Proposed Agenda for IoT Workshop

On April 18, 2016 the ThingLabs Tinkerers will be hosting a full-day IoT Workshop at the DevIntersection conference (register with discount code SEVEN to save $50).I am looking for feedback on the proposed agenda. Here is the workshop abstract and the proposed agenda is below:

This is a hands-on workshop. You must bring your own Windows 10 laptop with Visual Studio 2015 Community (or higher edition) installed.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the latest in an ever growing realm of technology that modern developers have to know about. To get into the IoT you have to learn about small form-factor and low-energy devices that interact with the physical world, and you have to know the Cloud services that will interface with these devices, for both data ingestion and command and control. In this full-day workshop you will learn both sides of the IoT. You will begin by diving into the world of Things by building applications that run on the Raspberry Pi 2, running Windows 10 IoT Core – a small form-factor variant of the popular Windows 10 family. Once you have mastered the world of Windows 10 IoT Core, you will learn how to connect the Thing you built to Azure IoT Hubs – a new Azure service designed to support millions of devices sending millions of messages. You will build a data ingestion pipeline, including visualizations of your IoT data that enable you to gain insight into your solution, and a command capability that enables you to control your device remotely. By the end of the workshop you will have built a complete Windows 10 and Azure IoT solution – and you may keep the hardware kit to continue your adventure in IoT.

Let me know what you think (we will publish this workshop on ThingLabs.io so that anyone can go through it as a self-directed workshop).

  • Goals
    • The goals of this workshop are:
      • Educate developers on the IoT stack offered by Microsoft
      • Educate developers on the Universal Windows Platform (UWP)
      • Educate developers on the Azure services related to IoT
    • By the end of the workshop a participant will be able to:
      • Build an IoT device using the Raspberry Pi 2 (RPi2)
      • Build a UWP app for Windows IoT Core to run on the RPi2
      • Use Windows IoT Core and the RPi2 to both capture input and present output
      • Create and configure an Azure IoT Hub
      • Connect their UWP application running on the RPi2 to Azure IoT Hubs
      • Build a data pipeline that captures data coming into IoT Hub and stores it
      • Build a visualization of IoT data
      • Build a client application that can send a command to the IoT device via Azure
  • Getting Started (pre-workshop if possible)
    • Development machine setup
    • Installation of Visual Studio
  • Lecture: Welcome to the Internet of Things
    • IoT Patterns for D2C and C2D
    • Maker Hardware Landscape
    • Prototyping Hardware
    • Lab: Hello, Windows IoT
  • Lecture: Input/Output
    • GPIO
    • Pulse Width Modulation
    • SPI and I2C
    • Lab: Nightlight
  • Lab: Not Quite the Nest – Smart Environment Monitor
  • Lunch
  • Lecture: Introduction to Azure Services for the IoT
    • Device-to-Cloud (D2C) Messaging
    • Lab: Sending Device-to-Cloud Messages
    • IoT Data Pipelines
    • Lab: Storing and Displaying IoT Data
    • Coud-to-Device (C2D) Messaging
    • Lab: Sending Cloud-to-Device Messages
  • Wrap Up

Post your comments – I’d love to hear what you think.

New ThingLabs IoT Workshop Kits

It felt a bit like Christmas on St. Patricks’s Day! That is because the first batch of the new ThingLabs IoT Workshop Kits arrived today. We will have four (4) new IoT Workshop Kit configurations, in addition to the two (this and this) that we already have. This will allow us to create workshops for a variety of hardware and operating-systems, including Linux, Windows 10 IoT Core and Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS).

Today we received the Intel Edison and BeagleBone Green kits based on the Grove sensors.

IoTKits

The ThingLabs Tinkerers are busy working on new workshops for these kits and more (see below). We have a full-day workshop on April 18, 2016 at the Walt Disney World Swan for the DevIntersection conference (register with discount code SEVEN to save $50).

 

Here are all of the kits we are building new workshops for…

 

Linux-based Micro-Processor Kits

IoT Workshop Kit: Intel Edison Edition

(1) Intel® Edison for Arduino

(1) Grove Indoor Environment Kit for Intel® Edison

IMG_6311

IoT Workshop Kit: BeagleBone Green Edition

(1) SeeedStudio BeagleBone Green

(1) Grove Starter Kit for SeeedStudio BeagleBone Green

IMG_6313.JPG

Windows 10-based Micro-Processor Kits

IoT Workshop Kit: Raspberry Pi 2 Edition

(1) GrovePi+ Starter Kit for Raspberry Pi

(1) Raspberry Pi 2 Model B w/ ARMv7 Quad Core 1GB RAM

(1) USB Wi-Fi Adapter

(1) Power Supply

(1) microSD Card

Check out the ‘Windows 10 IoT – Connected Nightlight Workshop‘ that uses a Raspberry Pi2 with a breadboard, LED and a photo-resistor instead of the GrovePi+ kit.

Micro-Controller Kits

IoT Workshop Kit: ESP8266 Edition

(1) Huzzah! Adafruit.io Internet of Things Feather ESP8266 – WiFi Starter Kit (soldered headers)

(1) USB to microUSB cable (6′)

(1) Breadboard

(10) Jumper Wires

IoT Workshop Kit: Arduino Uno Edition

(1) SparkFun RedBoard – Programmed with Arduino

(1) SparkFun Weather Shield w/ soldered headers

(1) SparkFun USB Mini-B Cable – 6 Foot

Checkout the ‘Node.js – Connected Weather Station‘ workshop for Arduino and Particle Photon

IoT Workshop Kit: Particle Photon Edition

(1) Particle Photon Kit

(1) SparkFun Photon Weather Shield

Checkout the ‘Node.js – Connected Weather Station‘ workshop for Arduino and Particle Photon