What
is an API?
API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface. The
Cambrionix API is a collection of software building blocks which
enables a user or developer to develop their own software which accesses the
professional hardware and software features inherent within Cambrionix
products.
Write your own software with our
Cambrionix API to enhance your products and solutions
What
can the API be used for?
The API can (subject to your coding
skills!) be used to monitor and control the ports on your Cambrionix product.
Some examples of what you can do include:
• Measure the current consumption of
a device connected to a port
• Change the state of a port from
charging, sync (data transfer) or off
• Read the unit temperature, fan
speed, voltage levels
• Read the USB Vendor ID, USB
Manufacturer ID and USB Serial number of a device (tablet, phone etc) connected
to a port
• Find out how long a connected
device has been charging or whether its charged.
• Access some of our GPIO pins for
driving LED indicators or driving an LCD display
• Send text to a connected LCD
• Read and act upon switches
connected to our GPIO
What you do with the information,
and ability to control GPIO, is entirely your choice but we have listed a
couple of examples below:
A
secure charging and sync station for military, aerospace or healthcare
applications
Our API allows a system developer to
read the USB VID/PID and serial number of connected devices. What this means is
that it is possible to develop a system which will only charge or transfer data
to connected devices which are on an approved devices list. This is
particularly of interest in industries where tablet devices are used as to
assist employees and require regular updating and charging, for instance in
healthcare. The system prevents unapproved devices being charged or
inadvertently having data pushed onto them. The above example is applicable
also to schools who use tablet devices as part of their teaching plan but is
relevant also to retail, and prison services amongst others.
JADTEU training section using iPads
– Software could control what devices can be charged/updated.
Phone
remarketing and technology logistics
In this instance a company may need
to be able to monitor the types of devices they are testing and ‘making new’ for
re-sale. On the other hand they may simply need a robust method of connecting
multiple devices to a host computer in order to ‘flash’ them with the latest
operating system or carrier-specific software. The API certainly offers an easy
method of monitoring how a particular device charges and also an easy way to
log the devices tested/flashed as part of an audit trail.
A
tablet device hire system
There are instances where an
institution may wish to hire or loan tablet devices to either employees or
visitors and the tablet devices need to be kept charged and ready for hire.
They also need to be wiped of data from the previous user. Our API can
significantly help the system designer to make this project a reality. By
offering the ability to log which devices are connected and disconnected from
the system (through the API reading the VID/PID etc.) they can automate the
billing process or be able to flag to the hire company when a device hasn’t come
back to base within a certain timeframe.
The API, and its ability to measure
charging current, charging time and charging complete, means a hire company is
also able to keep stats on device battery charging. Historical battery stats
(linked to the device VID/PID/Serial Number) can give some big indications as
to whether a device’s battery is beginning to fail. Aside from the ‘behind the
scenes’ work the API can assist with, the API makes it easy to provide user
feedback on system status without ever opening a laptop or booting a computer.
Simply attach an LCD to our expansion header (U16S) and send text to it via the
API. Alternatively, address up to 48x LEDs using simple API commands. The above
example is applicable to museum tablet or audio player hire companies, general
tablet (or other USB devices) hire companies, healthcare (patient hires tablet
device to watch movies/TV or to send email, make calls etc.) and many more.
Use the Cambrionix API to
automatically obtain phone manufacturer and model information. Just some of the
automation available via our API.
Conclusion
As you can see, the API can really
open the door to some novel USB device management systems applicable to lots of
industries. Most of which we operate within. If you are a systems integrator or
designer, IT professional or a company about to deploy mobile devices in large
volumes, then our products plus API will help your project become a reality,
and with a feature-list larger than you originally anticipated!
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