

Tessel, a NodeJS-based microcontroller - bpierre
http://www.dragoninnovation.com/projects/22-tessel

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waterlion
I don't understand this craze to use JS everywhere. It's not the best language
for every job. The main argument seems to be 'if you know JS you can use it in
product X'. If you're not competent enough to learn another language then are
you competent to write good enough JS?

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egeozcan
I think in this case there are a few reasons:

1) Node.js has a huge ecosystem and it's easy to use

2) JavaScript is known by many

3) JavaScript may not even come close to being a proper language for hardware
programming but it is good enough for these kind of devices

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drdaeman
> Node.js has a huge ecosystem

So do many other platforms.

> JavaScript is known by many

So are many other languages.

> JavaScript [...] is good enough for these kind of devices

So are many other languages.

The question, as I got it, was "why JavaScript is chosen among many possibly
alternatives?". Your comment does not answer it, I believe.

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egeozcan
Even if you used the same argument for all my points, the intersection of the
result sets seems to be empty.

To be more clear, AFAIK, no other platform accomplishes those three goals as
good as JavaScript. Maybe Python? GitHub language stats used to say otherwise
(until they removed them). I also have the impression that as far as
dynamically typed languages go, JavaScript is one of the most optimized ones.
Well, Lua and some others beat it on speed but they are not as popular and/or
provide what node.js provides.

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gfwilliams
It's not strictly NodeJS based - According to their site it runs on top of
Lua...

There's also another JavaScript microcontroller crowdfunding at the moment:
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/48651611/espruino-
javasc...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/48651611/espruino-javascript-
for-things)

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jffry
AFAICT the Espruino and Tessel are slightly different. The Espruino's focus
seems to be providing an ultracompact, low-power, very simple JS-powered
Arduino, which (with physical adapter) could be used with existing Arduino
shields. The Tessel seems to be focused more on the interfacing-with-the-
internet side of things, with built-in wifi.

I think there's plenty of room for both, and it's exciting to see continued
efforts towards making it easier to bridge the gap between embedded devices
and the software world!

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mcescalante
For the price, I still think that most developers are better off buying a
BeagleBone Black for $45MSRP which can run a flavor of nix. The default "IDE"
it ships with is cloud9, and has js libraries to control the pinouts, etc. JS
fans can use this happily, or you can put nix on it, and just install Node.

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chabreck
I agree. Even the default distro that the BeagleBone comes with (Angstrom
linux) has Node preloaded onto it, out of the box. And the power that thing
offers for $45 seems almost impossible to beat.

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jdn
The question I have for this is, why not just use Node with Firmata on an
Arduino? Anyone give me the apparent weakness of that setup that makes this
more preferrable?

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xutopia
I've played with Arduino and the #1 complaint I have about it is that in order
to do anything I have to learn a whole lot about electronics. With Tessel you
just plug a new module and npm install and you're good to go.

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Ecio78
See relevant discussion here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6214553](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6214553)

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topherjaynes
Is there any information on when it's shipping? Read through the crowdfunding
site a few times, but might have just glanced over it.

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bryans
February 2014.

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egeozcan
Isn't it a bit too expensive? I think it is, especially when considering the
competition (Arduino).

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bryans
I think you aren't taking into consideration the differences between this and
the competition. The Tessel is intended to be a powerhouse right out of the
box. For example, 160MHz compared to <20MHz, and 32MB of flash and RAM
compared to 32-256kB.

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egeozcan
You can achieve the same level of flexibility and more with arduino +
raspberry pi, put together in a custom case. It still doesn't cost that much.
I really wanted to play with this, but I find it too expensive for having it
just to play with it.

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xutopia
The difference I see with Tessel is that you require less learning electronics
and you're right away capable of programming modules just after you plug them
in. To me that has considerable value.

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Zergy
Well now that just ruins the fun of programming on a microcontroller. I like
my little Arduino and Teensies because its low level programming, bare metal
programming.

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quarterto
[https://twitter.com/shit_hn_says/status/234856345579446272](https://twitter.com/shit_hn_says/status/234856345579446272)

