5 ms·

Why Google Choosing Arduino Matters

162 points by ptorrone 15y ago

DanI-S 15y ago
It's a seriously exciting time to be a developer. Or to be alive in general, really. Growing up in the shadow of our failure to colonize space, it was easy to imagine that history had basically stalled and there wasn't much left to hope for except an uneventful decline. Added to that, all our interesting problems were too big for an individual to hope to solve. Instead, the ability for individuals to meaningfully innovate has jumped to levels that haven't been seen since the industrial revolution, or the renaissance. I always envied the 19th Century inventors who created bleeding edge tech without requiring teams of a thousand engineers. I don't think I need to be envious anymore. The coming decades will be just as important.
- acgourley 15y ago
  I want to share this excitement with you, but what part about an arduino based dev kit for android is exciting you this much?
  - DanI-S 15y ago
    It's just a symptom of this kind of technology reaching critical mass. In a few years, the majority of the world's mobile devices will have out of the box support for an extensible, personal hardware development platform. A generation of kids will grow up thinking this is normal. The cat is out of the bag.
    - mortenjorck 15y ago
      We live in a cyberpunk present.
- amalcon 15y ago
  This happens over and over. Compare the internal combustion engine. A powerful technology is realized. At first, it's really expensive, and used only for industrial purposes or where it can serve many at once. The cost comes down to where wealthy individuals, professionals who benefit most, and sufficiently motivated hobbyists can get them, and there's huge growth. The cost comes down further, and soon everyone has them. At this point, the market becomes disjoint: you get products aimed for the wealthy (Apple; BMW, Ferrari), products aimed at the hobbyist (various DIY outfits; Jeep), products aimed at professionals who most benefit (RIM, Lenovo, Dell; some Ford/GM/Toyota products), and everyone else (LG, Nokia; Kia, other Ford/GM/Toyota products). I think that middle stage is the most exciting; unfortunately, we're just leaving it. It's still a very exciting time to be a developer, but I would barely hesitate to trade it all to work at Xerox PARC or Bell Labs in their heyday. On the upside, certain areas of biology are poised to move into that second stage any time now, in no small part because of the power commodity computing provides.
- billmcneale 15y ago
  > It's a seriously exciting time to be a developer. Or to be alive in general, really. I have yet to meet a dead person that's excited to be dead.
pingswept 15y ago
I'm 100% delighted that Google chose to standardize on the Arduino platform, but I fear it means we'll now be stuck with the infuriating 0.160" header spacing between shield pins forever. Background: http://brettbeauregard.com/blog/2009/07/arduino-offset-header/ http://brettbeauregard.com/blog/2009/07/arduino-offset-heade... Here's the explanation of how the bad spacing happened from Massimo Banzi: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1212632541 http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1212632541 (scroll down 10-15 posts) "We had 5 minutes before the deadline to go into production, the PCB guy was on the phone saying 'send it now or it goes to next week' and we didn't have a name yet... they I said let's call it Arduino like a bar we used to go...there wasn't much time to think."
- proee 15y ago
  Agree. The arduino processor is also pretty weak given the price/performance ratio. I'm in favor of seeing them work with say an arm-5 or arm-7 device.
  - pingswept 15y ago
    Yeah, I'd love to see someone make an open-source ARM9 board that runs Linux, but works with Arduino stuff, and has good libraries for controlling the hardware. The first version of the Chumby Hacker Board was a good candidate, but they removed the Arduino headers on more recent versions.
    - rocha 15y ago
      Something like this http://leaflabs.com/devices/ http://leaflabs.com/devices/ ?
      - pingswept 15y ago
        Ah, I hadn't seen that board. It looks good. No MMU, which means you have to run a bastardized version of Linux, but for $45, it's impressive.
kwantam 15y ago
2) Apple will start to abandon their restrictive “Made for iPod”(TM) program and adopt the Arduino in some way for accessory development Phil's a cool, intelligent guy, but this statement pegs my meter somewhere between "excessive optimism" and "ridiculous Apple fanboyism". Apple, the infamous UX control freak, will give up the control (and revenue) associated with the MFi program in favor of allowing their users to customize their experience? What's next, Windows 8 will run an OpenBSD kernel? Sorry, perhaps that last was excessively sarcastic, but let's be realistic here: one of Apple's fundamental properties is its fanatical control over every aspect of the way that users interface with the device, directly or indirectly. They will never give this up. MS/NOK (funny how, at least in my mental model, they're one entity in the phone market now) and (especially) HP/Palm should be looking at this and thinking about doing the same. RIM probably doesn't care because their userbase doesn't.
