Tech Guides - Single Board Computers

Hot Chips 31, the premiere event for the biggest semiconductor vendors to highlight their latest architectural developments is held in August every year. The event this year was held at the Memorial Auditorium on the Stanford University Campus in California, from August 18-20, 2019. Since its inception it is co-sponsored by IEEE and ACM SIGARCH. Hot Chips is amazing for the level of depth it provides on the latest technology and the upcoming releases in the IoT, firmware and hardware space. This year the list of presentations for Hot Chips was almost overwhelming with a wide range of technical disclosures on the latest chip logic innovations. Almost all the major chip vendors and IP licensees involved in semiconductor logic designs took part: Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Arm, Xilinx, IBM, were on the list. But companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon also took part. There are notable absences from the likes of Apple, who despite being on the Committee, last presented at the conference in 1994. Day 1 kicked off with tutorials and sponsor demos. On the cloud side, Amazon AWS covered the evolution of hypervisors and the AWS infrastructure. Microsoft described its acceleration strategy with FPGAs and ASICs, with details on Project Brainwave and Project Zipline. Google covered the architecture of Google Cloud with the TPU v3 chip.  And a 3-part RISC-V tutorial rounded off by afternoon, so the day was spent well with insights into the latest cloud infrastructure and processor architectures. The detailed talks were presented on Day 2 and Day 3, below are some of the important highlights of the event: IBM’s POWER10 Processor expected by 2021 IBM which creates families of processors to address different segments, with different models for tasks like scale-up, scale-out, and now NVLink deployments. The company is adding new custom models that use new acceleration and memory devices, and that was the focus of this year’s talk at Hot Chips. They also announced about POWER10 which is expected to come with these new enhancements in 2021, they additionally announced, core counts of POWER10 and process technology. IBM also spoke about focusing on developing diverse memory and accelerator solutions to differentiate its product stack with heterogeneous systems. IBM aims to reduce the number of PHYs on its chips, so now it has PCIe Gen 4 PHYs while the rest of the SERDES run with the company's own interfaces. This creates a flexible interface that can support many types of accelerators and protocols, like GPUs, ASICs, CAPI, NVLink, and OpenCAPI. AMD wants to become a significant player in Artificial Intelligence AMD does not have an artificial intelligence–focused chip. However, AMD CEO Lisa Su in a keynote address at Hot Chips 31 stated that the company is working toward becoming a more significant player in artificial intelligence. Lisa stated that the company had adopted a CPU/GPU/interconnect strategy to tap artificial intelligence and HPC opportunity. She said that AMD would use all its technology in the Frontier supercomputer. The company plans to fully optimize its EYPC CPU and Radeon Instinct GPU for supercomputing. It would further enhance the system’s performance with its Infinity Fabric and unlock performance with its ROCM (Radeon Open Compute) software tools. Unlike Intel and NVIDIA, AMD does not have a dedicated artificial intelligence chip or application-specific accelerators. Despite this, Su noted, “We’ll absolutely see AMD be a large player in AI.” AMD is considering whether to build a dedicated AI chip or not. This decision will depend on how artificial intelligence evolves. Lisa explained that companies have been improving their CPU (central processing unit) performance by leveraging various elements. These elements are process technology, die size, TDP (thermal design power), power management, microarchitecture, and compilers. Process technology is the biggest contributor, as it boosts performance by 40%. Increasing die size also boosts performance in the double digits, but it is not cost-effective. While AMD used microarchitecture to boost EPYC Rome server CPU IPC (instructions per cycle) by 15% in single-threaded and 23% in multi-threaded workloads. This IPC improvement is above the industry average IPC improvement of around 5%–8%. Intel’s Nervana NNP-T and Lakefield 3D Foveros hybrid processors Intel revealed fine-grained details about its much-anticipated Spring Crest Deep Learning Accelerators at Hot Chips 31. The Nervana Neural Network Processor for Training (NNP-T) comes with 24 processing cores and a new take on data movement that's powered by 32GB of HBM2 memory. The spacious 27 billion transistors are spread across a 688mm2 die. The NNP-T also incorporates leading-edge technology from Intel-rival TSMC. Intel Lakefield 3D Foveros Hybrid Processors Intel in another presentation talked about Lakefield 3D Foveros hybrid processors that are the first to come to market with Intel's new 3D chip-stacking technology. The current design consists of two dies. The lower die houses all of the typical southbridge features, like I/O connections, and is fabbed on the 22FFL process. The upper die is a 10nm CPU that features one large compute core and four smaller Atom-based 'efficiency' cores, similar to an ARM big.LITTLE processor. Intel calls this a "hybrid x86 architecture," and it could denote a fundamental shift in the company's strategy. Finally, the company stacks DRAM atop the 3D processor in a PoP (package-on-Package) implementation. Cerebras largest chip ever with 1.2 trillion transistors California artificial intelligence startup Cerebras Systems introduced its Cerebras Wafer Scale Engine (WSE), the world’s largest-ever chip built for neural network processing. Sean Lie the Co-Founder and Chief Hardware Architect at Cerebras Lie presented the gigantic chip ever at Hot Chips 31. The 16nm WSE is a 46,225 mm2 silicon chip which is slightly larger than a 9.7-inch iPad. It features 1.2 trillion transistors, 400,000 AI optimized cores, 18 Gigabytes of on-chip memory, 9 petabyte/s memory bandwidth, and 100 petabyte/s fabric bandwidth. It is 56.7 times larger than the largest Nvidia graphics processing unit, which accommodates 21.1 billion transistors on a 815 mm2 silicon base. NVIDIA’s multi-chip solution for deep neural networks accelerator NVIDIA which announced about designing a test multi-chip solution for DNN computations at a VLSI conference last year, the company explained chip technology at Hot Chips 31 this year. It is currently a test chip which involves a multi-chip DL inference. It is designed for CNNs and has a RISC-V chip controller. It has 36 small chips, 8 Vector MACs per PE, and each chip has 12 PEs and each package has 6x6 chips. Few other notable talks at Hot Chips 31 Microsoft unveiled its new product Hololens 2.0 silicone. It has a holographic processor and a custom silicone. The application processor runs the app, and the HPU modifies the rendered image and sends to the display. Facebook presented details on Zion, its next generation in-memory unified training platform. Zion which is designed for Facebook sparse workloads, has a unified BFLOAT 16 format with CPU and accelerators. Huawei spoke about its Da Vinci architecture, a single Ascend 310 which can deliver 16 TeraOPS of 8-bit integer performance, support real-time analytics across 16 channels of HD video, and consume less than 8W of power. Xiling Versal AI engine Xilinx, the manufacturer of FPGAs, announced its new Versal AI engine last year as a way of moving FPGAs into the AI domain. This year at Hot Chips they expanded on its technology and more. Ayar Labs, an optical chip making startup, showcased results of its work with DARPA (U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and Intel on an FPGA chiplet integration platform. The final talk on Day 3 ended with a presentation by Habana, they discussed about an innovative approach to scaling AI Training systems with its GAUDI AI Processor. AMD competes with Intel by launching EPYC Rome, world’s first 7 nm chip for data centers, luring in Twitter and Google Apple advanced talks with Intel to buy its smartphone modem chip business for $1 billion, reports WSJ Alibaba’s chipmaker launches open source RISC-V based ‘XuanTie 910 processor’ for 5G, AI, IoT and self-driving applications

