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Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

tessel.io

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Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#41

Post by voltagex_ »

com2kid wrote: post #37
bsder wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can write in high level C++, which is vastly preferable to javascript! First, C++ compilers are not available everywhere. Second, C++ compilers do not always implement all corners of the language on embedded systems. Third, C++ is better than Javascript? That's going to take some explanation. > Or hell, why not write in Lua! Lua has it's own share of "Wat". 1-based indexing when a non-trivial amount of your stu…

.NETMF will run a C# Interpreter in 256KB of RAM and 1/2 a meg of code space. Give it a bit more and you can get a full UI up and running with a WPF variant!

I didn't think NETMF was interpreted. That said, the last time I looked at NETMF I was put off by forum arguments over who owned what code samples.

Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#42

Post by mschuster91 »

GuiA wrote: post #3

$100 for something vastly inferior to a Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone, etc. that cost 1/2 to 1/3 of that. What am I missing here?

It has WiFi, which requires FCC testing for the US market as well as compliance certificates for the European area. These certifications and checks are f...ing costly.

RPi/Arduino in contrast only have wired or no networking, thus eliminating a huge part of the upfront costs (e.g. in Europe you then only need a CE certificate, which you can either issue without testing and be liable if your module doesn't meet the standards, or you get an ESD/EMR test for a couple thousand bucks).

Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#43

Post by kam »

rememberlenny wrote: post #4

I won a Tessel at JSConf this year and love it. Are there ways to make our own module attachments? The $50 parts seem a bit steep.

Yes. The module ports are documented here: https://github.com/tessel/hardware/blob/master/tessel-hardwa... and the JS APIs for using them here: https://tessel.io/docs/hardwareAPI

Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#44

Post by mschuster91 »

goodbyegti wrote: post #13

It's absurdly expensive, even more so the modules. Looking at the BT module, the BLE112 can be purchased for $15 in quantities of 1. So you pay $35 for a small PCB, some pin headers and probably a wrapper around a UART.

As written above, everything related to radio has huge upfront costs in certifications. These costs are once-applicable, so if you're making a million-unit BT dongle, then the certification costs per device are fractions of cents. Here with thousand-unit series, the cost per device is massively higher.

Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#45

Post by twerquie »

Timmmmbob wrote: post #17
johnpmayer wrote: post #2

This is great. I have some small background in real time embedded systems, but I think that 99% of the "internet of things" need not be written in low-level C. I'll probably pick this up... ...however, I do hope that they can bring down the price for future models. $100 is a bit steep for a hobby project to control my AC. For now, I understand that the premuim is rewarding the software effort.

You don't have to write in low-level C. You can write in high level C++, which is vastly preferable to javascript! Or hell, why not write in Lua! It's what this apparently transpiles to, and is much nicer. The only reason javascript became popular is because it was the only option on the web. Why does that mean we would want to use it when we have better options?

For the same reasons you're writing in English.

Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#46

Post by anonymoushn »

justincormack wrote: post #14

Actually, a microcontroller that runs Lua. They released the source for the JavaScript to Lua compiler today https://github.com/tessel/colony-compiler

I wonder if you can run code without going through the transpiler. Then you could program it in a sane language.

Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#47

Post by gvargh »

Timmmmbob wrote: post #17
johnpmayer wrote: post #2

This is great. I have some small background in real time embedded systems, but I think that 99% of the "internet of things" need not be written in low-level C. I'll probably pick this up... ...however, I do hope that they can bring down the price for future models. $100 is a bit steep for a hobby project to control my AC. For now, I understand that the premuim is rewarding the software effort.

You don't have to write in low-level C. You can write in high level C++, which is vastly preferable to javascript! Or hell, why not write in Lua! It's what this apparently transpiles to, and is much nicer. The only reason javascript became popular is because it was the only option on the web. Why does that mean we would want to use it when we have better options?

Lua's an absolute travesty. It's a shame they decided to use it as the implementation, because it's not like capable JS implementations don't exist or anything.

At least they didn't expose it at an API level. That's one redeeming feature at least.

Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#48

Post by EpicEng »

jonknee wrote: post #38
EpicEng wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So...people who want to play around with hardware development without actually learning anything about hardware development? How is that helpful? Why not just learn what you need to learn and do it right the first time?

I assume you're using a computer you made yourself from materials you mined out of the Earth? Running software you programmed in hardware of your own design? Higher level abstractions in computing are of obvious value. Many more people know Javascript than know HDL, an assembly variant or even C. It's pretty obvious why this would be helpful. If you know a little bit of Javascript you can get out of the browser and h…

Yiur first paragraph is simply absurd, so I'll ignore it.

So what is one to do once they have designed a system using this platform? Do you want to turn it into a product? Great! Go redesign the entire thing from the ground up because what you made is a toy.

It can't be manufactured at a reasonable cost. The code will have to be completely rewritten. The hardware has to be completely re-specced. What a waste of time.

There are plenty of micro platforms our there these days that require relatively little knowledge of hardware,yet at least resemble something you may actually see in the real world. Use those.

That said, I could see myself being proven wrong here,which is fine. It would only take some enthusiastic person who already knows JavaScript and has some revolutionary idea to-do do so.

My opinion is that you don't need to sit on mountains of abstraction at all times. No abstraction I'd perfect and we already have enough people in this industry who don't really understand what the hell they're doing. Learning something new isn't a bad thing.

Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#49

Post by dkersten »

johnohara wrote: post #15

Device looks to be based on an NXP LPC1830FET180 microcontroller which uses an ARM Cortex-M3 processor at 180MHz. http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers/cortex_m3/LPC18... The product page seems to indicate it does a more than run JavaScript.

It doesn't run javascript (not natively). It runs just like every other ARM microcontroller (so assembly, C, etc).

This device has a lua interpreter running as its firmware (coded in C, it looks like) and these guys wrote a javascript to lua compiler.

So it runs javascript by compiling it to lua bytecode and then intrepreting it in a C-based intrepreter.

Re: Tessel: A microcontroller that runs JavaScript

#50

Post by dguaraglia »

mschuster91 wrote: post #42
GuiA wrote: post #3

$100 for something vastly inferior to a Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone, etc. that cost 1/2 to 1/3 of that. What am I missing here?

It has WiFi, which requires FCC testing for the US market as well as compliance certificates for the European area. These certifications and checks are f...ing costly. RPi/Arduino in contrast only have wired or no networking, thus eliminating a huge part of the upfront costs (e.g. in Europe you then only need a CE certificate, which you can either issue without testing and be liable if your module doesn't meet the st…

Good point on the Wi-Fi. I guess that explains the cost, but it doesn't explain why you'd choose it over a Raspberry Pi. You can buy a Wi-Fi USB dongle for like 5 bucks on Amazon.
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