14 DAY TRIAL // A new project from Microsoft is designed to streamline the process of building electronic devices by providing a platform leveraging technologies such as .NET Micro Framework and Visual Studio/Visual C# Express. The promise from the software giant is that coding for a new electronic device will be as simple as writing an application, provided that developers use the .NET Gadgeteer open-source toolkit.
And open source and open hardware project by Microsoft Research Cambridge, NET Gadgeteer comes to democratize the creation of gadgets requiring little or no electronics or soldering knowledge at all.
This because the .NET Gadgeteer central processing unit mainboard (depicted in the image at the top of this article) can be extended with a wide range of modules, including sensors, lights, switches, displays, communications, motor controllers, etc.
“.NET Gadgeteer is a powerful platform that lets you build sophisticated devices really quickly — even if you don’t have much experience,” revealed Steve Hodges, principal hardware engineer, Microsoft Research Cambridge.
“It started out as an internal tool at Microsoft Research Cambridge, but its appeal to people outside the lab quickly became evident. The open source release will make this powerful technology available to others, including the hobbyists, teachers, researchers and developers who have given us such positive feedback to date.”
The software giant has set up a .NET Gadgeteer site on CodePlex, sharing hardware interface specifications and core libraries with developers under an Apache 2.0 license.
In addition, developers can visit the Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer website for a wealth of additional information, guidance and resources, including the new FEZ Spider Starter Kit, which is available for just $249.95 from embedded systems provider GHI Electronics LLC.
“The open source release will enable third parties to leverage Microsoft’s investment in this technology and bring their own compatible products to market,” added Colin Miller, product manager, Microsoft .NET Micro Framework.
“We’re looking forward to seeing further partners come on board to offer even more hardware modules and broaden the development of the .NET Gadgeteer platform.”
Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer is available for download here.