Embedded Development Club Rob Miles Department of Computer Science University of Hull

2 Agenda Why Fiddle with Hardware? What Kind of Hardware Can you Fiddle With? – Arduino – Raspberry Pi – Electric Imp – Gadgeteer

3 Why would you Fiddle with Hardware? It is cheap – You can get started with lots of lovely hardware for less than the price of a video game – All of the software and tools are free It is fun – The tools and libraries that are available make it very easy to get interesting contraptions working – There is always new stuff coming along to play wity It might even be useful one day – You might end up with a useful gadget – You might get a job based on your new skills

4 Arduino Single board micro controller Costs around 10 pounds Lots of inputs and outputs to talk to hardware Not a PC (or even a Pi) but plenty powerful enough to be properly useful

5 Programming Arduino You program the Arduino in C++ – But it is best to regard it as C The Arduino toolchain includes a compiler and a downloader to put the code in the device Larger Arduinos have a serial channel they can use to send messages to the PC as they run The IDE works on PC,Mac or Linux

6 Using Visual Studio You can also obtain a plugin for Visual Studio that lets you write programs and even claims to allow remote debugging

7 Lots of Versions There are tons of different Arduino versions – Uno – great to get started with – Leonardo – bit more power and space (but annoying) – Due – more pins, power and space – Pro-mini – my favourite with all the pins of an Uno but £1.50 each – need a programmer though.. – Trinket – tiny embedded version – Lilypad – great for wearables – Squareware – good for driving things

8 Lots of Components Bluetooth – JY-MCU HCO6 (around a fiver) WiFi - ESP8266 (can do lots of other things too – a fiver) GPS – GY-NEO6MV2 (around 8 quid from AliExpress) Clock – DS3231 (around one pound fifty) LCD – 1.8 inch TFT LCD with touch screen (around six pounds) Coloured LEDS – WS2812B leds in various combinations

9 Interfacing All of the components are easy to use Most times you can just search for the part number and someone will have created a driver for you This is just a lump of C++ that you add as a library to your program

10 Raspberry Pi Not really an embedded device But so cheap that you can think of using it as one Has a bunch of pins that you can use from Python (or lots of other) programs Takes a while to boot – which can be a problem

11 Electric Imp Electric Imps are fascinating devices – Although they are comparatively expensive at 20 pounds each plus around 10 for the carrier They look like an SD card but they are really an internet managed embedded device

12 Impish Programming The Imp has a bunch of pins that can be configured as inputs/outputs or serial connections You download a program into the Imp device via its WiFi connection This can run “free standing” or be connected to a script that runs on the server

13 Imp Development

14 Gadgeteer Gadgeteer devices run on an embedded version of.NET You can write C# and do in- circuit debugging using Visual Studio Great for “professional” applications but rather expensive for the hobbyist

15 What next? If you want to have a go you could do worse than buy a kit of parts from eBay Just search for Arduino and you will find quite a few You can get an awful lot of toys for around thirty pounds There is a kit from SparkFun that is quite good too

16 Next Time We have some practical sessions that you might like to have a go at Alternatively just bring along what you are trying to build and we will have a go at building it If you have a passion about a particular aspect of embedded you can give a session all about it

17 More Links Hardware: – – – – Components: – – – – – – – – –