Embedded framework for dynamic configuration of things.
Controlbox allows different types of objects to be created, configured and interacted with. The object configuration is persisted so the same objects are recreated automatically when the device powers on.
Objects can be anything - LCD display drivers, various sensors, actuators - anything you can write code for.
Each object has a standard way to get information in and out, which works with the communications protocol, so adding new objects is simple, and doens't require writing any communications code (typically an object would have to know how to parse some text protocol or generate some text to be sent over the wire.)
Each object also has a standard way to be configured, and so it can be automatically saved to EEPROM when first configured and re-created after a power-cycle. Much of this happens for free using the framework.
The system takes care of running one or more control loops where each object is updated. The state of the object is written via the comms layer so the system offers full visibility into what is happnening.
Many microcontroller programs are simple control loops - they exist to read values from sensors and either simply output the values, or act on it in some way. The project that inspired this - Brewpi - was no different: reading temperature sensors and feeding this into a control loop that activated headers/coolers as needed to maintain a temperature.
We found we wrote a lot of boilerplate code - similar code that was changed for each type of object but basically did the same thing - save some configuration to EEPROM, read/write the current state to Serial. Not only did this involve a lot of extra coding hours to write this code, but it also bloated the firmware.
Controlbox aims to remove the unnecessary repetition by providing a framework that uses a consistent approach to persistently configuring objects and managing their state at runtime.