Deviation's from Boredom

XBee 101

srcasadei — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:58:42 +0000

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.

On the transmitter side I have an Arduino Duemilanove with a ProtoShield containing the transmitting XBee and WiiChuck adapter (obviously so that I can interface easily with a Wii Nunchuck).

On the receiving side I have a simple breadboard based robot – inspired from the Braitenberg vehicle that can be found on the blog Tinkerlog. The bot uses a Dorkboard as a brain (I prefer to use the Dorkboard over Adafruit’s DC Boarduino in cases not requiring a voltage regulator – as it takes up far less space). In addition to the receiving XBee.

Here is the code that I used for the transmitter:


//Quick and dirty XBee remote program
//For use with Wii Nunchuck adapter

#include "Wire.h"
#include "WiiChuck.h"
#include 

NewSoftSerial XBee =  NewSoftSerial(2, 3);
WiiChuck chuck = WiiChuck();

void setup() {

  XBee.begin(9600);

  chuck.begin();
  chuck.update();
  chuck.calibrateJoy();
}

void loop() {
  delay(20);
  chuck.update();

  //Right and Left Joystick signals
  if (chuck.readJoyX() < -200)
    XBee.print('L');
  if (chuck.readJoyX() > -40)
    XBee.print('R');

  //Forward and Backward Joystick signals
  if (chuck.readJoyY() < -200)
    XBee.print('B');
  if (chuck.readJoyY() > -40)
    XBee.print('F');

  //Hold (stop) Joystick signal
  if (chuck.readJoyY() < -40 && chuck.readJoyY() > -200 && chuck.readJoyX() < -40 && chuck.readJoyX() > -200)
    XBee.print('H');

}

And here is the code for the receiver:


//Simple code to drive a "RC" bot using a couple of XBee's
//Code listed is intended for the receiver

#include 
#include  

NewSoftSerial XBee =  NewSoftSerial(2, 3);

Servo myservo1;
Servo myservo2; 

char instruction;

void setup() {

  XBee.begin(9600);

  myservo1.attach(9);
  myservo2.attach(10);
}

void loop()
{ 

  instruction = XBee.read();

  if (instruction == 'F'){
    myservo1.write(180);
    myservo2.write(0);
  }

  if (instruction == 'B'){
    myservo1.write(0);
    myservo2.write(180);
  } 

  if (instruction == 'R'){
    myservo1.write(180);
    myservo2.write(180);
  }

  if (instruction == 'L'){
    myservo1.write(0);
    myservo2.write(0);
  }

  if (instruction == 'H'){
    myservo1.write(90);
    myservo2.write(90);
  }

}

In order to run these example programs you must have the NewSoftSerial and WiiChuck libraries!!

Both can be found on the Arduino website!

WiShield – licious!

srcasadei — Sun, 24 May 2009 20:22:11 +0000

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.

srcasadei — Sun, 03 May 2009 03:10:10 +0000

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.

The exact model that I purcased is the 1000HE. According to Asus, the 1000 stands for 10″, the “H” stands for HDD instead of SSD, and the “E” stands for Extended battery life. This is also the first model to have a newly revamped keyboard – which is “chiclet” style – I dont really know what that means, but the keyboard is similar to the new Apple standalone, and the Apple macbook keyboards.

I have to admit – the keyboard is actually very comfortable to type on. There is a minor amout of flex on the keyboard itself, but it is very manageable. I myself have never typed on a subsize keyboard, but I found that I adjusted to this keyboard very easily.

As for the extended battery life – Asus advertises 9.5 hours of battery life for “All day computing”. However, we all know that the advertised battery life for notebooks is complete B.S. – and should be take with a few grains of salt. For real world benchmarks most reviewers find they get around 6 – 7 hours, and I can now corroborate these real world numbers.

I found that running the Eee pc with wifi enabled, browsing the web, and watching the occasional video ran me down to about 6.5 hours on the battery.

The battery does stick out a bit from the bottom of the chassis, however, it is nothing that would cause any discomfort while typing, or while holding the netbook in your hand. I myself always disapproved of a battery sticking out, as I thought it was aesthetically displeasing. Even so, Asus managed to win me over by incorperating this battery in a design that didnt make me want to throw up.

This computer came with 2 separate partitions pre-made on the HDD. This makes it INCREDIBLY easy to install a second OS on this netbook, and just goes to show that Asus knows exactly what its customers want.

Overall, I give this netbook a 9/10, only because it seems to have a bit of trouble playing hulu videos. Though lack of video power is a downfall for all netbooks including the 1000HE. I would recommend this netbook over any of the others – if you need a computer dedicated to mobility – this is the one.

I actually don’t like the candy…

srcasadei — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:12:10 +0000

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

srcasadei — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:47:30 +0000

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.

I ended up using the parallax RFID reader that I had laying around in order to identify whoever was going to access the safe. The reader isn’t the greatest peice of electronics that I’ve used, but it was relatively cheap and readily available.

The locking mechanism is made up of a cheap $5 sliding bolt that I got at my local Lowes. Actually – the servo is also a a relatively inexpensive piece, seeing as it is a cheap hobby servo that I bought for $10 from sparkfun.com.

I used a boarduino (Arduino clone) from Adafruit Industries in order to drive the servo and Parallax RFID.

Here’s the code I used:

#include


int state = 1;
int  val = 0;

char code[10];

int bytesread = 0;

int ledRed = 6;

int ledGreen = 7;
Servo myservo;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(2400); // RFID reader SOUT pin connected to Serial RX pin at 2400bps

pinMode(4,OUTPUT);   // Set digital pin 2 as OUTPUT to connect it to the RFID /ENABLE pin

pinMode(ledRed,OUTPUT);   // Set digital pin 13 as OUTPUT to confirm correct RFID badge

pinMode(ledGreen,OUTPUT);
myservo.attach(9);

myservo.write(1);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);                  // Activate the RFID reader

}
void loop() {

digitalWrite(4, LOW);

if(Serial.available() > 0) {          // if data available from reader

if((val = Serial.read()) == 10) {   // check for header

bytesread = 0;

while(bytesread 0) {

val = Serial.read();

if((val == 10)||(val == 13)) { // if header or stop bytes before the 10 digit reading

break;                       // stop reading

}

code[bytesread] = val;         // add the digit

bytesread++;                   // ready to read next digit

}

}
Serial.print(code);
validateRFID(code);
bytesread = 0;

delay(500);                       // wait for a second

}

}

}
void validateRFID(char* i) {

digitalWrite(4, HIGH);

if(strncmp(i,"0F03042D62", 10) == 0) {

if (state == 0){

myservo.write(1);

digitalWrite(ledRed, HIGH);

state = 1;

delay(5000);

digitalWrite(ledRed, LOW);

}

else if (state == 1){

myservo.write(65);

digitalWrite(ledGreen, HIGH);

state = 0;

delay(5000);

digitalWrite(ledGreen, LOW);

}

}

else{

digitalWrite(ledRed, HIGH);

delay(2000);

digitalWrite(ledRed, LOW);

}

}
I can’t take complete credit for this code – some of it is remnant from the example RFID code that can be found on the Arduino playground.