The PAN management box outside and inside

From the Adafruit Foru, uberhund writes:

The PANdora Box can send one of 16 messages selected by the brass knob connected to a rotary encoder in the center of the base section. The smoky plex allows the various parts within to be seen, aided by an LED strip light of variable color and intensity, and mirrors on the interior walls. Wacky button sounds are played by the Wav shield as the user rotates the brass knob through each message. Pressing the brass knob instructs an Arduino to send the selected Wav file name across the PAN to the remote listeners which then find and play the Wav file, with, or sometimes without, a preamble. The preamble can be selected from a list appropriate to the message, such as creaky doors, or impersonations. The message itself is usually something useful (but not always) like Kids, please take out the garbage.

Read More

The manic doorbell, on the left, and the snarky oven on the right with warning label “Caution. Oven can be somewhat condescending”

Umeå Institute alum Ru Zarin made these Audio Ties:

Creating a wireless audio level meter and deploying it at an event or function where there is a DJ and lots of people.

Each tie is associated with a specific level in the Audio Spectrum and moves in real-time in relation to the music at the venue.

The tie’s are completely wireless using a radio transmitter to get the signal from the DJ source. This gives the tie’s a range of up to 1 mile (pending obstacles).

Each tie is powered by an ordinary 9V battery, giving the wearer the ability to move freely throughout the venue with the technology hanging around their neck.

via MAKE

LED Ampli-Tie with Flora

The Curious Design Space Intersection Between Engineering and Anime.

All OEMs should have Anime mascots.

Raspberry Pi as an Xbee Wireless Sensor Network Gateway @ Tinaja Labs.

Notes about Raspberry Pi, an ARM based pc about the size of a deck of cards which costs $35. I might use it as a replacement for the Asus WL520 GU wifi modems I’ve been using as an Xbee WSN Gateway.

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit, be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Have you tried the new “Adafruit Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro” ? It’s our tweaked distribution for teaching electronics using the Raspberry Pi.

Want a FREE Raspberry Pi? For limited time and while supplies last – Adafruit is including a FREE Raspberry Pi in all orders over $350 (not including shipping). This offer is for online customers only, not distributors/resellers/hackerspaces.

XBee Module – ZB Series 2 – 2mW with Wire Antenna – XB24-Z7WIT-004

We now carry the Series 2 XBee “ZigBee” modules. This is the series 2 ZigBee protocol 1mW with wire antenna. Its good for point-to-point, multipoint and mesh networks. This module is a little more difficult to get going than the Series 1 – you must set up a “coordinator” module so they are not as plug-and-play. We suggest this module for those who are following the Building Wireless Sensor Network book as it focuses on Series 2.

Series 2 modules cannot talk to Series 1 modules so if you already have some S1 type XBees you may want to stick with them. The S2 modules are not necessarily ‘better’ than S1 for many projects. They’re just different as they use the “ZigBee” wireless stack instead of the 802.15.4. This makes them better for low power usage and advanced users who want a mesh topology (many XBees in a spread-out configuration) – but they are more difficult to use for basic point-to-point setups.

The pins on an XBee are 2mm spacing, not 0.1″ so they will not fit into a breadboard. For that reason, they work best in our XBee adapter module kit (which has a 250mA 3.3V regulator) or with the USB XBee adapter.

This module comes with a wire antenna, its the same price as a chip antenna but 50% more range because of the improved antenna, awesome!

• TX Peak Current: 40 mA
• RX Current: 40 mA (@3.3 V)
• Power-down Current: < 1 μA
• Indoor/Urban: up to 133 ft (40 m)
• Outdoor line-of-sight: up to 400 ft (120 m)
• Transmit Power: 2 mW (3 dBm)
• Receiver Sensitivity: -96 dBm
• Dimensions: 24mm x 28mm x 9mm (0.94in x 1.1in x 0.3in)
• 3.24g ( 0.14oz)

In stock and shipping.

