EasyDAQ is the creator of a wide range of relay controllers with USB, Ethernet, Serial, and XBee interfaces. EasyDAQ partnered with ioBridge to web-enable their serial relay control modules. The integrated system includes web-based control of up to 16 opto-isolated relays, a custom serial cable that interfaces the serial relay controller to the ioBridge IO-204 module, and an international / universal power supply.
EasyDAQ and ioBridge Serial Relay Controller System Overview
Web access is provided by the ioBridge.com platform via widgets and the Static Widget API. The API provides a conduit for commands sent by HTTP or HTTPS POST/GET requests. HTML, LabVIEW, Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP and Ajax are access/programming options. Refer to the ioBridge Wiki for protocol and information on controlling the EasyDAQ SER8PRMx and SER16PRMxN relay cards using the ioBridge.com platform.
The system components are available for sale and worldwide distribution directly from EasyDAQ – visit EasyDAQ.biz for more information.
Christmas lights are one way to celebrate the holidays. If you want to take the tradition further, why not web-enable your your xmas lights and let the world watch, control, and interact via the Internet. A couple of ioBridge users did just that -- they took their holiday lights to Griswold levels.
Nathan Kennedy of Pacific Lights and Kennedy Technology has created an interactive display of reindeer and Christmas Star stakes covered in Christmas lights. You can watch his display all the way from New Zealand and switch them on or off on his website. He uses the ioBridge IO-204 connected to an arduino to control the lights on his website. It’s lots of fun controlling someone else’s holiday display.
Christmas Lights Controlled via a Web Page
Noel Portugal of Oracle has created an interactive holiday lights display using a mix of technologies. The result is Christmas lights synchronized to songs that are selectable on a web page, www.xmas-box.com. Inside the box are solid-state relays to control the lights, an Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit, and of course, the ioBridge IO-204 module to add some interactivity to his website. Noel details the procedure to create your very own Christmas Light Controller Box on Instructables.com and on his blog. On a related note, Noel also won third-place for his Dropping Spider ioBridge project featured on Instructables this Halloween! His neighbors must love him!
Over at PaperMashup.com, Ashley Ford has created a predictive weather system by tying the API of BBC Weather and real-time temperature data collected by a temperature sensor on the IO-204. Ashley is a developer at MySpace.com and has created a very clever project that uses ioBridge.com as a web service. The system serves as a way for him to forecast the weather in the UK as the season starts to turn colder. The predictive element comes from getting the forecast from the BBC Weather API and mashing it up with the ioBridge Data Feed API.
Office Weather System
You can demo the system and check out the weather forecast, by visiting Ashley’s blog. While you are there check some other of his projects.
From the “My Electronics Notepad” blog, Noel Portugal created a tracking webcam using passive infrared (PIR) sensors, a webcam mounted on a servo, and the IO-204 monitor and control module.
PIR Sensors, Webcam, and ioBridge IO-204 Module
Noel was able to pull this off with using the ioBridge Actions. An action is logic created through the ioBridge interface that allows automated events to occur. For example, an action can cause a servo to move to preset position, send an email, update your Facebook status, etc. In Noel’s case, he use the output of the PIR sensor to cause the servo to move to a set position. The output of the PIR is digital – “high” means motion detected and “low” means no motion.
Using two PIRs covering two regions, he was able to detect motion in two regions. If motion is sensed in one area, the webcam points in that direction and if motion is detected in the other area, the servo moves the camera to cover the other region. Very clever.
The PIR sensor has been the subject of a recent Adafruit tutorial – it’s available on the Adafruit store and even your local Radio Shack (of all places). For more information about this ioBridge project and other projects Noel dreams up, visit his blog.
Thanks to Oprah, Twitter is a household name. You can’t avoid it. But, Twitter uses are starting to flourish thanks to an API and dedicated developers. Matt Morey has developed a two-way, home automation application using Twitter to control lights and LCDs and monitor temperature and light sensors. His app interfaces Twitter with the ioBridge IO-204 by using the PHP Widget Control API.
Follow MattsOffice on Twitter
Matt’s Twitter application allows him to make updates to his Twitter feed and send commands to his IO-204 to turn on lights, send messages to his serial LCD screen, and get temperatures and light sensor readings. He also has a nifty extension that allows you to see a view from his office by sending him a tweet, which takes a snap shot from a digital camera and posts it on TwitPic.
Jason Winters, the famous Picodore and fishcam inventor himself, created a Do It Yourself (DIY) power monitoring system to chart and track power usage in your house using AC transducer clamps and an ioBridge module for web-casting the data. This project has found a lot of interest on the world wide web and the ioBridge community. Jason has used the system and discovered some amazing inefficiencies and some power suckers all around his house. I think we are interested in knowing where our money goes and how to become more efficient. I have also noticed lots of claims that this has been done before. If you dig deeper, you will find that no one has quite solved the problem quite like this and will be surprised with the ability to use it with Google Charts, Google Documents, and social networking widgets.
Jason has provided plenty of photos and details on how to recreate the power monitoring system for your own benefit. You can check out his Picobay Projects Blog or the very detailed Instructables.
Jay from thecapactity.org started posting on his blog about ioBridge the moment he heard about ioBridge. He send us email asking about an API, REST, JSON, jQuery, and all things web app. We had our API in the works, but his plurality of email lead us to believe to accelerate the API release, and we did just that. Little did we know that Jay was planning a remote controlled weapon of micro destruction. We have put the pieces together and enabled his mini-surge.
Enter, The ioGun -- A Wiimote controlled magnetic coil gun that slings projectiles at college text books. It is a fascinating collection of technologies using the output of the Wiimote wrapped in JSON, feeding into a web app that ties into ioBridge’s JavaScript Widget Control API. He also used the coil from a golf ball putter returner, inks pens, a and black tape. His friends will never be the same when he invites them over for an evening of Wii Sports and you have to dodge, duck, dip, and dodge as you play tennis.
Here is the Wiimote controlled servo action on YouTube:
Jay from thecapacity sent us project details about making his computer aware of him sitting in front of the computer or not by using a temperature sensor and an ioBridge module. He wanted the computer to turn off the screen saver and adjust the volume of his music depending on his presence. Jay sent us a few questions along the way and this caused us to accelerate the release of the Data Feed API. His proof of concept is a beating heart that speeds up when the temperature increases.
Jay took our technology in a new and interesting direction. He successfully bridged his computer to his workspace with ioBridge and his clever desktop and web applications.
For more project details, check out Jay’s posts on his “thecapacity” blog.
We are pleased to announce the ioBridge Data Feed API. Our developers have been putting together the API and documentation to allow you to extend ioBridge technology into your own desktop and web applications. Some of our users have been testing the API and have already created client-side applications with jQuery. For more information, documentation, and sample applications visit www.iobridge.com/technology. We are excited to see what you come up with. Let us know and we will feature the applications and projects right here on our blog.
Here are some quick links to documentation and sample applications to get you started:
