Concentric Sky, Inc.

Joshua Marinacci from Sun dropped by today. It’s always great to see him - and he brings us such cool toys! This time, we got a chance to play with Sun Lab’s new Sun SPOT (Small Programmable Object Technology). These amazing little gadgets actually run Java in a Squawk Virtual Machine embedded right into the device.

They’re perfect for remote monitoring applications and include:

* 180 MHz 32 bit ARM920T core - 512K RAM - 4M Flash

* 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 radio with integrated antenna

* USB interface

* 2G/6G 3-axis accelerometer

* Temperature sensor

* Light sensor

* 8 tri-color LEDs

* 6 analog inputs

* 2 momentary switches

* 5 general purpose I/O pins and 4 high current output pins

* 3.7V rechargeable 750 mAh lithium-ion battery

* 30 uA deep sleep mode

* Automatic battery management provided by the software

Even though it’s a wireless device, Josh tells us that initial tests indicate a battery life of up to two years thanks to the deep sleep mode. The SPOT’s don’t use Wifi directly, but connect using 802.15.4 to a base station that does.

No word yet on whether we can use JavaFX for instrumentation, but there is already a plugin for Netbeans. Sun has even posted instructions for powering SPOT’s with a solar panel. Like so many of the technologies coming out of Sun Labs, this is one we’ll definitely be keeping our eye on. Program the World!