It’s 2019 and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know what a Raspberry Pi is. A series of credit-card-sized board computers, initially developed to promote computer science in schools, has now released its Raspberry Pi 4 Model B in the market yesterday. Read More: Raspberry Pi 4 is up for sale at $35, with 64-bit ARM core, up to 4GB memory, full-throughput gigabit Ethernet and more! Since its release in 2012, Raspberry Pi has had several iterations and variations. Today it has become a phenomenon, it’s the world's third best-selling, general-purpose computer. It's inside laptops, tablets, and robots. This year its offering students and young people an opportunity to conduct scientific investigations in space, by writing computer programs that run on Raspberry Pi computers aboard the International Space Station. Developers around the world are using different models of this technology to implement varied applications. What do you do with your Raspberry Pi? Following the release of Raspberry Pi 4, an interesting HN thread on applications of the Raspberry Pi exploded with over a thousand comments and over 1.5k votes. The original thread poster asked, “I have Raspberry Pi and I mainly use it for VPN and piHole. I’m curious if you have one, have you found it useful? What do you do with your Raspberry Pi?” Below are some select use cases from the thread. Innovative: Raspberry Pi Zero transformed a braille display into a full-feature Linux laptop A braille user transformed a braille display into a full-feature Linux laptop, using a Raspberry Pi Zero. The user used a braille display which featured a small compartment with micro-USB and converted it into a ARM-based, monitorless, Linux laptop with a keyboard and a braille display. It can be charged/powered via USB so it can also be run from a power bank or a solar charger, thus potentially being able to run for days, rather than just hours, without needing a standard wall-jack. This helped the user to save space, power and weight. Monitor Climate change effects Changes in climate have been affecting each and everyone of us, in some way or the other. Some developers are using Raspberry Pi innovatively to tackle these climatic changes. Monitoring inhouse CO2 levels A developer working with the IBM Watson Group states that he uses several Raspberry Pis to monitor CO2 levels in his house. Each Raspberry Pi has a CO2 sensor, with a Python script to retrieve data from sensor and upload it to a server, which is also a Raspberry Pi. Later, on detecting that his bedroom has high level of CO2, he improved ventilation and reduced the CO2 levels around. Measuring conditions of coral reefs Nemo Pi is a Nemo foundation’s technology, which works as an underground weather station. It uses Raspberry Pi computers to protect coral reefs from climate change by measuring temperature, visibility, pH levels, and the concentration of CO2 and nitrogen oxide at each anchor point. Checking weather updates remotely You can also use the Raspberry Pi for ‘Weather Monitoring’, to check the changes in the weather remotely using a smartphone. The main conditions in the weather monitor are the temperature, humidity, and the air quality. Raspberry Pi 3 model B, can be programmed such that it takes data from Arduino, and depending on the data acquired, the cameras are actuated. The Pi receives data from sensors and uploads it to the cloud so that appropriate action can be taken. Making Home Automation feasible Raspberry Pi has been designed to let you create whatever you can dream of, and of course developers are making full use of it. There are many instances of developers using Raspberry Pi to make their home automation more feasible. Automatic pet door drive A developer have used this technology to install a fire-protection-approved door drive for their pets. It is used along with another Raspberry Pi which analyzes a video stream and detects the pet. If the pet is in the frame for ‘n’ amount of time, a message is sent to the Pi connected to the door drive, which opens up slightly, to let the pet in. Home automation Raspberry Pi 3 model works with the Home Assistant with a Z-Wave USB Dongle, and provides climate, covers, lights, locks, sensors, switches, and thermostats information. There are many takers of the RaZberry card, which is a tiny daughter card that sits on top of the Raspberry PI GPIO connector. It is powered by the Raspberry PI board with 3.3 V and communicates using UART TTL signals. It supports home automation and is not only compatible with all models of Raspberry Pi, but also with all third party software. Watering a plant via a reddit bot! There’s another simple instance where a subreddit has control over the watering of a live plant. The Pi runs a reddit bot that reads the votes, and switch on the pump to water. It also collects data about sunlight, moisture, temp and humidity to help form the decision about watering. Build easy electronic projects Raspberry Pi can be used to learn coding and to build electronics projects, and for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word processing, and browsing the internet to learn programming and execute projects. Make a presentation Rob Reilly, an independent consultant states that he uses Raspberry Pi in his Steampunk conference badge while giving tech talks. He plugs it in the HDMI, powers up the badge and runs slides with a nano-keyboard/mousepad and LibreOffice. He says that this works great for him as it displays a promotional video on it's 3.5" touch-screen and runs on a cell phone power pack. Control a 3D printer, a camera or even IoT apps A user of Raspberry Pi states that he makes use of the Raspberry Pi 3 model to use OctoPrint.  It is an open source web interface for 3D printers which allows to control and monitor all aspects of printer and print jobs. A system architect says that he regularly uses Raspberry Pi for digital signage, controlled servos, and as cameras. Currently, he also uses a Pi Zero W model for a demo Azure IoT solutions. Raspberry Pi is also used as a networked LED marquee controller. Read More: Raspberry Pi Zero W: What you need to know and why it’s great FullPageOS is a Raspberry Pi distribution to display one webpage in full screen. It includes Chromium out of the box and the scripts necessary to load it at boot. This repository contains the source script to generate the distribution out of an existing Raspbian distro image. Also a developer, who’s also the Former VP of Engineering at Blekko Inc search engine states that he uses Raspberry Pi for several purposes such as running the waveforms live software from Digilent and hooks to an Analog Discovery on his workbench. He also uses Raspberry Pi for driving a display which showcases a dashboard of various things like Nagios alerts, data trends, etc. Read More: Intelligent mobile projects with TensorFlow: Build a basic Raspberry Pi robot that listens, moves, sees, and speaks [Tutorial] Enjoy Gaming with Raspberry Pi There are many Raspberry Pi-Exclusive Games, available for