Continuous IoT Software Releases (w/ blink(1)!)

ElectricFlow is a tool designed to orchestrate large-scale software delivery.  This is an increasingly notorious problem for everyone in the IoT space.  To demonstrate how ElectricFlow could work for automotive software delivery, ElectricCloud made a simulation using a Raspberry Pi and a few blink(1) lights. This is a great example of how blink(1)s can be useful: you need a simple non-screen indicator on your embedded system.  (and remember if you need more LEDs, blink(1)s can be hacked to add up to 18 LEDs)

Polar Heart Rate Monitor and blink(1) w/ Octoblu

Cody Matthieu wrote up a neat HOWTO on hooking up a Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) Polar Heart Rate monitor to a blink(1) notification light with the  Octoblu  device integration framework.  (and doing testing with the very good LightBlue Explorer app from Punch Through) It's a really neat idea and yet another interesting case of assuming we always have a BLE-to-Internet gateway in our pockets thanks to modern smartphones.

ThingM joins OSHWA as supporting member

The Open Source Hardware Association  works to help define what it means  to be "Open Hardware", as well as foster a community, help creators navigate licensing models, and promote consistent terminology for Open Hardware projects.  Their recent 2015 Open Hardware Summit was a resounding success. ThingM believes in OSHWA’s mission and we recently became supporting members.  Thank you OSHWA  for your work so far and continued success!

Blink1Control v1.98 released: mail updates, wake/sleep fixes

We've just released a v1.98 update to Blink1Control.  It includes fixes for:

• Upgraded underlying code framework to Qt5.5 which should address issues #246, #242, #220 and make app work better on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
• Fixed font rendering problem on certain highDPI Windows systems, issue #237
• Implemented sleep/wake detection to turn off & disable blink(1) on sleep, addresses issue #244
• Mail subsystem completely rewritten to use libcurl, is more intelligent about searching, addressing issues #222 and others
• Improved settings save & load, to address issue #221
• Much internal cleanup of QML GUI in a move to use standard QtQuick controls

Added in this release:

• Use the Dock / Tray menu to trigger the customizable "big buttons" ("Away", "Busy", etc.)
• New "Open Log File" and "Open Settings File" in Preferences
• Added to API server ability to see which patterns are playing (also added "playcount" and "playPos"), issue #243. Also to show a single pattern with localhost:8934/blink1/pattern?pname=policecar.
• New "Move to 1st place" in BigButton context menu to allow rearranging of custom BigButtons

Known issues:

• BigButton dock/tray menus only updated on app restart
• POP3 protocol for Mail is currently disabled
• Changes to proxy settings not used for Mail until app is restarted
• Graphics still not sharp on Retina displays
• Certain Windows systems give "black window" after sleep due to QQuickView not redrawing
• Preferences window looks weird (but still functional) on certain highDPI Windows system

Get it now on our Github repo releases page.

Take a 15% load off blink(1) for Labor Day

In the US, 7 Sept this year is Labor Day. And to celebrate, we are offering a 15% off coupon code "MKBDAY2015". From now until Labor Day, get 15% off from our buy.thingm.com/blink1 store.  Get a blink(1) if you don't have one or get another!

Control blink(1) with the flick of your wrist

Zack made Myo 2 Blink, an interesting Octoblu example using a Myo gesture armband to change the color of a blink(1) notification light depending on hand gestures.  (If you've not heard of Octoblu before, check it out. If you have heterogeneous IoT or other devices talking to each other, you may need it.  It's a visual tool for describing how data should flow, connect, or be transformed and analyzed)  To make it work, Zack created a small iOS app that talks to the Myo band via Bluetooth and publishes blink(1) color changes to the Octoblu Web API over the cellular network.  It's pretty slick for a simple demo.

IoT Scavenger hunt w/ Raspberry Pi & blink(1)

Recently folks at TheAppsLab organized a scavenger hunt game for the KScope15 conference. In their write-up, they described the Internet-of-Things style devices they built to track people's game progress.  These devices were battery-powered, WiFi-enabled Raspberry Pis with NFC readers and blink(1)s, and probably cost less than $150 each. Amazing!

This year we organized a scavenger hunt for Kscope15 in collaboration with the ODTUG board and YCC. [...]

The Smart Scanner was a great way to showcase IoT. We used the beloved Raspberry Pis to host an NFC reader. We used the awesome blink(1) USB LED light to indicate whether the scan was successful or not. We also added a Mini USB Wi-Fi dongle and a high capacity battery to assure complete freedom from wires.

After the event they had another write-up about the success of the scavenger hunt, with some nice words and some great pics:

The Scavenger Hunt was quite a comprehensive system for people to win points in various ways, and keep track of events, points and a leaderboard. And of course, we had one Internet of Things (IoT) component that people could search for and tap to win points.

And here is the build, with powerful battery connected to it, complete with anti-theft feature, which is double-sided duct tape :) All together, it is a stand-alone, self-contained, and definitely mobile, computer.

Isn’t it cool? I overheard on multiple occasions people say it was the coolest thing at the conference.

Steam buddy indicator with blink(1) & Python

Do you love playing games on Steam?  We sure do.  Awhile back, Justin emailed us saying he whipped up a handy Steam buddy indicator using the one of the Python blink(1) libraries and the Steam Web API.  In just a few lines of code, his buddy indicator visually cycles through the online state of select Steam buddies. Catch a video demo of it below.  And the code to try out yourself is right here: blink(1)-steam.zip.

Thanks Justin, this is awesome!

Team status with blink(1), Raspberry Pi & IFTTT

We have sold a lot of blink(1) notification lights to large organizations.   We've always wondered what these companies are using our devices for and recently someone from a team within a company whose name rhymes with "voogle" contacted us and sent us this neat team tracker using blink(1)s,  a Raspberry Pi, and IFTTT.

"Hi, I just wanted to send you a pic of v1 of our team status board. We're using IFTTT connected to a gmail account to control each person's light, e.g in the morning when they email the team to say "WFH today", their light will turn yellow. V1 uses 13 lights and a raspberry pi connected to wifi. We have a long roadmap of enhancements (including making a better housing) but thought you might enjoy seeing the first iteration."

It's really neat to see how our products are being used and mapping each team member to their own blink(1) looks like a big physical IM/Skype availability status window.

blink(1) notification light 15% solstice sale!

It's summer time!* and to celebrate we are having a 15% off blink(1) notification USB RGB LEDs and accessories at http://buy.thingm.com/blink1.  Use discount code "solstice2015" at checkout and blink up your  summer.  Sale ends 6 July 2015.

(* if you're not in the Northern Hemisphere or want to avoid customs fees in the EU area, check out our list of  great international blink(1) resellers)