Internet of Things (IoT) middleware applications developer myDevices (Avanquest North America Inc.) announced today the release of the first drag-and-drop app that will clear the way for development of IoT projects on the Raspberry Pi. As an IoT developer platform Adafruit Industries’ Raspberry Pi is a popular low-cost go-to Linux tool useful for rapidly prototyping small, embedded systems–the addition of project software to make those projects a lot easier.

The launch of the project builder, known as Cayenne, was announced at the IoT Evolution Expo in Fort Lauderdale. It is a planned extension to myDevices’ already existing connectivity agnostic platform for custom IoT solutions that provides analytics, management and scaling for IoT networking. With Cayenne, developers can rapidly prototype IoT apps on the Raspberry Pi for use on myDevices’ platform.

“We are very excited to introduce the IoT community to Cayenne, our versatile developer and maker solution, first designed for the Raspberry Pi maker,” said Kevin Bromber, CEO of myDevices. “There are a lot of IoT platforms on the market, yet there are few IoT platforms that actually let the developer build a project without having to dig deep into SDKs and APIs just to get a simple proof of concept created.”

As for the Raspberry Pi, it’s popularity is unparalleled among developers, having sold more than five million by February 2015. As a platform for prototyping IoT devices the embedded Linux computer makes an excellent system for small developers to tinker with and it also works well for bushiness IoT labs.

A free demo of Cayenne is available for developers who sign up on the website.

Features designed to woo the IoT developer ecosystem

According to myDevices, the Cayenne project builder will deliver a large number of tools for developers that cover everything from drag-and-drop capability, ease of setup, a rules engine and remote access.

Key features of the Cayenne project builder app include:

• A mobile app to set up, monitor and control devices and sensors from anywhere
• Easy setup that quickly connects Pi to the Internet, sensors, actuators and extensions in minute;
• Rules engine for triggering actions across devices;
• Customizable dashboard with drag-and-drop visualization widgets;
• Scheduling of lights, motors and actuators;
• GPIO control that can be configured from a mobile app or dashboard; and
• Instant remote access from phone or computer.

Cayenne’s device and sensor discovery setup engine allows software projects to be set up and running within seven minutes.This ease of use means developers can quickly prototype IoT projects that would have previously taken months to get much of the work out of the way in a matter of hours–which means testable solutions can be tried out faster without days of setup.

For garage developers, the Cayenne project builder provides all the tools that would be in any big IoT lab with all the libraries and analytics needed to provide for emulating large-scale networks. This means that small developers would receive a huge boost in simplification when it comes to complex projects.

On the business side, Cayenne makes it easy to do cost-effective prototyping (as seen above with reduced development time), which would give teams the ability to streamline workflow and development of IoT apps.

Featured image credit: Courtesy of Adafruit Industries; Raspberry Pi 2, http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-2-on-sale/