its users. Minecraft PE is one such game, which comes preinstalled with Raspbian. Most games designed to run natively on the Raspberry Pi are written in Python. Raspberry Pi is being used to stream PlayStation to backups over SMB by networking the onboard Ethernet port of the Pi, to allow access to a Samba Share service running on the Pi. It allows seamless playback of games with heavy Full Motion Video sequences. When an additional support for Xlink Kai is provided to play LAN enabled games over the Pi’s WiFi connection, it enables smooth connection for lag-free multiplayer on original hardware. A user on Hacker News comments that he uses RetroPie, which has a library of many interesting games. Loved not only by developers, but also by the general public These 35$ masterpieces of Raspberry Pi give big power in the hands of someone with little imagination and a spare of electronics. With its fast processing and better network connectivity, even beginners can use Raspberry Pi for practical purposes. A college student, on Hacker News claims that he uses a Raspberry Pi 3b+ model to automate his data entry job by using Python and Selenium, which is a portable framework for testing web applications and provides a playback tool for authoring functional tests. He says that since its automated, it allows him to take long coffee breaks and not worry about it, while travelling. Kevin Smith, the co-founder of Vault states that his office uses a Raspberry Pi and blockchain NFTs to control the coffee machine. An owner of the NFT, once authenticated, can select the coffee type on their phone which then signals the Raspberry Pi to make the particular coffee type, by jumping the contacts that was previously used to be pressed by the machine's buttons. Another interesting use of Raspberry Pi is by a user who used the Raspberry Pi technology to get real-time information from the local transit authority, and the GPS installed buses to help those stranded at the bus station. Raspberry Pi 3 models can also be installed in a Tesla car within the internal network as a bastion box, to run a software which provides interaction with the car’s entertainment system. Read More: Build your first Raspberry Pi project Last year, the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched a new device called the Raspberry Pi TV HAT, which lets you decode and stream live TV. It connects to the Raspberry Pi via a GPIO connector and has a port for a TV antenna connector. Tensorflow 1.9 has also announced that they will officially support Raspberry Pi, thus enabling users to try their hand on live machine learning projects. There’s no doubt that, with all its varied features and low priced computers, developers and the  general public have many opportunities to experiment with Raspberry Pi and get their work done. From students to international projects, Raspberry Pi is being used assuredly in many cases. You can now install Windows 10 on a Raspberry Pi 3 Raspberry Pi opens its first offline store in England Setting up a Raspberry Pi for a robot – Headless by Default [Tutorial]

Lately, IoT is beginning to play an integral part in various industries, be it at the consumer-level, or at the enterprise side of it. With a lot of big players like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google entering this market, IoT adoption has scaled tremendously. It is said to have jumped from a hobbyist level to an industry infrastructure where everything functions on smart devices, that can talk. The bulk release of popular IoT products prove that this market is getting bigger and a lot of individuals have been amazed with home automation products such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Homepod, Google Home and others. These devices are one of the most sought-after things for hobbyist and enthusiasts who are interested to do simple automation with sensors. Following are 5 IoT projects ideas that you can build without a hole in the pocket. To learn how to actually build similar kind of projects, check out our books; Internet of Things with Raspberry Pi 3 Smart Internet of Things Projects Raspberry Pi 3 Home Automation Projects Weather control station This project will not only help you measure the room temperature but will also help you measure the altitude and the pressure in the room. For this project you will need the Adafruit Starter Pack for Windows 10 IoT Core on the latest Raspberry Pi kit. Along with the Raspberry Pi Kit you will also be using other sensors that read temperature, pressure, and altitude. To make your weather station advanced, you can connect the device to your cloud account to store the weather data. Hardware Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 Breadboard Adafruit BMP280 Barometric Pressure & Altitude Sensor Software Windows 10 IoT Core Approximate total cost Less than $60 Facial Recognition Door Self-built home security projects are some of the most popular DIY projects because they can be cheaper and simple compared to bulky professional installations. Here's a project that controls entry access using facial recognition, thanks to Microsoft Project Oxford. This project from Mazudo, based on Raspberry Pi and Windows IoT, is posted on Hackster.io. This is a handy project for DIY enthusiasts who want to build a quick security lock for their homes. Hardware Raspberry Pi 3 Breadboard USB camera Relay switch Speaker Software Windows 10 IoT Core Approximate total cost Less than $50 Your very own Alexa Echo Alexa Echo has always been a handy device, which can take notes, schedule reminders for your appointments, and play podcasts for you. Brilliant, isn’t it?  You can build a fully functional customized Alexa Echo with all the features of Alexa, apart from accessing official music servers like Amazon prime. It will also have an integration with recently included third party apps like todoist and Any.do. This DIY Echo can also be connected to your cell phone devices to manage notifications when the timer goes off, and so on. Only one thing that your DIY will be missing is the ability to function as a bluetooth speaker. Hardware Raspberry Pi 3 Breadboard USB speaker and mic Software Raspbian Approximate total cost Less than $50 Pet Feeder You surely don’t want your pet to starve when you’re away, do you? This customized pet feeder is controlled via the internet; set timings and feed your pet automatically later. These pet feeders are directly connected to WiFi using ESP8266 chip. We can easily add features like controlling the device using cell phone and making dashboards using Freeboard. This project can be later upgraded or rightly reprogrammed to fill your snack bowl at regular intervals as well. Hardware Arduino PIR motion sensor ESP8266 ESP-01 Software Arduino IDE ESP8266Flasher.exe Approximate total cost Less than $40 Video Surveillance Robot Video surveillance is a process of monitoring a scenario, person or an environment as a whole. A video surveillance robot can capture the activities happening in the surrounding where it is deployed and can be controlled using a GUI Interface. For further enhancements, you can even connect your device to the cloud and save the recorded data there. Hardware Raspberry Pi ARM Cortex- A7 CPU L293 motor driver Software Raspbian Approximate total cost Less than $50 These are few economical yet highly useful Internet of Things projects, which can be leveraged to improve your daily activities. Still not convinced?. Think of it this way. Buying the microchip board is a one time investment as it can be reused in separate projects. The sensors and other peripherals aren’t that expensive. You might say, it’s just way easier to buy an IoT device. I would argue that, buying an IoT device is not as satisfying as building one for the same purpose. In the end, there are multiple advantages of building one as you can brag about it to your friends and most importantly include it in your resume to give you that edge over others in an interview. Cognitive IoT: How Artificial Intelligence is remoulding Industrial and Consumer IoT Windows 10 IoT Core: What you need to know 5 reasons to choose AWS IoT Core for your next IoT project  

Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi 3 are the go-to options for IoT projects. They're tiny computers that can make a big impact in how we connect devices to each other, and to the internet. But they can also be a lot of fun too - at their best, they do both. For example, Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi were used to make a custom underwater camera solution for filming the Netflix documentary, Chasing Coral. They were also behind the Autonomous racing robot. However, how are the two microcomputers different? If you're confused about which one you should start using, here's a look at the key features of both the Arduino Uno and the Raspberry Pi 3.This will give you a clearer view on what fits your project well, or maybe just help you decide what to include on your birthday wishlist. Comparing the Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi 3 Raspberry Pi 3 has a Broadcom BCM2837 SoC with it can handle multiple tasks at one time. It is a Single Board Computer (SBC), which means it is a fully functional computer with a dedicated processor, memory, and is capable of running an OS - Raspberry Pi 3 runs on Linux. It can run multiple programs as it has its own USB ports, audio outputs, a graphic driver for HDMI output. Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328, an 8-bit microcontroller with 32KB of Flash memory and 2KB of RAM, which is not as powerful as SBCs. However, they are a great choice for quick setups. Microcontrollers are a good pick when controlling small devices  such as LEDs, motors, several different types of sensors, but cannot run a full operating system. The Arduino Uno runs one program at a time. One can also install other operating systems such as Android, Windows 10, or Firefox OS. Let's look at the features and how one stands out better than the other: Speed The Raspberry Pi 3 (1.2 GHz) is much faster than Arduino (16 MHz). This means it can complete day-to-day tasks such as web surfing, playing videos, with greater ease From this perspective, Raspberry Pi is the go-to choice for media centered applications. Winner: Raspberry Pi 3 Easy time interface Arduino Uno offers a simplified approach for project building. It has easy time interfacing with presence of analog sensors, motor, and other components. By contrast, the Raspberry Pi 3  has a more complicated route if you want to set up projects. For example, to take sensor readings you'll need to install libraries and connect to a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Winner: Arduino Uno Bluetooth/ Internet connectivity Raspberry Pi 3 connects to Bluetooth devices and the internet directly using Ethernet or by connecting to Wi-Fi. The Arduino Uno can do that only with the help of a Shield that adds internet or Bluetooth connectivity. HATS (Hardware Attached on Top) and Shields can be used on both devices to give them additional functionality. For example. HATs are used on the Raspberry Pi 3, to control an RBG Matrix, add a touchscreen, or even create an arcade system. Shields that can be used on the Arduino Uno include a Relay Shield, a Touchscreen Shield, or a Bluetooth Shield. There are hundreds of Shields and HATs that provide the functionality that you regularly use. Winner: Raspberry Pi 3 Supporting ports The Raspberry Pi 3 has an HDMI port, audio port, 4 USB ports, camera port, and LCD port, which is ideal for media applications. On the other hand, Arduino Uno does not have any of these ports in the board. However, some of these ports can be added on the Arduino Uno with the help of Shields. Arduino Uno has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. Winner: Raspberry Pi 3 Other features Set-up time Raspberry Pi 3 takes longer to set up. You'll also probably need additional components such as a HDMI cable, a monitor, a cable, and a keyboard and mouse. For the Arduino Uno you simply have to plug it in. The code then runs immediately. Winner: Arduino Uno Affordable Price Arduino Uno is much cheaper. It's around $20 compared to Raspberry Pi 3, which is around $35. It's important to note that this excludes the cost of cables, keyboards, mouse and other additional hardware.As mentioned above, you don't need those extras with the Arduino Uno. Winner: Arduino Uno Both Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi 3 are great in their individual offerings. Arduino Uno would be an ideal board if you want to get started with electronics, and begin building fun and engaging hands-on projects. It's great for learning the basics of how sensors and actuators work, and an essential tool for one's rapid prototyping needs. On the other hand, Raspberry Pi 3 is great for projects that need an online connection and have multiple operations running  at the same time. Pick as per your need! You can also check some of our exciting books on Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi 3 Home Automation Projects: Bringing your home to life using Raspberry Pi 3, Arduino, and ESP8266 Build Supercomputers with Raspberry Pi 3 Internet of Things with Arduino Cookbook   How to build a sensor application to measure Ambient Light 5 reasons to choose AWS IoT Core for your next IoT project Build your first Raspberry Pi project

The Internet of Things is growing all the time. However, as IoT takes over the world, there are more and more aspects of it that needs to be addressed, such as security and standardization. It might not be ideal to live in a wild west where everything is connected but there are no guidelines or rules for how to manage and analyze these networks. A crucial part of all this is metadata – as data grows in size, the way we label, categorize and describe it will become more important than ever. Find our latest and forthcoming IoT eBooks and videos here.  We probably shouldn’t be that surprised – if IoT is all about connecting things that wasn’t previously connected – traffic lights, lamps, car parts – good metadata allows us to make sure those connections remain clear and legible. It helps to ensure that things are working properly. A system without definitions, without words and labels, would, after all, get chaotic pretty quickly. Metadata makes it easier to organize IoT data If metadata is, quite simply, data about data, it’s not hard to see why it might be so important when dealing with the expanse of data that is about to be generated thanks to the internet of things. While IoT will clearly largely run on data – information and messages passing between objects, moving within a given system, metadata is incredibly useful in this new world because it allows us to better understand the systems that we are developing. And what’s more, once we have that level of insight, we can begin to do more to further improve and optimize IoT systems using machine learning and artificial intelligence.  Consider how metadata organizes your media library – it would be a mess without it, practically unusable. When you scale that up, we’ll be able to make much smarter use of IoT. Without it, we might well be lost in a chaotic mess of connections.  Metadata, then, allows us to organize and catalog data.  