Creating and prototyping small electronics.

1. PROTOTYPING AND
DIY ELECTRONICS
…with Ruby

2. WHO AM I
Micah Wedemeyer
@micahwedemeyer
Ruby on Rails Web Developer
Co-Founder, The Agile League
Very, very new in the world of
electronics

3. AGENDA
Why DIY?
Good and Bad DIY Electronics
Arduino vs Raspberry Pi
Internet of Things
Ruby

4. ROOM OF EXPERTS
Speak Up!

5. WHY DIY?

17. SECRET: ARDUINO

18. SECRET: ARDUINO

19. SOMETHING NEW
Go Where None Have Gone Before

20. DIY: GOOD AND BAD

21. THE BAD

22. BAD: SAVING
$$$
“I could build that myself for
like $50…”

23. DIY FITBIT

24. BUY, DON’T BUILD

25. WHERE TO BUY?

26. BAD:
MISSION
CRITICAL
Anything your significant other
would get enraged by when
it stops working

27. BAD: PANIC
Is that…A BOMB?!?!?!

28. STAY OUT OF JAIL!

29. MICAH’S RULE OF
ARDUINO

30. BUILD IT YOURSELF
2x the cost
5x the power
10x the size
1000x the time

31. THE GOOD

32. GOOD:
EXTREMELY
CUSTOM
Example: Fitbit tracks steps,
but what if you want to track
left and right steps
separately?

33. GOOD:
PROPS AND
COSPLAY
Pip Boy, Vader masks,
anything with LEDs

34. GOOD:
SEPARATE
I/O
When an off-the-shelf
component does too much.

35. SEPARATE INPUT…

36. … AND OUTPUT

37. ARDUINO VS RAS-PI

38. ARDUINO
Microcontroller platform, very
specialized
Great for sensors, LEDs,
motors
No messy OS in the way. Just
code…deploy…

39. RASPBERRY PI
General purpose computer
Great for video, audio, “actual
code”, web servers
Has GPIO for controlling LEDs,
motors, etc.
Use whatever language you
want: JavaScript, Python,
Golang, Ruby, etc, etc.

40. GENERAL RULE
Arduino if you can, R-Pi if you can’t.

41. INTERNET OF
THINGS

42. CONNECTIVITY &
POWER

43. CONNECTIVITY
Arduino is standalone by
default, R-Pi has Ethernet
Can use add-on WiFi - Tricky
and $$$
Spark Photon / Oak - WiFi
native Arduinos

44. POWER
One of the most confusing
areas in DIY electronics
Volts, Amps, Amp Hours, etc.
Can be tough to know if your
project requires a hearing aid
battery or a car battery.
USB power is nice…if available

45. POWER: SAFETY FIRST!!

47. RASPBERRY
PI
Uhh…it’s just a computer.
irb?

48. PI_PIPER GEM
GPIO access for in Ruby
Nice evented structures for
“listening” on pins for changes
Even supports SPI, a protocol
for more advanced
communication

49. ARDUINO FIRMATA
Artoo (and possibly others)

50. RAW ARDUINO
void setup() {
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
delay(1000);
}

51. ARTOO
Released in 2012
Supports a wide range of
Arduino-based boards
Bundles support for sensors
and devices as libraries (LED,
Servo, Button, Sensor)
33 Github stars..seems low

52. ART00require 'artoo'
connection :arduino, adaptor: :firmata, port:
'/dev/ttyACM0'
device :led, driver: led, pin: 13
work do
every 1.second do
led.on? ? led.off : led.on
end
end

53. SPECIAL THANKS TO

54. QUESTIONS?
@micahwedemeyer