Google is eager to attract Internet of Things (IoT) developers to its cloud platform, so it’s making it easier to connect devices. In a blog post, the company said it has teamed with Seeed Studios and Beagleboard.org to offer the BeagleBone Green IoT Wireless Prototyping Kit.
The kit is a joint effort of BeagleBoard.org and Seeed and is based on the open source hardware design of BeagleBone Black.
This new prototyping kit has two Grove connectors, which the company says will make it easier to connect to a large number of Grove sensors. It also has onboard flash that will let developers use SD cards for additional storage, if needed.
In addition, it is the first WiFi and Bluetooth low energy (BLE) board from the BeagleBone community.
The kit comes with a programmable real-time processor that is compatible with certain industrial protocols. It will also have analog-to-digital conversion, which is necessary in many IoT prototyping situations.
Google says that the IoT Developer kit will help developers get on the cloud faster and take advantage of IoT data and analytics.
Google’s efforts are not unusual. Many companies that are focused on the industrial IoT are hoping to spur interest from developers by creating plug-and-play kits that make it easier to bring sensors and machines onto the cloud platform. GE released several developer kits earlier this year with the goal of getting more developers onto its Predix platform.
