BarCamp Cambridge, ARM microcontroler ++

ARM microcontroler dev guy.

hard to use these processors, whanted to make something like this available
to normal people
want internet bluetooth connected devices

so they built something

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

he dregged over a binary
the 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 website
so you can talk about things in the context that people imagine them
this is built on top of c++

you can save straigt onto the device, as the computer just thinks that its a
hard 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 chain
before 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 right
thing
can be low.

low chain, high level of confidence.

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

the difference between this and lego mindstorms is you make this system do
anything you want
and it can talk to the internet.

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

how does it compare to sunspots?

the main audience for this is people who want to add some control the their
design, 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 about
acceleration'.