The document discusses the .NET Gadgeteer platform for developing custom hardware devices. It describes how the platform allows for: 1) Modular hardware using mainboards and modules that connect via standardized sockets and interfaces. 2) Software tools in Visual Studio and the .NET Micro Framework for programming devices in C# and managing hardware drivers. 3) Guidelines for physical design including 3D models, mounting holes, and case studies of projects developed with the platform.

1. .NET GADGETEER (REC202)
Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche, Steven Johnston
Microsoft Research Cambridge
www.netmf.com/gadgeteer
www.gadgeteering.net

2. Custom devices often need to be:
• developed quickly by a small team
Custom • fully functional and usable
devices • self-contained
• usable in the wild
• able to be produced in quantity

3. • Wearable digital camera that takes photographs
passively
• Camera with wide-angle lens, light-intensity and
light-colour sensors, a passive infrared (body heat)
detector, a temperature sensor, and a multiple-axis
accelerometer
The • Certain changes in sensor readings
SenseCam trigger photograph to be taken
project

4. MAKING A CUSTOM HAND-HELD VIDEOGAME
DEVICE IN 24 HOURS

5. Four-way switch
Mainboard
Connect
hardware
modules Input potentiometer
(5 minutes)
USB power source Colour OLED display
and programming socket (128x128 resolution)

6. Game
development
in C#
(5 hours)

7. Enclosure
design
(3 hours)

8. 3D printing
(6 hours)

9. Assembly
(20 minutes)

10. Custom
videogame
ready to play

11. The .NET Gadgeteer Platform
Modular Software Physical
Hardware Tools Design

12. The .NET Gadgeteer Platform
Modular Software Physical
Hardware Tools Design

13. Modular hardware: mainboards
At the heart of every Gadgeteer project is a mainboard.
A mainboard is made up of a programmable processor (ARM7 / ARM9 /
Cortex M4), memory, and a number of sockets into which Gadgeteer
modules can be connected.

14. Modules:
sensors
www.gadgeteering.net

15. Modules:
communication
www.gadgeteering.net

16. Modules:
display and
user input
www.gadgeteering.net

17. Modules:
power and
actuation
www.gadgeteering.net

18. Modules:
camera and
storage
www.gadgeteering.net

19. Modules:
extensibility
www.gadgeteering.net

20. Sockets have
types, which
specify
their electronic
interface
capabilities

21. Socket Type A

22. Socket types definition table
PIN PIN PIN PIN PIN PIN PIN PIN PIN PIN
TYPE LETTER
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3 GPIO X +3.3V +5V GPIO! GPIO GPIO [UN] [UN] [UN] [UN] GND
7 GPIO Y +3.3V +5V GPIO! GPIO GPIO GPIO GPIO GPIO GPIO GND
Analog In A +3.3V +5V AIN (G!) AIN (G) AIN GPIO [UN] [UN] [UN] GND
CAN C +3.3V +5V GPIO! TD (G) RD (G) GPIO [UN] [UN] [UN] GND
USB Device D +3.3V +5V GPIO! D- D+ GPIO GPIO [UN] [UN] GND
Ethernet E +3.3V +5V [UN] LED1 (OPT) LED2 (OPT) TX D- TX D+ RX D- RX D+ GND
SD Card F +3.3V +5V GPIO! DAT0 DAT1 CMD DAT2 DAT3 CLK GND
USB Host H +3.3V +5V GPIO! D- D+ [UN] [UN] [UN] [UN] GND
I2C I +3.3V +5V GPIO! [UN] [UN] GPIO [UN] SDA SCL GND
UART+Handshaking K +3.3V +5V GPIO! TX (G) RX (G) RTS CTS [UN] [UN] GND
Analog Out O +3.3V +5V GPIO! GPIO AOUT [UN] [UN] [UN] [UN] GND
PWM P +3.3V +5V GPIO! [UN] [UN] GPIO PWM (G) PWM (G) PWM GND
SPI S +3.3V +5V GPIO! GPIO GPIO CS MOSI MISO SCK GND
Touch T +3.3V +5V [UN] YU XL YD XR [UN] [UN] GND
UART U +3.3V +5V GPIO! TX (G) RX (G) GPIO [UN] [UN] [UN] GND
LCD 1 R +3.3V +5V LCD R0 LCD R1 LCD R2 LCD R3 LCD R4 LCD VSYNC LCD HSYNC GND
LCD 2 G +3.3V +5V LCD G0 LCD G1 LCD G2 LCD G3 LCD G4 LCD G5 BACKLIGHT GND
LCD 3 B +3.3V +5V LCD B0 LCD B1 LCD B2 LCD B3 LCD B4 LCD EN LCD CLK GND
Manufacturer Specific Z +3.3V +5V [MS] [MS] [MS] [MS] [MS] [MS] [MS] GND
DaisyLink Downstream* * +3.3V +5V GPIO! GPIO GPIO [MS] [MS] [MS] [MS] GND

23. Connecting a
module to a
mainboard

24. The .NET Gadgeteer Platform
Modular Software Physical
Hardware Tools Design

25. Software tools
Based on the .NET Micro Framework:
 Subset of .NET
 Programming in C# and Visual Basic
 Interactive debugging
.NET Gadgeteer adds:
 Gadgeteer Core Libraries
 Visual Studio Graphical Designer
 Framework for mainboard and module drivers

