Sometimes the end of a product’s production run is surrounded by publicity, a mix of a party atmosphere celebrating its impact either good or bad, and perhaps a tinge of regret at its passing.

Then again, there are the products that die with a whimper, their passing marked only by a barely visible press release in an obscure corner of the Internet. Such as this week’s discontinuances from Intel, in a series of PDFs lodged on a document management server announcing the end of their Galileo (PDF), Joule (PDF), and Edison (PDF) lines. The documents in turn set out a timetable for each of the boards, for now they are still available but the last will have shipped by the end of 2017.

It’s important to remember that this does not mark the end of the semiconductor giant’s forray into the world of IoT development boards, there is no announcement of the demise of their Curie chip, as found in the Arduino 101. But it does mark an ignominious end to their efforts over the past few years in bringing the full power of their x86 platforms to this particular market, the Curie is an extremely limited device in comparison to those being discontinued.

This video is a step-by-step guide that shows you how to make a basic web server on the Intel® Edison using node.js to display the light levels in a room. See the written tutorial at https://software.intel.com/en-us/xdk-sample-creating-a-web-server.

I’ve designed a fair number of PC boards with an Arduino-compatible heart, but I want more power, which sent me to the Edison.

The Arduino began life as a simple and inexpensive 8-bit microcontroller teaching tool. In the intervening decade plus, it’s grown into a diverse platform that has revolutionized the microcontroller education and hobby worlds. Recent, more powerful additions to the Arduino family have added 16 and 32 bit processors and have brought the Arduino into commercial development as a rapid prototyping platform.

One of the latest entrants to the world of high-performance Arduino compatibility is the Edison, from Intel. The Edison has a dual-core 500 MHZ Intel Atom processor, with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It comes with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of eMMC internal storage, and a USB 2.0 OTG controller (but not the connector).

The Edison is set up to be Arduino software compatible. It also runs a pre-loaded Linux distribution. You can load Arduino code into it through the Arduino IDE, or you can load code through the Linux side, just like you would with any other embedded Linux distribution. When combined with the right add-on cards, this flexibility makes for a real quick initial bring-up, as well as the capability to do some real work.

I recently purchased an Edison module with the intent of designing something around it. I also purchased a Sparkfun “Base block” daughter board, with USB connectors for the console and USB OTG.

Intel takes another step into the Arduino world
http://www.embedded.com/electronics-blogs/benson-s-blocks/4442365/Intel-takes-another-step-into-the-Arduino-world

Unfortunately, one of the first things I did with the Edison was break the board to board connector on the base block. I wouldn’t recommend doing the same thing.

It’s too small for me to do anything with, but fortunately, the folks I work with at Screaming Circuits, my day job, can easily replace it for me. 0.4mm pitch high density connectors are really getting beyond the hand soldering capabilities of all but the most masochistic folks.

Sparkfun made their Edison boards open source, and put the design files on the product pages of their website for download. Github, where most people place their design files, is nice, but I like having a direct download of the files in the same place I buy the board. Their EagleCAD files gave me a point of departure, with the board sized to match those at Sparkfun, and the high density connectors already placed and routed out. From there, I added the microSD socket, line level converters, and two connectors for I2C.

I’m using a Texas Instruments TBX0108, 8-bit converter for the microSD card, and a pair of PCA9306 open drain 2-bit converters, also from Ti, for the 5 volt and 3.3 volt I2C interfaces. I

[Tyler S.] has built a home automation and monitoring system dubbed ED-E, or Eddie. The name is an amalgam of its two main components, the Edison board from Intel, and some ESP8266 modules.

ED-E’s first job is to monitor the house for extraordinary situations. It does this with a small suite of sensors. It can detect flame, sound, gas, air quality, temperature, and humidity. With this array, it’s probably possible to capture every critical failure a house could experience, from burglars to water pipe leaks. It uploads all this data to Intel’s Analytics Cloud where we assume something magical happens to it.

Lastly, ED-E, can turn things in the house on and off. This is accomplished in 100% Hackaday-approved (if not UL-approved) style with a device that appears to be a lamp cable fed into a spray painted Altoids tin.

ED-E: Home Automation and Monitoring System
Home Automation and Monitoring System with many sensors and actuators to keep your home safe
https://hackaday.io/project/8011-ed-e-home-automation-and-monitoring-system

ED-E (EDison-Esp8266, pronounced Eddie) is a 3D printable home automation and monitoring system using the Intel Edison board and esp8266. The system consists of three parts: the base unit, sensor units, and actuator units. The base unit is built with the Intel Edison and six grove sensors from Seeed Studio. The Edison logs data from the sensors in a MySQL database and sends it to the Intel Analytics cloud. If any of the sensors detect abnormal activity, a buzzer will sound and a email alert will be sent out notifying the user of the danger.