Metadata solves IoT's interoperability problem Metadata can also help with the biggest problem of IoT: interoperability. Interoperability refers to the ability for one device to communicate and exchange data with another device. And this is really important in the context of the Internet of Things, because having great interoperability means more devices can connect with each other.  How does metadata solve interoperability? Well, by using metadata, a device can quickly identify a new device that tries to connect to it by looking at its model number, device class, and other attributes. Once the new device has been identified, our device can find a suitable communication protocol that's supported by both devices to exchange data. Metadata can also be added on the exchanged data, so both devices can read and process the data correctly, just like adding image format metadata allows any application to display that image. Metadata helps to protect legacy hardware and software There's another aspect that metadata can help with. The Internet of Things is an evolving technology where new products are introduced every day, and bring along with them changes and innovations. But what happens to the old products that have been replaced by new ones? With metadata, we can archive and protect the future accessibility of our devices, making sure that new devices can still communicate with older, legacy devices.  That's why metadata is important for the Internet of Things. There are many benefits that can be gained by having a robust system of metadata in the Internet of Things. And as the Internet of Things grows and is used to manage more crucial aspects of our lives, the need for this system will also grow. Raka Mahesa is a game developer at Chocoarts who is interested in digital technology. Outside of work, he enjoys working on his own projects, with Corridoom VR being his latest relesed gme. Raka also regularly tweets @legacy99.

Okay, so you’ve decided to be a maker and you’ve created a little electronic project for yourself. Maybe an automatic garage door opener, or maybe a simple media server for your home theatre. As you learn your way further into the DIY world, you realize that you need to decide on the hardware that will be the basis of your project. You’ve checked the Internet for help, and found out the two popular hardware choices for DIY projects: the Raspberry Pi and the Arduino. Since you're just starting out, it seems both hardware choices serve the same functionality. They both are able to run the program needed for your project and they both have a big community that can help you. So, which hardware should you choose? Before we can make that decision, we need to understand which hardware is best. Let's start with the Raspberry Pi. To put it simply, the Raspberry Pi is a computer with a very, very small physical size. Despite its small size, the Raspberry Pi is actually a full-fledged computer capable of running an operating system and executing various programs. By connecting the mini-computer to a screen via an HDMI cable, and to an input device like a keyboard or a mouse, people will be able to use the Raspberry Pi just like any other computer out there. The latest version even has wireless connectivity built right into the device, making it very easy for the hardware to be connected to the Internet. So, what about the Arduino? The Arduino is a microcontroller board--an integrated circuit with a computing chipset capable of running a simple program. If smart devices are run by computer processors, then "dumb devices" are run by microcontrollers. These dumb devices include things like a TV remote, air conditioner, calculator, and other simple devices. Okay, so now we have completed our crash course for both platforms, let's actually compare them, starting from the hardware aspect. Raspberry Pi is a full-blown computer, so it has most of the stuff you'd expect from a computer system. It has a quad-core ARM-based CPU running at 1,200 MHz, 1 GB of RAM, microSD card slot for storage, 4 USB 2.0 ports, and it even has a GPU to drive the display output via an HDMI port. The Raspberry Pi is also equipped with a variety of modules that enables the hardware to easily connect to other devices like camera and touchscreen. Meanwhile, the Arduino is a simple microcontroller board. It has a processor running at 16 MHz, a built-in LED, and a bunch of digital and analog pins to interface with other devices. The hardware also has a USB port that's used to upload a custom program into the board. Just from the hardware specification alone we can see that both are on a totally different level. The Raspberry Pi has a processor running at 1,200 MHz CPU clock, which is roughly similar to a low-end smartphone, whereas the processor in Arduino only runs at 16 MHz CPU clock. This means an Arduino board is only capable of running a simple program, while a Raspberry Pi can handle a much more complex one. So far it seems that Raspberry Pi is a much better choice for DIY projects. But well, we all know that a smartphone is also much more limited and slower than a desktop computer, yet no one is going to say that smartphone is useless. To understand the strength of the Arduino, we need to look at and compare the software running the hardware we're discussing. Since Raspberry Pi is a computer, the device requires an operating system to be able to function. An operating system offers many benefits, like a built-in file system and multitasking system, but it also has disadvantages like needing to be booted up first and programs requiring additional configuration so they can run automatically. On the other hand, an Arduino is running its own firmware that will execute a custom, user-uploaded program as soon as the device is turned on. The software on Arduino is more much limited, but it also means using it is pretty simple and straightforward. This theme of simplicity and complexity also extends to the software development for both platforms. Developing a software for Raspberry Pi is complex, just like developing any computer software. Meanwhile, Arduino provides a development tool that allows you to quickly develop a program in your desktop computer and easily upload it to the Arduino board via USB cable. So with all that said, which hardware platform is the right choice? Well, it depends on your project. If your project is simply about reading sensor data and processing that, then the simplicity of Arduino will help the development of your project immensely. If your project includes a lot of task and processes, like uploading data to the internet, sending you e-mail, reading image data, and other stuff, then the power of Raspberry Pi will help your project successfully do all those tasks. And, if you're just starting out and haven't really decided on your future project though, I'd suggest you to go with Arduino. The simplicity and ease-of-use of an Arduino board makes it a really great learning tool where you can focus on making new stuff instead of making your things work together. About the Author RakaMahesa is a game developer at Chocoarts, who is interested in digital technology in general. Outside of work hours, he likes to work on his own projects, with Corridoom VR being his latest released game. Raka also regularly tweets as @legacy99

