Option Value of BACnet and Webservices on Xport.

Blogged before about how to make a Modbus device be BACnet. Question came regarding B6131 embedded Modbus to BACnet gateway module in a way only thought about for Analytika legacy metering projects: The B6131 (and its developer kit B6130 boxed version) have a Modbus RTU to Modbus TCP MBAP router embedded inside. One simply has to turn on Modbus TCP in the web GUI. So...
Use the B613x as only a Modbus TCP router? At least as a starting position? That is to say: Use the B613x exactly like any Modbus TCP routers on the market. Notably exactly like Modbus TCP routers from Lantronix and Gridconnect on their XPorts and xPicos (DSTini platform).

Except the B613x has the option to later install BACnet templates under the existing BACnet device, and use the web for data access. The B613x unit comes with excellent defaults preset and is re-configurable via the HTTP web GUI. Further there are OEM optional "add-ins" for REST webservices, advanced auto-setup and discovery, buffered data, and so on. Where the OEM or end-user has already designed in an XPort/XPico this is exceptionally straightforward.

Littlebits Smarter Than Your Home Challenge - BaseBits - #shapebits

Basebits - #shapebits - Put your things on a smart pedestal - for Littlebits Smarter Than Your Home Design Challenge.

Concepts: Internet of Things (littlebits cloudbit). Shapeways 3D printing. Something ubiquitous at home.

Thoughts were about toys. Or more directly the kind of activities kids do at home. Got to thinking about the age old project of growing a bean plant. That led to flower pots and vases. Usually one puts a water tray under the grow container. How about making that "pedestal" a smart connected thing with a cloudbit in it? And just maybe it can be more flexible than that...

Concept:
Low height pedestal with shallow depression in top. Clear and white plastics. Clear for esthetics and peek through for some sensors. Primary sensors motion, light, water (humidity). Pedestal has place in bottom to snugly mount place a cloudbit and the required sensors. Put in a color LED bit for some feedback. Track the progress of growing online. Send reminders for watering. Integrate other features via IFTTT.

Mockup:
Get two used clean hummus or dip containers. Clear one for water tray on top. Translucent one for cloudbit and electronics on bottom. Tape the bits into the base. [Insert Photo - cloudbit + motionsensor + containers]

Realization:
Shapeways used either for total realization or components to make whole. Or use available parts for tray and base and aggregate them using 3D printed parts. The 3D aspect is for esthetic and affordance of function. Cloudbit additions will be modular - any littlebit could be considered for integration into the overall Basebit "platform". The software is likewise modular. Features could be afforded via IFTTT. Concept suggests a new littlebit for moisture sensing.

Extension:
Same pedestal (slightly smaller) for kids items in the refrigerator. Will fit tightly under a round or rectangular leftover container. Then one can track temperature, light, motion. When is a leftover too old? When is my juice box cold enough after putting it in the refrigerator? (send an alert)

Generally the pedestal Basebit could be used for making anything a smart trackable thing. Just put something on it to see who might move your stuff. Or just see what is happening to or around your object of interest.

NASA Space Apps Challenge - Bouncy Ball - Zero G Bee.

NASA Space Apps Challenge in Cambridge over weekend of April 11. See tweets @AlbertPutnam. Many thanks to: Binnovative for heading. Hack/reduce for hosting. IBM for facilitating. Local sponsors for supporting. NASA and ESA overall. Sorry other events and logistics had to share the time.

Looked at doing something with space craft thermal power consumption, but could not find way to data at ESA Venus Express. Seemed like a great place to use some data mining tools from IBM BlueMix.

So instead chatted with people about other ideas, and after awhile came to this Bouncy Ball project for the Zero G Bee challenge.

The Bouncy Ball approach is sort of a hack within a hackathon. Namely a reframing of the problem really: Roadie in space. Social model of robot which needs help. Padded with Zorb.
 

The core work is not about electronics or code, so it made it "difficult" to submit that. But the expression of target intent needs facilitation and that is where a screen module packed inside the ball with the payload would come into play, with input UI using natural language ala Watson, and output UI using facial expressions and language/text like other social robots.

Some one suggested that there would not be enough humans onboard the space station to make social forwarding work... Maybe not. Then the problem could be converted to stewards or doorman bots (arms) at the interconnect points within the station to help the bouncy balls (or anything) along.

The Pivot to IoT. Rainmakers, Recipes, Fungibility, Sensors.

Saw this announcement about Pivotal, Benjamin Black and foray into IoT. The competitive landscape gets set out in the article with PTC, IBM, Cisco, Citrix, GE and others. Scroll down to the paragraph with "sensors aren't fungible" for the central issue in IoT, the nature of sensors and their natural environment, in a nutshell.

Interesting concept fungibility. And while one is on the topic of sensors and IoT... here is Oak Ridge Sensorpedia. And here is a sensorpedia recipe. Blogged before about great IBM IoT recipes... $3B investment in new division is quite an IBM announcement. Will this make IBM the rainmakers?