IoT
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Harmonizing Complex IoT Ecosystems: The Role of a System Interfaces Repository
April 10, 2024
By Ben Jacques, Director of Engineering The Challenge: Code organization is hard. Many blogs and heated reddit discussions have been created on the best way to tackle multiple projects. One of those debates is around the pros and cons of monorepos and polyrepos (https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/monorepo-vs-polyrepo). In my experience, there is never a one-size-fits-all approach. However, when you find something that works for your code and your team, it makes everyone’s lives easier. For us, that has […]
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Orchestrating Success: A Comprehensive Approach to Seamless Collaboration with Multiple Partners
March 18, 2024
In the ever-evolving landscape of software development, successfully managing projects with multiple partners is a complex endeavor. One of the primary challenges of multi-partner projects is striking a balance between diverse perspectives, working styles, and organizational cultures. Each partner brings their own set of strengths and idiosyncrasies to the table, enriching the collaborative process but also introducing potential points of friction. Navigating these differences and fostering a culture of mutual respect and understanding is essential […]
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SpinDance is Happy to Announce CallBox 1.1!
February 13, 2024
CallBox, SpinDance’s in-house framework for production-grade IoT products, streamlines the development of consumer and commercial connected products. Check out our landing page to learn more about the framework’s many benefits. With over 100 improvements and a smattering of bug fixes, the 1.1 release builds on the stability of our 1.0 release with some great quality-of-life improvements. Among the major updates, three in particular should improve the experience for operators, manufacturers, and developers: Streamlined over-the-air updates […]
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Getting Started with Flutter for Embedded Linux
January 16, 2024
For a few years now at SpinDance, we’ve been looking for a great solution for creating nice looking UIs for embedded systems that have a screen on them. Until now, we haven’t really been happy with the options out there. The tide is now turning on that with the rise of Flutter. Read on to see why Flutter on embedded Linux is becoming our GOTO solution for this space. Understanding Dart and Flutter Flutter’s Rise […]
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Announcing CallBox 1.0 – The Software Framework for IoT Products
November 14, 2023
The team at SpinDance is thrilled to announce CallBox, our new software framework for IoT products. We’ve been working on Callbox since 2020, and we couldn’t be happier to share it with the world. It is an end-to-end framework to reduce the risk, cost and time associated with creating connected products, while avoiding vendor lock-in. This is the first of a few blog posts we have planned to discuss CallBox. This post is focused on […]
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Introducing SpinDance’s TechRadar: Navigating the 50-page Menu of Technology Entrees
September 20, 2023
Have you ever walked into a restaurant and were handed a menu that feels more like an encyclopedia, complete with a table of contents? Don’t get me wrong, I like to have options. However, too many options leaves you feeling like everything is going to be mediocre. The old adage of being a “jack of all trades and an expert at none” feels like it fits well. It is very different when you walk into […]
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Securing IoT Devices – Manufacturing and Provisioning
June 23, 2023
One of the most vulnerable stages of an IoT product is the manufacturing process. Ensuring that a device leaves the assembly line secured and ready to be connected requires some unique infrastructure and forethought. This article provides an overview of the primary security goals and best practices. The example is based on an ESP32 being provisioned to AWS, but the principles can be applied to any cloud infrastructure or hardware platform. SpinDance has developed patterns […]
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Design Phase = Successful Project
March 6, 2023
In our last blog post Pitfalls of Connected Product Development, we covered the dangers customers can face at various stages of their IoT Journey. Being aware of the pitfalls is just the first step in avoiding them. A comprehensive project design phase can help eliminate them completely, before even one line of code is written. We often get the question “Why should we engage in a design phase?” This usually masks the underlying question “Why […]
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Pitfalls of Connected Product Development
January 16, 2023
The Internet of Things (IoT) is challenging, both on a technical and business level. SpinDance has worked with many customers at various stages in their IoT journey. This includes those in the early exploration stages or those in the later stages where we’ve helped rescue a project that has gone off track. As software consultants focused on IoT, our job is to understand the challenges our customers can face and how to help our customers […]
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The Essential Role of Software Maintenance in IoT success
December 2, 2022
No one gets excited about “maintenance.” We like buying and building new things: driving a new car off the lot, or closing on a new home. These are events we look forward to. But paying to maintain these investments? That’s a different story. No one particularly enjoys paying for oil changes or tire rotations. And we certainly don’t like replacing a broken water heater. But while we dislike paying for maintenance, we understand timely upkeep […]