
Inside Google’s Accessory Development Kit demo hardware - shawndumas
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/29/google-accessory-developer-kit/
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51Cards
Oh I would like to have my hands on one of those! Hours and hours of things to
explore with a toy like that. Is Google making them available elsewhere? They
have a website with guides regarding working with it but I'm not seeing a page
to pick one up.

For starters on the simple alarm clock concept alone, I wonder if the
accelerometer is sensitive to isolate motion from the sleeper nearby. Might be
some interesting applications in sleep monitoring, etc.

~~~
cargo8
+1, would love to play with one of these and experiment with all of the sensor
interfaces

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runjake
In case anyone is wondering, it uses an Arduino Due[1] board which has an
Atmel SAM3U 32-bit ARM processor[2][3]. The Due is not yet available and is
_due_ sometime later this year.

You could theoretically build one of these fairly cheap. Google's posted the
source code for everything.

1\. <http://arduino.cc/blog/2012/06/28/android-adk2012-is-here/>

2\. [http://arduino.cc/blog/2011/09/17/arduino-launches-new-
produ...](http://arduino.cc/blog/2011/09/17/arduino-launches-new-products-in-
maker-faire/)

3\.
[http://www.atmel.com/products/microcontrollers/arm/sam3u.asp...](http://www.atmel.com/products/microcontrollers/arm/sam3u.aspx)

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farinasa
If this is truly interesting to you and you want to get your hands on
something similar, an arduino board can be had for $25-$50 and all of the
sensors and more are available from sparkfun.com or other similar sites.

~~~
burningion
Yep, this is a great way to begin exploring electronics. If you want to get a
little more crazy, there's also the Beaglebone board, which allows you to run
a complete Linux system on an embedded device. You hook up your accelerometer,
etc., and they're then accessible in /dev. Lots of fun to be had.

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spydertennis
We have only begun to scratch the surface of devices that interact with/are
controlled by our phones. Good to see Google popularizing the concept. I wish
Apple would make accessory design more accessible.

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follower
The main additions (which are pretty cool) in version two of the Android Open
Accessory protocol (AOAP) are support for:

* Connection over Bluetooth in addition to USB

* Audio over USB

* USB HID capability (accessory can act as an input device)

IMO the biggest issues with the original AOAP were the lack of device support,
convoluted demo app implementation and lack of documentation. Very little has
been done publicly with the platform as a result--which is unfortunate as it
has great potential.

Device support is slowly improving but there's still no easy way to know if
any particular device has support for the protocol as there's no _requirement_
for manufacturers to support it.

For people coming from an Arduino background learning to code for Android is a
_huge_ learning curve and I think this acts as a disincentive for people to
play with the technology.

In light of this I created the "Handbag for Android" project which enables you
to create Android accessories _without_ writing Android code:

* <http://HandbagDevices.com/>

After installing the Handbag app on the phone/tablet you can create an Arduino
sketch that describes the UI and this gets uploaded to the Android device each
time the accessory is connected. Check it out if you'd like an easy way to get
started with Android accessories. (Yesterday I gave the project some improved
installation documentation and updated it for easy compatibility with recent
Arduino releases.)

I'm speaking about this project at OSCON in July: "Arduino & Handbag: Create
Android Accessories Without Android Code"
(<http://www.oscon.com/oscon2012/public/schedule/detail/23946>). If you're
there come and say "Hi". :)

(When the project gets AOA2 support depends on when I get my hands on a board.
:) )

If you're coming from the Processing world I also recently worked with the
Arduino team to simplify and improve the way to get started there too--
documented at:

* <http://labs.arduino.cc/ADK/AccessoryMode>

(BTW If you'd like to get started with Handbag, don't have a USB-capable
Arduino but do have a network-capable Arduino get in touch--I might have an
alpha release for you to test. :) )

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GFKjunior
One on ebay.

[http://www.ebay.com/itm/Android-Accessory-Development-
Kit-2-...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Android-Accessory-Development-
Kit-2-0-Google-
I-O-/221060314241?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337838b481#ht_500wt_1187)

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floggit
Looks awesome! I would definitely buy this for $199 instead of nexus 7

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revelation
If he keeps tapping the pins and PCB with his sweaty static loaded fingers it
will soon be a magnetic brick.

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wslh
How long until I can connect my Lego motors with this?

