Cypress staff demonstrate a Nerf gun project built with PSoC operated over Bluetooth using a smartphone touchscreen controller. The project contains motors, relays, and an ultrasonic (“PING“) distance sensor.
Our friends at Cypress Semiconductor recently hosted a Hangouts on Air for the PSoC Maker community to discuss their PSoC 4 BLE Pioneer Kit.
This relatively new developer kit (released late last year) is the key component to the PSoC Pioneer Challenge, a contest that will award one maker with $2,500 for travel to Maker Faire Bay Area‘s special 10th anniversary event in San Mateo, California, in mid-May (one runner-up will receive $450 in gift certificates from various vendors).
“PSoC” stands for “Programmable System-on-Chip,” and the PSoC 4 BLE (short for 4th generation PSoC, with Bluetooth Low Energy integration) is built around a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 CPU. With a CapSense slider and BLE connectivity available on the developer board, along with more than 100 programmable components available in their PSoC Creator software, this kit straddles the fence between aspiring maker pros and Internet of Things developers.
As far as Hangouts on Air go, this one was pretty standard. However, there were some notable features, including:
Teaser about using PSoC to control a Parrot quadcopter.- Demonstration of CapSense in products such as Bluetooth speakers and a prototype smartphone (Seen on the right. Imagine using the sides of your phone as a CapSense slider!).
- A forthcoming M-Series CapSense gesture pad. (29:00 mark in the video below.)
- Live demo controlling a Nerf gun over Bluetooth.
- Discussion of the Bluetooth stack.
- More forthcoming 100 Projects in 100 Days built with PSoC 4 BLE.
- An upcoming 10mm x 10mm x 1.8mm fingernail-sized, FCC-certified PRoC module.
So if you’re just getting started with PSoC, or if you are considering entering the PSoC Pioneer Challenge (deadline is April 6th) and looking for a bit more insight and inspiration, or if you’re simply a podcast/Hangouts nerd like me and always enjoy a good stream to listen to while you work, check out the PSoC Maker Hangout video below. If you have more questions or comments, you can always join us at the PSoC Maker community on Google+.
Enter the PSoC Pioneer Challenge and you could win $2,500 for travel to Maker Faire Bay Area in May. Projects should include the PSoC 4 BLE kit from Cypress Semiconductor. This new development board includes Bluetooth and CapSense, along with a software IDE that makes building for the IoT both challenging and fun .
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