The bi-weekly NERP (Not Exclusively Raspberry Pi embedded systems) Meetup focused on serial i/o. Serial interfacing allows connecting “stuff” to a processor using a small number of wires. There are different ways of making serial connections to processors, and last night we talked about two of them. Drew showed how to implement I2C interfacing to several devices he had out for demo. I2C (I-Square-C) is a way of wiring smart devices like sensors, displays, and microcontrollers to a host computer. The Raspberry Pi has connection pins for I2C on the board and a kernel module for talking to I2C devices from user land. Ed quickly demoed a couple of examples of UART serial technique with a Raspberry Pi running a login on a dumb terminal demo and an RS485 to PC interface on a Macbook. We’ll examine practical applications of these connection methods and others including SPI in future meetings.
The NERP description and meetup are at http://www.meetup.com/NERP-Not-Exclusively-Raspberry-Pi/ . (It’s not necessary to use the Meetup signup to attend NERP, but it helps us anticipate how to set up the electronics lab for the number of attendees. Also it shows Meetup that people actually attend the meetings.) .
We’re looking for people who would like to show their work or lead a NERP-related discussion. We’d especially like to hear about works in progress (i.e., unfinished), both in hardware and software. Python, C, interfacing, non-Rasapberry Pi embedded systems, media, networking, and physical devices are particularly interesting. Contact Ed (ed -> kineticsandelectronics – com) to schedule a day.
