johnny-five

A high-level language like JavaScript certainly lowers the barrier to entry, and eases the learning curve. This year I started playing with Raspberry Pi, Arduino, various sensors and motors. So far I've mainly used Johnny Five ¹ on Node.js to orchestrate things. It was so simple to jump in, with an easy ubiquitous language, and I was able to spend time learning the actual hardware and developing the logic. For my needs, an interpreted language has been plenty capable. As I get deeper though, I'm finding a need for near real-time control (timing, to be precise), as performant as I can make it. For that, I'm (re)turning to C, a language I last used a couple dedades ago. It's tougher going but definitely rewarding. I'm so glad for the friendly introduction to the field, like Python and Arduino sketches. It reminds me of my pre/teen days, hac

If you use BabelJS (ES6) you can write async methods that are very close to that with Node + johnny-five. https://github.com/rwaldron/johnny-five

Deployed on the server or to the device? If you are referring to device, I'm extremely doubtful. I remember that Oracle had a Java booth at the San Mateo Maker Faire 2014. I was at the Faire the entire 2 days and would pass the booth every so often in the convention center. I hardly saw anyone take any interest in the idea of Java on embedded devices, and the booth remained empty despite some good presentation with large signs and plenty of floor space. Anecdotal? Maybe. But I think many device guys would cringe at the idea of something as bloated as Java running on a device. I've done my share of Java on server and Android at Google, and I certainly do. And by bloated, I mean things that come with Java-- large dependency trees, libraries, verbose code etc. I think both NodeJS and Python are gaining more mindshare on the device-side: http

You already can! https://github.com/rwaldron/johnny-five https://tessel.io/

You can kind of achieve the same results with an Arduino board and https://github.com/rwaldron/johnny-five, but you do have to have a computer connected. I think you could probably hook up a raspberryPi with a usb network adapter and an Arduino for the for the same or less cost than the main unit. Still interesting all the same, if they can get the cost down it would open the micro controller world up to a completely new group of people.

You can use the Standard Firmdata sketch, and then use whatever you want. For example, Node.js with Jhonny-five: https://github.com/rwaldron/johnny-five I use it together with a pcDuino and it works like a charm.

The socket stuff is cool, but I believe johnnyfive[0] (and others[1]) have also accomplished what you're describing. [0] https://github.com/rwaldron/johnny-five [1] https://github.com/search?q=arduino+firmata&type=Repositorie...

How is this any different from running Johnny-Five (https://github.com/rwaldron/johnny-five) on an Arduino? Do we really need a board dedicated to JavaScript? There are SO many Arduino compatible boards out there already...