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Can you design an IoT solution with a mobile interface in under 15 minutes?

The kit we are talking about today is the Anaren Wi-Fi Cloud IoT Development kit.

Hardware

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The kit is a two board solution. The base board is centred on the Anaren AIR for Wi-Fi A43364 module, which is powered by an ARM Cortex M4 CYW43364 from Cypress. The module is one-for-one compatible with all CYW43364 development tools such as the WICED SDK 4.0.1 and greater.

Sitting on top is an Arduino compatible sensor shield featuring a number of sensors from ST and TI alongside a Buzzer from Murata, LEDs and an Alps Joystick.

 

Let me clarify the rules of this particular challenge. We’re not talking about turning a board on, pairing it up with the preinstalled factory demo.  To be fair the out of the box experience proving the board works did just that, it worked seamlessly and demonstrated each of the sensors working perfectly using a GUI after connecting to the board over WIFI.Anaren1_b20e477c378785acc44e7692b0f5c72ba35d3d7a.png

 

“Sure you can develop a working demo in less than 15 minutes” was the introduction from Mark at Anaren. Bold claims.

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In order to make this a fair test and so as not to stumble over any cable ties or hidden packaging I removed everything from the box. Included in the kit are the two main boards, a USB cable, in this US version a US power supply and some jumpers. I also charged up a powerbank for a couple of reasons, firstly to ensure that my IoT node was mobile to get a few variances in output and secondly to prove that the board was running under its own steam and not using the laptop for anything.

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Software

The Atmosphere IDE is in the cloud so you simply open it up from the developer section of the website. Here it is showing the factory demo on screen.

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Prepared with a coffee and the stop watch function on my phone I set off working through the  “Creating Your First A43364 Wi-Fi Project” tutorial on their Wiki page. The aim of the tutorial is to create a URL which you can access on a computer or a mobile device on the network with a simple GUI and record the temperature of the TI TMP006B.

Tutorial

Starting by registering for an account which hosts your projects and allows you to access the IDE wherever you may be, the tutorial does hand hold you through every step. Walking through the IDE, adding in the TMP006B and linking it to the cloud. Interesting it also goes through laying out a very simple GUI for fetching the temperature from the board to the browser or device.

I’ll not walk through the tutorial as it is very comprehensive and includes provisioning the device and adding it to your network before accessing it however you choose by going to the IP address through my Wi-Fi network.

And here it is, software on my IDE, working device powered by a power bank and the unusually warm summers day temperature showing on my phone over my Wi-Fi network.

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IDE Screenshot

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Standalone Board

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Phone Screenshot

 

Can you design an IoT solution with a mobile interface in under 15 minutes? Yes. Stop the Clock!

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