Esp8266 sensor units consist of a esp8266, a sensor/detection circuit, and a lithium ion battery.When the detection circuit is triggered the esp8266 sends data to the base where it can be stored and analyzed.

Having nominated the Internet of Things as key to its future strategies, Intel has added a super-cheap development board to its Quark lineup.

At US$15, the Quark D2000 microcontroller development kit is Chipzilla’s latest attempt to plant a flag in the cheap-as-chips breadboarding market.

It features a 32 MHz low-power core, 32 KB of integrated flash, a six-axis combination compass and accelerometer, temperature sensor, USB port, and a shield interface compatible with the Arduino-Uno.

For software development, there’s the Eclipse-based Intel System Studio for microcontrollers, including the GNU compiler collection (GCC), Intel Integrated Performance Primitives for microcontrollers, Intel QMSI (a support package for the microcontroller’s software interface), and a bunch of sample applications.

Intel’s clearly hoping the board will be an ARM-killer in maker/IoT developmen

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/embedded/products/quark/overview.html

Intel have a developer board that is new to the market, based on their Quark (formerly “Mint Valley”) D2000 low-power x86 microcontroller. This is a micropower 32-bit processor running at 32MHz, and with 32kB of Flash and 8kB of RAM. It’s roughly equivalent to a Pentium-class processor without the x87 FPU, and it has the usual impressive array of built-in microcontroller peripherals and I/O choices.

The board has an Arduino-compatible shield footprint, an FTDI chip for USB connectivity, a compass, acceleration, and temperature sensor chip, and a coin cell holder with micropower switching regulator. Intel provide their own System Studio For Microcontrollers dev environment, based around the familiar Eclipse IDE.

Best of all is the price, under $15 from an assortment of the usual large electronics wholesalers.

This board joins a throng of others in the low-cost microcontroller development board space, each of which will have attributes that its manufacturers will hope make it stand out.

Intel® Quark™ Microcontroller D2000
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/embedded/products/quark/mcu/d2000/overview.html

Formerly Mint Valley

The Intel® Quark™ microcontroller D2000, is a low power, battery-operated, 32-bit microcontroller with a more robust instruction set than other entry-level microcontrollers. The first x86-based Intel® Quark™ microcontroller, Intel® Quark™ microcontroller D2000 also increases input/output options over other entry-level microcontrollers. Within its small footprint, the Intel® Quark™ microcontroller D2000 includes an Intel® Quark™ ultra-low-power core running at 32 MHz, with 32 KB integrated flash and 8 KB SRAM.

Intel® System Studio for Microcontrollers
https://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-system-studio-microcontrollers

Development Environment for Intel® Quark™ Microcontroller Software Developers

Intel® System Studio for Microcontrollers, an Eclipse*-integrated software suite, is designed specifically to empower Intel® Quark™ microcontroller developers to create fast, intelligent things.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the big growth wave in tech—from smart cities, homes, and classrooms to energy management, wearable devices, and much more. The Intel Quark microcontroller family extends intelligent computing to a new spectrum of devices requiring low power consumption for sensor input and data actuation applications.

With all the talk going around about everything turning smart, from your television, refrigerators to even wristbands, I thought I’d add something more to that list. Have you ever thought of having your ride to be smart? I would like to introduce a smart helmet that does more than just protect you while riding your bike.

Some of you might be thinking about Skully or a seer helmet, but they are way too expensive because of the investment made in several years of product research. Besides, their technology is also proprietary so it is not possible for developers to hack it or reanimate the device.

What is Smart HuD

Most accidents happen in the city due to the distraction caused by phone calls while riding. Here’s a solution to solve that problem, the Smart HuD. It is a device that helps in delivering message notifications and it also navigates you straight through your helmet, causing less distractions thereby making it a safe ride.

As a bicycle rider, I find it really hard to use Google Maps for navigation while riding my bike. I’m forced to rely on the voice navigation, which is not audible in noisy traffic. The Smart HuD helmet helps me reach my destinations with ease by navigating me through my helmet.

Fitted with a GPS and accelerometer, both connected to the cloud, the geographical data collected helps in providing better terrain details for that the rider’s geographical location.

the most prominent number should be the next alarm.

To set the alarm, however, one must manually move the magnetized segments to the time you’d like to get up. Processing wise, for a clock, it’s carrying some heat. It runs on an Intel Edison, which it uses to synthesize a voice for the time, news, weather, and, presumably, tweets

Puzzle Alarm Clock
http://www.instructables.com/id/Puzzle-Alarm-Clock/

In this instructable I am going to show how to build an alarm clock that allows you to set the wake-up time by arranging the digits.

You can make the box out any material you like, as long the magnets are able to activate the reed switches through it.