The concept of the Internet of Things was driving to meet the robotics for a while together with a rising challenge for hackers and makers all over the world. A new incredible board is joining the IoT apocalypse and allows you to explore a wide range of communication methods on the same board: Linkit One. The prototyping board was designed with the goal to run wearable and IoT applications.
With a pin-out similar to Arduino boards, the Linkit One is designed with a variety of interfaces such as PWM, I2C, SPI, UART, power supply, digital I/O, and analog I/O. If you’re already familiar with the Arduino boards, it should be very easy to interface peripherals, sensors, or Arduino shields.
Released under open-source license, the Linkit One combines the performance of MediaTek Aster MT2502 SoC for wearables with the high performance of Wi-Fi and GPS chipsets.
Digging deep in the specifications, the board includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth BR/EDR/BLE, GSM and GPRS connections. Apart from a GPS receiver, there’s a MicroSD card connector that connects to cards via an SPI interface.
The ARM7 processor at 260 MHz delivers substantial performances to run applications and manage the communication with a smartphone or a tablet via WiFi network.
If you’re an Arduino user, there is another reason to love this board. Thanks to a Windows SDK, you can run the Arduino IDE that gives you the access to the Arduino sketches.
Why I like the LinkIt One?
Yes, I really like the One and I have at least five reasons. If I want to build a robot connected to the IoT ecosystem, an automation application connected to the cloud or to have information like date, time, location and satellites in view, I only need the LinkIt One. The board does not need an extra shield or modules to provide GPS, GPRS, GSM, WIFI, or Bluetooth connections.
Maintaining the same Arduino pedigree, the LinkIt One has comparable performances with Arduinos, and a surprising value for money compared to buying a whole bunch of shields or modules for a regular Arduino board. The board has a price tag of $79.00.
The LinkIt ONE presentation