Conrad Business Supplies is working exclusively with Berlin based start-up company relayr (iThings4U GmbH) to support the development and launch of the innovative and groundbreaking Open Source ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) starter kit known as ‘WunderBar’.
In March this year, the WunderBar project successfully completed its crowdfunding campaign on the hardware crowd funding platform Dragon Innovations, where it achieved 120% funding.
The WunderBar IoT starter kit together with the relayr Open Sensor Cloud platform allows software application developers to quickly and easily begin working on wireless applications and prototype building based on data gathered from the physical world without needing to learn about hardware. The platform includes software development kits (SDKs) for iOS, Android and Node.js.
The WunderBar product mimics the appearance of a chocolate bar with seven ‘chunks’ that can be broken off to provide a Wi-Fi-enabled master module with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), plus six detachable smart sensor mini-modules. Each module has BLE, a sensor or actuator, and an on-board battery. The mini-modules give functionality including light, colour, distance, temperature and humidity sensing, plus an accelerometer, a gyroscope and infra-red (IR) remote control capability. The WunderBar community of backers also chose a noise sensor to be included on the sixth module. Moreover the inclusion of a Grove connector from Seeed Studio on the fifth module enables a wide range of additional sensors and actuators that are Arduino compatible to be interfaced with the WunderBar platform.
“The Wunderbar lowers the barrier to entry for developers unfamiliar with hardware, helping the democratization of the Internet of Things, and bringing software closer to hardware, and ultimately to the consumers,” said Holger Ruban, President Conrad Business Supplies. “The Internet of Things is happening, and Conrad, with its strong B2C and B2B business reach will play a key role.”
Harald Zapp, founder and CEO of relayr said: “We feel extremely fortunate to have Conrad Electronic supporting our vision and efforts for Open Source Internet of Things software and hardware. Our initial crowdfunded IoT starter kit WunderBar is now being adopted by many manufacturers to bring a new generation of Smart Devices communicating with one another through the relayr cloud platform. Industry has been talking about the Internet of Things for decades, but has only created expensive proprietary islands. With the open relayr hardware and cloud platform, the maker revolution and the app economy are converging to bring real interconnected solutions for the Internet of Everything.”
Author
Mick Elliott
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