- jerryr 15y ago
  I thought it seemed a bit optimistic as well. It'll be interesting to see how many handset manufacturers adopt the open accessory kit or opt to omit it or otherwise lock it down--similar to those that chose to provide their own app stores (I'm under the impression that you can do this, but you lose the ability to certify your device with Google and therefore lose access to the Android marketplace, Gmail client, maps, etc., correct?). I believe manufacturers are still generally motivated to profit from their accessories' ecosystems (not that the toolkit precludes this, but it relinquishes some control they've become used to). That said, I'd love Apple to open up their accessory platform. I maintain an Apple accessory software stack that I'd love to throw on Github (frankly, I'm tired of maintaining it), but I am unable to do so due to our development agreement & the closed nature of their accessory program.
inoop 15y ago
If anyone's interested, I got their firmware to run on stock Arduino hardware (which costs $55 instead of $390). http://romfont.com/2011/05/12/google%E2%80%99s-open-accessory-development-kit-on-standard-arduino-hardware/ http://romfont.com/2011/05/12/google%E2%80%99s-open-accessor... It's looking good so far. Now all I need is a device that supports accessory mode ...
- follower 15y ago
  Heh, me too--how long did it take you to write up your post? It would've been useful, ah, 8 hours ago. :) I've tested a revision 1 SparkFun USB Host shield and UNO/Duo with pin define fixes and a Nexus One with Android 2.3.4 and the DemoKit app. It "works" but seems a bit flakey needing multiple resets to move from detecting to data transfer. I'm suspecting possible power related reset issues. Unfortunately my usual laptop is in the shop so I haven't documented this as I'd normally like. Will take a look at what you've patched but first need to get some sleep. :) Edit: Actually, it seems much more reliable when the Arduino is connected only to a 9V battery and not USB as well.
  - inoop 15y ago
    Hah, I got it working yesterday but I had other stuff to do and I wanted to patch their code to work on both 168/328p and 1280/2560 before doing a proper write up. Can you test my patch and get back to me whether it works for you? That way I can update my post.
    - follower 15y ago
      Have checked your patch and commented here: http://romfont.com/2011/05/12/google%E2%80%99s-open-accessory-development-kit-on-standard-arduino-hardware/#comment-31 http://romfont.com/2011/05/12/google%E2%80%99s-open-accessor... Have also put up some photos of input/output example of Arduino Uno + Usb Host Shield + Nexus One here along with some code: http://rancidbacon.com/p/android-arduino-accessory/ http://rancidbacon.com/p/android-arduino-accessory/
bradharper 15y ago
Meanwhile, in Rocklin, CA thousands of Propellers (in all eight of their cores) snicker/sob quietly...
- inoop 15y ago
  http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?title=PropBridge http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?title=PropBri...
ChuckMcM 15y ago
Fascinating as Mr. Spock would say. I got goaded into teaching a class on Robotics at Google, it was well attended and the first thing we did was build FreeDuino's from Solarbotics. When coming up with a curriculum I chose the Arduino because it's development environment ran on MacOS and Linux (every engineer at Google had either a MacOS or Linux laptop, no Windows) and its use of C++ lite type models was a good match for the codebase they worked in on a day to day basis. I designed (but sadly never got into production) a 'super sheild' which, if you installed the connectors in the Freeduino 'upside down' (relative to the instructions) you could plug it onto the robot shield thing which had 6 AA size batteries, a couple of motor controller chips, mounts for the GM8 (Solarbotics again) wheels with wheel encoders. And a bunch of bits for sensor logic. That being said I certainly can't take credit for Google picking the platform as some of the folks were already familar with it but still its nice to see that this effort has lived on as it were.
germancito 15y ago
If anyone is interested in teaching arduino to the next generation, I'm developing an open graphical programming platform for arduino that is aimed at kids. http://kck.st/mnWW8y http://kck.st/mnWW8y

