21
votes
Accepted
Selecting a microcontroller for a battery operated data collection project
A general process of microcontroller selection.
Sum up your requirements towards the microcontroller. For example in this case:
1 hardware timer, to measure time between trigger and echo pulses.
2 ...
- 7,373
17
votes
Is there a way to turn on large numbers of IoT devices remotely?
In as much as there is a 'standard' solution I suspect it's going to look like a Wi-Fi enabled microcontroller attached to a relay or MOSFET. Something somewhere has to be on 24/7 if you want round-...
- 272
16
votes
Battery backup for small IoT devices?
You can hook up a USB battery pack to both the Pi and the charger (as long as it is designed to charge while being used) and if the power goes out the USB battery pack will take over powering the Pi ...
- 161
16
votes
Accepted
Cheap IoT microcontroller with PoE
Orange Pi Zero is cheap (7$ + shipping), can be hacked to run on passive PoE, supports TCP/UDP over on-board ethernet and wireless and has a few I/Os.
It's not exactly a microcontroller in my book, ...
- 276
16
votes
As a Computer Science student, how can I develop skills for an IoT job outside of formal education?
I have been a university tutor in a department that now teaches IoT and your observations are right when it comes to getting your hands dirty with some toys rather than just a degree. A lot of ...
- 1,458
15
votes
How can I properly test my device's PCB antenna?
You can use a spectrum analyzer to make sure that:
The antenna is emitting at the correct frequency (range).
The output power is the expected (theoretically calculated) output power (or it is close ...
- 251
14
votes
How does an experienced developer get started with IoT
This is a very broad question, but I will try to give a few general pointers, hopefully useful to others, as well as you (so, please accept my apologies if I post things which you already know).
If ...
14
votes
Accepted
How does an Azure IoT Hub interact with Embedded/IoT devices?
The model that IoT Hub connected devices use is that they will never accept incoming connections. IoT Hub devices never act as a 'server', and this is a crucial part of the security model in Azure IoT....
- 1,483
13
votes
Accepted
Would RPI 3 serve as IoT server with MQTT?
A Raspberry Pi 3 is a pretty serious bit of kit when you think about it
Quad core Arm Cortex
1gb of RAM
a onboard GPU
That is a huge amount of memory, easily more than enough to run a MQTT broker ...
- 12k
12
votes
Are there any devices with open-source protocols over Wi-Fi?
The IKEA Trådfri lighting system is all CoAP based, you can find my write up on the protocol here
Belkin WeMo devices are all uPnP and SOAP controlled as well so another open/self describing protocol
- 12k
11
votes
Which microcontroller and programming language should I use for an Internet-enabled weather display?
The Onion Omega 2 claims to be the smallest Linux computer in the world. That claim may not quite be true (see the vocore2 below, for example) but in my experience it's got to be in the smallest 3. ...
- 211
11
votes
How can I properly test my device's PCB antenna?
There are two main approaches to characterising an antenna and its effectiveness in-system, free space and in-situ. The first will give you a best-case baseline, is less susceptible to measurement ...
- 10.3k
11
votes
Cheap IoT microcontroller with PoE
You do not need PoE for your setup. Just use two wires from Ethernet cable to power your controllers.
Ethernet cables have four unused wires: 4 (blue), 5 (white with blue), 7 (white with brown) and 8 ...
- 261
11
votes
What are affordable solutions to air quality monitoring system?
I think it's non-existent today.
I work at a Dutch municipality and, though things might have changed now, in December 2017 our environmental department concluded that even semi-professional gas or ...
- 533
10
votes
Accepted
Reusing / recycling a Petzi Treat Camera?
Electronics are generally recyclable, that is not something specific to IoT devices. More specifically, your IoT device will typically provide a general purpose MCU.
Recycling an MCU is generally ...
- 10.3k
9
votes
How does an experienced developer get started with IoT
As an experienced developer you have the ability to understand logic, read and write code, figure things out, and some other important skills. What you probably don't have is an understanding of basic ...
- 1,483
9
votes
Battery backup for small IoT devices?
If possible choose a device that has a built in battery. A few such examples that use the common 2-pin JST connector. The first two are based off of the esp8266
WioLink
WioNode
C.H.I.P ($9 computer)...
- 551
9
votes
Cheap IoT microcontroller with PoE
Arduino do a board with built in PoE, but at double the price of a Pi last time I looked, I would not consider it cheap. And sounds physically bigger than you are looking for.
The is also the Arduino ...
- 12k
9
votes
Power reduction for Raspberry Pi GPS/GSM tracker
I'll assume that the processing requirements on the device are near enough zero. It sounds like you're using some acceleration input to determine how often to wake up the GSM device.
Ideally, you ...
- 10.3k
9
votes
Accepted
Arduino Uno Vs Raspberry Pi
This is widely discussed over the net, but, those are different things. Which one is better, it will depend on what you're building.
My way of choice is:
If I want device that reads a sensor and ...
- 804
8
votes
How can I properly test my device's PCB antenna?
In order to properly test the antenna at minimum the following items are required
A source antenna with the known pattern and transmitter such as a RF signal generator create known signals
The test ...
- 1,490
8
votes
Making a smart light switch
By far the easiest route is to buy an exisiting product here which is sufficiently open that you can use a standard RF module to control them.
This is equivalent to having an MCU and switch ...
- 10.3k
8
votes
Accepted
Looking for a relay that can be controlled from .net web application (via TCP/IP)
There are a lot of devices out there that allow you to control digital I/O over a network. The difference between this and relay control is very little as you can very easily add a Solid State Relay ...
- 196
8
votes
Drawing parallels between building an IoT system and building a PC?
The generics first
Some of the candidates only talk about what they learned from building PCs
Coming from PCs is not a problem, but, candidate should understand that an IoT device/product/...
- 2,560
7
votes
Making a smart light switch
If you want a totally independent switch in case of the microcontroller fails, then you can hook-up an XOR gate for two inputs. The relay will be off when both inputs are the same, and on if the ...
- 7,373
7
votes
Accepted
How can I detect Alexa's current state or change its current state with an external device?
This open source Raspberry PI Alexa client has support for free wake words made as easily from PI's terminal as:
sudo systemctl stop AlexaPi.service
sudo nano /etc/opt/AlexaPi/config.yaml
change ...
- 4,301
7
votes
Accepted
UK-compatible (240VAC) receiver/controller for ceiling fan with dimmable lights
The good news for you is that the choice of fan-speed and lighting control is often independent of the actual ceiling fan itself. Most lighted ceiling fans operate using two independent circuits; the ...
- 2,422
7
votes
Which microcontroller and programming language should I use for an Internet-enabled weather display?
Creating a startup is not about what you can do with the technology and not even about the product. For a successful startup that can captivate VC's you should first think about the market that you ...
7
votes
Which microcontroller and programming language should I use for an Internet-enabled weather display?
I suggest a step by step approach to find out what language and controller you should use. The microcontroller you need will depend on the tasks you want it to do. Theoretically the task will set up ...
- 7,373
7
votes
As a Computer Science student, how can I develop skills for an IoT job outside of formal education?
IoT runs the gamut of computing, and covers a huge range of technologies, implementations, and tactics. The nutshell is that it just means things are connected to a comms channel, e.g., the internet. ...
- 289
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible