Tinkerforge is an electronic construction kit. It exposes a number of API bindings, including, of course, Java. The nice thing also is that Tinkerforge products are open source, both on the hardware and software levels, so that you can take their bases as a starting point for your own modifications.

"The TinkerForge system is a set of pre-built electronics boards that are built in such a way that you can stack the boards (known as bricks), attach accessories (known as bricklets), and have your prototype and and running quickly. Unlike systems, such as the Arduino or Launchpad, the TinkerForge has to be attached to a computer and the computer does all of the work. With an easy set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in C/C++, C#, Java, PHP, and Ruby, the system is easy to interface and program over USB in a snap." (from this useful article)

Henning Krüp, who has arranged several NetBeans Platform Certified Training Courses in the past, in the Nordhorn/Lingen area in Germany, had the inspired idea to focus the next course on integration with Tinkerforge. In other words, the whole course will be focused on creating a standalone Java desktop application that leverages the NetBeans Platform to interact with Tinkerforge!

Interested in joining the course or setting up something similar yourself? The course organized by Henning will be held from 19 to 21 September, as explained here, together with contact details.  If you'd like to organize a similar course at a location of your choosing, leave a comment at the end of this blog entry and we'll set something up together!