EEVblog #642 - TI Connected Launchpad

[EEVblog]

Dave checks out the $20 TI EK-TM4C1294XL Tiva C Series TM4C1294 Connected Launchpad Internet of Things.
ARM Cortex M4 processor with Ethernet and IoT demo application.
http://www.ti.com/ww/en/launchpad/launchpads-connected-ek-tm4c1294xl.html
How useful is it out of the box?

[Rasz]

Well, thats one boring jump on the bandwagon product

maybe relevant:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/173169/faq_ftc_blog_endorsement_rules.html

[Mikey]

When turning the leds on and off, how fast did it react?

I have tried both Electric Imp and Spark Core for my small IoT projects, and I ended  up using the Electric Imp for all my things. The Electric Imp both got code running on the device, and on their server, so if you want to pull data down from a API, or even extract something out of a big website, you can have the Agent running on their server do it, and only transfer the stuff you want to the device. Only thing I don't like about it is how sensitive it is to Error40's. If you connect something to it wrong, you have a very big chance of breaking it compared to an arduino. But reaction time from you access the url associated with your Electric Imp, until it responds, is very fast.

But back to the TI, did you measure how much current it draw while running?

[nixfu]

HAHA...anyone else notice it looks like about a dozen different oscilloscopes sitting on the shelves behind Dave all turned sideways?
Maybe hes saving up for a scope shootout.


Anyone have any ideas where this would be a better choice than a raspberrypi or arduino?

[EEVblog]

maybe relevant:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/173169/faq_ftc_blog_endorsement_rules.html

No, it's not, because:
a) I bought it.
b) I not a Yank, FTC rules mean squat.

[EEVblog]

Anyone have any ideas where this would be a better choice than a raspberrypi or arduino?

It's $20

[EEVblog]

When turning the leds on and off, how fast did it react?

Maybe just over a second.

[neotesla]

Just bought one for myself, looks interesting. Oh, for other Aussies (don't know about other countries), the postage is also free.

[free_electron]

My frustration with a lot of these ioT thingies is that they always rely on a third party service or server. Some of em charge money, that's a problem. Bigger problem is :what if that server goes down ? Or the host goes bankrupt. It's game over !

Why can't these devices simply serve by themselves ?

[EEVblog]

Why can't these devices simply serve by themselves ?

There are ones that do. This is obviously not one of them.
Although it's not the board itself of course, it's just the demo app that comes with it that uses the exosite service.
The server based ones can have advantages, and also disadvantages as you have pointed out.

[SeanB]

Having the device itself it probably would be relatively easy to change who it uses as a provider at least for the Dev boards. IOT yes you are going to have orphanware when the supplier goes bust or decides the servers are too expensive to maintain. If you can upload your own firmware direct to the device ( one reason to like either open source or at least the idea of having the firmware available and documented) then it is possible to roll your own server, which will make the devices a lot more secure as well. After all if it is on it's own network not connected to the wooly cloud it can be a lot more secure, though if it is WiFi I would have a totally separate network and a PC that acts as a gateway and is set up for paranoia.

[bingo600]

I did a blinky here . mostly to verify the Launchpad arm-gcc tc

http://forum.stellarisiti.com/topic/1888-ek-tm4c1294xl-the-first-blinky-with-gcc/

Template from here
https://github.com/uctools/tiva-template

/Bingo

[hikariuk]

COM would most likely be the Component Object Model.  It defines the binary format used by libraries and programs on Windows to marshall objects between each other (such as for IPC).

[Tek_TDS220]

Very timely video, I've got one on order.  I'm heavily invested in Microchip development tools, but for US$20 I've got to give it a try.  The documentation is excellent and the hardware seems well designed on first glance.

I was a little surprised to see the 0.1 amp current draw, but that was with several LED's on.  I was hoping to build a battery-powered data server.

Dave, you seem 'on edge' during this video.  Not a criticism, just hoping everything is OK with you.

[waspinator]

are these dev boards open hardware?

[zapta]

My frustration with a lot of these ioT thingies is that they always rely on a third party service or server. Some of em charge money, that's a problem. Bigger problem is :what if that server goes down ? Or the host goes bankrupt. It's game over !

Why can't these devices simply serve by themselves ?

