# Ruby & Physical Computing **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 13, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-physical-computing/178894 "2009-11-13T03:14:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/bc79bd/32.png) [@omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/omran_n)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-physical-computing/178894/1 "2009-11-13T03:14:36Z")
Hello, I’ll keep this short(ish) and sweet. Can anyone give any advice on possible prototyping kits I can buy for my experiments that can be programmed using Ruby. So far I have found two ideal candidates. Both have a native C like programming interface both of which have been ported to Ruby. What I am not sure of is how good they are or weather by thinking of moving my work out into the physical world I am asking too much of Ruby and may as well just learn to code my experiment use their respective C-like interfaces. 1. Ardurino ([Arduino - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino)) 2. Make Controller Kit ([Make (magazine) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Controller_Kit#Make_Controller_Kit)) Can anyone comment on these two respective platforms and my wish to work with them using Ruby? Does anyone have experience of these platforms and working with them using either their native environment or as I would like to code with; Ruby. Are there any other suitable platforms out there with a wide fan base/support network. Ardurino seems particularly interesting to me as it’s language interface is the same(or almost) as that used for Procesing ([Processing - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processing_(programming_language))). So it should be possible to create a system which controls hardware, displays some funky graphics to the web. Whats more, Processing may have a Ruby port (i’ve just heard whispers of it). So in theory I could code the scenario I’ve just described in Ruby. Imran Nazir Friend, Boho, House Owner, Citizen, Engineer ---
**Author:** ![omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/bc79bd/32.png) [@omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/omran_n)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-physical-computing/178894/2 "2009-11-16T21:52:22Z")
I’m interested in this subject too, so if anyone can share any info, it’ll be appreciated. El vie, 13-11-2009 a las 11:13 +0900, Omran N. escribió: ---
**Author:** ![omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/bc79bd/32.png) [@omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/omran_n)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-physical-computing/178894/3 "2009-11-17T02:38:33Z")
> > Can anyone give any advice on possible prototyping kits I can buy for my experiments that can be programmed using Ruby. > > So far I have found two ideal candidates. Both have a native C like programming interface both of which have been ported to Ruby. What I am not sure of is how good they are or weather by thinking of moving my work out into the physical world I am asking too much of Ruby and may as well just learn to code my experiment use their respective C-like interfaces. > > > 1. Ardurino ([Arduino - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino)) > > 2. Make Controller Kit ([Make (magazine) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Controller_Kit#Make_Controller_Kit)) I’ve heard good things about this ruby arduino platform: > **[GitHub - atduskgreg/rad: Ruby Arduino Development: a framework for...](https://github.com/atduskgreg/rad)** > > Ruby Arduino Development: a framework for programming the Arduino physcial computing platform using Ruby - GitHub - atduskgreg/rad: Ruby Arduino Development: a framework for programming the Arduino... Gabriel ---
**Author:** ![omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/bc79bd/32.png) [@omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/omran_n)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-physical-computing/178894/4 "2009-11-17T03:05:28Z")
On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 8:35 PM, ghorner [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Can anyone give any advice on possible prototyping kits I can buy for my experiments that can be programmed using Ruby. > > > So far I have found two ideal candidates. Both have a native C like programming interface both of which have been ported to Ruby. What I am not sure of is how good they are or weather by thinking of moving my work out into the physical world I am asking too much of Ruby and may as well just learn to code my experiment use their respective C-like interfaces. > > > > > 1. Ardurino ([Arduino - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino)) > > > 2. Make Controller Kit ([Make (magazine) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Controller_Kit#Make_Controller_Kit)) > > I’ve heard good things about this ruby arduino platform: > [GitHub - atduskgreg/rad: Ruby Arduino Development: a framework for programming the Arduino physcial computing platform using Ruby](http://github.com/atduskgreg/rad) Greg Borenstein also gave a talk about using Arduinos with Ruby at last years RubyConf [http://rubyconf2008.confreaks.com/ruby-arduino-development.html](http://rubyconf2008.confreaks.com/ruby-arduino-development.html) – Rick DeNatale Blog: [http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/](http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/) Twitter: [http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale](http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale) WWR: [http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale](http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale) LinkedIn: [http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale](http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale) ---
**Author:** ![omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/bc79bd/32.png) [@omran\_n](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/omran_n)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 11:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-physical-computing/178894/5 "2009-11-27T11:25:52Z")
On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 2:13 AM, Omran N. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hello, > > I’ll keep this short(ish) and sweet. > > Can anyone give any advice on possible prototyping kits I can buy for my experiments that can be programmed using Ruby. > So far I have found two ideal candidates. Both have a native C like programming interface both of which have been ported to Ruby. What I am not sure of is how good they are or weather by thinking of moving my work out into the physical world I am asking too much of Ruby and may as well just learn to code my experiment use their respective C-like interfaces. > > 1. Ardurino ([Arduino - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino)) That one is Good. I’ve been playing with Arduinos a lot lately. Of the 2 boards you mentioned, Arduino is by far the most popular, and there are boatloads of examples out there. Mac and Linux friendly, and cheap enough that you don’t get too upset when the board falls in the bath or floats away on a mini-zeppelin. You can use RAD DSL (someone else posted a link) if you really don’t like the Arduino language. From what I’ve seen though, there isn’t much in the way of sample code or docs yet. You will probably learn more if you go ‘au naturel’; I have some previous history with C, but the Arduino code is really not as bad as ‘full-on’ C (no need for memory management and pointers and suchlike). The hard bit has been figuring out how the ‘metal’ does things (voltage dividers and so on), not the software running on the microcontroller. RAD won’t help with that, and you’ll find it harder to Google example code. > Whats more, Processing may have a Ruby port (i’ve just heard whispers of it). So in theory I could code the scenario I’ve just described in Ruby. The Processing environment is Java - based, and there’s a very good JRuby library called ruby-processing that you really need to check out: [http://wiki.github.com/jashkenas/ruby-processing](http://wiki.github.com/jashkenas/ruby-processing) Most Arduino ↔ Processing integration I’ve played with involves a (USB) serial link between them, so there’s no need to use the same language on both sides. You just stream some numbers from the arduino, and write a Processing app that draws something / updates a website based on those figures.