The TiLDA Mkπ badge from EMF is packed full of cool and useful features. The first thing you’ll notice is the 320×240 LCD display which provides surprisingly sharp images and good visibility in direct sunlight. There is also a joystick, A/B buttons, WiFi (via a cc3100 radio chip), accelerometer, magnetometer, and a buzzer. There was a WS2812B LED included on the board but it was accidentally soldered on upside down. Applying power to it in this position tends to fry it instantly but it’s a nice soldering challenge to de-solder it and put on your own. Several people at the festival did this and gained huge nerd street credit.
Whilst the badge itself is entirely open source, certain things are included that aren’t overtly documented anywhere. The best example of this is the 12 pins broken out on the middle-left of the board. At first glance it might look like some kind of fancy programming connection for initial programming of the badges. It turns out these pins are included with the specific use of controlling quad-copter motors. With the on-board IMU, it is possible to make a quadcopter control board using the badge. It may have been a bit optimistic to think there would be badge-copters flying around at the festival but in the coming weeks somebody is bound to have a crack at it.
Programming the badge is incredibly accessible as it shows up as a mass storage device when plugged into a computer via the on-board micro USB port. All apps are written in Micropython so programming the badge is as simple as editing a python file on a removable drive. All apps written can be submitted to a badge app store where it needs to be approved by a moderator, because you can be certain someone will write a badge bricking app eventually!
If you are interested in checking out projects made with this badge, keep an eye on the #emfcamp hashtag on twitter. So far the badge has been turned into a USB mouse and a terrible oscilloscope.
