Arduino in the Cloud

I saw a recent post on the Make blog about the new cloud ecosystem for Arduino which has been dubbed Arduino Create. Since this will most likely be the future of Arduino, it seemed wise to get an early look at the platform. It includes quite a few features, but the most notable ones in my opinion are the Project Hub, Arduino Cloud (IoT infrastructure), and Web Editor. Arduino Cloud will allow you to connect your network-capable Arduino to the Internet to allow sharing of sensor data, remote control over the net; your typical IoT applications. The Web Editor gives you access to an Arduino IDE over the web. Your code is stored online, and a cloud compiler builds your project, so you don’t have to worry about configuring that on your machine. However, you still have to install an OS-specific agent program on your PC in order to get the complied firmware from the Web Editor onto the Arduino’s flash memory. The Project Hub is a project-sharing space, similar to hackaday.io, Instructables, etc.

I don’t have much to comment on regarding Arduino Cloud, since I don’t have any of the supported devices and cannot try it out at this time. The Web Editor gives me mixed feelings for sure. No doubt that this was created to compete with the mbed platform, which sounds awfully convenient from what I have seen. I like the idea of being able to easily save and share code with others, as well as having a standard set of build tools for everyone. However, the environment is obviously still in early stages, as there is no support for libraries to be added through the official Library Manager JSON list, nor for external hardware definition files to be used. I had some difficulties getting the Arudino Create Agent talking to my web browser in Linux Mint, and once I did, uploading seemed a bit flakier than it does on the desktop IDE. Of course, this is all still in beta, so rough edges are to be expected. Once they get the features of the Web Editor up to parity with the desktop IDE, it should be a very useful tool. Finally, the Project Hub looks nice, but I wonder if we aren’t starting to see too much fragmentation in this type of service for it to be useful. Still, the one-stop shopping aspect of it all is very spiffy.

Something to Watch

Ham radio seems like a natural fit with the citizen scientist movement, so it pleases me to have discovered that some hams have created a platform to advance citizen science in an area where we are well equipped to do so. The new HamSCI website states its mission as:

HamSCI, the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation, is a platform for the publicity and promotion of projects that are consistent with the following objectives:

• Advance scientific research and understanding through amateur radio activities.
• Encourage the development of new technologies to support this research.
• Provide educational opportunities for the amateur community and the general public.

HamSCI serves as a means for fostering collaborations between professional researchers and amateur radio operators. It assists in developing and maintaining standards and agreements between all people and organizations involved. HamSCI is not an operations or funding program, nor is it a supervisory organization. HamSCI does not perform research on its own. Rather, it supports other research programs, such as those funded by organizatons[sic] like the United States National Science Foundation.

They already have three listed projects that they are helping with: the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse, ePOP CASSIOPE Experiment, and Ionospheric Response to Solar Flares. The 2017 eclipse is of special interest to me, as totality will be seen at latitude 45°N here in Oregon, which puts it squarely over Salem; a place I will have easy access from which to observe (which also reminds me that I need to build some kind of solar observation device like the Sun Gun before August 2017).

I wish these folks the best and I hope they are able to make a useful contribution to science.

A Challenger Appears

A EEVBlog video popped into my YouTube feed yesterday that was of significant interest to me, and will probably be to you as well. Most of us who are into having a home test & measurement lab are well aware that the Rigol DSA-815 has been the king of spectrum analyzers for the last few years, due to the very reasonable cost paired with the decent amount of bandwidth and load of useful features that are included. Rigol seemed to own this market space since the DSA-815 was released, as the big boys of T&M didn’t seem to care too much about serving us little guys with our small budgets. However, those days are probably at an end, as a new SA to rival the DSA-815 is on the cusp of release. Dave Jones gives a cursory review of the new Siglent SSA3021X, which looks like it will cost only a few hundred dollars more than the DSA-815 but may be significantly better in the performance category. I’d recommend watching the video below, but here’s a summary of the points that interested me:

• User interface seems to be heavily “inspired” by the Rigol DSA-815
• The Siglent has significantly better DANL
• 10 Hz RBW available on the Siglent vs 100 Hz on the Rigol (I’ve seen hints that the Rigol was supposed to have a 10 Hz RBW option, but they never released it)
• Reference clock and PLL in the Siglent look better
• The Siglent has a waterfall display available, which is missing from the Rigol
• Dave spotted some potential unwanted spurious signals in the Siglent, but they were low level and his machine wasn’t a release version either.

Also, don’t miss Dave Jones in typical Dave Jones-style refer to a signal with unwanted sidebands as a “dick and balls”.

My impression is that if Siglent can tighten up the fit and finish of this spectrum analyzer, it could give the DSA-815 a real run for its money. This is nothing but good news, as more competition in this space will mean even better products for us in the future. I’ll be watching this one.

Fun with Marbles & Magnets

Finally as a palate cleanser, enjoy this clever kinetic artwork contraption built to play with marbles and magnets!