Brendon Shaw
Active member
I am looking at developing a project to support our STEM projects in local schools. We have been using raspberry Pi, but we have connectivity problems at the school networks due to security restrictions. Therefore; spend more time getting them connected to the network rather than doing coding.
The schools projects have been with a simple robot, sensors, real time feedback on location etc.
We have been working with the blue bean BLE and the iPad applications which is good as we have direct connection via bluetooth, rather than WIFi which works really well. The problem is the application needs an internet connection to complie the code and the application only allow C code development or Stratch. So we face the same problem of internet connection or no wifi signal, we cannot complie the code.
Another problem is the limited GPIO on the blue bean and limited to expand its functionality for future projects. We could use i2c expansion but then we have the complexity with software which trying to teach the kids i2c and functionality, not too easy and makes things more complicated.
Moving forward I would like to develop a similar solution using ARM BLE to avoid the above problems. I am trying to understand how to make this all work and been going around in circles with research. I am little bit new of ARM products, but been using the Teensy board for a couple of projects and its an amazing little board.
This is my idea
1) ARM product running mbed, with the ability to complie code I.e c, Python etc
2) 16 pins of gpio with 2 been interrupt triggered
3) 1 timer
4) BLE interface
We write a code on tablet app, transfer file to the ARM device via BLE interface and the device then complies the code and generates a report file which is sent back to the tablet. We have a stop & go buttons on the tablet to run & stop the programming, real time feedback like serial print messages would be nice.
On the ARM device we could transfer the file into a folder, which is constantly checked by the o/s if file exists it gets complied, if any errors this is sent back to the tablet or successful we get okay message back to the tablet. The compile code sits in the folder is executed via BLE go command from the tablet app.
On the tablet app we have stop & go functions which sends a command to the arm o/s to run the file. This may require different functionality depending on the language I.e. C, Python etc
It all seems feasible, but just do not know enough about arm & BLE so any advise would be appreciated.
The schools projects have been with a simple robot, sensors, real time feedback on location etc.
We have been working with the blue bean BLE and the iPad applications which is good as we have direct connection via bluetooth, rather than WIFi which works really well. The problem is the application needs an internet connection to complie the code and the application only allow C code development or Stratch. So we face the same problem of internet connection or no wifi signal, we cannot complie the code.
Another problem is the limited GPIO on the blue bean and limited to expand its functionality for future projects. We could use i2c expansion but then we have the complexity with software which trying to teach the kids i2c and functionality, not too easy and makes things more complicated.
Moving forward I would like to develop a similar solution using ARM BLE to avoid the above problems. I am trying to understand how to make this all work and been going around in circles with research. I am little bit new of ARM products, but been using the Teensy board for a couple of projects and its an amazing little board.
This is my idea
1) ARM product running mbed, with the ability to complie code I.e c, Python etc
2) 16 pins of gpio with 2 been interrupt triggered
3) 1 timer
4) BLE interface
We write a code on tablet app, transfer file to the ARM device via BLE interface and the device then complies the code and generates a report file which is sent back to the tablet. We have a stop & go buttons on the tablet to run & stop the programming, real time feedback like serial print messages would be nice.
On the ARM device we could transfer the file into a folder, which is constantly checked by the o/s if file exists it gets complied, if any errors this is sent back to the tablet or successful we get okay message back to the tablet. The compile code sits in the folder is executed via BLE go command from the tablet app.
On the tablet app we have stop & go functions which sends a command to the arm o/s to run the file. This may require different functionality depending on the language I.e. C, Python etc
It all seems feasible, but just do not know enough about arm & BLE so any advise would be appreciated.
