At South by Southwest (SXSW) Create this weekend, so many makers, hobbyists and DIY enthusiasts talked about being able to connect the electronics they created to the cloud. So it came as no surprise that the Tiva™ C Series Connected LaunchPad received a lot of buzz as the first LaunchPad in TI’s ecosystem with out-of-the-box cloud connection capabilities.
“It is going to enable students, hobbyists and professional engineers to quickly experiment with a cloud-based solution and help them either understand what cloud connectivity means for them or, if they already have a good grasp of cloud based solutions, help them actually take their ideas to the next level and into something more production worthy” said Joe Folkens, technical product marketer for the Tiva C Series MCUs.
The Connected LaunchPad brings the Internet of Things (IoT) to the maker community with a $19.99 price tag, two BoosterPack XL plug-in interfaces allowing for twice as many add-on features compared to previous versions, and cloud capabilities right out of the box. Through a web browser and custom firmware application, the Connected LaunchPad provides the ability to remotely monitor and access information it is gathering, remotely control end points, or do both, which saves money, time or can provide additional services depending upon how the Connected LaunchPad is being used. When coupled with the price tag, Joe believes it makes the Connected LaunchPad a real “game changer.”
“The $19.99 price allows hobbyists and makers to buy this and use it to investigate IoT-type ideas they have and want to develop,” said Joe.
The Connected LaunchPad also has immediate, real-world industrial applications, including the development of industrial sensor gateways, industrial automation, industrial motor drives and networked meters and controllers. The Connected LaunchPad could also be the development foundation of products used in homes and businesses for remote security, remotely controlled doors or temperature and other IoT applications. It could also detect when something needs to be serviced, avoiding costly repairs. While interviewing Joe, he came up with the idea of a Connected HVAC unit, remotely monitoring the air-flow level and automatically shipping a new air filter to a customer when they need to change it. Makers have the freedom with this product to explore any and all ideas.
“Creating this type of platform, at this type of price point, with this type of cloud based connectivity, releases all kinds of different possibilities,” said Joe. “We’ve listened to what customers have been asking for, and we are giving them a foundation for them to build upon.”
What can you do with $19.99 and a connection to the cloud? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comment section below.