Send Drawings to the LED Wall via the Web

July 29, 2010 By 4 Comments

What happens when you get together 6 people, a banana suit, and some hardware? You get a really creative project known as the LED Wall. The crew built a giant LED Wall made up of a matrix of 350 LEDs. Over a weekend they painstakingly soldered and glued the lights to a pegboard and connected them together using MAX6953 LED driver chips. The result was a matrix of LEDs that they could control by turning each LED on and off like pixels. They took that a step further and connected the LED Wall to the Internet via the ioBridge IO-204. With a web interface, anyone can draw their own messages and send them to the LED Wall with a web browser. You can see your messages being displayed by watching the live video feed on LED Wall website. So far, 119700 pixels have been sent to the LED Wall through the web — everything from “Hello World” to Mario and Space Invaders have been submitted.

"Hello World" on LED Wall

"Hello World" on the LED Wall

You can draw your own images on the LED Wall yourself and also look through other people’s messages by visiting the project website at  wall.elnormo.net. If you visit the project site, you will also see how they created the LED Wall. Here’s a time-lapsed video of the project build.

LED Wall from Norm on Vimeo.

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New Features Added to the ioBridge.com Interface

July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

After a few weeks of testing, we are ready to release some new features and updates to the ioBridge.com interface. Everything will be live the next time you sign into ioBridge.com.

Here is a list of the key updates and new features:

Drag-and-drop Dashboard

Your dashboard is now customizable. You can move around your widgets to create a dashboard for your specific application or requirements. There are three columns your widgets can be place, where the center column is wider to accommodate charts and larger widgets. To drag a widget, click and hold on the Widget Label Bar and move it where you want it placed. To edit the widget quickly, click on the gear icon.

Drag-and-Drop Dashboard

Drag-and-Drop Dashboard

Data Feed API v2

The Data Feed API has been completely updated. Our API is opening all of the time and we wanted to set the stage with a revamped Data Feed API with a RESTful interface. We added support for SSL and the ioBridge IO-204-PRO. We also added keys for the onboard variables that you can write to offline. Check out the Data Feed API v2 documentation for more information and the complete change list and sample projects.

Module Interface

We cleaned up the Module Interface by adding tabs and adding direct access to your Onboard Rules and Actions. From one interface you can setup the module, control outputs, and configure onboard rules and logic without using multiple sections of the interface.

Automated Setup

Prior to this update, you had to configure the channel settings and then create a widget. It’s easy to miss one of the steps. Now when you create an X10 Widget, for example, the interface automatically configures the channel for X10. This also works for Server-side Actions and Data Logging.

We hope that you put the new features to good use. Let us know how the new features and updates work out for you and keep us updated with anything new we should be doing. Stay tuned…we got more hardware and features that are coming soon…including an API for external plugins.

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ioBridge Growth Press Release

July 21, 2010 By 1 Comment

We are happy to announce that we have landed multiple commercial contracts to develop and integrate with consumer products and professional applications. This rapid growth also allowed us to bring on board two new people to the ioBridge team. ioBridge would like to welcome aboard Robert Mawrey and Hans Scharler!

Here is the official press release via eRelease:

ioBridge Announces Funding and Commercial Contracts to Develop New Web-enabled Products and Services

MARLBOROUGH, MA – July 21, 2010 – ioBridge, Inc. (www.iobridge.com) sees rapid growth and announces series seed funding and multiple commercial contracts. ioBridge is the developer of Web-enabled hardware and cloud-based services and was recognized as providing one of the Top 10 Internet of Things Products for 2009 by ReadWriteWeb. ioBridge’s technology platform enables almost any device or thing to be monitored or controlled via the Internet.  The user base has grown very quickly, finding new applications for the flagship product, known as the ioBridge IO-204 monitor and control module. Users place the IO-204 on their network without setup and anything connected to the IO-204 is accessible securely via the Internet.

Users from around the world have created projects based on the IO-204 at their homes to remotely monitor fish tanks, open garage doors via a mobile phone, and report home energy use to social networks. Top technology magazines and Web sites, such as Popular Science, IEEE Spectrum, MIT’s Technology Review, and MAKE Magazine, featured ioBridge projects. The success of these projects attracted companies looking to use ioBridge hardware and engineering services to create new commercial products and use the technology for professional applications.

“Our inbox is filled with email from schools, businesses, and hobbyists alike looking to use our devices for their applications,” said Jason Winters, ioBridge’s President, Technology. “I am thrilled with the response.”

Over the past six months, ioBridge secured seed funding and landed commercial contracts for new consumer products and for a large scale environmental monitoring and control project. To support the growth, ioBridge added Robert Mawrey, Ph.D. as Chief Executive Officer and Hans Scharler as President, Software.

Robert Mawrey is the former Chief Information Officer of American Tower and brings with him twenty years of experience in electronic engineering, information technology, and strategic leadership. Robert holds a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa.

Hans Scharler was formerly with TESSCO Technologies, where he designed and secured SCADA and Smart Grid networks for utilities. Prior to TESSCO, Hans released data management Web applications to manage learning programs and emergency response planning and reporting. Scharler is the co-author of “IP-based Physical Security” and holds lectures on network security and IP-based services.

ioBridge will be announcing the release of the ioBridge Professional Platform. The new platform includes hardware and Web services that will be available off-the-shelf to ease integration with consumer products and professional applications.

About ioBridge, Inc.

ioBridge, Inc. (www.iobridge.com) offers technology and services that enable almost anything to be Web-enabled and monitored and controlled over the Internet. ioBridge’s technology includes a Web services platform that customers can use to extend the technology for many applications.  ioBridge provides OEM and commercial integration services and licensing of core, patent-pending technologies.

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