XBee Pro Module – ZB Series 2 – 63mW with Wire Antenna – XBP24BZ7WIT-004

We now carry the Series 2 XBee “ZigBee” modules. This is the PRO Series 2 ZigBee protocol 63mW with wire antenna. Its good for point-to-point, multipoint and mesh networks. This module is a little more difficult to get going than the Series 1 – you must set up a “coordinator” module so they are not as plug-and-play. We suggest this module for those who are following the Building Wireless Sensor Network book as it focuses on Series 2.

Series 2 modules cannot talk to Series 1 modules so if you already have some S1 type XBees you may want to stick with them. The S2 modules are not necessarily ‘better’ than S1 for many projects. They’re just different as they use the “ZigBee” wireless stack instead of the 802.15.4. This makes them better for low power usage and advanced users who want a mesh topology (many XBees in a spread-out configuration) – but they are more difficult to use for basic point-to-point setups.

The pins on an XBee are 2mm spacing, not 0.1″ so they will not fit into a breadboard. For that reason, they work best in our XBee adapter module kit (which has a 250mA 3.3V regulator) or with the USB XBee adapter.

This module comes with a wire antenna, its the same price as a chip antenna but 50% more range because of the improved antenna, awesome!

Details:

• TX Peak Current: 205mA
• RX Current: 47 mA (@3.3 V)
• Power-down Current: < 3.5 μA
• Indoor/Urban: up to 300 ft (90 m)
• Outdoor line-of-sight: up to 2 miles (3200 m)
• Transmit Power: 63mW (18dBm)
• Receiver Sensitivity: -102 dBm
• Dimensions: 24mm x 33mm x 9mm (0.94in x 1.3in x 0.3in)
• 3.91g ( 0.14oz)

In stock and shipping now.

XBee Pro Module – Series 1 – 60mW with Wire Antenna – XBP24-AWI-001

This is the Pro (higher-power) version of the popular XBee! This module is series #1 (802.15.4 protocol) 60mW wireless module, good for point-to-point, multipoint and convertible to a mesh network point. These are much more powerful than the plain XBee modules, great for when you need more range.

What we like about the Series 1 modules is that they are so easy to get set up. If you have two in range, they will automatically form a serial link with no configuration, so you can send TTL serial data back and forth. You can also configure the baudrate, as well as sleep modes, power modes and tons more stuff using the Digi XBee tool.

The pins on an XBee are 2mm spacing, not 0.1″ so they will not fit into a breadboard. For that reason, they work best in our XBee adapter module kit (which has a 250mA 3.3V regulator) or with the USB XBee adapter.

This module comes with a wire antenna, its the same price as a chip antenna but 50% more range because of the improved antenna, awesome!

• TX Peak Current: 250mA
• RX Current: 55 mA (@3.3 V)
• Power-down Current: < 10 μA
• Dimensions: 27mm x 33mm x 9mm (1in x 0.9in x 0.3in)
• 4g ( 0.15oz)

In stock and shipping now.

Building Wireless Sensor Networks by Rob Faludi

Get ready to create distributed sensor systems and intelligent interactive devices using the ZigBee wireless networking protocol and Series 2 XBee radios. By the time you’re halfway through this fast-paced, hands-on guide, you’ll have built a series of useful projects, including a complete ZigBee wireless network that delivers remotely sensed data.

Radio networking is creating revolutions in volcano monitoring, performance art, clean energy, and consumer electronics. As you follow the examples in each chapter, you’ll learn how to tackle inspiring projects of your own. This practical guide is ideal for inventors, hackers, crafters, students, hobbyists, and scientists.

