.NET Gadgeteer

Northumbria .NET Gadgeteer Workshop

Clare Morgan — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:59:00 GMT

Another two day .NET Gadgeteer workshop took place on the 12th and 13th February, this time at Northumbria University. Attendees included a diverse mix of 3rd year students from 3D, Design for Industry (DFI) and Media Design courses.

The result was an entertaining mix of craft, design and technology. The tutorials included the coding and building of a digital camera, complete with a specially designed cardboard case that you fold and slot the Gadgeteer modules into.

To read the full blog please go to;

http://tommydykes.com/archives/970

.NET Gadgeteer Core 2.42.700 released

Steven Johnston — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:46:00 GMT

We are really happy to announce that .NET Gadgeteer Core 2.42.700 was released today!

https://gadgeteer.codeplex.com/releases/view/105366

This contains a few new features:

Visual Studio 2012 support

This release supports Visual Studio 2012 (all editions including Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop) and as well as retaining support for Visual Studio 2010 (and express editions).

To use Visual Studio 2012, you need to use the latest .NET Micro Framework release, v4.3. To use Visual Studio 2010, you need to use .NET Micro Framework 4.2 QFE2.

Application Wizard

Since the matrix of Visual Studio versions, .NET Micro Framework versions and .NET Gadgeteer mainboards is getting complex, we added an “application wizard” to simplify things:

This wizard will help you choose the right version of .NET Micro Framework for your mainboard, and also help with installation errors such as having the wrong version of .NET Micro Framework installed.

.NET Micro Framework 4.3 support (alpha)

This release includes Gadgeteer libraries compatible with .NET Micro Framework 4.3, enabling mainboard and module manufacturers to “forward port” their designs. We designate this as “alpha” support because, unlike for the “stable” 4.2 and 4.1 libraries, the Gadgeteer API for 4.3 may still change, in response to feedback from the community or manufacturers. As such, we have not released source code for the 4.3 libraries at this stage, though we will do so as soon as the API is “stable”.

Power estimates

We now provide a means for manufacturers to specify the “typical” and “max” power consumption of each mainboard/module, and show this data in the Visual Studio designer – right click on the design surface and choose “Power estimate” to see it. We considered including details of how much power is provided by red modules, but this proves hard – e.g. it might depend on what USB supply is used. Nonetheless, we hope this will help users with understanding and fixing “power bugs”.

Roadmap

We are working on a few advances for .NET Gadgeteer’s 4.3 API – first, the ability to “indirect” any socket type so that modules can provide sockets as well as consume them, and second, a refactor of the LCD configuration interface to address compatibility issues. We are aiming for a quick turnaround (as soon as May!) for this, depending on manufacturers’ feedback. The next release is planned to be the “stable” 4.3 release.

.NET Gadgeteer workshop at TU Eindhoven (TU/e

Clare Morgan — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:41:00 GMT

22 February 2013 At the end of a long day: workshop participants and helpers at TU/e The biggest ever .NET Gadgeteer workshop was held at TU Eindhoven (TU/e) on 22 February. Around 60 participants of the Department of Industrial Design, including...(read more)

NET Gadgeteer Experience Prototyping Workshop for Design Students

Clare Morgan — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:34:00 GMT

Introduction

Two lots of .NET Gadgeteer workshops for Product Design students were held at the Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) on the 21^st, 22^nd, 27^th and 28^th of January. Attendees included 3^rd and 4^th year undergraduate and master’s students with little or no prior experience of programming. Hosting the workshops were Tommy Dykes, a PhD student at Northumbria University and Tim Regan from Microsoft Research Cambridge. The workshops were sponsored by Microsoft Research Connections in Cambridge.

.NET Gadgeteer is a rapid-prototyping platform that is ideal for quickly testing design ideas. Throughout the workshops, GHI’s FEZ Spider starter kits and a host of extra sensors and outputs were used. The aim was to introduce students to the use of physical computing in product design. Being able to test and experience ideas first hand through working prototypes can provide designers with a clearer understanding of how a user might interact with a product, allow them to iterate and test ideas with users and can spark new ideas through play.

The first day of the workshops involved an introduction to the prototyping platform, the installation of software, and tutorials that familiarised students with the basic knowledge required to get started. Amongst other tutorials, students were shown how to detect black lines or markings using a light sensor and made a simple digital camera.

