[nickatredbox] has a passion in building planes. Here the details of another work:

Yellow Jet 758 Grams with remaining Coroplast 2 X 7.4 V 1300 mAh batteries Arduino Nano RX Xbee with antenna, servos and misc hardware. Chamfered the top on the leading edges. All control surfaces cut and hinged. ESC mounted

Elevator mechanism for EDF jet carbon rod and ballpoint pen ink reservoir seems quite stiff with low backlash

See the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z9wEU6c1F0&hd=1

This plane flew pretty poorly unfortunately, but the controller worked well the EDF lacked thrust

You can find more on the [website]

smARtDUINO – Do it yellow…

Another interesting project by [nickatredbox], you can find this and all others on the [website].

This project is a plane with the Arduino Xbee remote control working on its maiden flight. It worked well no technical issues, very happy with the results

Building the controller was a very interesting curve, learned a lot of practical usage solutions to problems and ended up with a simple piece of code which is always good in my experience, keep it simple but not to simple.

[nickatredbox] has sent this interesting project with Arduino involving wireless comunication. The fun comes when you have to decide to buy something already done or DIY.

I wanted a remote control system of my own design for may various RC model projects planes and boats. I set about researching the options and and Xbee with / Arduino solution poped out as a viable option, having failed performance testing using both WiFi and TinyCLR. The other feature I get as the Xbee is a transceiver is real-time telemetery. I’m sure I could buy this functionality from HobbyKing but where is the fun in that.

More project on the [website]

Please see Prop Much Better Than EDF

Introduction

In this article we examine the Seeedstudio ”Bluetooth Bee“ modules and how they can be used in a simple way in conjunction with Android devices to control the Arduino world.  Here is an example of a Bluetooth Bee:

For the curious, the hardware specifications are as follows:

You may have noticed that the Bluetooth Bee looks similar to the Xbee-style data transceivers – and it is, in physical size and some pinouts, for example:

The neat thing with the BtB (Bluetooth Bee) is that it is compatible with Xbee sockets and Arduino shields. It is a 3.3V device and has the same pinouts for Vcc, GND, TX and RX – so an existing Xbee shield will work just fine.

In some situations you may want to use your BtB on one UART and have another for debugging or other data transport from an Arduino – which means the need for a software serial port. To do this you can get a “Bees Shield” which allows for two ‘Bee format transceivers on one board, which also has jumpers to select software serial pins for one of them. For example:

Although not the smallest, the Bees Shield proves very useful for experimenting and busy wireless data transmit/receive systems. More about the Bees Shield can be found on their product wiki.

Quick Start 

In the past many people have told me that bluetooth connectivity has been too difficult or expensive to work with. In this article I want to make things as simple as possible, allowing you to just move forward with your ideas and projects. One very useful function is to control an Arduino-compatible board with an Android-based mobile phone that has Bluetooth connectivity. Using the BtB we can create a wireless serial text bridge between the phone and the Arduino, allowing control and data transmission between the two.

We do this by using a terminal application on the Android device – for our examples we will be using “BlueTerm” which can be downloaded from Google Play – search for “blueterm” as shown below:

In our Quick Start example, we will create a system where we can turn on or off four Arduino digital output pins from D4~D7. (If you are unsure about how to program an Arduino, please consider this short series of tutorials). The BtB is connected using the Bees shield. This is based on the demonstration sketch made available on the BtB Wiki page - we will use commands from the terminal on the Android device to control the Arduino board, which will then return back status.

As the BtB transmit and receive serial data we will have it ‘listen’ to the virtual serial port on pins 9 and 10 for incoming characters. Using a switch…case function it then makes decisions based on the incoming character. You can download the sketch from here. It is written for Arduino v23. If you were to modify this sketch for your own use, study the void loop() section to see how the incoming data is interpreted, and how data is sent back to the Android terminal using blueToothSerial.println. 

Before using it for the first time you will need to pair the BtB with your Android device. The PIN is set to a default of four zeros. After setting up the hardware and uploading the sketch, wait until the LEDs on the BtB blink alternately – at this point you can get a connection and start communicating. In the following video clip you can see the whole process:

Where to from here?

There are many more commands that can be set using terminal software from a PC with a Bluetooth adaptor, such as changing the PIN, device name and so on. All these are described in the BtB Wiki page along with installation instructions for various operating systems.

Once again I hope you found this article interesting and useful. The Bluetooth Bees are an inexpensive and useful method for interfacing your Arduino to other Bluetooth-compatible devices. For more information and product support, visit the Seeedstudio product pages.

Bluetooth Bees are available from Seeedstudio and their network of distributors.

The post Arduino, Android and Seeedstudio Bluetooth Bee appeared first on tronixstuff.

The Identified Plush Object Network is one of a few bigger projects that I want to work on this year. The idea is to create a network of small plush animals that interact with users, each other, and the Internet. I called it “Identified” because as a separate project I’m working with an RFID reader/writer […]

The post The “Identified Plush Object Network” (IPON) Project appeared first on Tinker Hobby.

