Written by Duncan Nicol, Market Segment Manager- Device Connections

The other week I went to visit the Abraham Darby Academy Raspberry Pi Robot Club which is not far from our UK headquarters in Telford. The club has been set up by their ICT Fellow Kevin Brace to build projects using the Raspberry Pi single board computer, and Phoenix Contact is proud to sponsor the club by donating some RPI-BC enclosure kits and provide an insight into our world of engineering.

It was great to meet a group of really enthusiastic students (and maybe the next generation of engineers) learning to build and program something in the real world. So much these days is experienced in a virtual world with little connection to the physical world aside from a touch screen. Even my 4 year old is a wiz with a tablet computer but is not sure what to do with a computer mouse. Something I need to address.

Apps and software are, of course, important and connect the world, but hardware is equally as important and is what makes the world work. Take lighting. We have customers designing lighting controllers using Raspberry Pi, and of course housing them in our RPI-BC enclosure. But whereas the controller is designed to work from an app, you still need to turn the lights on and off and for that you need hardware, enclosed in more BC enclosures of course.

The point is that the Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the way we control our lives but you still need hardware to make it happen, and that’s where Phoenix Contact is leading the field. We are developing solutions that enable easy integration of hardware into an IoT world.  From electronics enclosures for single board computers to the new innovative SKEDD plug-in connector for solder free assembly.

If you are working on a Raspberry Pi project and would like to learn more about how Phoenix Contact can assist please do get in touch.

E-mail Duncan: dnicol@phoenixcontact.com or telephone 07799 072059.