Building experience prototypes

On day two students used their imaginations to build lo-fi experience prototypes using the .NET Gadgeteer and materials they had found lying around. The day was then concluded with a show and tell. With less than 8 hours to get from an idea, to a working prototype, was no easy task. However, students rose to the challenge! Given the quality of all the projects, we have picked a few examples that show the scope and diversity of the prototypes built.

A Selection of Student Projects

Baby nappy monitor

Shuai Zheng created a monitor for a baby’s nappy using a moisture and temperature sensor and demonstrated this using wet tissue paper. When the baby wets its nappy this is subtly presented to the parent through sound and light.

Banana gun attachment

With a more playful theme Wael Seaiby looked at ways of making mundane artefacts more entertaining. This is clearly demonstrated through his experience prototype, which is an attachment that turns a banana into a toy gun. One can imagine kids and adults being thrilled to find this in there packed lunch box and hopefully it would make them want to eat more fruit. After six gun shots the banana pistol sounds empty and requires reloading.

Wearable device to help the blind cross the road

The above prototype was made by Zhulin Wang. It’s a wearable device to aid the blind when crossing the road. When the individual arrives at the side of the pavement they press a button to determine the direction in which they want to walk. If they swerve a few degrees either left or right, one of two motors (simulating vibration) informs them of which direction will straighten them up again. The prototype used a compass, battery pack, motor driver and two motors. The motor driver was powered with a 9v battery so it could be tested wirelessly.

In the name of fun, one group decided to make their time in the elevator less uncomfortable and to encourage people to get talking by adding an extra special button. When pressed this button makes the elevator say something shocking or funny. This prototype used the music module and a powered iPod speaker to amplify the sound.

Reminiscence game

Finally, James Roebuck created a personalised interactive board game that uses your own photos and favourite music, in order to engage someone living with dementia in family gatherings. When you land on certain squares you have to answer a question based on people or places by placing your unique piece in the centre of the board. Using RFID readers and tags, a large display, modelling clay, card and plenty of sellotape, James created an experience prototype to explore the idea.

Conclusion

The .NET Gadgeteer platform proved ideal for exploring ideas through experience prototypes and suited the fast-paced workshop format. Students were able to see their ideas turn into working and wireless prototypes (using the battery packs) with no soldering or in depth knowledge of electronics. The platform also suited the use of lo-fi materials such as cardboard and the mounting of components using craft materials such as sellotape and Blu-Tack. By the end of both days there appeared great enthusiasm to learn more and possibly use the kit as part of their working process.

Tommy Dykes

.NET Gadgeteer at the BETT Show in London

Clare Morgan — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:18:00 GMT

The BETT Show is a major event in the Technology and Education calendar in the UK and attracts over 30,000 visitors each year. This year BETT was held in the ExCel arena in Dockyards in London.

.NET Gadgeteer was showcased at BETT on the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) stand, thus attracting many teachers interested in delivering Computer Science in the curriculum. AQA are a leading awarding body in the UK, now offering a new GCSE Computer Science qualification for 14-16 year olds. Sue Sentance (pictured) was able to demonstrate to teachers how to build a digital camera and explain how .NET Gadgeteer can be used in the school curriculum. Sue has been working with AQA to help teachers learn about .NET Gadgeteer by also running training days across the UK (advertised here).

.NET Gadgeteer can be used within the school curriculum as it is motivating to be able to build devices, but also can be used to learn new programming concepts. .NET Gadgeteer can be used with Visual Basic .NET, already a popular language taught in school, and materials are being developed to support learning VB in school with .NET Gadgeteer at http://www.gadgeteering.net .

At the BETT 2013 show there were thousands of exhibitors, with a strong focus this year on the development of Computer Science within the curriculum, as well as the use of technology in the classroom. There were dozens of inspiring talks as well as workshops, seminars and training sessions. It was a great opportunity for .NET Gadgeteer to be presented at such an exciting event.

Sue Sentance

Design is fine: Workshop at UDK Berlin.

Clare Morgan — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:19:00 GMT

The University of Stuttgart Gadgeteer workshop heads to Berlin.

