| I'm a big fan of Teensy boards. They're like arduino, but smarter about things. The default libraries include assorted niceties (lie handling capsense) and the hardware, while arduino-compatible, has a few extras (like proper USB MIDI). I've been experimenting with a Teensy 3 and an RN XV WiFly board. The cost is a bit higher than perhaps the all-in-one assemblies but they seem to come with strings attached. If I'm going over WiFi I try to use OSC (or CoAP); basically the UDP path. Next to explore is BLE. Then I have to look into 6lowpan. One of my concerns with the items on your list is that they approach the Internet of Things as if it were little different than the Internet of Regular Computers. That is, HTTP or WebSockets over TCP, passing bulky messages, often requiring a central service to route every message. I'm skeptical this is the way to set up large numbers of small, low-power devices spread out over some distance coordinating with each other. OTOH defining just what counts as IoT is tricky, especially with companies tagging everything as IoT because it sounds cool and hip. I'm sorry I can't say much more about most things on your list. I've looked at them but as soon as I think it's tied to some 3rd-party service, or a special protocol, or HTTP-based, I lose interest. (BTW if I'm wrong about any of them I'd love to know. But it seems they offer short-term gains in exchange for a certain product coupling.) Teensy: https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/teensy31.html
RN XV WiFly: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10822 |
If you would like an easy way to get into BLE then check out the RFduino. I used it because it was the only thing I could find that would let me pass arbitrary data to an iOS device in an approvable app. It only took me a few minutes to get started with it, and they are cheap, but they have their own footprint, so shields aren't compatible with anything else.