Today we're sharing platform enhancements designed to improve your engineering productivity and velocity.
Find it, configure it, run it: New ways to search for supported hardware in Viam
We’ve made it even easier to find the right components. Whether you're wiring up a new machine, checking if your existing hardware is supported, or just exploring what Viam works with before making a purchase, you shouldn't have to guess. Now, you don’t have to.
When adding a component to your machine config, you can now search for hardware by keyword right from the machine builder. Learn more.
Intelligent detection of configuration attributes for your hardware
Most of the time, connecting your hardware to Viam is a breeze—you plug the hardware into your compute device, select the model from the menu, and fill out a few JSON attributes. However, we wanted to make it even easier: Our new discovery service allows you to use a separate “discovery” model that queries the hardware and returns the attribute values appropriate for your particular setup. Learn more.
"Ask AI" assistance now available
Viam wants you to build and deploy smart machines faster—that's why we added the "Ask AI" button. Now, you can get instant, detailed answers about Viam's features, configurations, and best practices without disrupting your workflow. Ask AI provides clear, reliable guidance so you can stay focused on what matters. Try it out today in the Viam app.
Enhanced machine settings
Viam’s new Machine Settings give you more control over device provisioning, network management, and operating system settings—all powered by the Viam Agent. Easily configure these settings within the app, with clear documentation alongside to guide you. Viam makes it easy to manage your machines the way you want. Explore machine settings today.
New TensorFlow model support
You can now train TensorFlow models in the Viam app. Previously Viam only had built-in support for TFLite models. The TensorFlow model type is best for general-purpose tasks with more computational power, as opposed to TFLite which is best for use on mobile and edge devices with minimal resources. Learn more.
LoRaWAN improvements
In January you heard about Viam's support for LoRaWAN sensors, and we've made several additional improvements, including:
- Specific Viam models for popular LoRaWAN sensors (including Dragino temperature, humidity, and water quality sensors).
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If you’re using a different LoRaWAN sensor, you can still use the “generic” sensor model, which now allows you to add the path to the decoder as a link to a GitHub file.
- Support for sending downlinks to configure uplink interval and calibrate sensors directly from the Viam interface.
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On the gateway side, we now provide a specific Viam model for the Waveshare HAT.
See the Viam LoRaWAN module GitHub readme for more details.
Read more about each update in the full April platform roundup.
