Welcome to the newest edition of the IoTFriday at thethings.iO. Today we will be speaking to you about our favorite DIY platform to develop Internet of Things projects. It typically isn’t the hardware you need but actually the needs of the project that is the deciding factor in which platform to choose.
We have selected Arduino, Electric Imp and Intel Edison as some of our 3 favorite do-it-yourself electronic platforms.
Top 3 DIY platforms – #IoTFriday
Arduino
We love Arduino because of it’s the origin of the DIY Internet of Things (open source and open hardware) movement with their Arduino UNO. The Arduino community has an extensive number of codes and forums that ensure that an actual person solves any problem a client has.
Arduino is extremely compatible which allows you to connect a number of devices with it, from the official Arduino shields to the Seedstudio. It utilizes a very easy platform to allow people with no programming skills to develop their first prototypes.
Nevertheless, it is less reliable than expected. Our experience with the connected Sofa or the Oktoberfest of Things jar really causes a doubt factor when one needs it in the long run.
Electric Imp
Electric Imp is an impressive DIY platform made in an SD card. If what you need is WiFi connectivity and extra features for your product such as remote programming, among others, this is your platform!
In terms of reliability, Electric Imp has passed all of our tests, even with non-stable WiFi. I had a buoy connected to the Internet for 3 days and everything work splendid.
Electric Imp uses squirrel programming language, it is not too complicated if you have a background with Arduino or other programming skills.
One major drawback is that you need connectivity at least once to program the Electric Imp, without the WiFi connection it is impossible to get running.
Intel Edison
After the announcement made by Edison at CES 2013, the Intel Edison is finally on the market. If your product needs a CPU, this is the product for you. The Intel Edison brings an Intel Atom CPU at 500 MHz and a 32-bit Intel Quark microcontroller at 100 MHz. It supports 40 GPIOs and includes 1GB LPDDR3, 4 GB EMMC, and dual-band WiFi and BTLE on a module slightly larger than a postage stamp. It is not as small as an Electric Imp but what you can do with its size is still very impressive.
One major drawback is that since they just launched there still isn’t a lot of examples out there. This will be fixed in the near future and were sure here at thethings.iO that Intel Edison will be big.
Top 3 DIY platforms – #iotfriday
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