Simple Low Cost Nodebot Setup to Prototype Wearables
Channel: Nearsoft, Inc
Date: 2015-03-16

“Nodebots are a great way to prototype new kinds of electronics,” explained Jenny Tong (@MimmingCodes), developer advocate for Firebase, now part of Google. Tong put together a few prototypes during her presentation "Internet of Nodebots" at the WearablesTechCon in Santa Clara, California.

In the video, Tong shows how she creates an Internet aware Nodebot. It requires the following components:

• Electronics: This is the connecting board and the servo motors required to create the physical action you want. 

• Arduino Uno: An interface to talk to electronics. You could also play around with LilyPad which is a version of Arduino designed to be sewn into fabric. 

• Raspberry Pi: A small computer running Linux. It can run NodeJS and it interfaces with the Arduino.

• Internet: Can connect using home automation systems ZigBee or Z-Wave, or you could use Bluetooth. 

Also, by going to services such as GitHub, you can grab some code, such as Johnny-five, and have these devices interact with the Internet. 

In her demonstration, Tong shows how you can simply throw out some code onto the Internet, have it change a value in a cloud database, which will send a signal back to the electronics and have it send a signal to your motors to take an action.