SwagBadge2021 Status, blog and timeline - Revision history

Nicola: LCA is done. Summary.

2021-01-28T11:16:00Z

LCA is done. Summary.

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:16, 28 January 2021
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			=== Status: Week of 2021-01-25. LCA2021 complete ===

			Wow. What a conference! First of all we'd like to thank the LCA organisers and Linux Australia for sponsoring the Swagbadge, and to you, our Swagbadge friends for enthusiastically leaping into making use of the badge.

			Some stats, because everyone likes numbers:
			* 4 guest speakers at the OHMC, talking open hardware, makerspace community, LEDs and hugs.
			* 300+ hardware badges made and shipped around Australia (and one to Limor Fried of AdaFruit) (contrast with our usual 30-50 item projects)
			* 11 active forks with 30+ pull requests on Aiko for IoT on MicroPython / ESP32
			* (All) 8 states and territories of Australia have had badges sending messages to our MQTT server, plus the Bay Area, San Francisco
			* 1000s of words of documentation produced: This wiki, the getting started guide, and the software/hardware development guide
			* 1 keynote mentioning the Swagbadge: in Limor Fried's LCA2021 keynote
			* 15+ [[Swagbadge2021_community\|hardware and software hacks]], just over the weekend of LCA. Notable projects:
			** Conference screencast video sent live to the badge
			** MyCroft voice assistant interaction with the badge
			* Community engagement high, preceding, during and following the conference
			** Twitter: [https://twitter.com/swagbadge2021 @swagbadge2021] … quickest way to see some cool hacks, 150 tweets, 141 followers, average 2.5 posts per day
			** 54 members on the community development forum for on-going efforts, [https://spectrum.chat/lca2021-swagbadge?tab=posts Spectrum]
			** Virtual BoF enabled all conference, with OHMC team providing video and chat based technical support, troubleshooting and enthusiasm on-demand all weekend
			* Public outreach beyond LCA
			** Published in [https://diyodemag.com/columns/swagbadge_dagbadge_badge_ohmc_linux_conference DIYODE magazine issue 41], December 2020 article
			** Michelle Manners social media influencer Twitch video unboxing (20 minutes in)
			** Jon Oxer’s SuperHouse YouTube live stream (discussed over several sessions)
			* 4 Plans plotted
			** Next 3, 6, 9 and 12 month milestones mapped out for Aiko, applications, SAO development, community engagement and possibly even OHMC 2022.
			* 1 excellent doggo mascot extensively hugged
			* 20+ ideas declared out of scope as we ran out of time to complete all our wild and crazy schemes

			Thank you all for a wonderful weekend at Linux Conf. See you on Spectrum, and keep an eye out for the next revision of the firmware (2-3 months away) and maybe an application or two to share in the meanwhile. Keep your applications and ideas coming: we're always happy to help you turn your dreams into reality and we enjoy seeing what you've done with your hardware.

	=== Status: Week of 2021-01-18. ONE WEEK TO GO. DO NOT PANIC. OK, PANIC. ===		=== Status: Week of 2021-01-18. ONE WEEK TO GO. DO NOT PANIC. OK, PANIC. ===

Nicola: /* Status: Week of 2021-01-04 */

2021-01-20T07:18:19Z

Status: Week of 2021-01-04

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:18, 20 January 2021
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			=== Status: Week of 2021-01-18. ONE WEEK TO GO. DO NOT PANIC. OK, PANIC. ===

			We are one week out! The team is a carefully controlled frenzy of last minute preparation.

			* Jon has sent out more badges to participants. Hopefully they'll arrive before the conference, but if not, attendees will be well educated after the conf to make use of them.
			* We hung out on MishManner's livestream unboxing the Swagbadge. She's MCing LCA, so it was delightful to see her reaction to the badge. Missed it? [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/879396212?filter=archives&sort=time Catch the replay!]
			* Andy has been feverishly updating Aiko to add the remaining hardware support, test the upgrade process further, get communications library sorted and more.
			* Working out who was presenting on which topics and write our presentations (nothing says prepared like a last minute slide deck, right?)
			* Completing our tech checks with the A/V team to make sure our stream quality will be gold star standard (fortunately Jon is already a pro with his [https://www.youtube.com/user/superhousetv SuperhouseTV channel])
			* Write more docs. You can't ever have enough docs.
			* Hang out with people on the Spectrum chat forums, providing support and enthusiasm.
			* Paring down our hopes and dreams to things we can feasibly do before Friday.

