Rabbit® Gets Into the Holiday Spirit

Ben Sintay uses the RCM3750 RabbitCore® to bring the world holiday cheer!

Rabbit products are extremely useful for a wide array of applications. For a tinkerer like me, this concept is extremely appealing.

—Ben Sintay

Just a few years ago, people used the Internet primarily to connect, share ideas and communicate with one another. Today’s Internet offers users far more opportunities to interact with the environment, and is even used in home automation, security and control, and industrial level applications.

Ben Sintay, a Biomedical Engineer, was fascinated by the prospect of controlling a networked device from anywhere in the world. Using the Rabbit RCM3750, his fascination took him from concepts of TCP/IP implementation to an initial prototype, which consisted of controlling simple lights on his desktop.

“This simple task was very compelling to visitors of my website. I then decided to move this system into something much larger in scale that could really capture their attention,” Sintay explains.

The ability to control physical things through the Internet and to share this capability with others motivated Sintay to adapt his prototype into a larger application. He wanted to create something with greater visual impact and a level of user interactivity from anywhere in the world.

“That is when I came up with the idea to rig up holiday lights on my house and let people turn them on and off using the Internet,” says Sintay, who adapted his prototype to control the lights using the RCM3750 as the key ingredient to his design rather than a PC. “The part that thrilled me the most was the absence of a large computer on the physical end.”

His “Control the Show” application (www.controltheshow.com) enables users to log on and control the holiday lights on Sintay’s designated location from anywhere in the world. Users can click the virtual switches on the control panel, and the inputs are sent to a server for authentication. The message is sent over the Internet to the home network and is received by the RCM3750 via an Ethernet connection. The RCM3750 decodes the message and sends a signal to an amplifier network that flips a mechanical switch to turn on or off the selected group of lights. A web cam refreshes images of the house every 1.5 seconds so users can see their changes take effect.

Sintay designed the system to inspire others to use microcontrollers and modules to create physical interactions between real world devices and the Internet. He also uses the application to help raise money for charity. Rabbit provided the tools to bring the vision into reality.

“I considered just about every other brand that had released embedded Ethernet microcontrollers, but Rabbit has developed the perfect system for what I wanted to accomplish,” says Sintay. “I found Rabbit while searching Google for various embedded microcontrollers. A special package was being offered that included everything needed to hit the ground running for under $100.”

The RCM3750 provided the right amount of I/O, network connectivity and speed in a small form factor. Sintay is pleased with the Rabbit line of products.

“Rabbit products are extremely useful for a wide array of applications. For a tinkerer like me, this concept is extremely appealing. The company is continually coming out with new products and microcontrollers to push the limits of small embedded Ethernet controllers.”

Rabbit strives to deliver high quality products that help customers like Mr. Sintay bring ideas to reality.

“Rabbit was the reason I was able to pull together a system with so many complex moving parts. Because of this, we were able to boost awareness of Internet-controlled devices, spread a bit of holiday cheer around the world, and raise money for charity.”

Rabbit will continue to help inspire and provide the right tools for embedded imagination.

Control the Show is projected to be operational on the evening of Dec. 3, Eastern Time. For more information on Control the Show and schedule please visit: www.controltheshow.com

Submit your design application success story to press@rabbit.com