For many years, technology in large organizations has been defined by established vendors. Oracle. Microsoft. Huge corporations were setting the agenda when it came to the technology being used by businesses. These tech organizations provided solutions - everyday businesses simply signed themselves up. But this year’s Skill Up survey painted an interesting picture of a world in which developers and tech professionals have a significant degree of control over the tools they use. This is how people responded when we asked them how much choice they have over the tools they use at work: Half of all respondents have at least a significant amount of choice over the software they use at work. This highlights an important fact of life for tech pros, engineers and developers across the globe - your job is not just about building things and shipping code, it’s also about understanding the tools that are going to help you do that. To be more specific, what this highlights is that open-source is truly mainstream. What evolved as a cultural niche of sorts in the late nineties has become fundamental to the way we understand technology today. Yes, it’s true that large tech conglomerates like Apple, Facebook, and Google have a huge hold on consumers across the planet, but they aren’t encouraging lock-in in the way that the previous generation of tech giants did. In fact, they are actually pushing open-source into the mainstream. Facebook built React; Google are the minds behind Golang and TensorFlow; Apple have done a lot to evolve Swift into a language that may come to dominate the wider programming landscape. We are moving to a world of open systems, where interoperability reigns supreme. Companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple want consumer control, but when it comes to engineering and programming they want to be empowering people - people like you. If you’re not convinced, take the case of Java. Java’s interesting, because in many respects it’s a language that was representative of the closed systems of enterprise tech a decade ago. But it’s function today has changed - it’s one of the most widely used programming languages on GitHub, being used in a huge range open source projects. C# is similar - in it you can see how Microsoft’s focus has changed, the organization’s stance on open source softening to become more invested with a culture where openness is the engine of innovation. Part of the reason for this is a broader economic changes in the very foundations of how software is used today and what organizations need to understand. As trends such as microservices have grown, and as APIs become more important to the development and growth of businesses - those explicitly rooted in software or otherwise - software necessarily must become open and changeable. And, to take us back to where we started, the developers, programmers, engineers who build and manage those systems must be open and alive to the developing landscape of software they can use in the future. Decision making, then, is a critical part of what it means to work in software. That may not have always been the case, but today it’s essential. Make sure you’re making the right decision. Read this year's Skill Up report for free.

Just a week prior to the writing of this post, Maker Faire Bay Area was opened for three days in San Mateo, exhibiting hundreds of makers and attracting hundreds of thousands of attendees. Maker Faire is the grand gathering for the Maker movement. It's a place where the Maker community can showcase their latest projects and connect with other fellow makers easily.  The Maker community has always had a close connection with the technology industry. They use the latest technologies in their projects, they form their community within Internet forumsand they share their projects and tutorials on video-sharing websites. It's a community born from how accessible technology nowadays is, so what can the tech industry learn from this positive community?  Let's begin with examining the community itself. What is the Maker movement?  Defining the Maker movement in a simple way is not easy. It's not exactly a movement because there's no singular entity that tries to rally people into it and decide what to do next. It's also not merely a community of tinkerers and makers that work together. The best way to sum up the entirety of the Maker movement is to say that it's a culture.  The Maker culture is a culture that revels in the creation of things. It's a culture where people are empowered to move from being a consumer to being a creator. It's a culture that involves people making the tools they need on their own. It's a culture that involves people sharing the knowledge of their creations with other people. And while the culture seems to be focused on technological projects like electronics, robotics, and 3D printing; the Maker community also involves non-technological projects like cooking, jewelry, gardening, and food.  While a lot of these DIY projects are simple and seem to be made for entertainment purposes, a few of them have the potential to actually change the world. For example, e-NABLE is an international community which has been using 3D printers to provide free prosthetic hands and arms for those who need it. This amazing community started its life when a carpenter in South Africa, who lost his fingers in an accident, collaborated with an artist-engineer in the US to create a replacement hand. Little did they know that their work would start such a large movement.  What lesson can the tech industry draw from the Maker culture?  One of the biggest takeaways of the Maker movement, is how much of it relies on collaboration and sharing. With no organization or company to back them, the community has to turn to itself to share their knowledge and encourage other people to become a maker. And only by collaborating with each other can an ambitious DIY project come to fruition. For example, robotics is a big, complex topic. It's very hard for one person to understand all the aspects needed to build a functioning robot from scratch. But by pooling knowledge from multiple people with their own specializations, such a project is possible.  Fortunately, collaboration is something that the tech industry has been doing for a while. The Android smartphone is a collaborative effort between a software company and hardware companies. Even smartphones themselves are usually made by components from different companies. And in the software developer community side, the spirit of helping each other is alive and well; as can be seen by the popularity of websites like StackOverflow and GitHub.  Another lesson that can be learned from the Maker community is the importance of accessibility in encouraging other people to join the community. The technology industry has always been worried about how there are not enough engineers for every technology company in the world. Making engineering tools and lessons more accessible to the public seems like a good way to encourage more people to be an engineer. After all, cheap 3D printers and computers, as well as easy-to-find tutorials, are the reasons why the Maker community could grow this fast.  One other thing that the tech industry can learn from the Maker community is about how a lot of big, successful projects are started by trying to solve a smaller, personal problem. One example of such project is Quadlock, a company that started its venture simply because the founders wanted to have a bottle opener integrated to their iPhone case. After realizing that other people wanted to have a similar iPhone case, they started to work on more iPhone cases and now they're running a company producing these unique cases.  The Maker Movement is such an amazing culture, and it's still growing, day by day. While all the points written above are great lessons that we can all apply in our lives, I'm sure there is still a lot more that we can learn from this wonderful community.  About the Author  RakaMahesa is a game developer at Chocoarts: http://chocoarts.com/, who is interested in digital technology in general. Outside of work hours, he likes to work on his own projects, with Corridoom VR being his latest released game. Raka also regularly tweets as @legacy99. 