	=== Status: Week of 2021-01-04 ===		=== Status: Week of 2021-01-04 ===

Nicola: /* Status: Week of 2021-01-04 */

2021-01-08T06:51:17Z

Status: Week of 2021-01-04

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:51, 8 January 2021
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	Let's take a look at the team behind the Swagbadge:		Let's take a look at the team behind the Swagbadge:

	; Jon Oxer : winner of the Rusty Wrench award in 2020 for services to the community, chief protagonist of OHMC since the dawn of time, master of the pick 'n place machine. He personally soldered many of the OLEDS and microcontrollers. He built a testing rig so we could verify each badge... and then tested every single one. He's also been our central logistics point, assembling everyone's package with badge and SAO sets and lanyards and stickers oh my, printing out addressing labels, working with his local post office to get every package registered and processed. The open hardware wiki is hosted on his servers~~. We wouldn't be here without him~~.		; Jon Oxer : winner of the Rusty Wrench award in 2020 for services to the community, chief protagonist of OHMC since the dawn of time, master of the pick 'n place machine. He personally soldered many of the OLEDS and microcontrollers. He built a testing rig so we could verify each badge... and then tested every single one. He's also been our central logistics point, assembling everyone's package with badge and SAO sets and lanyards and stickers oh my, printing out addressing labels, working with his local post office to get every package registered and processed. The open hardware wiki is hosted on his servers.
	; Andy Gelme : ~~chief~~ rabble rouser, team ~~wrangler~~ and loyal minion to Astra 🐩 (everyone's favourite OHMC mascot). Full of ideas and visions for the future, Andy is the software maven, coming up with the architecture and producing the firmware so we're not all trying to build on base metal. He's driven parts around Melbourne to help split up the work of flashing microcontrollers and soldering headers. He's hosting the MQTT server the badges use. If you're after advice, you'll find him very active on Spectrum, enthusiastically sharing his wisdom. He's putting in all the hours to help us deliver a good experience to you out of the box and for years to come~~. We wouldn't be here without him~~.		; Andy Gelme : rabble rouser, team stirrer and loyal minion to Astra 🐩 (everyone's favourite OHMC mascot). Full of ideas and visions for the future, Andy is the software maven, coming up with the architecture and producing the firmware so we're not all trying to build on base metal. He's driven parts around Melbourne to help split up the work of flashing microcontrollers and soldering headers. He's hosting the MQTT server the badges use. If you're after advice, you'll find him very active on Spectrum, enthusiastically sharing his wisdom. He's putting in all the hours to help us deliver a good experience to you out of the box and for years to come.
	; Nicola Nye : responsible for wild and unceasing flailing enthusiasm, comms, docs and our primary crash test dummy. She's a one-woman cheer army, sharing memes on twitter, using her experience as a newcomer to ensure that the documentation is friendly and not intimidating. She provides feedback to the rest of the team on the kind of problems that people might face when working with the hardware, particularly since we can't do face to face workshops this year. You'll find some of her code demonstrating some ideas on using the badge to help people get started~~. We wouldn't be here without her~~.		; Nicola Nye : responsible for wild and unceasing flailing enthusiasm, comms, docs and our primary crash test dummy. She's a one-woman cheer army, sharing memes on twitter, using her experience as a newcomer to ensure that the documentation is friendly and not intimidating. She provides feedback to the rest of the team on the kind of problems that people might face when working with the hardware, particularly since we can't do face to face workshops this year. You'll find some of her code demonstrating some ideas on using the badge to help people get started.
	; John Spencer : electricity at his fingertips, the wiring embedded into the badge is his design, ensuring that all the parts are connected how they should be, mastering the constraints of placement both for components and for other limitations like having space for a lanyard hole! He soldered and snipped a bunch of oleds and microcontrollers and headers~~. We wouldn't be here without him~~.		; John Spencer : electricity at his fingertips, the wiring embedded into the badge is his design, ensuring that all the parts are connected how they should be, mastering the constraints of placement both for components and for other limitations like having space for a lanyard hole! He soldered and snipped a bunch of oleds and microcontrollers and headers.
	; Andrew Nielsen : the king of beautimous design. He's the reason we have the delightful tux SAO, the swagman with his swagbadge on the back of the badge board and the capacitive touch sliders~~. We wouldn't be here without him~~.		; Andrew Nielsen : the king of beautimous design. He's the reason we have the delightful tux SAO, the swagman with his swagbadge on the back of the badge board and the capacitive touch sliders.
	; and a cast of many more : each year's OHMC stands on the shoulders of the ones in the past, with many OHMC alumni directly or indirectly adding their experience to the current year.		; and a cast of many more : each year's OHMC stands on the shoulders of the ones in the past, with many OHMC alumni directly or indirectly adding their experience to the current year.

