I haven't updated this project for a while, but it doesn't mean I haven't been working on it.

I confess, I have a problem. I am a perfectionist, and that is not a good thing.

I like the idea of explaining the design, and then quickly showing a completed prototype. I prefer to deliver than promise too much up front.

This has backfired on me though as I have been busy at work and let the project languish.

So it is time for an update about Iota, even without a completed system to demonstrate.

Goal of Iota

It isn't too hard to get two wireless nodes talking to each other, but once you go past a single node, with a single job, it becomes much harder.

The different nodes need to know how to understand each other, adding a new node means changing the code on all nodes that interact with it.

Iota is an abstraction that lets nodes talk a shared protocol that is flexible enough to add new nodes without rewriting the code on the other nodes.

Iota also brings security to your network of nodes, no one wants a script kiddie neighbour turning your lights on and off in the middle of the night!

This is a real problem, there is even another entry that does exactly this:

http://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/thp-entry-a-433mhz-packet-cloner/

Security is hard to get right, there are many ways to make mistakes that make it easy for someone to break.

By doing it once, as open source, only one set of security code needs to be checked and any improvements made get shared by all.

Long term vision

Ultimately I hope to get to a point where others are creating Iota hardware. I would love nothing more than to be able to buy nodes that I couldn't have come up with myself.

I want to see other people be creative with this so I can put sensors and actuators all over my home, automating everything, all without having to tell Google when I turn the heat up or down!