29. Hardware
module driver
wizard

31. The .NET Gadgeteer Platform
Modular Software Physical
Hardware Tools Design

34. Hardware design
guidelines

35. 3D models of
hardware
modules

38. Standardized
mounting holes

39. Plant moisture
sensor

40. Plant moisture
sensor

41. Case Study
MICROSOFT RESEARCH
Design

42. PreHeat: Home
•
heating using
occupancy
sensing &
prediction
(Scott et al,
UbiComp 2011)
Design

43. Form-factor iteration
Design

44. •
Production and
deployment of
50 devices
Design

45. •
TEI’11 Studio:
from sketch to
3d-printed
demo
Design

46. Case Study
NORTHUMBRIA DESIGN
TOMMY DYKES
Design

47. • Internship project 2011
• Now doing practise based design doctorate
titled …
– Supporting a ‘sense of home’ in care homes: an
exploration of digital design with people living with
dementia
• http://tommydykes.com/
Design

48. Sketching Ideas
The consumption of tea and coffee
featured heavily in our research so
many of these ideas looked at how
we might use ceramics to
encourage new conversations.
Design

49. Physical Inspiration
Gilding already present on the
surface of much ceramics.
We decided to experiment with its
use.
Design

50. Building the prototype
Experimenting with resistive
First cup materials
Design

51. Building the prototype
Exploring interactions First working encoder
Design

52. Building the prototype
Augmenting the table Ceramics
Design

53. Video link
• http://vimeo.com/33729722
Design

54. Case Study
INDOOR WEATHER STATIONS
COURTESY OF BILL GAVER,
INTERACTION RESEARCH STUDIO
GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
Design

55. Interaction Research Studio
Part of Goldsmiths’ Design
Department
Design-led, but
interdisciplinary:
- design
- social sciences
- technology
Current 12 staff researchers
Design

56. Indoor weather stations
Sense and reveal the
microclimate of the home
Part of five year Legible
Landscapes project funded by
the European Research Council
Focus on environmental
awareness in the home – use
sensors to reveal environmentally
relevant attributes of the
domestic environment
Design

57. Design

58. Design

59. Design

60. •
Then a lot of work happens…
See: Jarvis, Cameron & Boucher (2012) Attention to detail. Proc. NordiCHI’12
Design

61. Design

62. Batch production
22 x 3 devices
Produced in studio
• Dimension Elite object printer
• Laser cutter
• Well-equipped workshop
.NET Gadgeteer
Design

63. Case Study
DISRUPTIVE DEVICES STUDIO
ANDY LAW
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN
Design

64. Project Pulse
Jon Mc Taggart and
Christian Ferrara:
… concept for an object that simplifies
our daily information feeds and
displays them in a physical and non
committing manner.
… let users connect a graph displaying
device to different inputs based on
on-line sources of information.
Design

65. Project Pulse Video
http://vimeo.com/45980795
Design

66. Dropout Bear
Christina Xu:
“Like a magic eight ball, when
shaken or rolled, Dropout Bear
recites a few words of "wisdom":
one of many Kanye West tweets.
Design

67. Dropout Bear Video
http://youtu.be/V_I1dWjoeqg
Design

68. Case Study
PASTEUR2
DEAN MOHAMEDALLY
SHABNAM PARKAR (PROJECT CLIENT)
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Design

69. Inguinal hernia repair
Appendicectomy
Pancreaticojejunostomy
Proctocolectomy
CHALLENGING INCREASINGLY POPULAR Diagnostic laparoscopy
known as ‘keyhole’ Many surgeries now involve Rectopexy
surgery for a reason. laparoscopic procedures.
Proctosigmoidectomy
Fundoplication
REVOLUTIONARY YOUNG Adrenalectomy
Challenges Reduces scarring, side Widely adopted in the 1990s. Single port
effects and recovery time. Cholecystectomy
Hepaticojejunostomy
Appendectomy
Colectomy
Lleocolectomy
Distal pancreatectomy
Pyloromyotomy
Abdominoperineal resection
Design

70. Challenges
Depth perception Fulcrum effect Reduced movement
Design

71. > £30,000
Box
Trainer
Current training Dangerous
options
On-the-job
Insufficient
Observation
Design

72. TRAINING ENVIRONMENT
RAPID SCALABILITY – WINDOWS AZURE
LOW COST – .NET GADGETEER
CROSS PLATFORM – MOBILE WEB APPLICATION
EXTENSIBLE
• Low cost, scalable surgical simulation
What is • Testing, training and tracking of surgical skills
Pasteur2? • Built on solid technical foundations
• Windows Azure – for rapid web platform cloud capacity
• .NET Gadgeteer – easy to build surgical training
experiments
• HTML5/CSS/JS – web and mobile application
Design

73. Proof of concept
prototype box
with .NET
Gadgeteer parts
Design

74. Flexibility in hardware, software and form factor
Gadgeteer
Humanities,
opportunities EE CS Design
science, …
Professionals
Low threshold – high ceiling
Matrix of University
opportunities research
University
teaching
School
Makers

75. http://gadgeteer.codeplex.com/
Open source repository for project documentation,
software and hardware designs

76. http://netmf.com/gadgeteer
http://www.gadgeteering.net
http://research.microsoft.com/projects/gadgeteer
gadgeteer@microsoft.com