A very interesting company and product: OOPic. I found it while looking at the D.I.Y. submarine site I wrote about yesterday. Computer programming these days is done with Object Oriented Code - a device or a routine is not unique to itself, it is an "object" with properties and one object can be reused many times with different properties instead of having to be written each time. Saves a lot of time for the programmer and the code is just as fast to run. There is a very active area of experimentation with small "embedded" systems - systems which are specific purpose (controlling a microwave for example) and have a minimal input and output functions (as opposed to the full keyboard, mouse and video of a PC). These units generally have a lot of general purpose inputs and outputs - digital and analog. OOPic seems to be the first embedded system board that offers Object Oriented programming. Here is what one of their boards looks like:
Cost is about $70 for the board plus all of the programming software. It can be programmed in C or a Visual Basic clone. Looks very interesting. For our Hard Cider and Mead business I am looking at using embedded systems to monitor tank temperature and fluid management. I have a lot of experience in the older Intel 8051 embedded processors and was looking at using them but this deserves a close second look...
