It’s finally time! The boards are in, programmed and ready to go. The KickStarter campaign has been submitted and will be live as soon as it’s approved.
Here’s a demo video showing off some of the features…be sure to stay tuned til the end where I power 2 boards with 1 set of batteries 
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Very impressive!
When you are doing the Kickstarter video, will you be explaining the target market of device? Also will you discuss more about the development model (Arduino & NetMF)?
spoiler alert
How are the 2 boards talking to each other? Serial?
Target is educational & hobbyist (which I do touch on).
Yup, sockets on the ArMF Imbue are U, A/X/Y and Z.
I don’t really go into too much detail on the development model, other than that there’s a free software that converts the Arduino code to an intermediate language that is then run on the board or off the uSD. It’s the same sort of implementation I did when creating a virtual CPU on the Arduino back in the days of Pyxis One.
Looks great! You’ve got to add a video playback demo though to show off your 30 fps capabilities. That is on this board, isn’t it?
Sure is, I’ve just got to create a suitable demo to show it off. The FPS isn’t for video playback for but normal screen ops; I could probably get away with an animation or scroller or something and still produce those speeds.
Next ones in Gucci Black - will look mint - Well done very cool 
Have you been looking at the KickStarter? 
There’s a limited run on the top tier of a black board with gold plated pads with extra IOs and such.
Arduino emulation. Using this or added more? http://www.tinyclr.com/forum/topic?id=10778 If more, please share this back, ideally generic code so it can be used on any device.
Completely different. There’s a desktop app that takes straight Arduino code and converts it.
@ Skewworks - where is it on kick o whatzit?
I guess it is not approved yet and only he can see it.
@ Justin - Architect is correct, it’s been submitted but it will be a couple of days until KickStarter gives it approval.
I may just have generated a preview link
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skewworks/792070600?token=f5e1340c
@ Skewworks - Good luck Thom! I will be supporting you.
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I think some description on the development process may be helpful. Right now it’s a mystery other than a few words in the description.
I assume the NetMF process would be the same as typical. But what about the Arduino based apps? From the description it seems as if take the sketch, run through a mystery desktop app, import the output into a VS project and then deploy.
Does the desktop app take in the C code or the complied output? Does it generate binary? Does it convert C project to .cs or .vb code?
Or will all details be provide at the appropriate time?
I was trying to not overload with too much secondary technical information, and I figured it would probably be a question asked on the KickStarter which I could then respond to in detail.
Here’s the sum of it:
Arduino code can be run through a desktop or web app which converts it into an intermediate code. This code is a set of custom assembly type instructions (exactly the same as how Pyxis One ran applications).
The resulting binary file can either be included as a resource or loaded from the SD card. Because of the way the virtual CPU is constructed very large applications that could not normally fit in RAM can be run. When a large application is encountered the VCPU will load a specified number of sequential instructions into a buffer and use file seek operations as needed by JMP statements. The resultant overhead of the VCPU on a whole is fairly low and should operate a bit like running native Arduino on a CPU of roughly 117MHz or better.
The code responsible for running the VCPU is NETMF and will be open sourced, just like with Pyxis One.
Since we also support programming the ARM directly you could even do a real port of Arduino based on the Arduino Due if you felt like it.
@ Mike & Justin - Thanks guys! I’m really looking forward to getting this started over on KickStarter and I think you’ll be happy to see a few minor tweaks that will appear on the end board.
Thanks for the info! The details are a bit over my head, but the concept make sense.
@ skewworks - After reviewing the KS page, I was unclear if any of the levels equated to “a populated board without the Cerb40”. If not, I’ll hit you up for this after the campaign has been funded (because it will be :)) Could there be a way to get a populated board AND a TShirt? Also, it might be helpful to include some use cases in your video or text pitch. I got the impression this board might be an Esplora clone/upgrade/competitor from a hardware point of view. Is that a correct assumption?
Rock on!
I could add a level for populated board sans OLED & Cerb. On the final production the OLED and STM will be directly on the board. We’ve been in touch with the OLED manufacturer and can get a pretty decent deal on it for an order of 50 (target of the KickStarter).
RE Shirt + Board: KickStarter has new stupid rules. I can’t do 2 items on any single reward level otherwise I would. 