			We wouldn't be here without every single one of their experience, passion, time and commitment.

	=== Status: Week of 2020-12-07 ===		=== Status: Week of 2020-12-07 ===

Nicola at 22:33, 5 January 2021

2021-01-05T22:33:09Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:33, 5 January 2021
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			=== Status: Week of 2021-01-04 ===

			Welcome to 2021. We are officially in the future! Thank you to everyone who submitted proposals for the open hardware miniconf. Acceptances are going out shortly!

			The team had some much needed downtime over the festive period and are now spinning up again as we are just 3 weeks away from LCA. Mind you, down time just means we go slower, not stopped. Since our last update you'll notice we now have:
			* a way to contact us easily, and share knowledge with the wider badge community via the [https://spectrum.chat/lca2021-swagbadge Spectrum boards] on github.
			* lots more documentation flowing into the wiki to make those first steps smoother (we now have info on [[Swagbadge2021_GettingStarted#Running_pre-installed_applications\|how to swap applications]], and the start of the [[Swagbadge2021_SoftwareDev\|software development guide]])
			* hundreds of badges shipped out to participants
			* 10% more hype

			Let's take a look at the team behind the Swagbadge:

			; Jon Oxer : winner of the Rusty Wrench award in 2020 for services to the community, chief protagonist of OHMC since the dawn of time, master of the pick 'n place machine. He personally soldered many of the OLEDS and microcontrollers. He built a testing rig so we could verify each badge... and then tested every single one. He's also been our central logistics point, assembling everyone's package with badge and SAO sets and lanyards and stickers oh my, printing out addressing labels, working with his local post office to get every package registered and processed. The open hardware wiki is hosted on his servers. We wouldn't be here without him.
			; Andy Gelme : chief rabble rouser, team wrangler and loyal minion to Astra 🐩 (everyone's favourite OHMC mascot). Full of ideas and visions for the future, Andy is the software maven, coming up with the architecture and producing the firmware so we're not all trying to build on base metal. He's driven parts around Melbourne to help split up the work of flashing microcontrollers and soldering headers. He's hosting the MQTT server the badges use. If you're after advice, you'll find him very active on Spectrum, enthusiastically sharing his wisdom. He's putting in all the hours to help us deliver a good experience to you out of the box and for years to come. We wouldn't be here without him.
			; Nicola Nye : responsible for wild and unceasing flailing enthusiasm, comms, docs and our primary crash test dummy. She's a one-woman cheer army, sharing memes on twitter, using her experience as a newcomer to ensure that the documentation is friendly and not intimidating. She provides feedback to the rest of the team on the kind of problems that people might face when working with the hardware, particularly since we can't do face to face workshops this year. You'll find some of her code demonstrating some ideas on using the badge to help people get started. We wouldn't be here without her.
			; John Spencer : electricity at his fingertips, the wiring embedded into the badge is his design, ensuring that all the parts are connected how they should be, mastering the constraints of placement both for components and for other limitations like having space for a lanyard hole! He soldered and snipped a bunch of oleds and microcontrollers and headers. We wouldn't be here without him.
			; Andrew Nielsen : the king of beautimous design. He's the reason we have the delightful tux SAO, the swagman with his swagbadge on the back of the badge board and the capacitive touch sliders. We wouldn't be here without him.
			; and a cast of many more : each year's OHMC stands on the shoulders of the ones in the past, with many OHMC alumni directly or indirectly adding their experience to the current year.