• Investigate an assortment of practical and intriguing project ideas
• Prep your ZigBee toolbox with an extensive shopping list of parts and programs
• Create a simple, working ZigBee network with XBee radios in less than two hours — for under $100
• Use the Arduino open source electronics prototyping platform to build a series of increasingly complex projects
• Get familiar with XBee’s API mode for creating sensor networks
• Build fully scalable sensing and actuation systems with inexpensive components
• Learn about power management, source routing, and other XBee technical nuances
• Make gateways that connect with neighboring networks, including the Internet

This book focuses on the Xbee ZB (“Series 2″) modules. A lot of the projects can also be done with the 802.15.4 (“Series 1″) modules but the instructions might be slightly different. Series 2 modules are a little tougher to use than Series 1 so this book is a great accompaniment to our XBee Series 1 tutorials.

In stock and shipping now.

I started a series of DIY projects aimed at making life easier at Misty Brae Farm, a large horse farm and pony club riding center in Virginia. I have found that there are many aspects of life on a farm that can greatly benefit from technology. The farm owners had some specific requests, including a wi-fi network, video camera system, and riding lesson schedule management system. RiderNet is the first of these projects, which added wi-fi throughout the 50-acre farm.

Blog post as well.

Rob Faludi over on the XBee examples site posted up this tutorial for linking your Adafruit coin accepter with a Digi XBee radio:

Your XBee can make real money, all by itself! This easy-to-use coin acceptor can be part of any project where you want to accept coins, whether they be Euros, pence, pounds, a Cambodian Riel or American quarters.

The XBee radio will send a signal every time a coin is inserted into the acceptor. In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through how to program the radio, configure the acceptor and wire it up to an XBee so you can create projects that earn real cash!

Learn to make a glowing electronic piggy bank in this tutorial video using the Programmable 1 Coin Acceptor. Video on YouTube and Vimeo, code on Github.

Coin Acceptor – Programmable 1 Coin Type.

Your project may be free-as-in-speech, but that doesn’t mean it has to be free-as-in-beer. This handy coin validator/acceptor module is just like the ones you’ve seen in arcades. First, program it with what coin you want it to accept, any coin from 10.8mm to 25.1mm in diameter can be used. When a valid coin is inserted, the output line will pulse for 20-60ms (configurable). The acceptor looks for diameter, thickness, dropping speed, etc to determine if a coin is valid. You can select 3 different “strictness” levels.

Comes with the acceptor itself, mounting hardware, and a cable for power/signal.

To program the validator: power with 12VDC (red wire goes to +12VDC, black wire to common ground). Press and hold the little button on top for 5 seconds and release. The LED will be on. Now insert 30 sample coins of the value you want to detect (say 30 quarters or 30 Euro coins). Once the LED goes out it’s programmed! Connect a 10K (1K to 100K is fine) pullup resistor from the white wire to your microcontroller’s VCC line (for Arduino, this is a +5V). Insert a coin, and verify that the LED line pulses high for about 40 milliseconds.

• Power requirements: 12VDC (+- 20%)
• Quiescent current: ~25mA
• Peak current (for solenoid): 400mA
• Accepts coins from 10.8mm to 15.1mm in diameter, 1.2mm to 3.0mm thick
• Programmable for a single coin

There’s also a 4-coin model: Coin Acceptor – Programmable 4 Coin Type

XBee Internet Gateway Released for Macintosh, Windows and Linux! « Rob Faludi.

Connecting your XBee to the Internet just got simple. The new XBee Internet Gateway v1.5 runs directly on Windows, Macintosh and Linux computers! All you need is a single XBee with USB adaptor to put entire XBee networks online. With the XIG, you can turn any XBee into an Internet sensor module, create web-controlled motors , online indicator lights, and stream online data to and from any Arduino. Both 802.15.4 (Series 1) and ZigBee (Series 2) XBees are supported. You could create giant sensor networks, analyze and control distant equipment, scrape gossip from Facebook or simply flip switches in your own home! Download here – documentation here.

This will help you make your own Tweet-a-watt!

Digi XBee® Examples & Guides | Step-by-step Tutorials for Implementing XBee® Wireless Modules in Electronics Projects… via the Rob.

Our brand new Digi XBee Examples project site just went live! Check out  the first tutorials that Matt Richardson and Rob Faludi have published on Digi’s instructional library site: examples.digi.com.

