Hasta La Gadget!

OK, we’re calling it: Computers are more than a passing fad. We’re so convinced of this, that we’ve teamed up with Sparkle Labs to teach you about electricity and electronics prototyping with series of interactive video classes. More »

The two new Arduinos should spell good things for the Arduino heads out there, but meanwhile, on the other side of the tracks… Secret Labs is launching its .NET-friendly Netduino Plus, which adds Ethernet and microSD to a regular Netduino board (which in itself is a sort of high powered, Visual Studio-compatible Arduino, with a 32-bit 48MHz ARM7 processor, instead of Arduino’s 8-bit number, but pin compatible with Arduino “shields”). Unfortunately, the networking code eats of a good majority of the board’s already meager code storage and RAM, but you can always flash the original Netduino’s firmware on here if you’d like. Right now the board is in a “public beta” while the firmware gets some extra tweaks, but you should be able to drop $60 on the final model by the holidays.

Netduino Plus earns you Ethernet and microSD, an approving nod from Microsoft originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At some point in the future, many more everyday objects will have tiny embedded chips that can communicate with networks. But just as we’re debating net neutrality and the value of the open web vs closed client applications, we will have to decide who will control the internet of things, too.

Lines are already beginning to be drawn. Ashlee Vance, writing for the New York Times’ Bits blog, profiles chipmaker ARM’s efforts to bring the internet of things to the masses with its mbed project.

The goal of mbed is to make building prototype objects and programs easier for people who aren’t necessarily used to writing programs or hacking at the guts of electronic devices. It has two main components: a simple $59 microcontroller, and an online drag-and-drop program compiler. This user video by steveravet shows mbed in action, rewiring a Billy Bass novelty talking fish to say funnier things:

Ultimately, though, the idea is to create practical applications to help users in the field. ARM’s Simon Ford told the Times: “I want to see how you get people to experiment. Maybe a washing machine repair man will figure out how to get the machines to report back to him and revolutionize the machines to get a competitive advantage. The point is that I don’t know what they’ll be used for.”

Now, at Adafruit Industries’ blog, DIY-engineering all-star Limor Fried counters the Times’ warm enthusiasm for ARM’s approach with some ice-water skepticism: “mbed requires an online compiler, so that you are dependent on them forever. You cannot do anything without using their online site, ever.”

Fried adds: “We like the hardware in the mbed, the cortex series is great (it’s why we carry an ARM Cortex M3 board now) – but the ARM compiler used with mbed costs about $5,000 so maybe it will never be anywhere but online.” Adafruit notes that similar ARM boards are available with entirely open-source libraries.

Free and open-source vs. ready-for-anyone-to-use out-of-the-box: we’ve been down this road many times before. I doubt this argument will have a clear winner and loser, but it’s important that it’s clearly framed and articulated now, before any one approach gets locked-in as the default option.

See Also:

• A Visit to Adafruit Industries: the Model for Fab-it-Yourself Gone …
• Lego TARDIS With Lights and Sound
• ARM's New Chip Leaves Everyone Else in the Dust, Again
• Spime Watch: why the Internet of Things is a fiasco
• Spime Watch: Shipping Containers and the Future Internet of Things …

GeekDad has already repeatedly geeked out over Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show, and Bruce Sterling gave her newest episode a “Holy cow, kid” at Beyond the Beyond yesterday, but Gadget Lab readers need to see it for themselves.

“Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced microcontroller engineer,” Sylvia says, “here’s two projects me and my dad came up with to get your brain going.” After watching her break down using the Arduino, I actually feel like I could build a Randomly Influenced Finger Flute or MintyBoost of my very own now.

Also, the video’s directorial style is so fine it makes Rushmore-era Wes Anderson look like a hobo. Just sayin’.

• Super Simple Arduino at Makezine;
• Showtime at Beyond the Beyond;
• Rockets and Maker Faire 2010 at GeekDad.

Gardening is about getting your hands dirty and back in touch with nature. But if you are a geek like Andrew Frueh, a graphic designer who lives in Philadelphia, the hobby can take on a high-tech twist.

For less than $200, Frueh has created a garden automation system called GardenBot that uses open source hardware (such as the Arduino) to monitor humidity, temperature and soil conditions. The data is then poured into charts so you can view the world as the plants see it, he says.

“It’s not terribly complicated,” says Frueh, who has put the system into his 120-square-foot backyard garden that has about 20 tomato plants, collard greens, kale and peppers. “The biggest hurdles would be understanding Arduino and having some soldering experience.”

High-tech farming using soil sensors and intelligent management of water resources has been growing among professional farmers. For home gardeners, there are products such as the $50 EasyBloom Plant Sensor that will measure sunlight, temperature, water drainage and fertilizer. But some of those features require subscription, and users can’t hack or tweak it.

Chart shows the conditions in Andrew Freuh's garden over three days.

The GardenBot’s brain is the Arduino board. The rest of the system has a garden station, which is a junction box for all the sensors and a place to secure the wiring.

The key modules for the system are soil moisture sensor, soil temperature sensor, light level and water value. Each of these modules can be built separately and integrated into GardenBot.

Once GardenBot is live, it can send data to a computer so that the information is plotted on a chart and updated every 15 minutes.

Frueh decided to use open source hardware because he was excited by the Arduino microcontroller and the potential to build a system that would be based on modules.

GardenBot has made his gardening experience better and easier, says Frueh.

“We ended up using much less water this year, which was nice,” he says. “It changed how I was thinking about watering the plants.”

Frueh’s GardenBot has been running for about two months with no downtime.

If you would like to build the GardenBot yourself, check out Freuh’s well illustrated and step-by-step instructions on his website.

See Also:

• NASA Scientists Suggest Planting a Lunar Garden
• Geek Gardening: A Wired Guide to Domestic Terraforming
• Passing it On: Sharing Geeky Gardening With Your Children
• Clive Thompson on Why Urban Farming Isn’t Just for Foodies

Photos: Andrew Frueh