What if i don't have an android or IOS device?

Hi;

so i don’t have an android or IOS device at home… i do have a windows PC and a windows phone… can i connect the spark core using those devices?

Yes! You can set up your Spark Core over USB. I’ll be documenting how today.

Check out the docs: http://docs.spark.io/#/connect/connecting-your-core-connect-over-usb

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Will there be a port of the Tinker app for Windows Phone or Windows 8/8.1/RT?
If not and one would volunteer to do the port for Spark, would you be willing to provide the Android source to have a neat starting point?

Would love to see a port for Tinker to other platforms! At the moment porting to other such platforms is low priority but we would absolutely love to see someone else take it on, and we’ll help however we can.

Android source code will be entirely open source and will be published this week or next.

Hi @zach, I’m thinking about buying one of yours SparkCore devices and moreover I’m a Windows Phone developer!
If you’d like we can talk about porting the Spark app to the Windows Phone 8 platform to allow people getting started with the Core even using a WP8 smartphone.
I’ve already created some apps for the WP8 platform, including the published “DriveMe” app, so I know where to put my hands on : D
Let me know!

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+1 on having a Windows Phone version of the Tinker app. Great to see experienced WP developers from the community volunteering, and that the Android code will be open source and available soon. Happy to beta test the WP app, any time!

I’m waiting for the source too, the only way to interact with SparkCore with a WindowsPhone device now is to develop an app that launches HTTP request to the SparkCloud service

The reason we haven’t yet released the source code is that part of it comes from Texas Instruments, and we’re working with them on licensing issues. Basically we can’t open source something that doesn’t belong to us. Hopefully we will be able to make it available soon!

@visual1993 @srgb @Disquisitioner @ScruffR Open source Android app now available!

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Hi,

I’m also the owner of a Windows Phone and I would like to know what the progress on the Tinker App for WP is at the moment.

Kind regard,
Marco

Hi @mstelt,

Thanks for asking! Our Android app (and soon our iOS app) are open-sourced, and I’d love to see a Windows Phone app for the Spark Core. We would love to have enough internal development time to build one, but we’re not able to quite yet. Is anybody out there working on a Windows Phone app for the Core, is there anything we can do to help facilitate that?

edit: I’ve done a bunch of Windows and C# / .net development in a past life, so I might be able to help answer Windows / .net specific questions as well.

Thanks!
David

We also now have a command line tool that you can use to set up the Core, so it no longer requires an iOS/android device:

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Will you be releasing an IDE like the Arduino one so that I can develop and program the Spark from my own machine? I have some commercial ideas in mind and don’t want to just send all my code into the cloud.

Hi @NanoAkron,

Good question! You can definitely develop locally if you prefer: https://github.com/spark/core-firmware

There have also been some good videos and tutorials on getting a local build environment setup:

https://community.spark.io/t/local-build-in-ubuntu-eclipse-setup/3575
https://community.spark.io/t/how-to-video-for-compiling-locally-in-windows/2457

You can also edit in whatever editor you prefer locally, and just use the cloud to compile it for you, without setting up a local build environment. https://github.com/spark/spark-cli
spark cloud compile, and spark cloud flash

We’re also thinking about a local graphical editor, but hopefully these options will help in the meantime.

Thanks!
David

Thanks for your reply David. I hope you make a local cross-platform development environment available soon. Something like the Arduino or even Energia for TI’s MSP430 have really made those devices accessible to everyone.

I don’t have the first idea how to use git and I don’t think I’m the only one using a Mac so unfortunately I’m going to have to put my project on hold until the right tools become available to me. That means shelving the 3 Sparks currently heading my way.

Please make a cross-platform local development environment one of your priorities as you plan to expand your sales.

Sincerely,

-Nano.

Hi @NanoAkron

All these tools are already cross platform, Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

I have a Mac and I build locally on it–not a big deal to set up at all. Git is also not hard to get started with quickly; you can just download zip files from the github and unpack them locally if you want.

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Thanks bko, I’ll give it a go.

-Nano.

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