This is fantastic! You can also get yourself an Xbee badge while you’re at it

John Biehler made this 3D case for his Xbee explorer dongle (also on Thingiverse).

Want to be featured on Flickr pool Friday? Add your Adafruits to the Adafruit Flickr pool.

from ApexLogic:

The fiber optic chandelier was inspired by one that was for sale on Ebay.com. The asking price for this assembly was over $1000.00. On top of the extensive price the features were also very limited. After some time brainstorming a design was set in place to achieve the following goals.

• Wireless control
• RGB color selection
• Custom Look

Lots more photos, build details and great tips for beginners on working with fiber on the website. All the code and schematics are on the code page. Nicely done!

A new configuration utility for Digi International’s XBee radios is available for Macintosh, Windows and Linux platforms from Moltosenso in Italy, and it’s free. According to their web site,Moltosenso Network Manager™ IRON enables the following tasks:

• full support to any API Operation mode (with and without escaped characters)
• get/set of the parameters of Digi International® modules plugged to the PC, both in API and AT mode
• get/set of the parameters of Digi International® modules remotely addressable
• an effective graphic test for RSSI parameter, especially tailored for XBEE™ modules
• firmware upload (local and – where available – remote) for many supported Digi International® modules.

We would like to introduce you to the largest collection of XBee projects on the Web. So many of you are using XBee radios to create amazing things, that we’ve created a place to feature your work. Musical shoes, digital dominoes, interactive sculptures and autonomous penguins await!

The Tweet-a-Watt is there!.

Office Bling By DairDair

Our offices have these little peek-a-boo sections in the frosted glass. Some people stick post-it notes up describing what’s going on with them, but I wanted something more complex. I had recently picked up the Adafruit “RGB backlight negative LCD” display and was evaluating the X-Bee radios and decided to make an “almost wireless” LCD display for the front of my office. It’s not very complex – using a Boarduino (Arduino) running a little sketch that has a few modes – static text, alternating text describing what I’m working on, plus a mode that cycles through a bunch of “Burma Shave” four-liners just for silliness. The modes and backlight color are controlled from my PC via the other X-Bee. People seem to like it, so I’ll probably commit it to a perf-board and get rid of all those ugly wires.

RGB backlight positive LCD 20×4 + extras [black on RGB]. To match our popular 16×2 RGB Character LCDs (http://www.adafruit.com/products/399 & http://www.adafruit.com/products/398) we’ve now added 20×4 LCDs! Get more text, with an RGB backlight. Both positive and negative type! This is a fancy upgrade to standard 20×4 LCDs, instead of just having blue and white, or red and black, this LCD has black characters on a full color RGB background! That means you can change the display background color to anything you want – red, green, blue, pink, white, purple yellow, teal, salmon, chartreuse. This LCD looks strikingly good in person. This LCD is the most daylight readable character LCD we have and is very beautiful and easy to read no matter what color/brightness you have for the backlight.

One nice thing about these LCDs is that they are an elegant upgrade, but you can use them in existing LCD projects and they’ll still work – just that only the red LED will be used (so it will appear black-on-red). The extra two pins (17 and 18) are for the green and blue LEDs. The LCD has resistors on board already so that you can drive it with 5V logic and the current draw will be ~40mA per LED (there are two LEDs, 20mA each). There’s a single LED backlight for the entire display, the image above showing 3 colors at once is a composite!

Comes with a single 20×4 RGB backlight LCD, 10K necessary contrast potentiometer and strip of header. Our tutorials and diagrams will have you up and running in no time!

In stock and shipping now.

Digi (maker of the Xbee) has a blog – check it out!

Why spend time in a crowded and cold times square when you can make your OWN Times Square LED ball? Perfect for new years eve, disco parties, weddings, raves, bar mitzvahs, or just a romantic night in. This DIY LED Disco Ball is made using Adafruit’s 12mm LED pixels, an Arduino and two 2.4GHz XBee’s (for wireless disco control!). The LED pattern is controlled by the open source graphics language, Processing so it works on Windows, Mac or Linux computers. The ball pattern is made of a dozen laser cut acrylic panels that are ziptied together and the hanging cord is also the power supply cable (HD video here).

