Tutorial 09 for Arduino: Wireless Communication

[DHubert777]

How about a tutorial on sending a typed out sentence from a computer over XBee and have it display on an external display connected to the Arduino?

[umnajdi]

Thanks for all the videos! :D

So i need to create a network, with 5 arduinos

I want one of them to be something like a server and all of others only communicate with server, and server tell each of them what are the other arduinos are doing.

can i use XBEE? and um... id be happy if u just tell me what to use and ill find all the info about it my self, just a little guidance to the starting point please

[VRMN8R]

@VRMN8R I used the X-CTU program and have the Xbees programmed.

[enticed2zeitgeist]

Dude your a hero. Thanks so much for doing these tuts.

[xtream1101]

Thank you very much, this was a great and easy to follow tutorial.

[amorag59]

Dude you gotta move the curser when you re filming these videos haha

[thewild121]

can we make a serial wireless communication between the pc the arduino using the xbee?



[123456789robbie]

why not just send a raw byte over serial, instead of an ascii byte? because then you can have values 0 to 255, which is more resolution than the server can even handle

[EcoClassicCars]

This is great. Really helped me learn in one day what would take months.

[Knightmetal]

I have a question about the comment he made on the jumper when working with the Xbee shield attached to the board, do I also have to use the jumper when interfacing the Arduino with a Bluetooth module? I'm having trouble with a Bluetooth module and my Arduino UNO and I don't know if the jumper thing is the problem.

[hyperscitic92a]

How would you program the board to read in the two values?

Thanks!

[hyperscitic92a]

First of all, thanks for the very informative videos! I wouldn't have gotten started without watching your videos. However I do have a question for you: when sending data via the Xbee, how do you send data with two or more analog inputs on the transmission Xbee side? This video just has you sending analog data from the POT where the receiving unit only needs to read one value. Let's say you have a photo resistor and accelerometer on the transmission side. How would you program the board to read

[bisbeejim1]

I bought all the equipment, hooked it up as shown, programmed everything, turned it all one and nothing worked. I have checked everything three times. I need some help finding what's wrong.

[sciguy14]

@bisbeejim1 You'll need to be a bit more specific about what isn't working.

[bisbeejim1]

My brother added a serial print line command. Suddenly without any reason at all it began working correctly. Weird. Since I can't troubleshoot what is working I just went on. I like your videos and I hope to make some video tutorials myself someday.

[sciguy14]

@bisbeejim1 You'll need to be a bit more specific about what isn't working.

[PetaByte220]

Thanx for this great series it's really useful,

I would like to know if there is any way to do it without shields, can I just connect xbee directly to the Arduino?

Regards ...

[AzBirdDog]

@PetaByte220 I'm a newby too, but I did see alot of components on the shields.

I too, don't have the shields. Looks like this video answered about 56 questions for me.

I have to get this all running. I need those wireless sensors!

This video helped out though, tons!

[mmowaffak]

Hey Jeremy, Thanx For All Ur awesome tutorials they ROCK!.. ive watched them all actually :D

Anyway i wanted to ask u, is this tutorial applicable to Series 1 Xbees? (they have a function set of XBEE 802.15.4 Version 10E6)... because i previously followed another tutorial before coming across urs, i screwed things up because they were different versions, it bricked and i had a hard time Unbricking... Thanks

[sciguy14]

@mmowaffak Yes, this is for series 1.

[ds5221]

is it possible to receive data from a serial port from the computer to arduino board and then send some data over xBee to another arduino?

[sciguy14]

@ds5221 Only if you utilize the multiple serial lines on the Arduino Mega.

[ds5221]

@sciguy14 ok, thx :)

[CIPHERJAY]

Could i use an Arduino mega (2560) to wirelessly talk to an Arduino uno and vice versa? (providing that i brought the xbee shields etc)

[sciguy14]

@CIPHERJAY Yes, you can.

[microchoc]

if i have 3 slaves and 1 master xbees do i set them all the same as you instructed me.

[sciguy14]

@microchoc Yes, I've done that before and it has worked.

[DartecTube]

These will not interfere with wifi as it is on a different protocol or would it at 2.4GHz? Cheers.

[sciguy14]

@DartecTube It will not interfere

[DartecTube]

@sciguy14 Thank you. Just got my XBee's so looking at how to configure using your tutorial. Cheers.

[bmonty65]

Hi Jeremy,

I have just recieved my fresh Xbee's. I managed to get a good deal although they require a U.fl antenna interface.

Unfortunately a U.Fl to Sma cable was included (needed RP-SMA).

I want to interface this cable with a old Wifi antenna, i have located some solid core wire that perfectly interfaces with the two female inner connections.

Am i correct to assume that this "workaround" should be fine as the reversed polarity only relates to the physical interface?

Thanks.

Great Tutorials!

[sciguy14]

@bmonty65 While the polarity is only relevant to the interface, you need to be careful, because antennae are designed to be very particular lengths. Antenna length is directly determined by the wavelength of the wireless signal you are sending. Extending the length, if not done in integer multiples of the original antenna length, could greatly reduce your range.

[herctrap]

you could sent the value in byte format

Serial.print(val,BYTE);

so you would reduse the resolution

[sciguy14]

@herctrap Indeed, But I didn't want to go deep into explaining type conversion and encoding in the episode, so I stuck with simple ints. That would be a good topic for me to do in a future episode though...

[herctrap]

@sciguy14

ok.

but it also would be better to explain how to use xbee without the shields

[tr8765]

Hi Jeremy, could you please post some tutorials of the communication between memory card shield and Arduino?

[sciguy14]

@tr8765 A couple people have asked about that. I have it on my list for future videos. I'm not sure when I will get to it.

[raghunitin]

What principle is the Xbee acting? I mean, does it work on IR?

[sciguy14]

@raghunitin No it's RF (Radio Frequency). It does not require line-of-sight like IR does.

[raghunitin]

@sciguy14 oh, thanks for the info... :)

is there any other way of attaching Xbee to arduino without the shield?

[sciguy14]

@raghunitin Yes, you can wire it to the receive and transmit pins directly.

[raghunitin]

@sciguy14 thanks... :)

[jtmill077]

Great Work Man. Thanks

[MrHorsetail]

Instead of unplugging the arduino chip, I just short out the reset pin to ground and cross the tx and rx lines, because I don't have an xbee shield, only a breakout board. I use a voltage divider to bring the DIN voltage to 3 volts.

[tiagofumo]

you could just use xctu therminal... or even use the xctu gui to configure the xbee modules ....

[sciguy14]

@tiagofumo yup, but this way is less complicated in my opinion. You don't have to deal with stuff you don't care about.

[tiagofumo]

@sciguy14 yeah, I agree with that...

but this therminal overwrite the previous configuration commands, and that's not very good... I'm not sure why but I believe it's because xctu uses /r as jump line instead of /n (like arduino therminal does, etc)

so it's a bit bad to not see what you just did but it's not that bad...

great series btw... I really appreciate it =)

[MrHorsetail]

Excellent as usual. Thanks