my new present the make controller kit

the reason its been a bit quiet on my blog lately is because off my latest "toy" that came in the make controller kit. This thing is pretty fun it allows you to basically control anything that is electronic.

its also works with actionscript which is why I bought it, your want to know more about the board and my experience with it so far hit the jump

the make controller kit has a nice array of features which contain:

 8 analogue inputs - 10-bit inputs read voltages from 0-3.3V while protecting the controller from higher voltages.
8 high current digital outputs - can be configured to drive 8 individual outputs, 4 DC motors, 2 stepper motors, or any combination.
4 standard servo controllers - easily provide external power for driving large loads.
8 position DIP switch - for manual configuration.
 USB and Ethernet interfaces - can be used simultaneously.
 CAN interface - for networking several boards together.
 JTAG port - for on-chip debugging.

it communicates via the OSC (Open Sound Control) protocol. which allows it to be used by a nice array of programming language which include:

Max/MSP
Flash (as2/as3)
Processing
.NET C#
C/C++
Python
Java

well seeing as i plan on using it in adobe Flex instead of Flash i ran into some snags with the default classes that where supplied with it. as they gave a nice list of compile errors in flex.
but after a closer look at it, i saw it needed the intermediate program mchelper for a reason. cause actionscript can not talk to serial device’s which means it uses XML to communicate to the XML server in the mchelper application. so what i plan on doing is going to look at the default classes and try to convert them to some specific and simple classes for my own needs that work without a problem in flex. i hope to have some posts up soon with a detailed explanation of how to make a simple specific XML connection with it and what the XML diagram is like.

for the make controller board and resources go to makingthings