Episode

Plug and play for IoT devices

with Jim Bennett, Peli De Halleux

Let's Get Personal: Computing

On today's show, Jim is joined by Peli De Halleux, a research software engineer at Microsoft who has been working on simplifying IoT devices to not only make programming them much easier, but also making them more robust and kid-friendly. Peli is here to show off JacDac, new hardware designed for hobbyists and the classroom that reduces the barrier to entry when building IoT applications. JacDac leverages the BBC microbit and Microsoft's MakeCode block-based coding editor, along with plug-and-play connectors and sensors, and a full simulator environment that runs in any web browser.

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Chapters

  • 00:00 - Introduction
  • 00:29 - Welcome Peli!
  • 01:10 - Introducing JacDac, a kid friendly IoT system for classrooms that uses the BBC microbit
  • 02:00 - The JacDac microbit connector and sensors
  • 02:55 - Is JacDac kid proof? Jim tests it out by yanking on cables
  • 04:47 - The history of JacDac building plug and play IoT hardware with a simulator
  • 06:58 - JacDac began in a NYC fashion show
  • 07:57 - Where did the name JacDac come from?
  • 08:21 - The evolution of JacDac for use in education with Microsoft MakeCode
  • 10:52 - How does JacDac work under the hood? Jim and Peli geek out
  • 12:04 - Connect a JacDac device to a browser and see the interactions live
  • 14:32 - Simulate hardware in the browser
  • 15:18 - Hardware properties and events
  • 16:03 - Coding JacDac using MakeCode
  • 18:45 - Plug in a button and see it in the MakeCode editor, and control your program with real hardware
  • 20:26 - Bolting JacDac modules together to avoid cables thanks to the JacDac shape system
  • 22:33 - Get started with JacDac!

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