With a goal to be the invention platform for the Internet of Things, Onion Corporation has recently launched it’s new operating system and development environment, simply called OnionOS. it's a second generation web-based, graphical user interface for the Omega2, a tiny microprocessor module that runs Linux and has integrated Wifi. This new set of tools will dramatically increase development productivity, and make it not only easier, but fun to code and create IoT projects.
New Console
With OnionOS comes a new user interface, which includes:
- A Terminal Command Window
- An Advanced Code Editor and File Manager
- Integrated Documentation
- A Wide Offering of Apps
The new Terminal Command Window gives you full access to the Omega’s Linux operating system, and is more convenient than the traditional serial command line interfaces like putty.
The new and advanced Code Editor and File Manager includes powerful capabilities to help compose, integrate, navigate, and organize program files and dependent libraries, making users more productive.
With the new console, all of Onion’s great documentation and tutorials are now integrated, allowing easier navigation to and from user program files and corresponding help docs and tutorials.
With the graphical user interface, OnionOS lends itself to the creation and integration of Apps. The Onion Software team has a roadmap of useful Apps covering various aspects of IoT such as cloud connectivity. Taking this one step further, Onion will offer a design guide and API for partners and other third party providers to create their own Apps for OnionOS.
Expansion Board Support
OnionOS comes with widget Apps for all of Onion’s expansion boards. These widgets allow first time users with an easy and simple way to communicate with the expansion and it’s connected devices. With it’s previous version, Onion supported its OLED, Servo, and Relay boards, plus a GPIO and WebCam App. With the new console, Onion has included a new app for it’s latest product, the RFID & NFC Expansion, providing a nice user interface to read RFID tags read by the Reader/Writer board.
A second new app supports one of the more popular Omega2 Dock boards, the Onion Power Dock 2. This Battery Level Monitor graphically displays battery voltage level real time.
As Onion comes out with new expansion boards in the future, complimentary widget apps will also be integrated into OnionOS. And with the design partner and third party design guide, additional expansions created by third parties can also come with their own Apps for OnionOS.
New Omega2 Firmware Features
The developers at Onion have also been working behind the curtain making firmware enhancements to the integrated WiFi driver, as well as improvements to other popular peripheral interfaces like SPI and I2S.
The new Wifi Driver, known as the Warp Core, includes enhancements such as automatic network switching, automatic network encryption detection, support for hidden SSIDs, and other new features that will allow customers to connect to their WiFi networks more easily and maintain a more stable and consistent environment.
SPI interface firmware updates significantly improve serial transfer rates and performance. I2S updates now enable a range of audio codec devices, allowing higher performing and lower cost audio input and output functions.