Something special happens when a kid (or adult) makes an LED blink on their own for the first time. Once new programmers realize that they can control the world around them, their minds are opened to a whole new world of possibilities. DIY electronics and programming are more accessible than ever with the introduction of the Arduino and, more recently, Open Source programming frameworks like Johnny-Five for building Nodebots (JavaScript-powered robots!). But there are still some basic configuration and dependency requirements that can be roadblocks to new users. Our goal as a community should be to simplify the process and develop tools that help users get to their “aha” moment faster. Chris Williams, author of the popular node-serialport library used by the Nodebots community, summarized this goal as: “Reduce the time to awesome.” Johnny-Five does a fantastic job of abstracting away many of the complexities of interactive with Arduinos, sensors, and actuators. But its use still depends on things like installing a particular firmware (Firmata) on the Arduino and setting up a proper Node.js environment for running user’s applications. These requirements are often a stumbling block to those that are just learning electronics and/or programming. So how do we simplify the process further and help new users get to “awesome” faster? Enter Chromebots. Chromebots is an Open Source Chrome Application that rolls up all the requirements for building Nodebots into a simple interface that can run on any desktop, laptop, or even Chromebooks that are becoming popular in classrooms. The Chromebots appllication combines firmata.js, a browser serialport implementation, and all the Node.js dependencies you need to get started building Nodebots right away. It even uses a new JavaScript-based Arduino binary loader to install Firmata for you. There is nothing else to install and no special configuration required. Let’s see just how easy it is to get started. 1) Install Chromebots First, you need to install the “Johnny-Five Chrome” application from the Chrome web store. Once installed, you can launch the Chromebots application via the “Apps” icon in the bookmarks bar of Chrome or the Chrome App Launcher that’s installed to your taskbar (Windows) or Dock (Mac). You’ll be presented with a window like this: 2) Connect your Arduino Plug in your Arduino UNO (or compatible board) via USB and click the blue refresh button next to the Port selection box. The Chromebots app will automatically detect which serial port is assigned to your Arduino. Depending on what operating system you are using, it will be something like “COM3” or “/dev/tty.usbmodem1411”. If you aren’t sure which port is the correct one to choose, simply unplug the Arduino, refresh the list, then plug it back in and see which one shows up new. 3) Install Firmata If you haven’t already installed Firmata on your Arduino (or just aren’t sure), click the “Install Firmata” button. The TX/RX lights will flash briefly on your Arduino, and then the process is complete. 4) Add an LED to pin 13 For our first sample program, we’ll just blink an LED. The easiest way to do this is to insert an LED directly on the Arduino. The longer lead on the LED is positive and connects to pin 13. The shorter negative lead is inserted into ground (GDN) next to pin 13. 5) Run your Johnny-Five program Now you’re ready to run your first program! By default, the Chromebots app starts out with a sample Johnny-Five program that waits for a connection to the Arduino, defines an LED on pin 13, and calls the blink() function. Click the “Run” button and the LED you plugged into pin 13 will start blinking rapidly. And that’s it. You’re now ready to explore the power of Johnny-Five to build your own Nodebot! The Chromebots app makes several variables available for your use. The “five” variable is the standard Johnny-Five library. The “io” variable represents the Firmata instance for the board. jQuery (“$”) and lodash (“_”) are also available as convenience libraries. So what next? I recommend trying a few of the Johnny-Five example programs to get you started with understanding how the framework is used. Note, if you’d like access to the JavaScript console for debugging purposes, there’s one additional step you need to take to enable debugging inside a packaged Chrome Application. Inside Chrome, enter the following into the address bar: “chrome://flags”. Find the option for “Enable debugging for packed apps” and turn it on. Restart your browser (including the Chromebots app) and now you can right-click inside Chromebots and select the “Inspect Element” option in the menu to gain access to the standard Chrome Developer Tools. Now build something awesome and then share it with the Nodebots community! I can’t wait to see what you create. About the author David Resseguie is a member of the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and lead developer for Sensorpedia. His interests include human computer interaction, Internet of Things, robotics, data visualization, and STEAM education. His current research focus is on applying social computing principles to the design of information sharing systems. He can be found on Twitter @Resseguie.

There’s a natural path for the education of a maker that takes place within the techshops and makerspaces. It begins in the world of tools you may already know, like handheld tools or power tools, and quickly creeps into an unknown world of machines suited to bring any desire to fruition. At first, taking any classes may seem like a huge investment, but the payback you receive from the knowledge is priceless. I can’t even put a price on the payback I’ve earned from developing these maker skills, but I can tell you that the number of opportunities is overflowing. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but the opportunities to grow and learn also increase your connections and that’s what helps you to create an enterprise. Your options for education all depend upon what is available to you locally. As the ideology of technological dissonance has been growing culturally, it is influencing advancements on open source and open hardware. It has a big impact on the trend of creating incubators, startups, techshops, and makerspaces on a global scale. When I first began my education into the makerspace, I was worried that I’d never be able to learn it all. I started small by reading blogs and magazines, and eventually I decided to take a chance and sign up for a membership at our local makerspace: http://www.Makerplace.com. There I was given access to a variety of tools that would be too bulky and loud for my house and workspace, not to mention extremely out of my price range. When I first started at the Makerplace, I was overwhelmed by the amount of technology that was available to me, and I was daunted by the degree of difficulty it would take to even use these machines. But you can only learn so much from videos and books; the real trial begins when you put that knowledge to work with hands-on experience. I was ready to get some experience under my belt. The degree of difficulty for a student can vary, obviously, by experience, and how well one grasps the concepts. I started by taking a class that offers a brief introduction to a topic and some guidance from an expert. After that, you learn on your own and will break things such as materials, end mills, electronic components, and lots of consumables (I do not condone breaking fingers, body parts, or huge expensive tools). This stage is key, because once you understand what can and will go wrong, you’ll undeniably want more training from an expert. And as the saying goes, “practice makes perfect,” which is the key to mastery. As you begin your education, it will become apparent to you what classes will need to come next. The best place to start is learning the obvious software necessary to develop your tangible goods. For those of you who are interested I will list the suggested order of the tools and experience I have learned from ground zero. I suggest the first tools to learn are the Laser, Waterjet, and Plasma CNC cutters, as they can precisely cut shapes out of sheet type material. The laser is the easiest to learn, and can be used to not