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The new WIFI Extension 2.0 is finally available!

It features the now ubiquitous ESP8266. We use the ESP-WROOM-02 module which is FCC/CE compatible. As you can see on GitHub the development for this new Extension started on July 27th 2015. Nearly one year ago, holy moly!

The new WIFI Extension 2.0 comes with it’s own firmware that can be updated completely automatically by the Brick Viewer through a Master Brick. So you don’t need a FTDI cable or similar to update the Extension. Compared to the old WIFI Extension we have many new features and even more are planned:

Every other property between the two are either equal or very similar (RF output power, etc.). As you can see, the new WIFI Extension 2.0 can replace the old WIFI Extension in all but one feature: You can’t connect an external antenna. We realize that this is necessary for some applications. Unfortunately none of the ESP8266 modules with a external antenna connector that are currently available on the market is FCC and CE compatible. As far as we can tell they have neither been tested, nor would they pass a test.

As a workaround we will still offer the old WIFI Extension for the time being. In the last production run a few weeks ago we made sure to produce a full batch. So we expect the old WIFI Extension to be available as fallback for a long time :-)

This year the Automatica is from 21st to 24th June in Munich. We will present our building blocks at this trade fair for automation and mechatronics for the first time. We are very curious about the feedback. Our booth is in hall A5 stand 139A. You will be able to see applications four our building blocks in the areas of low cost automation and rapid prototyping.

As an exhibitor we will have an allocation of free tickets again. If you want to visit us at Automatica, please write an email to info@tinkerforge.com.

The Maker Faire in Hannover is from 27th to 29th May this year. Friday (27th) is reserved for school classes. Saturday and Sunday are normal faire days, as always. You can find more information on the Maker Faire Website.

This year we will have our booth in the Niedersachsenhalle. You can find us at stand 100.

The free tickets are all gone!

Today the Hannover Messe starts (25th to 29th April). While we are not there ourselves, you will still be able to find some of our products in Hannover at the booth of Volavis GmbH (hall 6, booth K46).

The setup consists of lots of Industrial Bricklets that switch valves as well as a RED Brick. The latter provides the control software as well as a user interface that that is shown on a HDMI display with touch. The mini production plant simulates different fabrication steps including the inspection of work pieces and polishing.

Volavis is a cross-sector software service provider with know-how in the development of web applications, embedded software and mobile applications. At the trade faire they are showing “Internet of Things” solutions. They retrofitted an old demonstration production plant with Tinkerforge hardware to make it suitable for “Industrie 4.0″ applications. The machine is now connected to cloud software, it can be controlled from a tablet and production processes can be analyzed online.

The CeBIT last week was a success for us. Our booth was always busy, sometimes we couldn’t even talk to all of the visitors. We are sorry for the visitors that wanted to visit us but couldn’t wait long enough to speak to us. There definitely wasn’t any boredom for us ;-). Many thanks for all of the nice conversations and suggestions.

Now that the CeBIT is done, we want to publish a new Bricklet this week:

The Real-Time Clock Bricklet.

The Bricklet is equipped with a real-time clock, that keeps date and time. Typically you would use it in applications where the current time is needed but not available. This is often the case if you use a single board computer without a real-time clock (e.g. RED Brick or Raspberry Pi) and there is no connection to the internet for NTP.

A RED Brick example program is already available on github.