L’objectif de ce montage est de faire communiquer un PC avec une carte Arduino à l’aide du protocole ZigBee
Voici l’architecture de montage :

Cette article décrit la mise en place d’une topologie réseau simple, permettant de communiquer entre un PC et une carte Arduino à l’aide de modules XBee série 1 de chez Digi.

Les composants

Le montage nécessite les composants suivants :

• un PC, fonctionnant sous Debian GNU/Linux pour ma part ;
• une carte Arduino ou bien un adaptateur USB relié au PC ;
• deux modules de communication XBee ;
• une carte Arduino avec un adaptateur XBee.

A propos du protocole ZigBee

ZigBee est un protocole de haut niveau permettant la communication de petites radios, à consommation réduite, basée sur la norme IEEE 802.15.4 pour les réseaux à dimension personnelle (WPANs). C’est vraiment un très bon protocole, qui est bien plus simple à mettre en œuvre que le protocole Bluetooth. Je ne sais pas si vous avez déjà vu la stack du protocole. Il y a de quoi avoir peur

xBee, ZigBee et beeee?

Si vous êtes perdus avec tous ces sigles, c’est normal. Moi aussi Voici ce que j’ai compris :

• ZigBee : est le nom du protocole ;
• XBee : est le nom du produit chez le constructeur Digi ;
• IEEE 802.15.4 : c’est le nom du standard qui définit le communication dans un WPAN ;

Ok, c’est vraiment pas plus claire Mais c’est dit.

Liste des composants

Vous avez besoin des composants suivants :

Partie PC

La connexion entre le module Xbee et un PC peut se faire de deux manières :

• à l’aide d’un adaptateur USB ;
• à l’aide d’une carte Arduino et d’un Shield XBee ;

L’objectif pour la partie PC du montage est de communiquer avec le module XBee, à fin de lui envoyer des commandes.
Cette communication se fait à l’aide d un convertisseur USB-Serial, ce rôle est joué par l’adaptateur USB ou bien par la carte Arduino + Shield.

Connexion à l’aide de l’adaptateur USB

L’adaptateur XBee se connect directement sur le port USB du PC :

Un fois branché, le module est visible à l’aide de la commande lsusb :

Bus 002 Device 013: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC


Communication à l’aide d’une carte Arduino + XBee Shield

L’adaptateur XBee se connecte directement sur la carte Arduino :

Il est nécessaire de modifier la configuration par du shield pour mettre la carte en mode USB-Serial.
Pour cela, il faut mettre les deux jumper à droite (éloigner du port USB), comme sur cette photo : Configuration mode USB-serial
Vous pouvez ensuite brancher la carte Arduino et voir le module XBee à l’aide de la commande lsusb :

Bus 002 Device 013: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC


Connexion à l’aide d’un gestionnaire de terminal

Une fois que le module XBee est connecté au PC, il doit être disponible sur /dev/ttyUSB0 :

[31016.280327] ftdi_sio 2-8.3:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[31016.280354] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/usb/serial/ftdi_sio.c: Detected FT232RL
[31016.280449] usb 2-8.3: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Pour communiquer avec le module, il faut utiliser un programme de gestion de terminal ( gtkterm, minicom ou bien l’IDE de la carte Arduino).
Voici la configuration pour gtkterm :

Configuration du module XBee

Une fois que vous etes connecté au module XBee, vous pouvez lui envoyer des commandes à l’aide du gestionnaire de terminal.
Le module dispose de deux mode de fonctionnement : normal et configuration.
Pour passer en mode configuration, il faut saisir +++ (sans CR, retour à la ligne).
Si le module a compris la commande, alors il retourne OK.
Voici un exemple de session :
.

Configuration d’un réseau bidirectionnelle simple

Voici les différentes instructions pour configurer un réseau simple, c’est à dire une communication bidirectionnelle entre deux cartes Arduino ou bien entre un PC et une carte Arduino

Configuration sur la carte reliée au PC


+++OK
ATMY1234
OK
ATDL5678
OK
ATDH0
OK
ATID1111
OK

Configuration du module Arduino


+++OK
ATMY5678
OK
ATDL1234
OK
ATDH0
OK
ATID1111
OK

Les commandes importantes sont :

• ATMY : adresse source ;
• ATDL : adresse de destination (bite de poids faible) ;
• ATDH : adresse de destination (bite de poids fort) ;
• ATID : identifiant du réseau ;

Utilisation au niveau de la carte Arduino

Il faut inscrire le programme suivant dans la mémoire de la carte :

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.print("+++");
Serial.print("ATDH0\r");
Serial.print("ATDL1234\r");
Serial.print("ATMY5678\r");
Serial.print("ATID1111\r");
Serial.print("ATCN\r");
}
void loop() {
delay(1000);
Serial.print("42\n");
}

La programmer et changer le sens des deux “jumper” pour faire communiquer le module avec la carte.

Référence

• Le Data sheet du module ;
• Le livre Making Things Talk de Tom Igoe chez O’reilly.

Si vous voulez vous simplifier la vie, il existe une bibliothèque pour la programmation des modules xbee : xbee-arduino.