https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gfw/puckjs-the-ground-breaking-bluetooth-beacon
A JavaScript microcontroller you can program wirelessly – perfect for IoT devices! No software needed so get started in seconds.
Bluetooth Smart (or Bluetooth Low Energy) is an amazing technology – it’s now built into virtually all Phones and Computers, and Bluetooth Smart devices have a battery life of years.
Most manufacturers conveniently gloss over the difficulties of programming their hardware, and other beacons are provided without software or left crippled by their boring factory-installed software. Puck.js is different – it comes with our Open Source JavaScript interpreter Espruino pre-installed, which makes it incredibly easy to use and means you can get started in just seconds, without any prior programming experience.
Specifications
- 35mm diameter, 10mm thick
- Silicone rubber cover, ABS plastic base
- CR2032 210mAh battery
- MAG3110 magnetometer
- 1x Tactile Button, 4x LED (R,G,B,IR)
- 8x 0.1″ pins – 6x GPIO, 2x Power
- Bluetooth Smart 5.0, 80M range in Open Space
- PLUS Nordic Semiconductor’s brand new nRF52832 microcontroller. It’s packed full of amazing features…
- ARM Cortex M4F core
- Compatible with Bluetooth 5.0 – giving Quadruple the range, and double the speed of Bluetooth 4.2
- Near field communications (NFC) built-in
- A massive 64kB of RAM and 512kB of Flash – double that of the previous generation nRF51
- 64 MHz clock speed – four times that of the nRF51
- Over the air firmware updates
- 12 bit ADC, timers, SPI, I2C and Serial that can be used on any available pins
- Temperature sensor
Puck.js can measure light, temperature, magnetic fields and capacitance, can control Infrared devices, produce any colour light and has a clever tactile switch that turns the Puck into one big button.
The Magnetometer on Puck.js is a digital compass – you can measure its orientation relative to the earth’s magnetic field in 3 dimensions.
Like a compass, it’ll react to a magnet nearby. This means you can use it to sense all kinds of things:
- Detect when a magnet is nearby (ie door opening or closing)
- Detect the angle of a magnet relative to Puck.js (ie. water level via a magnet on a float)
- Measuring the rotation of Puck.js (you can use your Puck as a knob)
- Magnetic North, for orientation
The Physical Web (Eddystone) allows Bluetooth devices like Puck.js to advertise themselves to phones in the area. If a phone user clicks a notification they’ll be taken to a website set by the Puck.js. Puck.js advertising packets are fully configurable, so it will also support iBeacon for Apple devices.