OpenFire is an opensource real time collaboration server that use XMPP (also called Jabber) to create istant messaging applications.
The official web site also says “Openfire is incredibly easy to setup and administer, but offers rock-solid security and performance” and I can confirm you that it’s really true!

As Adobe Developer I’m trying a lot of solutions to control external devices from my Flash, Flex and AIR applications but using Arduino Microcontroller (my favourite one in this period ; ) I got some issues and limitations.
In this article I have extended the ActionScript 3.0 XML Socket Class to send messages from Flex 3 to Arduino and viceversa and even if it works well for simple stuff it seems far from the final solution.

A lot of low-price LCD displays available on the market are compatible with the Hitachi HD44780 driver and you can easly display and control their text using the LiquidCrystal library.

We’ll use the Arduino microcontroller and an analog joystick to control two servos: the first one will be connected to the horizontal axis, and the second one to the vertical axis.
We also use a the Lynx B-Pan Tilt Kit (BPT-KT) to connect servos together. Check the video and imagine what kind of robots or cool stuff you could create using more devices and a lot of pacience ; )

In this article we’ll send data from a classic IR remote controller (I used my Creative Speaker IR remote control) to turn on/off a LED in our Arduino board, using an IK38khz sensor and the IRemote library.
Naturally you could use your IR Remote for everything: to manage motors, servo and other devices or you could also create a cheap network between two Arduino: one board will send data from a IK38khz Sensor (receiver) and the other one will receive them using an infrared Led (sender)

In this article we’ll see how to retrieve data from 4 cool electronic sensors often used in domotica and robotica projects: Infrared Proximity Sensor, Force Resistive Resistor (FSR), Light Photo Detector (LDR), tilt Sharp (inclination).
To see them in action the returned values will be mapped to update a LED luminosity (using PWM - Pulse-Width Modulation). I have provided Arduino sketch files (written in C), breadboard connection pictures and a demo video for each sensor.

After you have configured your Arduino board to properly work with your Flash applications you could quickly update your existent Flash or Flex games to get input from a joystick.
I have modified three prototypes, 2 cars games and 1 platform, to work with a mini-stick, spending no more than 5 minutes to update each game.

In this sample, we’ll connect a joystick to a Flex application.
Using Firmata 2.* and as3Glue library, your Arduino board can then communicate with your Flash/Flex/Air application.

In this article we’ll control a servo motor using a joystick and the microcontroller Arduino.
We’ll also set the value of a LED-2-colors in according with the stick axis.
It’s just an introduction for the next article: Arduino and Flex: connect a joystick to your application

I’m so excited for my first real experiment with Arduino and Actionscript 3.0 using external hardware to communicate and control my Flash applications, and viceversa.