PeekyPokey - a USB board for h/w programming in .NET
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Hi guys! I've been told this is the right place for this so here goes... I've made a USB board called PeekyPokey with an API so that you can use .NET languages such as C# for interfacing with electronics stuff like relays, RFID tag readers, tactile buttons, rotary encoders, motors, keypads, sensors, servos and things like that. Here's the project home page on CodePlex: http://www.peekypokey.org/ The API also comes with an extensive toolkit containing classes for the PC side of things too - like a built in webserver, gamepad drivers, virtual keys, MIDI interface, HID interface and so on - things you can use to control electronic devices. The software is free and most of the PC driver stuff actually works without the hardware. In essence, PeekyPokey has 8 general input/outputs, a virtual COM port, 3.3V and 5V power supplies. It kind of brings Windows PCs and electronics together in pretty much the same way IOIO does for Android. The PeekyPokey board targets programmers curious of embedded electronics programming and hardware interfacing. The whole idea is to play, explore, learn and have fun with electronics. I'm wondering if you'd be interested in me writing an article about the board and how to use it? NOTE: I'm not selling the boards, I'm just the creator. Thanks!
I use to be a control engineer, for HVAC and Access control and I got to tell you.. Awesome work man. Most of the high end controls I used have all been logical block programming which had its benefits and drawbacks. IE Automated Logic, Niagara AX Framework. I personal prefer being able to code with C#. Does this little board have distributed code ? for example can it operate without the PC ? Either way, this SDK looks like a great prototype tool. A good way to build something for testing and proof of concept. I would not recommend using it in a production cycle, for that you would want to build your own board. But again man, awesome work!
=)
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Hi Hanzibal2, I think what you've done is very interesting (too bad I can't vote your post up on this forum). I visited the CodePlex site, and nowhere on that site can I find out where either a finished board, or a hardware kit with parts, printed-circuit board, and schematic, can be purchased. Any clues ? thanks, Bill
Google CEO, Erich Schmidt: "I keep asking for a product called Serendipity. This product would have access to everything ever written or recorded, know everything the user ever worked on and saved to his or her personal hard drive, and know a whole lot about the user's tastes, friends and predilections." 2004, USA Today interview
BillWoodruff wrote:
too bad I can't vote your post up on this forum
You can: it is VERY strange, but in this forum, the old voting system is still used. Hover with your mouse over the original post, and then you'll see the old voting system in the bottom-left corner. I don't know why it still uses the old system, but I reported this in the Bugs & Suggestions forum.
The quick red ProgramFOX jumps right over the
Lazy<Dog>. My latest article: Understand how bitwise operators work (C# and VB.NET examples) My group: C# Programmers Group -
I use to be a control engineer, for HVAC and Access control and I got to tell you.. Awesome work man. Most of the high end controls I used have all been logical block programming which had its benefits and drawbacks. IE Automated Logic, Niagara AX Framework. I personal prefer being able to code with C#. Does this little board have distributed code ? for example can it operate without the PC ? Either way, this SDK looks like a great prototype tool. A good way to build something for testing and proof of concept. I would not recommend using it in a production cycle, for that you would want to build your own board. But again man, awesome work!
=)
Thank you so much, your words mean a lot to me! You're totally getting it, it's like you said; the board is primarily for testing, evaluation, prototyping and proof of concept. It's for those of us who are perhaps not ready to implement our new wiz bang innovation directly onto a micro controller. When you got things working as expected with the PeekyPokey, the leap towards general purpose micro controllers will look a lot smaller and you can move along implementing onto an Arduino, PIC, AVR, MSP430 or what have you. The software always runs on the PC using USB to control the board itself. Since your average PC is vastly superior in terms of raw processing power and overall resources, it's much easier and quicker to implement your application logic there while using PeekyPokey as a dedicated h/w interface. You can save optimizations for performance, foot print and economical use of resources for later when porting to an actual micro. Cheers!
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Hi Hanzibal2, I think what you've done is very interesting (too bad I can't vote your post up on this forum). I visited the CodePlex site, and nowhere on that site can I find out where either a finished board, or a hardware kit with parts, printed-circuit board, and schematic, can be purchased. Any clues ? thanks, Bill
Google CEO, Erich Schmidt: "I keep asking for a product called Serendipity. This product would have access to everything ever written or recorded, know everything the user ever worked on and saved to his or her personal hard drive, and know a whole lot about the user's tastes, friends and predilections." 2004, USA Today interview
Thanks to you, I've now sneaked in a "Where to buy" section on the project home page. Figuring they'll probably just ask me to remove the link if not to their liking. Scroll down to the bottom of the front page and you'll see it: http://www.peekypokey.org/ Regards!
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Hi Bill! Thanks for your enthusiasm, I deliberately omitted "Where to buy?" since I suspect CodePlex does not really approve of members pushing for sales. Perhaps I'm wrong, I need to check that. The board can be purchased through a re-seller: http://www.electrokit.com/en/peekypokey-usb-gpio-uart.51054?currency=USD[^] Cheers!
