The future of the internet is a connected everything - often summarized as the Internet of Things or IoT. As technologist Metal Toad has dabbled with all sorts of connected devices (Arduino, cars, etc.) and our catalog of research can be found here. Enjoy!
-
Over the Air (OTA) Updates for IoT Devices using AWS
Over-the-air (OTA) updates are a critical feature for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. These updates allow manufacturers to improve the performance, security, and functionality of their devices without requiring users to manually update the firmware.
-
Big Takeaways from AWS re:Invent 2021
While normally I consider myself a consistent writer, since this summer it's been difficult for me to muster to will to research and share the newest, most interesting things happening in the technology space.
-
How can the Internet of Things apply to the Trucking industry - I’m glad you asked...!!!
A colleague just recently attended the North American Commercial Vehicle (NACV) fleet technology show, and sent me pictures of the 2020 model commercial trucks. While it might surprise some folks given my role at Metal Toad, I'm a huge fan of heavy equipment and semi trucks.
-
Predictive Maintenance with Machine Learning and IoT
Maintenance of machinery is vital in all industries. Not only does maintenance cost time and money, but improper maintenance could lead to inefficient performance or potentially be a safety hazard depending upon the purpose of the machinery.
-
Automotive Aftermarket and IoT
We all know cars are getting smarter, and car manufacturers are competing more and more not just based on reliability but increasingly based on technology. At Metal Toad,
-
Three Lessons Learned from Working in IoT
Prior to coming to Metal Toad, I worked as a .NET engineer at an Internet of Things (IoT) startup. My job was to stabilize and expand an existing cloud-based infrastructure that served as a central hub for IoT communications.
-
Missing a Development Tool? Make Your Own!
Do you ever wish you had a certain tool, but you don’t have the budget for it, or it doesn’t even exist? I’m here to tell you: you can build it!
-
"Hack the Plants" — Five Lessons Learned from an IoT Adventure
Do a search on “IoT projects” and you’ll turn up endless pages of fantastic Internet of Things ideas and examples. Roll-your-own home security system! Track your cat’s movement! Build your own droid!
-
Hackathon 2018: Four Guys in a Garage. On Laptops. In a Minivan.
This year’s hackathon was all about the Internet of Things (IoT)—pulling data from the real world and sending it to the cloud, then finding ways to analyze and manipulate that data for insights.
-
Hackathon: Team Mood Meter
This year’s hackathon challenge was to explore the Internet of Things (IoT) using cloud technology. As a Scrum Master, I have a longstanding interest in supporting the emotional wellbeing of teams, because it’s an important element of productivity that often gets overlooked.
-
Freedom to Fumble: Learnings From Hackathon 2018
I spend all my time at work dealing with software. So going into this year’s hackathon, I was excited to get hands-on (and in over my head) with hardware. Having never even touched a Raspberry Pi before, I was in for an interesting couple of days!
-
Hackathon 2018: Kegerator 2—Revenge of the Flowmeter
If you’re going to spend two long days frying a Raspberry Pi and fiddling with (very) finicky electronics, is there any better way to do it than surrounded by beer?
-
IoT and Employee Satisfaction
The very concept of automation leads to a moral and ethical dilemma regarding the workforce. People need to work to support their families, but there are tasks that could be done better, faster, and cheaper if automated.
-
Does your IoT device need an antenna upgrade?
I've long been curious about the effectiveness of the built-in antennas that are attached to common WiFi modules. Can that tiny, serpentine PCB track really match the performance of a "real" antenna? How does it even work?
-
IoT Business Value: Reducing Time Spent Monitoring
Like anything else in its early lifecycle, the Internet of Things (IoT) has a ton of hype but there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to the actual business value.
-
Google IO 2018: Android Things 1.0
We’re just starting the week of Google IO 2018 and already there’s a major announcement, before the event’s official start. Android Things has been moved out of beta is now at version 1.0.
-
The Four Budget Domains of Enterprise IoT Projects
IoT is rapidly transforming manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and several other industries. The ability to predict asset failure, rapidly diagnosis bottlenecks, and invent new revenue streams are elevating industry standards at a pace that is difficult to keep up with. Executives in these industries have been asking me...
-
The Four Quadrants of IoT Revenue Streams
The next decade will bring a society-changing transformation to smart, connected things throughout our personal, professional, and public lives. Everything about this change is big: the security risks are big, the improvements are big, and the scale is...
-
Creating a Twitter ticker with a Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is great if you want a dedicated device for a task that you can turn on, get it to do its thing and leave it alone. Recently, I wanted to set up a little LCD screen that would continuously print out the latest tweets from a particular account.
-
Building an Expandable IoT Data Pipeline - Part 2
Over the past year I've been building a cloud-based data pipeline for a client focusing on IoT data aggregation.
-
Building an Expandable IoT Data Pipeline - Part 1
Background and problem description In late 2016 we were approached with an opportunity to build a data pipeline for one of our large clients.
-
IoT Hackathon - Coffeebot with Raspberry Pi
For our latest Hackathon, with the theme being the Internet of things (IoT), my team and I wanted to create a device that would encourage people in the office to keep the coffee pots full of life-giving nectar.
-
Metal Tudse in Denmark
In February a few Toads got to travel to Denmark to begin discovery on a new internet of things (IoT) project with a large wind turbine manufacturer.
-
Q2 Hackathon Theme: Internet of Things (IoT)
Metal Toad's second hackathon will be focused on the Internet of Things. Why IoT? Over the years we have accumulated broad experience in this area; we've built systems including analytics for solar and wind energy, backend services for wearable devices, and a vehicle telematics platform. Of course this is a growing field, and in addition to software and data analytics for IoT, this will be a chance for toads to get their hands dirty with a soldering iron.
-
What I Did Over the Weekend
I spend all week programming at Metal Toad so you would think I'd want to spend my weekend doing anything but. Yet, instead of enjoying the unseasonably warm January weather, I spent last weekend at an event, writing code. Why? Because I sincerely love programming.
-
Running a Persistant Node.js Server on an Arduino Yún
We recently had occasion to set up a Node.js web server on an Arduino Yún. It's a bit more complicated than we thought when we set out, so it seemed useful to share the process.
-
Kegerator
Here in Portland we have people who brew beer and many more who drink it! Between the brewing and consuming of it, there is the overlooked step of dispensing it. We at Metal Toad have long had a "Kegerator" in the office, a dedicated refrigerator that holds small kegs of beer with taps mounted on the front. The Kegerator has a handy web site associated with it that shows what beers are on tap and the levels of the beer. We all love the Kegerator, the convenience of knowing the beers are and how much is left, so that we don't