.NET Gadgeteer kit available

August 1 2011

GHI Electronics just announced the very first .NET Gadgeteer hardware at Maker Fair in Detroit. The new kit is called FEZ Spider Starter Kit and leverages Microsoft .NET Micro Framework. The toolkit has been in the making for some years at Microsoft Research and I’m truly happy to see that Microsoft kept it as an open source project (read more at http://gadgeteer.codeplex.com). It’s great to see it available to everyone.

We’re proud to introduce the .NET Gadgeteer-compatible FEZ Spider to our family of .NET Micro Framework boards. FEZ Spider uses a modular design to allow complex configurations with little hardware knowledge. This allows you to experiment with confidence and bring your wildest ideas to life. There are many modules available including large displays, a button, camera, ethernet and USB to name a few.

Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer is an open-source toolkit for building small electronic devices using the .NET Micro Framework and Visual Studio/Visual C# Express. Gadgeteer combines the advantages of object-oriented programming, solderless assembly of electronics with a kit of peripherals, and support for quick form-factor construction using computer-aided design.

This toolkit is a perfect companion for Industrial Design and IxD projects, as all the parts and boards have corresponding CAD models. It makes it a breeze to build nice and clever enclosures, or retrofit/match with other hardware models. Is is Windows only, but C# is pretty accessible if you know programming already. The main board support decent screens (and up to 3 it seems) plus a plethora of advanced protocols and interfaces.

The FEZ Spider kit will be shipping at the end of September, so keep your eyes open for it in the Interaction Workshop later this Fall!

August 2 2011

Thanks for the post, Camille! Here at the .NET Gadgeteer team it’s been pretty crazy getting the open source released and the retail hardware available – and there’s more to come including modules from other vendors which will of course be compatible with GHI’s mainboard.

If you’re interested in the background to the project, we have an article here:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/gadgeteer-080111.aspx

Ta
James

August 3 2011

Hi James,

Thanks for the additional info and the link. Congrats to Nic, Steve, you and everyone in the SenDev group for releasing this amazing platform to the world. I can’t wait to work with the kit this Fall.

Cheers,
/Camille

August 31 2011

Hmmm… yumi!

You’d also get a Redpark Breakout Pack if you haven’t already. We’re probably ordering one here at IDEO soon, it looks promising too: http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MSRP02

September 4 2011

I got a Redpark Serial Cable for iOS some weeks ago, but had no time to try it out yet. The licensing on it is pretty tight (no submission to the App Store), but for school and personal projects, it seems quite nice.

I’ll try to document my experience with it on the IxD wiki. Let me know how it goes on your side at IDEOland.

September 8 2011

You’re fast Camille! ;)

We’re doing quite a lot of Arduino stuff, but nothing suitable for the Redpark cable right now. I’ll try to play with it whenever we have some free time.

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