Prototyping with a Particle Photon: Part 1
Brief overview of why and how I got started with the Particle Photon microcontroller.
Recently, I started to explore Particle’s Photon microcontroller so I could learn the basics of how to create connected prototypes for an upcoming project. Out of the many excellent choices we have these days, here are a few reasons which led me to this option.
- Particle has a nice site with solid documentation.
- It’s IoT friendly. Particle’s considerations for portability and scale are great for remote and wireless projects.
- They have covered off on the end-to-end experience from the design of the boards to the dashboard and development kit.
- It’s cheap. The Photon model is currently $19.
- They have a dashboard UI feature which becomes a quick and easy to use tool for visualizing data on projects.
- They have an iOS/Android mobile app.
- I preordered the Electron model a while back so that also became an incentive to want to learn more.
note: There is a good amount of documentation on how to get started via the Particle website. When you purchase your Particle device I would advise going there to learn in-depth all the onboarding options including how to get setup with Particle CLI and Node.js.
First, I began by plugging in my Photon device into my computer. Once it powered up, I did most of the setup (WiFi and ‘device claiming’) through the Particle iOS app. So when the basics were complete, I went right to the Particle Web IDE.
At this point I had a few sensors handy so I decided to look into tutorials I could try out. I added, Internet of Things with the Photon by Marco Schwartz to my Kindle and dove in. Based on the parts I had available and personal time constraints, I started with the cloud motion tutorial which is essentially hooking a PIR motion sensor to the Photon.
After verifying and flashing the program provided in Marco’s tutorial to the board I was then able to get motion data played back through Particle’s web-based dashboard UI. Below, is a screenshot the chart showing the default data variables that the Photon program was designed to read.
When the Photon publishes data it adds it to a dynamic list formatted below the bar chart. Each list item is a link and can be selected to reveal the corresonding JSON information.
Below is another screenshot of the dashboard with a new program running that includes multiple sensors and their corresponding data points.
Overall, getting to this point went fast. And I think having (almost) instant feedback display in an easy to read format is powerful when quickly mocking things up. Also, as a designer who likes code but isn’t a total expert, I can appreciate the visual and modular aspects of the dashboard.
Next, I’ll continue exploring other tutorials with the Photon device and possibly the Electron model if it makes its way to my doorstep in the next few days.
I hope this brief exploration of Particle’s Photon device was informative. Thanks for checking it out.