We’ll have a full tutorial after the new year so stay tuned and get your leisure suit to the cleaners!

Contains:
12mm Diffused Digital RGB LED Pixels (Strand of 25) – WS2801
Arduino Uno R3 (Atmega328 – assembled)
XBee Module – Series 01 – XB24-AWI-001
XBee Adapter kit – v1.1
USB XBee Adapter

Github:
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-X2-Time-Ball

Master Control Project @ Transmissions from Planet Stephanie.

Last weekend I finally mostly-finished the project I’ve been working on, on and off, for the last several months. My Master Control Project, or MCP*, was designed to be a central controller and information display that would sit on my desk in my livingroom, and give me all sorts of useful information while allowing me to control various things.

The idea grew out of my DIY thermostat project – after getting a taste of what could be done with an Arduino and an ethernet connection, I wanted more!

This is so cool, check out the entire project post!

Ball of Dub via Arduino blog…

XBees + Arduinos at RadioShack. Rob writes -

This month Radio Shack is testing the waters for a return to its roots and the DIY revolution. Parallax is supplying 500 stores across the country with XBees, Arduinos and other maker-oriented components. If sales take off, the distribution will extend to Radio Shack’s 5,700 company locations and potentially to 4,500 other independent dealers.

This is an amazing opportunity to bring the innovative power of rapid prototyping directly to a broad audience of students, inventors, educators, weekend tinkerers and professional engineers. Here’s a complete listing of the Radio Shacks with XBees, Arduinos, etc. from Parallax. If you’re near one, then a visit along with a purchase could help put the wheels in motion for countless creative components to be available nationwide. Check the list and go!

A correction to Rob’s post we quoted here. Just to be very clear. Arduino is supplying the Arduinos to Radioshack!

And Parallax is supplying Basic Stamp and Propeller Microcontrollers as well as Xbee wireless kits, sensors (GPS,Altimeter, Gyro, Compass, PIR and Ultrasonic Distance sensor) human interface devices (Joystick, 5 position switch, LCD and servo) all are compatible with a wide range of microcontrollers, including Arduino.

Sorry for any confusion, we’ll email Rob too

Very cool – MoMA Acquires Botanicalls for Permanent Collection. Rob writes -

The Museum of Modern Art’s Architecture & Design Acquisition Committee has approved the addition of Botanicalls to the MoMA permanent collection. This means that after the Talk to Me exhibition closes, Botanicalls will join the likes of Eames chairs the BIC pen, Frank Lloyd Wright, and  Starry Night.

Flashing Xbees on Mac/Linux…

X-CTU is the primary utility for flashing new images on XBee devices. Windows Emulation on Mac and Linux…

XBee Internet Gateway 1.3: I/O & Push @ Rob Faludi’s site.

The latest version of the XBee Interent Gateway is available today. XIG 1.3.0 includes several groundbreaking features. First there’s a new I/O Sample mode. Starting today, an XBee radio can squirt sensor information directly into the cloud  with no external microcontroller or special configuration needed. There’s also a push feature that feeds serial information down to a remote XBee from the cloud. Again, no special configuration is needed. The XIG takes care of all the complicated stuff!

Looks cool!

Created by Didier Brun and Sid Lee for Adidas to help them promote the release of their sneaker collection MEGA, the team created a system that would allow dancers to create their own beat or music with their shoes. Although somewhat similar to Nike project by W+K and rhizomatiks, the Sid Lee team have seem to taken the concept a little further making a device like element allowing anyone to pick it up and have a play. The team also built an interactive installation in several Shops in France to allow others to play with the Megalizer.

