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One of the things I love about emerging and cutting-edge technology is there is a great opportunity to share knowledge. We are all moving forward together; sharing this knowledge gets us to move faster. This still holds true with IoT, which is my current emerging technology obsession, as anyone who talked to me at AVC knows. (Did you come? Did you catch my IoT talk? Don’t worry if you didn’t; you’ll have another chance at the All Things Open conference in Raleigh, N.C.)
IoT and home automation have always been a logical connection. As computing evolves, we want more information and more ability to control more devices. This includes just about all of the “smart” devices we have in our home.
Jack Moore has written an article -- as they are called on Hackster, a "showcase" project. While light on instructions, the project is a great jumping-off point for ideas around home automation. I’ve been in touch with Jack, and I’m trying to get him to expand on some of the aspects that worked and that didn’t.
Jack lists Blynk as one of the tools he used in creating this project. Our IoT Starter Kit, which comes with our ESP-powered Blynk Board, is perfect for prototyping these kinds of projects. The IoT Starter Kit even comes with energy to get started with Blynk.
Having roots in science and taking part in many software projects that embraced the concept of failing fast, I’ve always felt you learn a lot more from what doesn’t work than from what does. I understand no one likes detailing what didn’t work, but explaining things we tried that didn’t turn out as expected is a conversation worth having. As we document our success, we should be willing to talk about the miscues along the way. That is why Hackster lets us have the "story" section of the project. The showcase projects are fun, but we want to be able to clone the project, expand upon it, and share that new information as well.
I haven’t started my home automation projects yet, and I know I can use the help. With Halloween right around the corner, costumes come first, but this winter is the perfect time. I want to challenge our readers to help explore the wide world of home automation as it relates to IoT. I’ll be looking for a lot of inspiration in the coming months. Comment here or tweet at me (@doublem_sfe) if you have cool projects; I want to see them! Get them into Hackster, and you could be the next project of the month!
