On Friday, February 5, 2016 at 1:48:53 PM UTC-6, William Hermans wrote: > > *After giving him a configured BBG (he'd have been dead in the water with >> the image that came in the BBG eMMC, which really breaks the ideal for a >> newbie idea) and showing him how to install the Windows drivers and connect >> to the BBG with Chrome web browser, it clearly was a great starting point >> for him.* >> > > Anything of this nature still has a learning curve. Personally, I think > things of this nature are a waste of time. Not because they're not handy, > or cool. But instead you have to spend a time investment to learn anything. > So you may as well learn the "underlying basics" so you're better prepared > in the future to deal with more complex problems. > > So a very quick example . . . Not knowing what Node-RED really is, I'd > have to spend a considerable amount of time learning this new "software > technology", when I could instead just write my own code and be done with > it. Now sure, because I'm an experienced developer, who *now* has a decent > bit of javascript / Nodejs experience, this may be easier for me. However, > I had to learn all of this, just like anyone else, and in fact I'm by far > not a Nodejs "expert". And in fact, I knew very little of Nodejs 3 years > ago when we got our first BBB's . . . > > What you say is true, but I'm afraid its been so long since you've started with zero programming knowledge that you've forgotten how difficult that first step is, its mind numbingly complex when you throw in all the GPIO mux options and restrictions of the Beaglebone
A GUI tool like node-red lets a rank beginner do something useful, without spending weeks learning programming and languages. Drag and drop, wire, and deploy can result it a rather sophisticated program with distributed processing -- a sensor in one building communicating with a actuator in another building over a WiFi network using mqtt protocol and mosquito broker running on one of the Beaglebones -- all done like drawing a schematic diagram -- something people with a hardware background find "intuitive". To use a GPIO as input or output, you drag the node to the "tab", double click it, and fill in the necessary "properties" to make the function. The choices are limited to what is available with the "default" pin mux settings but for a beginner its feature, not a bug. If only the PWM worked, and there were UART nodes it could do most anything that needs response times on the order of human reaction times or longer. What's nice is that starting with node-red lets my friend ease into programming with some cut and paste of nodejs examples and modifying them in a "function" node within an otherwise working "flow" (program) to add functionality, instead of starting with a blank page and a "Programming Language Du-jour for Dummies" book in hand. Node-red has some rough edges but it has tremendous potential for helping "subject matter experts" quickly get into programming prototype solutions to their problems. I've always said that its far easier to teach a Biochemist enough programming to solve a biochemistry problem than is is to teach a programmer enough biochemistry to solve a biochemistry problem. Things like node-red really lower the bar! Go to the node-red website and look at the "your second flow" example -- it "polls" the UK power grid at 5 minute intervals and reports true or false if the frequency is 50 Hz or greater (below 50 hz, maybe delay starting that induction motor a bit to let the grid recover -- minimal impact from my one motor, but if millions of motors are making this decision before starting, the effect on peak load could be enormous with near zero impact to the refrigerators, etc. driven by these motors). Now list all the libraries and protocols you'd have to know about to be able do this in your favorite programming language, and tell me this is not a better starting point for an appliance manufacturing looking to make a "smart" product. When I stumbled on to this, it just blew me away! -- For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
