Imagination fires up Kickstarter to fund Ci40 IoT kit

Imagination describes it as a “complete IoT kit that includes all the hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure needed to quickly build a wireless IoT system”.

Driven by the desire to change the status quo of the Internet of Things market and to help the hardware and software community move ahead, we have created the ultimate IoT-in-a-box development kit for connecting devices between each other and to the cloud.

The Creator Ci40 IoT kit includes not only the hardware building blocks needed to quickly prototype a wireless IoT system from scratch but most importantly the open source software frameworks, the network stacks and the cloud connectivity capabilities required to securely connect and authenticate devices to the cloud.

The kit includes:

• The Creator Ci40 development board with a 550 MHz dual-core, dual-threaded MIPS CPU running OpenWrt (802.11ac 2×2, Bluetooth 4.1, 802.15.4, fast Ethernet)
• Two battery-powered MikroElektronika Clicker boards featuring a dedicated 6LoWPAN chip and the mikroBUS socket for adding sensors
• Three MikroElektronika Click boards for measuring temperature, detecting motion, and controlling a relay (other Click boards are available from MikroElektronika)

Note that the IoT kit project will only be funded if at least £20,000 is pledged by Wednewsday 23 December. The Ci40 itself is guaranteed to be in existence, and on sale early next year.

At the time of writing, 20 backers have pledged £1,337 towards the £20,000 goal, with 29 days to go.

They say you can build an IoT project in “five easy steps”:

1. Mount any Click board on a battery-powered Clicker expansion board to form a standalone wireless device (e.g. a wireless sensor or a switch)
2. Program the standalone wireless device to communicate with the Creator Ci40 IoT hub over the 6LoWPAN network
3. Connect other wireless devices to the Creator Ci40 IoT hub using 6LoWPAN, Bluetooth (Smart or Classic), Wi-Fi or any other wired/wireless interface available
4. Process all sensor readings and additional data using the powerful computing hardware available on the Creator Ci40 IoT hub
5. Send the results to the cloud using our FlowCloud IoT framework for further analysis and reporting

A detailed view of the Ci40 is shown below.