1Shield - Review. Something worth playing with :)

ONE SHIELD.

Hey Guys, I finally got hold of 1Shield[*1] a generic Arduino Shield that useses your Mobile as your Arduino Shield.
--:: Hmmm What !!!??? ::--

Lets take a step back, you recal all those messy add-on modules/ shields .. .. .. and endlessly trying all you can to find those extra I/O Ports/Pins to get your module to work with arduino .. Well now BOOOMMMmmm.. just 1Shield to do it all.

So how does it work?

So the concept is pretty simple the shield itself has Arduino compatable microcontroller (Atmega16u2 running 1Shield firmware) connected to a Bluetooth Module that connects to your Mobile phone. Similary Your mobile phone has a 1Shield application that emulates various Arduino Shields as well as talk to the board using Bluetooth 2.0(They claim to be using HC-06 Bluetooth Module).

I will be doing a getting starting with this kit, where I would be explaining things like H/W and S/W in more detail.

How can it be helpful?

Well,

• No need of Tons of various Shields.
• No Power worries.
• Easy to set up and use. (Common you just have to plug the field in. I mean Daa... 😒)
• Use of advance sensors (Present on your Mobile) Very Easily !!
• Biggest one is NO WIRES !! DOT (.) !!

Things I like about 1Shield.

Ok to make things simpler and quicker :

• Easy to Setup Both H/W and S/W wise.
• It does anything you can think about (Almost :P )
• No need of beefy Expensive sensors.
• A Huge Plus if you need to save some Battery.
• You dont need a huge bunch of Wires, Cables, mess, mess and more mess with you all the time :D.
• Works on UART so Voila you can use anything below the Shield(Though It really loves Arduino) or even use it stand alone with some other development platform.

Things that I don’t like

Hmmm… Its Hard .. Let Me think .. Ahh Haaaa :

• Runs Bluetooth 2.0 So Yeeahh, none of the BLE/BT4.0+ Goodies.
• Shares the Same Uart as the arduino’s Programming Port, So, you need to keep that in mind while programming your arduino. (Thankfully they have given a disconnect/connect UART toggle switch on the board)
• Can connect/pair to only one mobile device at a time. 
• Requires a Co-Processing/ Controlling board dispite having an on board MCU ;-<.

Initial Setting up?

So the Initial Setup is Super Simple.
STEP 1 : download the Android/iOS Application — https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.integreight.onesheeld or https://itunes.apple.com/gm/app/1sheeld-ultimate-arduino-shield/id1082636798?mt=8

STEP 2 : download the Arduino Library — http://1sheeld.com/login/?redirect_to=http://1sheeld.com/downloads/ [You require to create a new free account with 1Shield before downloading]

STEP 3 : Copy the contents of the library to your Arduino/Libraries

STEP 4 : Fire up Arduino IDE; Load the Example App

Conclusion and final verdict - Do I need it or Just say WoW !! ?

So, Like me if you are into heavy prototyping, Checking or testing an Idea , or are into giving a POC ; Guess what JUST BUY THE DAMN THING. It would save you a huge amount of Money, Time and Effort.

But, If you are into RTOS, Very Low Latency Systems, Deployment of project, Some Jazzy Colour LCD stuff ; I would defenitely not recommend this device. and you could just say Meehhhh :P.

<GurI>gsgill112@gmail.com

## I will defenitely do a getting started Blog on this board in near future {Jeeze Work, Work Work .. ... ..  :’( } time. So, Stay Tuned.

*1. [A Ton Of Thanks to some amazing Folks at Hackster.IO for sending me this Amazing piece of hardware - Please visit http://hackster.io/ for amazing DIY projects and share your projects to win some amazing hardware kits http://hackster.io/store ]

REFERENCES
http://1sheeld.com/
http://1sheeld.com/shields/