	=== Status: Week of 2020-12-07 ===		=== Status: Week of 2020-12-07 ===

Nicola: /* Status: Week of 2020-12-07 */

2020-12-13T07:39:25Z

Status: Week of 2020-12-07

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:39, 13 December 2020
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	We sent an early access kit to Steph Piper of [https://www.elkei.com.au/ Elkei Education] to play with and it wasn't long before she was up and running and Nicola had sent her messages of joy and boop boopiness to her badge over MQTT.		We sent an early access kit to Steph Piper of [https://www.elkei.com.au/ Elkei Education] to play with and it wasn't long before she was up and running and Nicola had sent her messages of joy and boop boopiness to her badge over MQTT.

			We'll be posting the first batch out next week to ensure they arrive in time for LCA 2021 at the end of January, given general posting delays with Covid restrictions, plus Christmas slowdowns. If you haven't [https://linux.conf.au/ signed up for LCA], now's the time to do it!

	=== Status: Week of 2020-11-30 ===		=== Status: Week of 2020-11-30 ===

Nicola at 07:37, 13 December 2020

2020-12-13T07:37:09Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:37, 13 December 2020
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			=== Status: Week of 2020-12-07 ===

			'''If you'd like to present at the LCA2021 Open Hardware MiniConference, [https://linux.conf.au/programme/miniconfs/open-hardware please make a submission].''' We welcome a range of topics and skill levels (newcomer to advanced). '''Submissions close on 2020-12-18.'''

			[[File:badgearmy.jpg\|400px\|right\|border\|Over 200 of the badge army are ready to awaken]] Andy has spent this week buried in code, building up some software to test the badges (we don't want to send out any duds!), along with a robust firmware kit that
			* Helps you configure your badge for your local wifi when it first arrives
			* Knows how to auto-upgrade itself by querying an MQTT server for information on the latest version and how to get from its version to the latest.
			* Can do the essentials.

			Jon built a testing rig where he's using one badge to test another badge. Testing all the pins on all the badges by hand would be an epic task, so the testing rig has saved hours of pain and suffering. Check out his SuperhouseTV video on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QGZMBXMk7g all about testing the badge]!

			Nicola has been putting together some example code so anyone who likes extending the hardware with software can learn how to talk to the components onboard.

			We sent an early access kit to Steph Piper of [https://www.elkei.com.au/ Elkei Education] to play with and it wasn't long before she was up and running and Nicola had sent her messages of joy and boop boopiness to her badge over MQTT.



	=== Status: Week of 2020-11-30 ===		=== Status: Week of 2020-11-30 ===

AndyGelme: /* Status: Week of 2020-11-30 */

2020-12-06T22:59:50Z

Status: Week of 2020-11-30

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:59, 6 December 2020
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	This week sees us push the firmware to be a Minimum Viable Release, so that everyone's initial Out Of The Box experience is good. So this means we need to:		This week sees us push the firmware to be a Minimum Viable Release, so that everyone's initial Out Of The Box experience is good. So this means we need to:
	* Make it easy for everyone to ~~connected~~ their SwagBadge to their Wi-Fi router		* Make it easy for everyone to connect their SwagBadge to their Wi-Fi router
	* Getting the badges ~~able to~~ self-~~update~~ to the latest firmware		* Getting the badges capable of self-updating to the latest firmware
	* Prepare ~~some~~ individual encryption keys so the badges can communicate securely		* Prepare individual encryption keys so the badges can communicate securely
	* Providing a couple of applications to run initially so the capabilities can be displayed		* Providing a couple of applications to run initially so the capabilities can be displayed