“Last week our Gadgeteer tour lead us to Berlin, where Prof. Gesche Jost heads the Design Research Lab at UDK Berlin. 6 designers and creatives came together for the 2-day workshop next to the waterside of the Spree. Interestingly, for the first time we had people with a major background in Design and Arts. Nevertheless, they mastered technical hurdles quickly and produced two impressive projects:

The Bus Ticker:

Bus ticker: Shows the next buses.

An analog display shows the arrival time of the next two buses for the nearby bus stop. Therefore, a server script was written that scraped the website of the Berlin traffic union (BVV) and returned the buses’ arrival times in a Gadgeteer-friendly format. A WIFI module connects to the server and sends the data to an OLED display. Two servos control the analog display telling users when it’s time to pack up, put on their shoes and run for the bus. Or when it’s simply too late.”

Read the full article: http://blog.hcilab.org/gadgeteer/2013/02/design-is-fine-workshop-at-udk-berlin/

Sound, tele-presence and robo tinkering: Workshop at ETH Zurich

Clare Morgan — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:08:00 GMT

The next stop on The University of Stuttgarts Gadgeteer workshop tour;

“Third stop: ETH Zurich. We started off early in the morning and welcomed 11 participants to our first workshop ‘abroad’. When we broke out into groups, among them two 2-people teams were formed who decided to collaborate by splitting up their project into two bigger modules: One input, one output device. The result was the

Remote controlled camera for tele-presence:

Telepresence – Remote Control

The idea was to hold a device in hand on which a screen was mounted showing the remote conversation partner. By turning the device the compass sent off measurements to a webserver via the wifi-module which in turn controlled the pointing direction of the remote camera. This camera was using servos to be positioned and received input from the web-server via another wifi-module. Great idea, packaging and our first project including network functionality.”

Read the full article: http://blog.hcilab.org/gadgeteer/2013/01/sound-tele-presence-and-robo-tinkering-workshop-at-eth-zurich/

Etch, Sketch and Angry Oranges: Workshop at University of Ulm

Clare Morgan — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:05:00 GMT

The University of Stuttgart Gadgeteer workshops continue…

Our second stop on our Gadgeteer Tour took place at University of Ulm, where the research groups of Michael Weber and Enrico Rukzio are located. 12 participants found together to hack away over the course of one day. Until the lunch break we introduced the .NET Gadgeteer platform, its beauties, quirks and possibilities and allowed people to try out different code samples and modules. The second part of the workshop focussed on participants’ ideas of application fields for hardware prototyping. 4 groups found together and started translating their ideas into concrete hardware gadgets.

Read the full article: http://blog.hcilab.org/gadgeteer/2013/01/etch-sketch-and-angry-oranges-workshop-at-university-of-ulm/

Pong, Carts and Smart Plants: Workshop at DFKI Saarbrücken

Clare Morgan — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:17:00 GMT

The University of Stuttgarts Gadgeteer workshop tour continues……

“This week we stopped by the DFKI at Saarland University, specifically we visited Antonio Krüger’s group: The Innovative Retail Lab. With 14 participants our biggest group so far and after Darmstadt our second 2-day workshop. Hence, people had more time to work on their own projects with Gadgeteer. And this is what they came up with:

Pong:

Using the IR distance sensor and a joystick, this ancient game was put into a physical shape including multiplayer capabilities. With a slight deviation: The ball was controlled by player one using the joystick while player two had to defend using the distance sensor which controlled the paddle. Graphical UI on the T35 touch display:

Read the full article: http://blog.hcilab.org/gadgeteer/2013/01/pong-carts-and-smart-plants-workshop-at-dfki-saarbrucken/

Rapid Prototyping with .NET Gadgeteer: Workshop at TU Darmstadt

Clare Morgan — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:14:00 GMT

The University of Stuttgart, has written up their first external .NET Gadgeteer workshop…

“The tour has begun. We started off by conducting our first external workshop at TU Darmstadt with the Embedded System Group of Kristof Van Laerhoven. 10 participants joined in and hacked away on our .NET Gadgeteer kits. The workshop lasted for 2 days, so we had enough time to introduce the Gadgeteer platform, walk participants through example projects and reserve an entire day for allowing them to hack on projects of their choice.”

Read the full article: http://blog.hcilab.org/gadgeteer/2013/01/rapid-prototyping-with-net-gadgeteer-workshop-at-tu-darmstadt/