Kinoma Create

Kinoma Create is the JavaScript-powered construction kit perfect for prototyping smart consumer electronics and Internet of Things devices. Kinoma Create removes the need to buy a bare single-board computer with loads of different add-ons by creating a plug-and-play environment with all the tools needed on board, all ready to go right out of the box! With Kinoma Create you’ll be at “hello world" in just a few minutes.

Inside each Kinoma Create is a power-efficient 800 MHz ARM CPU, Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a color capacitive touchscreen, and tons of I/O for sensors. Also on-board each Kinoma Create are 66 hardware pins that implement Digital Input, Digital Output, Analog-to-Digital Input (A2D), Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), I2C, and Serial Input/Output.

Kinoma Create has its own integrated development environment (IDE), Kinoma Studio, that includes lots of sample projects to adapt and learn from. Wireless debugging helps make that process a pleasure. And a built-in simulator lets you code and test even when your Kinoma Create isn’t nearby. The same IDE lets you easily build Android and iOS “companion” apps for your creations, using the same exact platform and code that you’ll use to develop with Kinoma Create.

Note: This item may take longer to process due to battery installed in the equipment and therefore does not qualify for same-day shipping policy. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

  • Color QVGA capacitive touchscreen
  • 800 MHz Marvell ARM SoC
  • Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 3.0
  • 128 MB RAM, 16 MB SPI Flash
  • microSD card slot
  • Speaker and microphone
  • Wired (USB) and portable power options — includes 2600mAh 3.7V Lithium Ion (Li-ion) 18650 rechargeable battery
  • No breadboard required for many breakout-board-based sensors
  • Custom, lightweight Linux distribution to support the Kinoma platform
  • Digital input/output (20-36 GPIO, configurable), analog input (0-16, configurable), I2C (1 physical bus and two soft buses), UART, PWM (3)

Kinoma Create Product Help and Resources

Core Skill: Programming

If a board needs code or communicates somehow, you're going to need to know how to program or interface with it. The programming skill is all about communication and code.

2 Programming

Skill Level: Rookie - You will need a better fundamental understand of what code is, and how it works. You will be using beginner-level software and development tools like Arduino. You will be dealing directly with code, but numerous examples and libraries are available. Sensors or shields will communicate with serial or TTL.
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Core Skill: Electrical Prototyping

If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.

1 Electrical Prototyping

Skill Level: Noob - You don't need to reference a datasheet, but you will need to know basic power requirements.
See all skill levels


Comments

Looking for answers to technical questions?

We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.

  • Member #469294 / about 10 years ago / 3

    The neat design is really a good thing for novice. no worry about wiring mess up while connecting it to sensors. I like seeing animations on the screen directly from my circuit. what a gadget!

    • Member #25711 / about 10 years ago / 1

      I received mine. I understand hardware but not JavaScript. I have no clue as to how to start on anything. What do you suggest?

      • Microman / about 10 years ago / 2

        I suggest first learning the ropes of JS at codecademy. It's completely free and you basically code right in the browser. I then advise you read the documentation for the API, which since this is a beginner-level device, should be fairly simple.

      • Charles@Kinoma / about 10 years ago / 1

        At kinoma.com/create you can find "getting started" documentation, reference docs, samples and projects. We recently held our first Kinoma Create webinar, and we'll be doing more on a regular basis — you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and/or our blog to get a heads-up on these. Also, the folks who designed and built Kinoma Create hang out on our community forum and are standing by to help answer any pre-purchase or ongoing questions you might have.

  • Member #464377 / about 10 years ago / 3

    This product is extremely easy to talk to the internet. We had a server running at the backend and talking to the Create through Http request. The communication was set up within 50 seconds. Saved us a lot of trouble!

  • Member #374825 / about 10 years ago / 1

    Does this board support Linux and how available are its kernel sources?

    • Charles@Kinoma / about 10 years ago / 1

      Kinoma Create is a Linux device. You can telnet in over Wi-Fi or connect to the serial console over USB. We're working to publish the full kernel sources for the device, though it is some effort. In the meantime, because the device is based on the well known Marvell PX168 (a.k.a. Aspen) part, you may be able to use some public Linux distributions.

  • Spark007 / about 10 years ago / 1

    This $150 product is not ready for prime-time! The support forum is very,very slow in response. See support topic under Kinoma Create "Questions before I decide to buy ..." still waiting after 30 days!

    • Charles@Kinoma / about 10 years ago / 1

      My apologies again for the delay, and we've made some changes to ensure that it won't happen again. Please let us know on the forum if we've answered all of your questions to your satisfaction, and don't hesitate to post follow-up questions — we'll do better next time!

  • WyoJustin / about 10 years ago / 1

    This is listed under "Open Hardware" but, I cant find any OH claims or design files anywhere.

    • markemer / about 10 years ago / 3

      Links to everything are at: http://kinoma.github.io - They have a repo with design files.

Customer Reviews

3.5 out of 5

Based on 6 ratings:

Currently viewing all customer reviews.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Great hardware

Plus: A very nicely made unit, clear display, sensitive touchscreen.

Minus; A nightmare to program. There needs to be a LOT more in-depth notes on the process of building an app on the Kinoma webpage. Their examples are interesting, but the paradigm used isn't well explained at all. It would be great if, instead of abstracting the hardware to the point of total obscurity, it was better explained.

You might be at "hello world" in a few minutes if you copy their example - but that's not writing you own code.

I'll probably be able to use it eventually, but the learning curve is very steep for this old-school programmer.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Steep learning curve

The product looks interesting but the initiation is brutal. There is a complete lack of step by step orientation to what they call the "Kinoma Platform Runtime". It makes you feel like you are learning programming for the first time but have lost the manual ! There is a hello world app but it is about 40 lines of obscure code. This is in complete contrast with the sleekness of the device, website and IDE.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Pretty Cool

This device is pretty cool. Out of the box got it running on my network quickly. There was an update and that went smoothly. The GUI based apps for setup and viewing samples are way easier than hooking it up to my laptop and learning the config commands.

A friend brought over a pulse sensor and we got it running immediately using the Pin Explorer app. That alone was pretty great. We found a sample app that uses the pulse sensor which was cool. I think I am going to turn into a sensor junkie.

Still trying to figure out the Studio programming app but the way it launches the app you are working on to the device over wi-fi is great.

Next up trying to do something more complicated, but I see a bunch of samples to start from so hopefully that should be straight forward.

1 of 2 found this helpful:

Innovative and powerful development tool

This device is a good tool for all manner of development, but it really shines at rapid prototyping and interacting with the user. The onboard touchscreen is easy to use, and provides for niceties like instant feedback from sensors (before writing any code) using an onboard utility.

Onboard WiFi means one less wire to worry about and the Javascript framework includes complete HTTP and Websocket stacks to communicate with a wide variety of internet resources.

As mentioned in an earlier review, this JS framework abstracts away the hardware interaction a bit. That’s true, but I’ve not found that to be a limitation. If I need to write raw data to i2c or serial, I can do that with a single JS function call. Same with reading from A2D or flipping GPIOs - it is abstracted, but not limited.

The “Getting Started” docs on Kinoma’s site are still evolving, but between over 80 sample apps and a really helpful forum staffed by the guys who built the device, I have never been stuck on anything for very long.

Finally, the software platform is a full-up Javascript engine, which means that porting over powerful Javascript libraries written for other systems can be very fast.

1 of 3 found this helpful:

This was a bust

It wouldn't boot up. Just showed a garbled display. Disappointed because one of ou developers was really excited about the possibilities. Returned it and decided to let it mature before we try again.