Arduino anounce the MKR1000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kggEa8zVmMI

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoMKR1000

Interesting that this is now teamed with Microsoft and their Azure platform, as my experience with Azure is that it costs $$$$
(For example I setup the most basic dedicated server on Azure and it was initially costing $13 a month, which is very reasonable – albeit was very very slow, but MS then somehow hiked the prices to around $100 per month for me, so I had to take it offline as it was no longer economic.
I suspect perhaps i could have saved off the disk image and moved it to the new cheaper package, but the time and agro to do this just wasnt worth it, so I moved to a linux server elsewhere)

So unless MS are offering some sort of free Azure package to open source / Arduino dev’s, this is going to quickly start costing you a lot of money.

Some words to MKR1000:
I think the only interesting thing is the idea with an “onboard” lipo charger on a mini module, so combined with the M0 this is a reasonable low power mini device. But for sure the price will be out of the question. (Ok, STM32duino user are spoilt by the best price/power ratio of all MCU-modules ever (maybe ESP is compareable, but with less pins, pitfalls and high power consumption)).
On the other hand: A maple mini clone + a TP4056 module (prepared for lipos) isn’t really bigger in size and costs about 4 USD.

Its an interesting direction for Arduino to be heading in.

I’ve no idea how much it will cost, but like you say, significantly more than comparable components on their own

i.e STM32 + ES8266 would be less than $10, plus $1 for the lipo charger.

And of course there is the EMW3165 which is Wifi and STM32F4 on the same module for a similar price.

But I guess it has the Arduino factor.

What struck me about the competition was, that they didn’t have any examples, i.e We don’t have a use for these, so its cheaper to have a competition and give away $15000 worth of hardware (supply cost), than to pay someone to develop examples.

The other point to note is that it contains an encryption chip. This seems a bit odd. I understand it from the IoT point of view but encryption can be done in code unless you are planning to send a lot of encrypted data and need large bandwidth.
So perhaps its to stream DRM audio ?

The interesting thing is that it has a LiPo charger onboard but with a fixed charging current of 350mAh, good for a 700mAh battery, bad for bigger battery (charging time increase).

Ouch!, while I was writing madias wrote the same and I agree with him about Maple Mini and battery module or cheap power bank.

RogerClark wrote:Its an interesting direction for Arduino to be heading in.
<…>
The other point to note is that it contains an encryption chip. This seems a bit odd. I understand it from the IoT point of view but encryption can be done in code unless you are planning to send a lot of encrypted data and need large bandwidth.
So perhaps its to stream DRM audio ?

mrburnette wrote:until I learned a few new words, a difficult thing to do for an old military man.

zoomx wrote:The interesting thing is that it has a LiPo charger onboard but with a fixed charging current of 350mAh, good for a 700mAh battery, bad for bigger battery (charging time increase).

madias wrote:zoomx wrote:The interesting thing is that it has a LiPo charger onboard but with a fixed charging current of 350mAh, good for a 700mAh battery, bad for bigger battery (charging time increase).

madias wrote:zoomx wrote:The interesting thing is that it has a LiPo charger onboard but with a fixed charging current of 350mAh, good for a 700mAh battery, bad for bigger battery (charging time increase).

I have seen the announcement and it looks to be an extension of the Adufruit line that has been adding bluetooth and wifi onto small boards along with a lipo port. And interesting idea, but I agree that there seems to be no brand strategy. Then again, I suppose small, battery powered sensors ARE the direction of the platform… IE trying to see a turnkey solution as a plug-in module instead of folks having to speck out an actual PCB or circuit.

mrbwa1 wrote:I have seen the announcement and it looks to be an extension of the Adufruit line that has been adding bluetooth and wifi onto small boards along with a lipo port. And interesting idea, but I agree that there seems to be no brand strategy. Then again, I suppose small, battery powered sensors ARE the direction of the platform… IE trying to see a turnkey solution as a plug-in module instead of folks having to speck out an actual PCB or circuit.

stevech wrote:mrbwa1 wrote:I have seen the announcement and it looks to be an extension of the Adufruit line that has been adding bluetooth and wifi onto small boards along with a lipo port. And interesting idea, but I agree that there seems to be no brand strategy. Then again, I suppose small, battery powered sensors ARE the direction of the platform… IE trying to see a turnkey solution as a plug-in module instead of folks having to speck out an actual PCB or circuit.

I will probably go the same way as the Due.

RogerClark wrote:I will probably go the same way as the Due.

LOL

zmemw16 wrote:LOL

LOL

I guess that this will be a comparable *success* as Win10 IoT for Raspberry Pi 2- it kinda works and there’s not much more I can say about it.
8GB sd card required to run a system for blinking a led? Don’t forget that it’s a heavily stripped down system with a quite short hardware support list.