Electric Imp drawbacks?  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Twonius
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2014, 08:52:51 pm
content: Just picked up an electric imp and so far I'm pretty impressed.It's very easy to use and being able to update the firmware OTA right away makes it much easier to imaging actually deploying these things.I've seen a few devices using it but not anything big so far but Lockitron. Are there big drawbacks besides perhaps price that I'm not seeing, or is it just the fact that it's so new and it'll take time for people to develop and ship hardware using it?

author: ju1ce
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2014, 08:59:37 pm
content: I've got one controlling a christmas light. The only thing I worry about is that the device will stop working if the company ceases to exist. Their servers seem to be quite stable so that downtimes are not an issue.

author: mjkuwp
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 09, 2014, 12:32:20 pm
content: the main points have been listed already but let me still add a bit. I have been using electric imp parts for more than 1.5 years now. Initially they had a different web interface that limited the usability and got them off to a bit of a slow start. The new/current IDE is good and I really like the split-screen development of the device code (your hardware) and agent code (little machine running in the cloud). It is easy to push values and tables back and forth between the two.The first device that I deployed has been constantly on since winter of 2012/2013 and is still humming along. It is monitoring a test setup at my office. I don't do maintenance on that so it runs through power outages, wifi outages (though rare at the office) and is very hands-off. If you do more advanced wifi setups such as code to change to different networks/ssids then the stability will depend on your code.I use the devices for my own education and for some tools at work and for some toys at home.I have never bricked one and I think that is nearly impossible to do with code. They have done an excellent job with the remote programming function's stability. Surely with hardware you can blow one but that is normal to any device obviously.I recommend using the modules and not the little white SD card form factor. the SD card can have problems connecting pin 1 although that trouble was isolated to home-built units and the sparkfun red breakout. I got a breakout from Digikey that worked fine. Still, the SD card has fewer pins and the expense of the SD socket so that is why I don't suggest it.You can get prepared boards with modules at this site (USA vendor). I know this guy from the forum but have no connection or obligation to him.http://www.themakedeck.com/So far as the primary concern of relying on a 3rd party - 'what if they fail'. That question cannot be satisfied by electric imp answers so far. I think the commercial customers under contract must have something in place that they can keep running without electric imp but this is an assumption - I do not know. So far as hobby goes, I assume if their funding runs out the hobby/development server will not exist anymore. It is a true risk and I am not impressed with any of their main clients so far. I only hope they have some other clients with awesome products or that they can gain some soon.It seems that electric imp has good funding and I have observed good progress on their progression of offerings, imp001, imp002, imp003 so far.you can take my advice just for what it is and with appropriate grains of salt.. I have no special knowledge, just a random person trying to figure this out as anyone would...