BarCamp Cambridge, ARM microcontroler

ARM microcontroler dev guy.

hard to use these processors, whanted to make something like this availableto normal peoplewant internet bluetooth connected devices

so they built something

he just plugged in a microcontoler with a wireless sensorhis machine things that it's a flash drive

he dregged over a binarythe device started blinking, this is the hello world of hardware hacking,cool

what can you do now? well cool stuff obviously!

the other cool thing is that there is a compiler on a websiteso you can talk about things in the context that people imagine themthis is built on top of c++

you can save straigt onto the device, as the computer just thinks that its ahard drive.now he has a flashing light on this

it's about giving people confidence in the tools that they are working with.there was no software that needed to be installed, reducing the chainbefore you get a response.

if you have a long chain, compiling and so forth,by the time you get a response your confidence that you have done the rightthingcan be low.

low chain, high level of confidence.

he then hacks the light to flash at a vairable rate depending on how totwist a switch. this normally takes about two days to get workingin the usual embeded programming systems.

the difference between this and lego mindstorms is you make this system doanything you wantand it can talk to the internet.

hacked with a gps sensor in his garden, and it told him that he was 2 milesaway from his gardenvia google-maps. It was outputting in degrees and minutes but needed to bein digital.

how does it compare to sunspots?

the main audience for this is people who want to add some control the theirdesign, but that it is not their core competence.For people who want to bridge the physicall world and the internet world.

could put an accelerometer in a rocket, and fly it for school kids. Change'fly' a rocket, and it's cool, to 'fly a rocket, and learn aboutacceleration'.