General hardware hackathon at YAPC::NA 2014
How many Perl programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Wait, I thought that was a hardware problem. Well, it used to be; now it's a new module to contribute to CPAN, a new web service, or maybe something not dreamed up yet. Thanks to a proliferation of inexpensive SBCs (Single Board Computers), such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, and an amazing array of easy-to-use sensors and actuators, the lines between programming and hardware are blurring fast.
In these early days of the Internet of Things, Perl programmers have a special perspective to offer. Among its many virtues, Perl is often touted as a great "glue" language: we know how to take the good work of others and connect it together. Now, we can connect things to the real world.
The same strategies and techniques we use to hook programs together to present a unified whole can benefit the emerging embedded hacking world. Whether Perl, C, Python, or some other language, knowing how to take the parts and create a unified view for easy access to the resources is something we do very well.
Even if you know nothing at all about hardware, you can get started in minutes and make a leap from the virtual to the physical. Along the way, you can help demonstrate why Perl succeeded so well and persists today: the vision that things can work together, easily. Join us to make simple hardware easy and complicated hardware possible, even if you are not an engineer.
Come to the Perl Hardware Hackathon and help shape the future of Internet of Things and Perl’s place in it.
These are the ideas:
- find others to help give the Perl Hardware website more love and attention.
- create a framework using Moose to handle all Multimeters. If you have a Multimeter please bring it along.
- UAV hacking.
It would be good to bring these things:
- matrix HDMI switch with remote similar to this one.
- any serial multimeter.
- an AR drone (Please be sure to check out TSA rules on carrying batteries).
- various 2.4GHz-controlled quadcopters and helis.
Where you can buy hardware:
- https://www.sparkfun.com/.
- https://www.adafruit.com/ (They have a Perl Skill Badge, https://www.adafruit.com/products/1232, you might want to pick up).
- http://www.seeedstudio.com/.
- http://www.makershed.com/.
A few places for inspiration:
If you have more ideas or you're bringing some hardware to the hackathon, then please feel free to update the wiki.
Details of the event are as follows :
Schedule & venue: http://www.yapcna.org/yn2014/schedule
Pricing and registration: No payment or registration is required.
People to contact for more information:
Timm Murray
Robert Blackwell
This blog post is edited by (in no particular order) :
Upasana
Yaakov Sloman
Robert Blackwell
Timm Murray
Chris Prather
Mark Keating
I blog about Perl. I'm still in the early phase of learning perl, so please do let me know if you find any flaws in my posts, I'll appreciate it.
Oh man, looks fun. Can't make it to YAPC::NA this year unfortunately :\