That's great, Hanzibal, The price seems very reasonable to me. I've sent a message to the supplier asking if they will ship a single PP to Thailand. I hope that in the future, as many people have experience using your board, your CodePlex site will include many "first-person stories" of what they are doing with your board. Your current six examples [^], which I assume are your own work, are very clear, and very useful to get an idea of using C# to control the PP ! I'd be very interested to have a greater understanding of what can be done with MIDI using a PP. thanks, Bill
Google CEO, Erich Schmidt: "I keep asking for a product called Serendipity. This product would have access to everything ever written or recorded, know everything the user ever worked on and saved to his or her personal hard drive, and know a whole lot about the user's tastes, friends and predilections." 2004, USA Today interview
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BillWoodruff wrote:
too bad I can't vote your post up on this forum
You can: it is VERY strange, but in this forum, the old voting system is still used. Hover with your mouse over the original post, and then you'll see the old voting system in the bottom-left corner. I don't know why it still uses the old system, but I reported this in the Bugs & Suggestions forum.
The quick red ProgramFOX jumps right over the
Lazy<Dog>. My latest article: Understand how bitwise operators work (C# and VB.NET examples) My group: C# Programmers GroupThanks, ProgramFOX !
Google CEO, Erich Schmidt: "I keep asking for a product called Serendipity. This product would have access to everything ever written or recorded, know everything the user ever worked on and saved to his or her personal hard drive, and know a whole lot about the user's tastes, friends and predilections." 2004, USA Today interview
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That's great, Hanzibal, The price seems very reasonable to me. I've sent a message to the supplier asking if they will ship a single PP to Thailand. I hope that in the future, as many people have experience using your board, your CodePlex site will include many "first-person stories" of what they are doing with your board. Your current six examples [^], which I assume are your own work, are very clear, and very useful to get an idea of using C# to control the PP ! I'd be very interested to have a greater understanding of what can be done with MIDI using a PP. thanks, Bill
Google CEO, Erich Schmidt: "I keep asking for a product called Serendipity. This product would have access to everything ever written or recorded, know everything the user ever worked on and saved to his or her personal hard drive, and know a whole lot about the user's tastes, friends and predilections." 2004, USA Today interview
I really love your enthusiasm! Yes, the examples are my own work as is everything else from designing the PCB in Eagle to writing the software, datasheet and project homepage. It has been a lot of work. I'm pretty sure Electrokit will ship to Thailand but if not, I can act as a proxy if you like. We'll see how it turns out. We're having some friends for dinner tonight but hopefully, I'll get a MIDI example up after that. In the meantime, you might enjoy a little Beethoven: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G0WFRrqB8GE[^] Thanks!
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Hi guys! I've been told this is the right place for this so here goes... I've made a USB board called PeekyPokey with an API so that you can use .NET languages such as C# for interfacing with electronics stuff like relays, RFID tag readers, tactile buttons, rotary encoders, motors, keypads, sensors, servos and things like that. Here's the project home page on CodePlex: http://www.peekypokey.org/ The API also comes with an extensive toolkit containing classes for the PC side of things too - like a built in webserver, gamepad drivers, virtual keys, MIDI interface, HID interface and so on - things you can use to control electronic devices. The software is free and most of the PC driver stuff actually works without the hardware. In essence, PeekyPokey has 8 general input/outputs, a virtual COM port, 3.3V and 5V power supplies. It kind of brings Windows PCs and electronics together in pretty much the same way IOIO does for Android. The PeekyPokey board targets programmers curious of embedded electronics programming and hardware interfacing. The whole idea is to play, explore, learn and have fun with electronics. I'm wondering if you'd be interested in me writing an article about the board and how to use it? NOTE: I'm not selling the boards, I'm just the creator. Thanks!
Have a 5! Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Cool!
Keep Clam And Proofread -- √(-1) 23 ∑ π... And it was delicious.
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Have a 5! Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Cool!
Keep Clam And Proofread -- √(-1) 23 ∑ π... And it was delicious.
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Hi guys! I've been told this is the right place for this so here goes... I've made a USB board called PeekyPokey with an API so that you can use .NET languages such as C# for interfacing with electronics stuff like relays, RFID tag readers, tactile buttons, rotary encoders, motors, keypads, sensors, servos and things like that. Here's the project home page on CodePlex: http://www.peekypokey.org/ The API also comes with an extensive toolkit containing classes for the PC side of things too - like a built in webserver, gamepad drivers, virtual keys, MIDI interface, HID interface and so on - things you can use to control electronic devices. The software is free and most of the PC driver stuff actually works without the hardware. In essence, PeekyPokey has 8 general input/outputs, a virtual COM port, 3.3V and 5V power supplies. It kind of brings Windows PCs and electronics together in pretty much the same way IOIO does for Android. The PeekyPokey board targets programmers curious of embedded electronics programming and hardware interfacing. The whole idea is to play, explore, learn and have fun with electronics. I'm wondering if you'd be interested in me writing an article about the board and how to use it? NOTE: I'm not selling the boards, I'm just the creator. Thanks!
Pleeaase! write an article on it. Thanks! :)
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Pleeaase! write an article on it. Thanks! :)
Thanks, I definitively will now. Just need to come to terms on "format" and what "expression" to use. I've come to realize that most people does not get what the board is and what's required to do those things. Naturally, the problem lies in how I describe it which is sub-optimal. I'd be very grateful for any suggestions on how to formalize the "message" or "offering" to make it easier to understand.
