I have some gadgeteer stuff lying around, of which most have been collecting dust for quite a while. Think it’s time for me to say goodbye to Gadgeteer.
Would someone be interested in this stuff for use at a school or some other teaching project (non-profit)?
Why not keep and use them? In fact, I am working with Greg on a demo that runs the new TinyCLR on some gadgeteer hardware.
Good news, I’m wondering if TinyCLR is working on gadgeteer (and which of them: cerberus, spider, raptor ?)
@ Bauland - It would be the other way around. Gadgeteer is a set of libraries and a Visual Studio extension that runs on NETMF. It’s not impossible at all that it could be made to work with TinyCLR (which is really just the next version of NETMF, except from GHI instead of Microsoft). I wouldn’t hold my breath, though, as Gadgeteer is still owned by MS and is not open source. Nobody knows if it will ever be.
@ godefroi - what I mean I that all gadgeteer gear can be used without any gadgeteer libraries, just like any modules you grab off eBay.
@ Gus - Yes I hope all old gadgeteer mainboard is compatible with TinyCLR. Modules only need driver to work, they can be done if mainboard can work with TinyCLR (and keep easy connector !).
my take would be that GHI won’t build TinyCLR for Cerb family devices. There are none of those devices in recent / current production. Spider most likely will not get it (EMX based, also nothing recently released there), and Spider II and Raptor will (G120 and G400 are certain targets).
I’ve been using Raspberry Pi’s for my projects (wideband radio receiver, in-car media player, ADS-B plane plotter, multi room audio players, …), all running on Linux. I do have a Pi running Windows IoT, but that’s only to control some stuff through (usb to) serial (if I’m able to get it working).
Even though TinyCLR OS sounds very interesting, and even if my old Gadgeteer mainboards get an update (probably not), they would still be collecting dust.
So back on topic, if anyone is interested, or knows someone who would be interested, please let me know. Maybe it can be put to good use to get kids interested in programming / electronics for example. Otherwise it’ll probably end up in storage until it’s totally useless…
@ Gus - Yes, I was replying to @ Bauland. I’m totally clear on what you meant, and rereading @ Bauland’s post, I think he meant the same thing. My mistake.
This will not be a technical question but an overall statement for GHI, Gadgeteer and the Gadgeteer developers. I never take the time to communicate feelings. I generally just ask and answer technical questions. But this time I just wanted to express my complete sadness at the loss of gadgeteer. I know there are hundreds of alternatives to gadgeteer, and I have used most them (duino included), but truly for a lot of things gadgeteer was the best. And honestly, GHI has done a great job of supporting it.
Recently I had some issues with my security camera hobby setup at my house. I have 10 cameras placed around my house and almost all of them use a RS485 PTZ setup. Since I used “baluns” (camera connect to CAT5) for wiring the system I have some impedance issues when I connect a certain expensive PTZ camera to the PTX control circuit. Adding this camera caused movement control issues across the system. I tried many things to solve my issue, but each never completely solved the issue. At the end, I decided to isolate this camera’s control via a RS485 optical isolator. I found almost all the isolators to be more expensive than I liked, so I tried an alternative. I used an old Spider and connected 2 RS485 connectors and built a small app to repeat PTZ traffic from the RS485 network onto this single camera’s RS485 connection. This worked perfectly and proved that isolation was my best answer at this point.
Now I was just going to then purchase the cheapest isolator I could find. But then I had this idea. How about adding features via this Spider board?
This is what I did:
Added a display for diagnostic monitoring
Added Ethernet and for a web server and direct socket connections
Added USB to serial for remote debugging.
Created a Raptor based module that, by using a WIFI connection, a display and joystick can be used to remote control any camera in the system
Web server supports controlling the camera PTZ via a cell phone!
I have been developing software and embedded systems for decades and truly, gadgeteer was the simplest, fastest and the most fun way to create fast projects at home.
I am extremely sad to see it go. Sorry to bore everyone with this post, but wanted to say my piece. Thanks, GHI and all!!!
@ Clint Britt - I know how you feel. I opened my box of gadgeteer toys the other day and had a proper moment of sadness. Still at least i can still use the individual modules and even the spider boards i have even though they have no support. I just love my Raptor though and hope to see TinyCLR running on it in some fashion
it’s a Raptor, with G400, the flagship device from GHI. I think you’ll be OK on that front 
Does or did GHI work with CTR Electronics (http://www.ctr-electronics.com/) on Gadgeteer? I didn’t know they existed until I started mentoring a FIRST robotics team. They do Gadgeteer components and seem to be just down the road from GHI in eastern Michigan. I was just curious.
Is that american slang for: We have worked really close with them on Gadgeteer, and drinking beer as well???
:think:
@ njbuch - we have known these guys years before Gadgeteer. I think they are doing great in focusing on robotic competition related ventures. I highly recommend them.
