[Embedlets-dev] Outpost rollout initiative, TStik is up to bat

[Ted K. <tk...@ya...>]

I am getting a big kick out of announcing the Outpost rollout initiative just
shy of one year before the Embedlets groups first annaversy.

Here is a link to the original post from the JStamp list that I think started
us off (it was Andrzej's wide-fan-out concept that triggered everything I
think):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jstamp/message/1641


Anyway, now that the Embedlets/Outpost cat was let out of the bag at the JXTA
Town Hall meeting last week, we are under the gun to put Outpost into
production ASAP.


As some of you may have gathered from earlier list traffic, for the past couple
of months I have been working very hard to assemble the manufacturing capacity
needed to put Outpost, along with an initial offering of sensors and actuators,
into production.  I am happy to announce that this effort has gone very well so
far and we now have a company lined up that will be putting whatever we design
into production.

The initial Outposts will be based on TStik and they will be housed in
industrial-quality plastic boxes which will be processed on CNC machinery.  I
am designing and building the CNC box processing workstation myself and its
initial capacity should be about 8 boxes/hour.  Hopefully, with a little
effort, this rate should be able to be increased to 10+ boxes an hour. 
Replacing the machine's operator with a robot will increase this rate even
more.


The strategy that I am suggesting that we use is as follows:

1) Specify an alpha-level prototype box design.

2) Officially announce the existence of the Embedlets project to the TINI,
TStik, JStamp, JStik and muvium lists and encourage as many developers as
possible to join the group and help alpha-test Outpost.

3) Build enough alpha-level Outposts for the Embedlets group to test
internally.  The first generation sensor and actuator modules will be based on
1-Wire devices primarily because they are cheap, completely plug-and-play, and
they can be accessed with the excellent Java-1Wire API.

4) Use the knowledge gained from the alpha testing in order to design a
beta-level Outpost.  Advertise what we are doing to the Java/J2EE community via
articles on the main Java news sites and convince at least100 developers to
purchase beta-level Outposts so that we can proceed with a beta test.  The
number 100 was chosen because there is often a price break on electronic parts
bought in quantities of 100+.

I think that the Embedlets group is so far ahead of the rest of the world in
figuring out how to enable the connecting of 'billions of embedded devices' to
the internet that has been predicted for a while now, that developers will be
interested in helping out even if it only to obtain access to the knowledge
that we have generated.

5) The post beta-level testing details can be determined at a later date.


If anyone wants to provide feedback as to what features, and sensor/actuator
modules, the initial alpha Outpost prototype should have, please submit them to
the list.


Ted









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