AndyGelme at 22:58, 6 December 2020

2020-12-06T22:58:38Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:58, 6 December 2020
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	There was even more excitement with the [https://lca2021.linux.org.au/news/keynote-limor-fried announcement of Limor Fried as an LCA2021 keynote speaker] !		There was even more excitement with the [https://lca2021.linux.org.au/news/keynote-limor-fried announcement of Limor Fried as an LCA2021 keynote speaker] !

	On the badge front, the hardware is nearly all ready. Screens, switches and ~~microprocessor computers~~ have been attached to 300 boards, and the excess headers trimmed off. We'll be gathering them together in one place soon, so we can flash the latest firmware and test that all the hardware works as expected by hooking each and every one up to a test rig.		On the badge front, the hardware is nearly all ready. Screens, switches and microcontrollers have been attached to 300 boards, and the excess headers trimmed off. We'll be gathering them together in one place soon, so we can flash the latest firmware and test that all the hardware works as expected by hooking each and every one up to a test rig.

	Snipping off so many excess pin lengths results in a lot of blisters (Thank you Andrew and John for your sacrifice!): [[File:Pins.jpg\|240px\|A workbench covered with hundreds of tiny metal pins: excess length that has been snipped off by hand]]		Snipping off so many excess pin lengths results in a lot of blisters (Thank you Andrew and John for your sacrifice!): [[File:Pins.jpg\|240px\|A workbench covered with hundreds of tiny metal pins: excess length that has been snipped off by hand]]

AndyGelme: /* Status: Week of 2020-11-30 */

2020-12-06T08:12:38Z

Status: Week of 2020-11-30

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:12, 6 December 2020
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	=== Status: Week of 2020-11-30 ===		=== Status: Week of 2020-11-30 ===

	~~[[File:diyodecover.jpg\|240px\|right\|Cover of Diyode Magazine Issue 41: December 2020]] We~~'~~re very excited~~ to ~~have~~ [https://~~diyodemag~~.~~com~~/~~columns~~/~~swagbadge_dagbadge_badge_ohmc_linux_conference our article] included in December's issue of [https:~~/~~/diyodemag.com Diyode Magazine~~]. ~~Australia~~'~~s magazine for makers, hardware and electronic enthusiasts, we~~'re ~~delighted~~ to ~~see Swagbadge in there alongside other incredible projects~~. We'~~re hoping it~~'~~ll bring more people to LCA, to the OHMC and get them excited about open hardware in general~~. ~~Maybe it~~'~~ll help increase memberships at your local hackerspace too!~~		'''If you'd like to present at the LCA2021 Open Hardware MiniConference, [https://linux.conf.au/programme/miniconfs/open-hardware please make a submission].''' We're aiming to address a range of topics and skill levels (newcomer to advanced). '''Submissions close on 2020-12-18.'''

	On the badge front, the hardware is nearly all ready. Screens, switches and microprocessor computers have been attached to 300 boards, and the excess headers trimmed off. We'll be gathering them ~~shortly~~ in one place soon so we can test that all the hardware works as expected by hooking each and every one up to a test rig.		[[File:diyodecover.jpg\|240px\|right\|Cover of Diyode Magazine Issue 41: December 2020]] We're very excited to have [https://diyodemag.com/columns/swagbadge_dagbadge_badge_ohmc_linux_conference our article] included in the December 2020 issue of [https://diyodemag.com Diyode Magazine]. Australia's magazine for makers, hardware hackers and electronic enthusiasts, we're delighted to see Swagbadge in there alongside other incredible projects ([https://diyodemag.com/features/arduino_mega_walking_traffic_crossing_lights_project see page 51]). We're hoping it'll bring more people to LCA, to the OHMC and get them excited about open hardware in general. Maybe it'll help increase memberships at your local HackerSpace too ! The article provides a reasonable overview of the project with some background and some technical details we haven't covered here yet ... so, worth a read.

