Hardware hacking with ruby

Kerala Ruby User Meetup - January 2015

Hello, I am Akhil Stanislavose

✪ Works @ MobME Wireless ✪
✪ Rubyist / JavaScript Maniac / Objective-C Noob ✪
✪ TINKERER! ✪

akhil.stanislavose@gmail.com
github.io/akhilstanislavose

What is Hardware Hacking?

Building, rebuilding, modifying, and creating software, electronic hardware, either to make it better, faster, to give it added features or to make it do something it was not originally intended to do.

~ Wikipedia

Hardware Projects

making an LED glow

make it glow when a switch is pressed
make it blink
make it blink automatically?

OK I NEED ELECTRONICS FOR THAT!

FOR ME,

HARD TO LEARN

ResiStors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, integrated circuits and what not!

Multivibrator, WTH?

ABSTRACTION

INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

eg., multivibrator as a CHip, LIKE A LIBRARY.

Microcontrollers

programmable chips - better!

Arduino

Tinkering for everyone!

C/C++

no Ruby!

But I want to do more

Arduino is powerful, but not as powerful as a full blown computer.

Raspberry Pi

Full blown ARM computer running Linux!

Runs Ruby!

AMONG other popular programing environments C/C++, Java, Python, PHP etc.

HELLO WORLD!


 require 'wiringpi'
 io = WiringPi::GPIO.new
 
 loop do
   io.write(1,HIGH)
   sleep(1)
   io.read(pin,LOW)
   sleep(1)
 end

Switch on an LED from any where

in the world?

 require 'sinatra'
 require 'wiringpi'
 
 io = WiringPi::GPIO.new
 LED_PIN = 1
 
 get '/on' do
   io.write(LED_PIN, HIGH)
 end
 
 get '/off' do
   io.write(LED_PIN, LOW)
 end

Blinken Window

Inspired by Blinkenlights, Berlin

Task

Control 60 leds with Pi

Should be easily programmable

Typical harware Project

DATA IN > PROCESS > DATA OUT

SENSORS > CONTROLLER > OUTPUT

PI > LED

Lets start by one LED

 
 require 'wiringpi'
 
 class Led
   def initialize(pin)
     @pin = pin
     @io = WiringPi::GPIO.new
   end
 
   def on
     @io.write(@pin, HIGH)
   end
   
   def off
     @io.write(@pin, LOW)
   end
 end