only cut, but engrave wood, acrylics, metal, and other sheet type materials. Most likely the makerspaces and hackerspaces that you have access to will have this available. The Waterjet and Plasma CNC machines will depend upon the workshop, since they require more room, along with the outfitting of vapor and fume containment equipment. The next set of tools that require a bigger learning curve are the Multi-Axis CNC Mills, Routers, Conventional Mill, and Lathe. CNC (Computer Numerical Control) is the automation of machine tools. These processes of controlled material removal today are collectively known as Subtractive Manufacturing. This requires you to take unfinished work pieces made of materials such as metals, plastics, ceramics, and wood and create 2D/3D shapes, which can be made into tools or finished as tangible objects. The CNC routers are for the same process, but they use sheet materials, such as plywood, MDF, and foam. The first time I took a tour of the makerplace, these machines looked so intimidating. They were big, loud, and I had no clue what they were used for. It wasn’t until I gained further insight into manufacturing that I understood how valuable these tools are. The learning curve is gradual, since there are multiple moving parts and operations happening at once. I took the CNC fundamentals class, which was required before operating any of these machines. I then completed the conventional Mill and Lathe classes before moving on to the CNC machines. I suggest the steps in this order, since understanding the conventional process will play an integral role in how you design your parts to be machined using the CNC machines. I found out the hard way why endmills were called consumables, as I scrapped many parts and broke many endmills. This is a great skill to understand as it directly compliments the Additive processes, such as 3D printing. Once you have a grasp on the basics of automated machinery, the next step is to learn welding and plasma cutting equipment and metal forming tools. This skill opens many possibilities and opportunities to makers, such as making and customizing frames, chassis, and jigs. Along the way you will also learn how to use the metal forming tools to create and craft three-dimensional shapes from thin-gauge sheet metal. And last but not least, depending on how far you want to develop your learning, there are large air compressors, such as bead blasters and paint sprayers used with tools that require constant pressure in the metal forming category. There is also high temperature equipment, such as furnaces, ovens, and acrylic sheet benders, and my personal new favorite, the vacuum formers that bend and form plastic into complex shapes. With all of these new skills under my belt, a network of like-minded individuals, and a passion for knowledge in manufacturing and design, I was able to produce and create products at a pro level, which totally changed my career. Whatever your curious intentions may be, I encourage you to take on a new challenge, such as learning manufacturing skills, and you will be guaranteed a transformative look at the world around you, from consumer to maker. About the Author Travis Ripley is a designer/developer. He enjoys developing products with composites, woods, steel, and aluminum, and has been immersed in the Maker community for over two years. He also teaches game development at the University of California, Los Angeles. He can be found @travezripley.

Although solderless breadboards provide makers with an easy way to build functioning circuits and software, the builds are only really reliable if they aren't handled too heavily. For example, in our first post, we talked about building a Weather Cube as a sensory tool for occupational therapists. The breadboard circuit and the foam cube secured inside this might survive fairly well, but for any highly-physical wearable applications, it would be easy for a single wire to be pulled out of the circuit, causing it to fail at a vital moment. In this post, we will detail how we soldered our Weather Cube project, plus provide you with timesaving and pain-saving tips born through trial and error (and one burnt finger). If you have very little or no experience working with stripboards, it could be worth practicing your skills before starting. Important Safety warning Protective equipment such as safety glasses should always be worn. You should also have first aid equipment available whenever working with metal, including melting solder, hacksawing, and spot-cutting copper board. Before you begin soldering your project, you will need the following: A soldering iron (this iron becomes extremely hot, so take care not to touch the tip with your hands)· Solder (usually made of tin and lead). Soldering a stripboard for a Weather Cube First, cut your stripboard (also called veroboard by some people, but it's the same thing). Do this by laying the stripboard horizontal, with the copper side facing you. Count 25 points from the middle, right, and side of the stripboard. Draw a line from top to bottom. Use a G-clamp to secure your stripboard to a solid surface, and then cut along the line with your junior hacksaw. Starting with just downward strokes will help you keep on track initially. You could also cut the top two rails off if you want your project to be as small as possible, or color the top two rails to remind yourself not to count these holes. Then, follow these steps: Count six spaces from the right side. Draw a line from the top to the bottom of the board on the copper side. Count seven spaces from the line you’ve just drawn, and draw a line from the top to the bottom again. Count a further six spaces and once again draw a line from the top to the bottom. Spot cut these lines. Spot cutting involves twisting a dedicated spot cutter into parts of the copper where you want a gap in the copper rails. Then, flip over the stripboard so that the copper bit is facing down, and clip it onto the soldering station holder. For convenience, we recommend using exactly the same component positions as the breadboard build. It’s useful to keep a tested breadboard version of the layout nearby. You can use this as a reference for component positions on the stripboard version as you build it, to help ensure you don’t introduce errors. Soldering a piezo A piezo is a small sensor device used by Makers to convert pressure and force into an electrical charge. These sensors are also very delicate, and can easily come apart. If it does, you will have to re-solder it. To solder the piezo back together, follow these steps: Strip the end of the wire approximately 4mm. Twist the wire strands to make one piece of wire. Tin the wire by coating a bit of solder onto the exposed wire. Then, either push the wire into a hole on the same railing, or if the wire has come detached on the piezo end, then solder it back on to the piezo. Don’t leave the soldering iron on the piezo element for too long as you could damage it. Conclusion Soldering can provide projects with greater robustness, allowing them to be handled without easily falling apart. With these steps, we hope to have provided you with some of the tips and tricks to successfully solder your inventions. About the authors Clare Bowman enjoys hacking playful interactive installations and co-designing digitally fabricated consumer products. She has exhibited projects at Maker Faire UK, Victoria and Albert Museum, FutureEverything, and Curiosity Collective gallery shows. Some recent work includes “Sands Everything”, an interactive hourglass installation interpreting Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man soliloquy through gravity-controlled animated grains, and more. Cefn Hoile sculpts open source hardware and software, and supports others doing the same. Drawing on 10 years of experience in R&D for a multinational technology company, he works as a public domain inventor, and an innovation catalyst and architect of bespoke digital installations and prototypes. He is a founder-member of the CuriosityCollective.org digital arts group, and a regular contributor to open source projects and not-for-profits. Cefn is currently completing a PhD in Digital Innovation at Highwire, University of Lancaster, UK.