162 points by ptorrone 15y ago

It's a seriously exciting time to be a developer. Or to be alive in general, really. Growing up in the shadow of our failure to colonize space, it was easy to imagine that history had basically stalled and there wasn't much left to hope for except an uneventful decline. Added to that, all our interesting problems were too big for an individual to hope to solve. Instead, the ability for individuals to meaningfully innovate has jumped to levels that haven't been seen since the industrial revolution, or the renaissance. I always envied the 19th Century inventors who created bleeding edge tech without requiring teams of a thousand engineers. I don't think I need to be envious anymore. The coming decades will be just as important.

acgourley 15y ago
I want to share this excitement with you, but what part about an arduino based dev kit for android is exciting you this much?
- DanI-S 15y ago
  It's just a symptom of this kind of technology reaching critical mass. In a few years, the majority of the world's mobile devices will have out of the box support for an extensible, personal hardware development platform. A generation of kids will grow up thinking this is normal. The cat is out of the bag.
  - mortenjorck 15y ago
    We live in a cyberpunk present.
amalcon 15y ago
This happens over and over. Compare the internal combustion engine. A powerful technology is realized. At first, it's really expensive, and used only for industrial purposes or where it can serve many at once. The cost comes down to where wealthy individuals, professionals who benefit most, and sufficiently motivated hobbyists can get them, and there's huge growth. The cost comes down further, and soon everyone has them. At this point, the market becomes disjoint: you get products aimed for the wealthy (Apple; BMW, Ferrari), products aimed at the hobbyist (various DIY outfits; Jeep), products aimed at professionals who most benefit (RIM, Lenovo, Dell; some Ford/GM/Toyota products), and everyone else (LG, Nokia; Kia, other Ford/GM/Toyota products). I think that middle stage is the most exciting; unfortunately, we're just leaving it. It's still a very exciting time to be a developer, but I would barely hesitate to trade it all to work at Xerox PARC or Bell Labs in their heyday. On the upside, certain areas of biology are poised to move into that second stage any time now, in no small part because of the power commodity computing provides.
billmcneale 15y ago
> It's a seriously exciting time to be a developer. Or to be alive in general, really. I have yet to meet a dead person that's excited to be dead.

pingswept 15y ago

I'm 100% delighted that Google chose to standardize on the Arduino platform, but I fear it means we'll now be stuck with the infuriating 0.160" header spacing between shield pins forever. Background: http://brettbeauregard.com/blog/2009/07/arduino-offset-header/ http://brettbeauregard.com/blog/2009/07/arduino-offset-heade... Here's the explanation of how the bad spacing happened from Massimo Banzi: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1212632541 http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1212632541 (scroll down 10-15 posts) "We had 5 minutes before the deadline to go into production, the PCB guy was on the phone saying 'send it now or it goes to next week' and we didn't have a name yet... they I said let's call it Arduino like a bar we used to go...there wasn't much time to think."

proee 15y ago
Agree. The arduino processor is also pretty weak given the price/performance ratio. I'm in favor of seeing them work with say an arm-5 or arm-7 device.
- pingswept 15y ago
  Yeah, I'd love to see someone make an open-source ARM9 board that runs Linux, but works with Arduino stuff, and has good libraries for controlling the hardware. The first version of the Chumby Hacker Board was a good candidate, but they removed the Arduino headers on more recent versions.
  - rocha 15y ago
    Something like this http://leaflabs.com/devices/ http://leaflabs.com/devices/ ?
    - pingswept 15y ago
      Ah, I hadn't seen that board. It looks good. No MMU, which means you have to run a bastardized version of Linux, but for $45, it's impressive.

kwantam 15y ago

2) Apple will start to abandon their restrictive “Made for iPod”(TM) program and adopt the Arduino in some way for accessory development Phil's a cool, intelligent guy, but this statement pegs my meter somewhere between "excessive optimism" and "ridiculous Apple fanboyism". Apple, the infamous UX control freak, will give up the control (and revenue) associated with the MFi program in favor of allowing their users to customize their experience? What's next, Windows 8 will run an OpenBSD kernel? Sorry, perhaps that last was excessively sarcastic, but let's be realistic here: one of Apple's fundamental properties is its fanatical control over every aspect of the way that users interface with the device, directly or indirectly. They will never give this up. MS/NOK (funny how, at least in my mental model, they're one entity in the phone market now) and (especially) HP/Palm should be looking at this and thinking about doing the same. RIM probably doesn't care because their userbase doesn't.