The centralized cloud based control solves several problems such as incoming connection via NAT, aggregation values from multiple devices and locations, authentication, paper trail, and more.

The dependency on a small player is a real risk though and will deter series implementations.

Once solution would be using open protocols and server software so you can run yourself or pick from one of N service providers, with the ability to redirect your device when you move to a different service (e.g. by modifying your DNS records).  Another solution is to use closed cloud system from a large and stable vendor that is much less likely to close shop.

BTW, Dave, the dark background with the storage racks does not look good. The topic was excellent.

[motocoder]

I did a blinky here . mostly to verify the Launchpad arm-gcc tc

http://forum.stellarisiti.com/topic/1888-ek-tm4c1294xl-the-first-blinky-with-gcc/

Template from here
https://github.com/uctools/tiva-template

/Bingo

Thank you, this is very useful. I like the idea of a completely open source, unlimited compiler / toolchain.

[BravoV]

Anyone have any ideas where this would be a better choice than a raspberrypi or arduino?

Its different beast, not sure about rpi, but to arduino, its has an arduino fork called Energia -> (Energia link).

But when it comes to the processing power and features, the atmel mcu in arduino just not in the same league, and not even fair to compare them. 

A brief diagram on this mcu capabilities & features.

[JonnyBoats]

I have a couple of these boards and like them. I think there are a couple of points worth noting:

1) The price is excellent in my opinion - TI sells it for $20 US and ships for free virtually anywhere in the world. Where else can you get any sort of micro-controller with a built in Ethernet port for $20 delivered?

2) When evaluating this it is important to differentiate between the hardware and the free demo software that ships with it. The demo software is intended to be just that, not a ready for prime time application. Remember that TI provides multiple, free development tools and one is free to build their own applications and use whatever sort of host (including self hosting) that one likes. Also you are not limited to TI development tools, you can use GNU for example.

3) Compared to  Arduinos and Raspberry PIs which ship in the millions this is a relatively obscure platform; you should not expect to find a large community and lots of online support for this product. The ecosystem is very small compared to Arduinos and PIs.

[EEVblog]

are these dev boards open hardware?

Yes
http://upverter.com/measley/0d83e4f8eaaa6a7b/EK-TM4C1294XL-REV-D/
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC 3.0 BY)

[EEVblog]

I was a little surprised to see the 0.1 amp current draw, but that was with several LED's on.  I was hoping to build a battery-powered data server.

Yes, so was I. Perhaps it's just running at full tilt, with no power optimisation?

Dave, you seem 'on edge' during this video.  Not a criticism, just hoping everything is OK with you.

Just the usual stuff that pisses me off. Bugs in the screen capture and product etc.

[EEVblog]

2) When evaluating this it is important to differentiate between the hardware and the free demo software that ships with it. The demo software is intended to be just that, not a ready for prime time application. Remember that TI provides multiple, free development tools and one is free to build their own applications and use whatever sort of host (including self hosting) that one likes. Also you are not limited to TI development tools, you can use GNU for example.

Yes, I should have emphasised that more. I agree that it's pretty unbeatable for the price/performance as a general purpose connected processor demo board.
You could even buy the boards as-is and use them economically in small-medium volume at that price.
But I suspect most are going to try the out of box demo and IoT to get it up and running, and I don't think it's too much to expect it to work flawlessly in that regard. But for a $20 demo board, any way you go 

[EEVblog]

Anyone have any ideas where this would be a better choice than a raspberrypi or arduino?

You can't even compare Raspberry Pi & Arduino, completely different classes of processing power.
It is fair to compare it with the Raspberry Pi though.
Depends what you want. If you want a HDMI output solution that is ready to go running Linux or whatever then the RPi wins. Pri also wins on the community support side of things.
But if you want the most bang-per-processing-buck, the Launchpad would be hard to beat.

[Monkeh]

are these dev boards open hardware?

Yes
http://upverter.com/measley/0d83e4f8eaaa6a7b/EK-TM4C1294XL-REV-D/
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC 3.0 BY)

Of far more use: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/File:EK-TM4C1294XL_REV_D_Design_Package.zip

[all_repair]

Not into TI eco system so far.  Just wondering how is their record in keeping their platform and old chips alive and manufacture so far?