instead.
• A 5V relay
• A piezo buzzer
• Wires
• A battery operated Christmas decoration (It’s not even Thanksgiving, so I’m using a Halloween decoration)
• A Temboo account
• A Twilio account

 

A week ago we were in London for an introductory workshop on the Arduino Yún. The participants were mainly beginners, knew the basics about Arduino and had the chance to learn about the Bridge library, how to control the board locally through the browser and to use Temboo to connect the plant to Twitter. See the pictures on the our Flickr account.

Arduino history is tied to the city of London: the first Arduino workshops ever took place right there.

We are now planning to organise more #ArduinoTour activities in UK and we are looking for teachers and ambassadors of the Arduino community in London and also UK in general. Are you interested? Fill the form!

Next workshop in the City is scheduled on the 20th and 21st of December and it’s focused on beginners. On the 19th from 6 to 8 pm there will be a public presentation on the Arduino project and also get in touch with possible collaborators. Take a look at the program and book your participation to the workshop – (location still to be defined, more news soon).

Our friends at Temboo are releasing more cool stuff for your Internet of Everything. Here’s some news from their blog.

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Now you can connect even more Arduinos with the power of Temboo by simply flipping our IoT Mode on. This new feature opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the Internet of Things.

What is IoT mode, you ask?

It’s a new way to access our 2,000+ Choreos on any of your Arduino or Arduino-compatible boards. By just hitting a switch at the top right of any Choreo page, you “got the power” to call that Choreo with a sketch tailored specifically for the device you pick from our drop down menu. Previously, this feature was only available for the Yún, but now it is open to the larger Arduino family. All you have to do is select the type of shield your board uses and the code will generate accordingly.

So how do I begin using this amazing IoT feature?

Select a Choreo from our vast Library and turn on IoT Mode. In the example above, we chose the Data.gov API and the GetCensusIdByCoordinates Choreo. Data.gov is a cool way to access APIs from a number of US governmet agencies and to query government datasets, including the US Census!

The “Arduino” option encompasses compatible boards that lack the Yún’s built-in wifi capabilities, but can connect to the internet with a shield. Fill out your shield’s specifics when the popup appears and save for future use. Run your Choreo and scroll down to retrieve the code for the sketch, ready to be pasted into your Arduino IDE. You can even plug this into a sketch generated by our nifty Device Coder to start mixing and matching!

We are thrilled just thinking of all of the possibilities this unlocks for the Internet of Things. We want to hear all about what you cook up with this new capability, so if you are working on an interesting project, reach out to us at hey@temboo.com!

Find out more on their blog!