jerryr 15y ago
I thought it seemed a bit optimistic as well. It'll be interesting to see how many handset manufacturers adopt the open accessory kit or opt to omit it or otherwise lock it down--similar to those that chose to provide their own app stores (I'm under the impression that you can do this, but you lose the ability to certify your device with Google and therefore lose access to the Android marketplace, Gmail client, maps, etc., correct?). I believe manufacturers are still generally motivated to profit from their accessories' ecosystems (not that the toolkit precludes this, but it relinquishes some control they've become used to). That said, I'd love Apple to open up their accessory platform. I maintain an Apple accessory software stack that I'd love to throw on Github (frankly, I'm tired of maintaining it), but I am unable to do so due to our development agreement & the closed nature of their accessory program.

inoop 15y ago

If anyone's interested, I got their firmware to run on stock Arduino hardware (which costs $55 instead of $390). http://romfont.com/2011/05/12/google%E2%80%99s-open-accessory-development-kit-on-standard-arduino-hardware/ http://romfont.com/2011/05/12/google%E2%80%99s-open-accessor... It's looking good so far. Now all I need is a device that supports accessory mode ...

follower 15y ago
Heh, me too--how long did it take you to write up your post? It would've been useful, ah, 8 hours ago. :) I've tested a revision 1 SparkFun USB Host shield and UNO/Duo with pin define fixes and a Nexus One with Android 2.3.4 and the DemoKit app. It "works" but seems a bit flakey needing multiple resets to move from detecting to data transfer. I'm suspecting possible power related reset issues. Unfortunately my usual laptop is in the shop so I haven't documented this as I'd normally like. Will take a look at what you've patched but first need to get some sleep. :) Edit: Actually, it seems much more reliable when the Arduino is connected only to a 9V battery and not USB as well.
- inoop 15y ago
  Hah, I got it working yesterday but I had other stuff to do and I wanted to patch their code to work on both 168/328p and 1280/2560 before doing a proper write up. Can you test my patch and get back to me whether it works for you? That way I can update my post.
  - follower 15y ago
    Have checked your patch and commented here: http://romfont.com/2011/05/12/google%E2%80%99s-open-accessory-development-kit-on-standard-arduino-hardware/#comment-31 http://romfont.com/2011/05/12/google%E2%80%99s-open-accessor... Have also put up some photos of input/output example of Arduino Uno + Usb Host Shield + Nexus One here along with some code: http://rancidbacon.com/p/android-arduino-accessory/ http://rancidbacon.com/p/android-arduino-accessory/

bradharper 15y ago

Meanwhile, in Rocklin, CA thousands of Propellers (in all eight of their cores) snicker/sob quietly...

inoop 15y ago
http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?title=PropBridge http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?title=PropBri...

ChuckMcM 15y ago

Fascinating as Mr. Spock would say. I got goaded into teaching a class on Robotics at Google, it was well attended and the first thing we did was build FreeDuino's from Solarbotics. When coming up with a curriculum I chose the Arduino because it's development environment ran on MacOS and Linux (every engineer at Google had either a MacOS or Linux laptop, no Windows) and its use of C++ lite type models was a good match for the codebase they worked in on a day to day basis. I designed (but sadly never got into production) a 'super sheild' which, if you installed the connectors in the Freeduino 'upside down' (relative to the instructions) you could plug it onto the robot shield thing which had 6 AA size batteries, a couple of motor controller chips, mounts for the GM8 (Solarbotics again) wheels with wheel encoders. And a bunch of bits for sensor logic. That being said I certainly can't take credit for Google picking the platform as some of the folks were already familar with it but still its nice to see that this effort has lived on as it were.

germancito 15y ago

If anyone is interested in teaching arduino to the next generation, I'm developing an open graphical programming platform for arduino that is aimed at kids. http://kck.st/mnWW8y http://kck.st/mnWW8y