			There was even more excitement with the [https://lca2021.linux.org.au/news/keynote-limor-fried announcement of Limor Fried as an LCA2021 keynote speaker] !

			On the badge front, the hardware is nearly all ready. Screens, switches and microprocessor computers have been attached to 300 boards, and the excess headers trimmed off. We'll be gathering them together in one place soon, so we can flash the latest firmware and test that all the hardware works as expected by hooking each and every one up to a test rig.

	Snipping off so many excess pin lengths results in a lot of blisters (Thank you Andrew and John for your sacrifice!): [[File:Pins.jpg\|240px\|A workbench covered with hundreds of tiny metal pins: excess length that has been snipped off by hand]]		Snipping off so many excess pin lengths results in a lot of blisters (Thank you Andrew and John for your sacrifice!): [[File:Pins.jpg\|240px\|A workbench covered with hundreds of tiny metal pins: excess length that has been snipped off by hand]]

	This week sees us push the ~~software~~ to ~~the finish line~~ so that everyone's initial Out Of The Box experience is ~~pleasant~~. So this means we need to:		This week sees us push the firmware to be a Minimum Viable Release, so that everyone's initial Out Of The Box experience is good. So this means we need to:
	* ~~Get the wireless AP coming online and letting a user record~~ their ~~wifi details~~		* Make it easy for everyone to connected their SwagBadge to their Wi-Fi router
	* Getting the badges able to self-update.		* Getting the badges able to self-update to the latest firmware
	* Prepare some ~~private~~ keys so the badges can communicate securely		* Prepare some individual encryption keys so the badges can communicate securely
	* Providing a couple of applications to run initially so the capabilities can be displayed.		* Providing a couple of applications to run initially so the capabilities can be displayed

	We'll also be writing up documentation so everyone can get a feel for the care and feeding of their badge and how they can extend it for themselves.		We'll also be writing up documentation so everyone can get a feel for the care and feeding of their badge and how they can extend it for themselves.

Nicola: /* Status: Week of 2020-11-30 */

2020-12-06T07:21:03Z

Status: Week of 2020-11-30

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:21, 6 December 2020
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	=== Status: Week of 2020-11-30 ===		=== Status: Week of 2020-11-30 ===

	We're very excited to have [https://diyodemag.com/columns/swagbadge_dagbadge_badge_ohmc_linux_conference our article] included in December's issue of [https://diyodemag.com Diyode Magazine]. Australia's magazine for makers, hardware and electronic enthusiasts, we're delighted to see Swagbadge in there alongside other incredible projects. We're hoping it'll bring more people to LCA, to the OHMC and get them excited about open hardware in general. Maybe it'll help increase memberships at your local hackerspace too!		[[File:diyodecover.jpg\|240px\|right\|Cover of Diyode Magazine Issue 41: December 2020]] We're very excited to have [https://diyodemag.com/columns/swagbadge_dagbadge_badge_ohmc_linux_conference our article] included in December's issue of [https://diyodemag.com Diyode Magazine]. Australia's magazine for makers, hardware and electronic enthusiasts, we're delighted to see Swagbadge in there alongside other incredible projects. We're hoping it'll bring more people to LCA, to the OHMC and get them excited about open hardware in general. Maybe it'll help increase memberships at your local hackerspace too!

	On the badge front, the hardware is nearly all ready. Screens, switches and microprocessor computers have been attached to 300 boards, and the excess headers trimmed off. We'll be gathering them shortly in one place soon so we can test that all the hardware works as expected by hooking each and every one up to a test rig.		On the badge front, the hardware is nearly all ready. Screens, switches and microprocessor computers have been attached to 300 boards, and the excess headers trimmed off. We'll be gathering them shortly in one place soon so we can test that all the hardware works as expected by hooking each and every one up to a test rig.