XBee 101

The other day I ordered 2 XBee’s and XBee Adapter kits from Adafruit. I must say, I’ve kinda been biding my time until I was able to get a few of these. Having XBee’s available opens up a whole slew of projects that are able to be modified. I mean come on – everything is better with wireless communication – Arduino’s notwithstanding.

So to test them out in a way that is slightly more interesting than watching characters fly by on the serial monitors – I threw together this crappy remote control setup.

WiShield – licious!

The Arduino has had internet connectivity for a while now. However, as much as everyone wants it – a cheap wireless option has not been viable (there have been a few options – most being in the $250.00 range).

Until NOW! Async Labs – a new start up based out of California has stepped up and filled the gap that everyone else has left with the WiShield.

The software is currently under development and so far only functions as a host. The guys at Async are busy working with the Arduino community to add much more functionality to the shield, as well as refine its stability.

Personally I have had great success with the shield. It has worked reliably for days without hanging or disconnecting with the access point that I have it attached to.

Below is a screen shot of an example sketch to control 2 LED’s attached to the Arduino.

If there is anyone out there who has been looking for a wireless solution for their Arduino – the WiShield costs $55.00 and supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption. It can also function in infrastructure mode (connect to a wireless network) or in adhoc mode (broadcast its own wireless network)!

Asus really nailed it.

So, a couple of weeks ago I jumped on the netbook bandwagon. I have to wonder weather my 10″ Eee pc can really be considered a netbook – seeing as how the screen is bordering on the ultralight side of the notebook spectrum… BUT, it is an Eee pc so I guess I have to label it a netbook.

I actually don’t like the candy…

I don’t know about everyone else – but any electronic project that I find and is able to fit inside an Altoids tin gets +5 awesome points in my book.

My two favorite projects are the Mintyboost (another awesome project from Adafruit Industries), and the Altoids Tin Speaker from Instructables user Matth3w.

For those of you who don’t know: the Mintyboost is an awesome USB device charger that runs off of two AA batteries – It works great – and looks great too!!

Also, if you were wondering – the Altoids Speaker is an awesome accessory for anyone who has a 1st gen iPod touch – or any other audio device. The speaker is sufficiently loud, even on the default gain settings. Not to mention that it doesn’t sound half bad!

RFID Locker

So, I had this old Lions locker that was collecting dust (I got it for Christmas when I was 9). I also happened to have all the parts that I needed to turn this into an RFID safe. AND since I wasn’t too keen on tearing apart the molding around any of the real doors I had access to – I decided to turn this into my next project.