Electric Imp Dev Kit Getting Started Guide

If you don’t yet have an Electric Imp Developer Kit, you can buy one from a selection of online suppliers. You’ll also need a couple of items of other equipment:

• An iOS or Android phone (or tablet) to set up your development device
• A mini USB cable and a computer or USB AC adapter for power

Now work through the following steps to create your Electric Imp account.

1. Create a Free Electric Imp Account

The first step to getting your Electric Imp Developer Kit online is to create an Electric Imp account. This is free and gives you access to Electric Imp’s impCentral, which you’ll explore in a later section of the Guide and then use to develop the software your development device will run.

You only need create an account once. You can add as many Developer Kits and other development devices as you like to your account, and program and monitor all of them through impCentral.

The impCentral sign-in and registration screen

Create your account now: visit the registration page and enter your email address in the Sign Up section. You’ll shortly receive a confirmation message asking you to verify your email address — click Confirm your email address:

The verification email you will receive after sign-up

When you’ve done so, you’ll be automatically returned to impCentral and asked to choose a new account username and password. Your password must be 8-20 characters, as must your username — which must not be your email address. Click on the Set button to apply your choices:

The account completion screen

Note By creating an account, you agree to Electric Imp’s Terms of Service, which you can read here. Please also take a moment to view our Privacy Policy.

2. Fit the Developer Kit’s imp

Fit the Developer Kit’s imp001 card into the large, silver slot on the Developer Kit board. Don’t power up the Developer Kit yet. The imp is the Developer Kit’s ‘brain’ — it provides the board with WiFi Internet connectivity and programmability. The imp001 is just one type of imp: there are many others, all designed to be mounted directly into connected products in mass-production. However, they all run the same operating system, impOS™ and so software written for one type of imp can run on any other with little or no modification.