Anyone know what happened to those neet little tinkerkit IO modules?
I found a couple of references with Goolge but over a year old, tinkerkit.com needs a password, and I've had no response from an email (which may have gone to the wrong place as I can't get good contact details).
bump.
Nobody know about these, I saw a photo with Massimo at a trade fair or something displaying the modules, I can't believe they just dissapeared.
Did you try emailing the dreamhost-proxy address in their whois record?
I remember seeing these about a year ago, because I was thinking at the time, "why didn't I do something like that?"
Did you try emailing the dreamhost-proxy address in their whois record?
Not exactly my area of expertise, all I can see on the whois listing is the ISP, ie dreamhost.com.
Yeah they look neat, I'm desiging something similar I think and wanted to see if I can/should be compatable.
We designed someshing similar, with the same connectors, and have some modules ready now (using them in our country, Argentina). We are not full open source yet, but will progressively release sources):
Sensors:
Beacons and buzzers:
Motors:
And this is our new DuinoBot brain, wich is based on an ATMega32U4, without FTDI or any other chip:
We will release a LUFA based core and bootloader, both open source soon.
Regards,
Julián
Julian,
with the same connectors,
Three wires I assume.
Gnd/Volts/Signal?
Rob
we are officially introducing the modules at maker faire and they go on sale on the 18 of october
m
Thanks Massimo, looking forward to seeing the details.
Rob
Rob: yes, we worked a lot on the connection system, so there are already these kind of modules:
3 wires: Same pin-out as RC/Servos and other standard analog and some digital sensors. The beacons, buzzers and other low current actuators that needs GND/Vcc/Data use this connector too.
4 wires: These connectors are reserved for intelligent sensors with Tx/Rx lines, such as ultrasonic (we are designing an open source one reprogramable with the Arduino IDE).
2 wires: These connectors are for motors, up to 1 Amp. continuous (we use 0.35 mm^2 cables, which is aprox. between AWG 22 and 21 so they can carry this current). The DuinoBot boards has two of these connectors for their HBridge outputs.
Also, we defined a 5 pin connection, which is for connecting boards to comm mocules, but with Reset line. So, a brain (like a DuinoBot) can be reseted from a comm module (like the FTDI or the Bluetooth module) for bootloading.
Regards,
Julián
3 wires: Same pin-out as RC/Servos and other standard analog and some digital sensors. The beacons, buzzers and other low current actuators that needs GND/Vcc/Data use this connector too.
Julián,
how are you driving those modules? With PWM like servos or a different way? Are you just using for output the servo library if so?
I'm also interested in how data from sensor is read, do you use PWM with pulses between 1 and 2 ms here too?
Korman
Hi Korman, we are writing libraries (some of them are fully functional, but under testing right now) for all of them.
For example, the Sharp IR analog rangers has not linear output, so we wrote a class (will release all the sources soon soon, think in october) wich uses the analogRead, but has a table in flash to get the distance in [cm].
The analog sensors like the CNY70 can just be read with the standard analogRead().
The beacons (robotgroup.com.ar - This website is for sale! - robotgroup Resources and Information.) are driven with the standard analogWrite().
The 3-pins connectors can also drive a standard R/C Servo. For these, nothing better than the starndard Servo library.
The buzzer (same page as the beacons), with the standard Tone library.
And for the motors (2 pin high current connectors) we wrote a DCMotor class that will be released soon too. It can drive any 3 pin HBridge (like the L293, L298, L6225, TB6612FNG, etc.).
The comm modules just uses the Print functions.
We tried to use the standard libraries as much as possible, but are writing clases when if it's necessary.
I can advance, that we had wrote some filter clases (low pass and high pass) for the advanced sensor users too. All this stuff will be released together.
Regards,
Julián
Thank you, Julián, that clears it up. So your 3 wire connector is just compatible electrically, not also from a protocol point of view. Given the wide range of things you attach, that makes a lot of sense.
Korman
It's compatible electrically, but the kind of things you connect defines which library you will need. So you can use standard servos, third party sensors, DIY sensors, and our Multiplo sensors, and there is no problem. We will release libraries which facilitate the use in some non linear, or difficult sensors.
So, with things like the rangers, you only have to write something like this:
IRRanger distanceSensor(sensorPin);
...
void loop()
{
Serial.Print(distanceSensor.getDistance());
Serial.Println(" cm");
}
There are other sensors available in the market, with this pinout, and all of them may be used with these boards, and with stardard Arduino boards.
For example, the Seeedstudio Electronic Brick line: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/electronic-brick-c-48.html?zenid=47b421be07a37cb9e8c74b379789dad3
Regards,
Julián
There must be something in the water, everyone is designing sensor/actuator systems, including myself. It seems though that most systems are compatable at least at the hardware level, ie the 3-wire GVS model (although still no info about the Tinkerkit modules that I can find), and just need appropriate libraries.
So that's good, as long as we have variety and don't all design modules that perform the same functions.
Rob
Dang Julián, those motors are pretty nice. Good design, easy to create and assemble. Bien hecho.
those motors are pretty nice. Good design, easy to create and assemble.
And attractive too! And good use of laser cutter technology (?)
I really like the layered construction technique; I wonder if some similar but uglier could be accomplished using PCB material and a typical PCB mill, and widely available servo gears?...
Still no word about the TinkerKit? Nothing at the maker faire AFAIK or did I miss it?
Rob
Many thanks scooterx3 and westfw for your kindly comments! I did not see them till today 
Yes, they are lasser-cut, as the robots and the whole Multiplo building system, and the case for our DuinoBot. We are right now very very bussy, but will enrich the website as soon as we can (I think by december), and will release all the sensor libraries, as I told.
Regards!
Julián
we are officially introducing the modules at maker faire and they go on sale on the 18 of october
Did I miss this?
I can still find nothing about these modules. There's an entry in the Arduino blog about them 9 days ago but no useful links.
If you google "Tinkerkit" the only reference < 1 year old is tinkerkit.com that needs a password.
There's several links to the "tinker.it blog" on the Arduino blog, but they just go back to the Arduino blog.
There's a node10.vvvv page that talks about a course that uses them, but no useful links.
Does anyone know what is going on with these modules? Why is it so difficult to get information?
Rob
Does anyone know what is going on with these modules? Why is it so difficult to get information?
Well, probably because we are lazy italians 
We just need to wait some more time and maybe we are all going to have something to put under the christmas tree.