Showing posts with label introduction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label introduction. Show all posts

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Tah - Lego block for Internet of Things


TAH Main Board
In this blog post I am going to introduce the Tah platform and talk about some of the applications using it.

Tah is a hardware as well as a software platform.  The hardware has following characteristics
  1. An Arduino with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
  2. Onboard USB (HID device) - emulating a keyboard and a mouse
  3. Great building block (like a LEGO) for your home automation systems using Arduino.

USB HID-Compatible
ATmega32u4 — the microcontroller at the heart of Tah — has onboard USB 2.0 support, that is used to directly program the Tah without having to use a USB-to-Serial converter. Tah can also act as a USB human interface device (HID), which enables you to create your own keyboard, mouse, joystick, or other input devices, all without the need for installing special software on the host computer. If you want to create a new smarter custom keyboard that communicates with your smartphone, you need not look beyond the Tah. It already has sample applications that allow you to control your PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation and Xbox without ever needing to write any code for those platforms — all you need to do is program your Tah board and make a smartphone app, for which we’ve also provided open source examples for both iOS and Android to get you started.

Bluetooth Beacon

Each Tah board can serve as a Bluetooth beacon which tells your smartphone where exactly it is located based on the beacon’s unique identifier. This is amazing for indoor navigation, contextual notifications, and microlocalization.



Here are some of the interesting applications that can be built using the Tah and its shields.

Infrared Control (IR Transceiver Shield)

IR has been used for near range wireless communication for a long time. We have TVs, music systems, air conditioners and so many other things that have their own remote control  
We have created an IR shield which has a transmitter as well as a receiver on board. With this connected to your Tah, you have a universal remote that can be controlled from your smartphone. Forget keeping a bunch of remotes to control everything in your living room. You could do all of that from a single app on your phone. 

Relays (Relays + Sensors Shield)

Electronics is usually associated with low voltage DC appliances but so much of what we use everyday runs on 110V/220V AC. All our light bulbs, fans and everything else.  
To control these there is a Relay shield that translates signals between DC and AC so to speak. One can use the GPIO pins 2 and 3 from the Tah to control 2 relays. 
Bridge the gap between electronics and electrical with this relay plus sensor shield. It comes with its own app which you can use with some standard sensors such as the depth and temperature sensors among others.
  • Input working voltage: 7V to 12V DC
  • Two Relays rated 5V DC.
  • Load Capacity: 10A/120VAC, 10A/24VDC, 7A/250VAC
  • Relays are connected to Pin number 2 and 3 of Tah
  • Digital Pin Numbers 4 to 13 & Analog Pin Numbers A0 to A5 all are connected to 3 pin standard Grove connector

Arduino

That's why we have the Shield Shield which consists of the Arduino UNO R3 layout which let's you use the already available shields in their projects. This shield makes Tah compatible with all existing Arduino Shields, It means all your Arduino-compatible shields are also compatible with the Tah. (Input working voltage: 7V to 12V DC)

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By no means is the above list comprehensive. There are many more amazing things that can be built using the Tah.  


Examples on the website. A forum to discuss more about this.

If you would like this device, you can grab them here.

(This is a product of Reavealing Hour Creations who run this blog and the IOT Community)


Sunday, July 21, 2013

Getting started with the BeagleBone Black

Arduino is the most ubiquitous development platform, period. Anyone who has entered the world of DIY electronics most probably started off with an Arduino. The reasons for this are it's ease, the enormous amount of documentation in the form of wikis, code samples, video tutorials, etc.
But there comes a point when the Arduino just isn't enough for your needs. You need more muscle.

Enter BeagleBone Black.
A 1Ghz, 512MB RAM "mini-computer" with 2 GB of onboard memory.
At $45, its in the competitive price range of the RaspberryPi (35$), pcDuino(59$), etc.

It comes from one of the oldest players in the Embedded Linux worlds, Beagleboard.org. It's their 4th ARM dev board, and the 1st in this price range (previous boards were Beagleboard, Beageboard xM and the Beaglebone white).

Pros as compared to the Pi:
Since the Pi has gained a lot of popularity, it's easier to compare it with that.

  • More processing power(1Ghz as compared to 700Mhz)
  • No need for SD card( has 2 GB of onboard flash, which is more than enough to run your fav Linux distro. Of course it has uSD card slot, just in case you think you need more space)
  • No need for external power supply( directly plugs in to your laptop/PC and runs like the Arduino)
  • Has a LOT more interfaces as compared to the Pi( more GPIOs. Has onboard PWM, ADC too unlike the Pi)
    Full list here http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack
  • Has many many capes available.
    http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBone_Capes
    Capes are analogous to shields for Arduino.
    It's not always possible to give all kinds of interfaces on the board. So based on your project needs, you can use one of the available capes to add even more functionality.

    You can of course find a lot more comparisons if you ask Google ;) 
Getting started:
Since the BBB rocks Linux on board, you don't really have any restriction on the kind of programming language you choose. 
Any kind of input/output is done by using 

Links to get started:
  1. SRM (System Reference Manual. Read through this once to get familiar with all the features and interfaces.)
  2. Wiki
  3. Mailing list (this should be your first stop for any issues once you get your Black. It's very active and very helpful. Remember to search previous posts before posting your doubt, someone might have had the same doubt)
  4. IRC - #beagle on Freenode
  5. Derek Molloy's blogs ( has some really cool tutorials, videos, etc to get started)
  6. Userspace Arduino project
Get it:
Some of the Indian shops which will ship you a Black are
  1. http://tenettech.com/product/2912/beaglebone-blackhttp://tenettech.com/product/2912/beaglebone-black
  2. http://shop.sumeetinstruments.com/index.php?route=product/product&keyword=beaglebone+black&category_id=0&product_id=965
  3. http://www.crazypi.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=79&search=beagle

    Note: these guys don't really have permanent links to their products. So if above links don't work, try searching for them from the Homepage.
DigiKey, Adafruit, element14, etc are the official distributors for the BBB. More info about them here http://beagleboard.org/Products