Blueberry Mesh Brings a Stackable Modular Development Platform for IoT Projects

To put it simply, Blueberry Mesh is a series of tiny snap-together development boards that can communicate with each other wirelessly over a mesh network. Each board is different regarding functionality, with the Main Board acting as the primary platform, which features a Nordic nRF51822 Arm Cortex-M0 SoC, Bluetooth LE, a pair of programmable switches, RGB LED, accelerometer, and 32.768KHz RTC. On the back of the board resides a 32-pin connector, which enables users to connect a myriad of other boards for increased functionality.

Beyond the Main Board, there are 12 additional Blueberry Boards that can be connected and interchanged depending on the project:

• Blueberry Proto Board: Just as the name suggests, this is a stackable break-out board that lets you solder-in everything from sensors to actuators.

• Blueberry Native Dev Board: This board allows for quick firmware uploads as well as native C/C++ development programming.

• Blueberry IMU Board: An inertial measurement unit board that handles all sensor fusion, providing quaternion output on the I2C bus.

• Blueberry Environment Board: Sensor-packed board for monitoring the environment, including pressure, temperature, humidity, and ambient light sensors.

• Blueberry Power Board: Powers the Blueberry Stack using several options, including USB plug, USB battery or LiPo cell, and features on/off button and 3.3v regulator.

• Blueberry Audio + IR Board: An audio board with IR transceiver, as well as a buzzer and microphone.

• Blueberry Spacer Board: Provides additional space between other boards.

• Blueberry Servo Board: Connection and control for four standard servos, and features one servo power input and one address DIP switch.

• Blueberry 2032 Battery Board: Can contain a pair of 2032 coin-cell batteries to power projects and allows users to power-down the system via mainboard signal or external button.

• Blueberry Splitter Board: Connects Blueberry Boards horizontally instead of vertically.

• Blueberry Bread Board: Enables you to connect the Main Board or Stack to a standard breadboard for additional prototyping options.

• Blueberry Motor Board: Controls up to 4 1.8 Amp DC motors and equipped with one power input.

All of the Blueberry Boards feature the same pin connectors to couple each board together, giving users tons of different options for their IoT projects. The Blueberry Mesh platform is also easy to program, which is done through a companion app for mobile devices. It uses the GUI Blockly for simple drag-and-drop coding and generates JavaScript, Python, PHP or Dart depending on what works best for you.

Peterson is currently crowdfunding his Blueberry Mesh platform on Kickstarter, and those interested can pledge $15 and up for a single board, $120 and up for a kit (your choice of three boards) or $380 for them all.