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Creating Quick Connections with IoT Development Kits

The Internet of Things (IoT). Either it is coming, or it is already here. Regardless, it's important to understand exactly what IoT is and why it is happening. The internet of things is about connecting things (non-humans) to the internet. These things use or involve data, data that must be measured as part of a greater system. The data is measured by a small internet-enabled embedded system, some of which can be as small as a postage stamp.

These internet-enabled embedded systems are microcontroller-based devices with no human interface. Instead, these systems use sensors or other detection mechanisms to collect data, data that has value to a larger system. This data is sent over the internet to a larger computer. This computer collects and analyzes the data, stores it in memory, and often makes on-the-fly system decisions based on the results of this data analysis.

As with any embedded system project it's important to start with the correct development kit. Choosing the proper development kit begins with understanding the requirements of the IoT project. In general, there are three types of IoT development projects:

1. Cloud Connected. These can be as vast as a network of systems located all over the world, all connected to a cloud infrastructure. This cloud infrastructure can consist of one or more servers running server applications that analyze and process the collected data.
2. Local Networked. Small embedded systems that are remote sensors for a larger system, often in an intranet.
3. Gateways. These are systems that connects a legacy application to the internet.

Cloud Connected Development Kits

This is the category that demonstrates the most significant differentiation of the IoT compared to conventional embedded systems. "The Cloud" is a web server configured to provide both storage and services. Internet of Things nodes connect to a cloud server to send, and even receive, data and instructions. A cloud server runs one or more software applications that can do anything from gathering and storing information for later review, to making near real-time decisions and sending instructions to networked IoT nodes.

Figure 1: The Intel Edison IoT Module

Creating a cloud connected IoT project from scratch can be time-consuming. The developer would need to build a cloud server hardware and software environment, write drivers and application code for both the IoT node and the cloud server, and then debug the connectivity between both systems before even creating the end application. To ease this process, cloud development tools provide a ready-made connectivity ecosystem with tested application code that can create a working prototype in less than a day.

Intel presently has two development boards that support cloud development and serve as end use devices. First is Intel® Edison, a small board about the size of a large postage stamp. The Intel Edison (Figure 1) is powered by a 22-nm Intel Atom® SoC with a dual-core, dual-threaded CPU running at 500Mhz and a 32-bit Quark microcontroller running at 100Mhz. On-board memory includes 4Gbytes of Flash and 1GByte of RAM. Both WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity is supported. The Edison provides WiFi device-to-cloud connectivity via the Intel IoT Analytics Cloud Server. This cloud service allows for IoT data collection and analysis without having to create a custom cloud server. In short, Intel provides developers with a cloud server that is, in itself, a cloud development tool. Intel also makes an Arduino™ development environment that connects to the Edison for programming and debugging support.

The Intel Galileo Gen 2 (Figure 2) is a larger, more complex Arduino-certified board. The Galileo 2 is powered by a 400MHz 32-bit Intel Quark™ X1000 system-on-a-chip (SoC). Internet connectivity is provided by 10/100 Ethernet. A wide variety of common embedded connectivity options such as SPI and UARTs are supported. Developers can also connect the Galileo 2 to the Intel IoT Analytics Cloud Server and perform more complex tasks than the Edison.

Figure 2: The Intel Galileo 2, an Arduino-Certified Development Platform. Source: Intel

The Intel Edison and Intel Galileo 2 development kits represent basic cloud development environments. A developer can program these boards to gather data from the environment and then send that data over the internet for interaction with a cloud server.

Taken one step further, Microchip has a simple cloud development platform that provides connectivity to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Not only does Microchip's development platform send data to Amazon’s EC2, but the EC2 can even send data back to control Microchip’s development platform. This adds another layer of sophistication to the development environment and demonstrates how a cloud server can control an IoT node without human intervention.

Local Networked IoT Development Kits

A locally networked IoT node may not support TCP/IP connectivity protocol like WiFi or Ethernet. The system may use non internet protocol (IP) networking like ZigBee®, or Bluetooth™ as in the Texas Instruments (TI) CC2650STK SimpleLink Bluetooth Smart SensorTag loT Kit (Figure 3). This kit includes ten environmental sensors that can detect temperature, acceleration, ambient light level, and more. The TI SensorTag loT Kit connects via Bluetooth to an Android or iOS mobile app. The mobile app can monitor and display the sensor readings, provide basic data analytics in the form of graphs, and even turn the SensorTag sensors on and off.

Figure 3: Texas Instruments SensorTag & Android App - Source: Texas Instruments

The Silicon Labs Sensor Puck provides similar functionality. The Sensor Puck measures ambient light, UV index, ambient temperature, and humidity, all of which can be transmitted via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to a mobile device with the Sensor Puck’s iOS or Android app. The Sensor Puck supports BLE broadcast mode, allowing a single mobile device to collect and display data from several Pucks. An experienced mobile developer can write code to analyze that data and draw conclusions.

Gateway IoT Development Kits

An IoT gateway takes data from a device that does not support internet connectivity and sends that data over WiFi or Ethernet. ZigBee is a popular wireless mesh network standard that does not support TCP/IP, and therefore cannot be assigned an IP address. The DIGI XBee ZigBee Cloud Kit (figure 4) provides ZigBee to Ethernet and WiFi gateway translation. This saves the time and cost of code development required to convert ZigBee data into TCP/IP packets. Once connected to the internet, this XBee Cloud kit connects to a DIGI sponsored device cloud account. The developer can then interact with the XBee Cloud kit, though the online cloud control panel with any browser.

Figure 4: DIGI XBee ZigBee Cloud Kit communicating with the cloud server application. - Source: DIGI

For complex, high-end gateway application development, Intel provides the DK300 Series Gateway Solution. The DK300 kit supports gateway development over cellular 2G/3G/4G, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, and WiFi internet connections. Data can be gathered and sent over the internet from Bluetooth, USB, serial ports, ZigBee, and more.

Conclusion

For most developers, building an IoT networked system from scratch requires knowledge of many different technologies including wired and wireless networking, embedded code development, and device driver development. While many experienced developers may already be familiar with these technologies, additional skills such as writing mobile device applications and cloud code development are relatively new skills. The new Internet of Things development kits provide the hardware, software, firmware, and integration tools for reducing time-to-market while also educating the developer on these new technologies.

Bill Giovino is an Electronics Engineer with a B.S.E.E. from Syracuse University, and is one of the few people to successfully transition from design engineer, to field applications engineer, to technology marketing. For the past 20 years he has enjoyed creating and marketing new technologies to technical and non-technical audiences with many semiconductor companies including STMicroelectronics, Infineon, and National Semiconductor, as well as an independent consultant. At STMicroelectronics Bill was instrumental in building the company’s early presence in the microcontroller industry. He is moderator of the LinkedIn Semiconductor Sales & Marketing Group and speaks B2E fluently. Bill still drives his trusted Ford Taurus SHO, which in recent years has benefited from some unusual electronic upgrades built with Mouser Electronics components.