It's great that we're getting a lot more Arduino users signing up to Pachube and making use of the data brokering services that it offers; but we're also noticing that there is a much greater requirement for support of issues that Arduino users face.
The issues that Arduino users encounter, and that are posted about here in the Pachube forums, are very often simple Arduino/Ethernet/Processing issues, rather than Pachube issues. We don't want to have to uncharitably send people on their way, to the Arduino or Processing or Ladyada forums, but on the other hand we're starting to spend more time on answering basic questions than we're able to, which detracts from general Pachube support and development.
Do any of you Arduino+Pachube gurus have suggestions on what we should do about this? Any chance you could help out people here in the forum or, probably since you know the Arduino community better, direct them to the appropriate Arduino resources? Do we need a FAQ? Is there a good one to point users to in the first place? Or can we start building one communally?
Suggestions and comments greatly appreciated!
Re: Arduino community support - suggestions? volunteers?
Ill post this to arduino teachers & developer forum ...
its a great idea ... getting a setup running is quite challenging :o)
kiilo
Re: Arduino community support - suggestions? volunteers?
I like to cite:
funny
tinker.it is literally downstairs from pachube in the same building...
I would have imagined that would be the best place where to ask...
m
so knock at their door please :o)
Re: Arduino community support - suggestions? volunteers?
Sure, we have plenty of interaction with Tinker and knock on each others' doors quite a lot (though the secret is that we may not all be in the same building for very much longer...!), but they're busy enough as it is, and I'm not sure i want to ask them to get into supporting Pachube users :)
We do of course have a fair amount of Arduino-knowhow in-house, so it's not that we can't answer the questions; this is more of a request to the wider Arduino-using Pachube community to get involved, since Arduino is not our primary focus (important as it is to us). Lots of Arduino users get connected really quickly and relatively easily to Pachube, since it's pretty straightforward for most people who have used Arduino before; and easy for those who have used either Arduino+Processing or Arduino+Ethernet shield before; but the thing is that we're getting more and more requests both here, and in email, for support using Pachube from people who have never used Arduino before. Which is slightly problematic since it takes up quite a lot of time getting to the first steps.....
Perhaps a FAQ is indeed in order. Here's my first:
I believe it's possible to create collaborative documents using the Drupal community software this site is built on - would there be an interest in making a wiki-like FAQ for Arduino users expanding on this first question?
Re: Arduino community support - suggestions? volunteers?
It might be a good idea to build upon the growing community of electronics hobbyists at chiphacker (http://chiphacker.com/)
Re: Arduino community support - suggestions? volunteers?
I'd like to modestly suggest that the FAQ include the tutorial (linked on the Pachube tutorials page but easily overlooked) that I wrote for using the Arduino and the Ethernet shield with the Danger Shield. The Danger Shield just provides easy plugin sensors - most of the tutorial deals with setting up the Arduino and the Ethernet shield:
http://www.zachhoeken.com/connecting-to-the-world
It is simple enough for beginners and may help people through the unknowns.
Re: Arduino community support - suggestions? volunteers?
OK, now done: http://community.pachube.com/arduino/faq
In theory, any registered community.pachube member can edit that FAQ -- Dave, added your tutorial; willing to dive in with any other suggestions or pointers and have a go at editing it?