The system is wireless, placed on each shoe (no cable running on the dancer’s leg, or belt case), efficient at a 6-7 meter range from the speakers. It includes very low latency (max 30ms), handling up to 6 shoes simultaneously. There are two force sensors for each shoe (one for the heel and one for the toe), and a wireless transmitter per shoe to capture the pressure applied on each of the sensors. The first transmitter prototype built was using a BlueTooth chip (class 3). Although the result was satisfactory at half-a-meter distance from the receiver, the latency increased with the distance. At 7 meters, the latency went as much as 1/8th second. Instead a XBee technology was used: with a low power consumption reaching minimum latency at a decent distance.

Each shoe includes A 6-pin dock to connect the sensors and charge the battery, a status LED, switch, 110 mah liPo battery, voltage regulator, XBee chip and a few resistors.
The software includes a server processing the receivers’ inputs (Processing) and an AIR application that interprets the signals, chooses and play the sounds. UI in the flash application is using Keith Petters Minimal Components.

Read more…

Light Switch XBee: Example Project by Rob Faludi.

Just finished documenting the latest example project. The Light Switch XBee is a wireless wall switch that can control lamps, fans, motors or your homemade robot using Digi’s XBee radio. It’s a model for almost any digital input device you’d like to build. If it goes on and off, you can make it wireless using this example as your guide!

Full PDF here…

Congrats Rob! Digi is very lucky to have you! Rob writes -

I just started a terrific new job! In July, Digi International invited me to join their R&D team as Collaborative Strategy Leader. My mandate is to forge stronger connections with the maker community, discover outstanding new work, help Digi contribute to those projects and support innovation in general.
Some of my cool new role will include:

• building a thriving developer community
• locating interesting new projects that can benefit from Digi’s support
• helping makers get their devices connected to the cloud
• driving the creation of new examples and kits
• helping developers publish, present, workshop and teach
• speaking at summits, panel discussions or other gatherings
• …and pushing the boundaries with some innovative work of my own

By creating this position Digi hopes to uncover new markets and design new products that engage inventors. We’ll be looking to shine a light on your extraordinary new creative projects. There’s incredible work coming out of design labs, hacker spaces, basements and garages these days. If you’re doing something excellent with XBee radios, or connected devices of any make (we’re brand agnostic), let us know what you’re doing and how we can help you!

As someone else mentioned on Rob’s site, we’d really like to see better naming for the Xbees. We really like series one and sell only those for now, but some customers are convinced that series 2, 3, 4 or 5 is the “newer version” no matter what. Then they buy elsewhere and can’t get stuff to work they way they expect it to.

XBee, series 1 802.15.4 protocol 1mW wireless module, is good for point-to-point, multipoint and convertible to a mesh network point. There are nearly a dozen different types of Xbees. We just carry this one (its the best for all-around wireless communication) in our opinion.

Rob posted a link to this handy chart, check it out ITS CRAZY… we also added this to our Xbee product page (dowmloads tab).

Rob suggest “celebrity maker” names, but we’re not sure that will work out But, since Rob is a well known maker, reads this site – we bet we can assist him, with your help! If you have ideas for better naming, post up in the comments!

Custom Controller V2. Patrick writes -

Hello adafruit industries. My name is Patrick McCabe and I am a 17 year old senior in high school. I was on the second  ”show and tell” of yours. I showed off my custom controller I made. I made it so I can provide input to my robots and get information returned. It contains a LCD, Xbee transceiver, custom LCD Arduino micro-controller backpack, 3 button inputs, a potentiometer, and a Wii Nunchuck circuit board with joystick. The buttons will allow navigation through the menu system and sending simple commands within the menu. The Wii Nunchuck will allow for manual control of a robot by using either the joystick or through tilting action read by the accelerometer. The potentiometer will allow variables like speed to be adjusted on a robot.

Digi Launches Wi-Fi Version of Popular XBee Module, we’re checking this out shortly!

Digi International (NASDAQ: DGII) today introduced the XBee® Wi-Fi, an embedded module that enables industry leading low power, serial-to-Wi-Fi networking in the popular XBee form factor.  Because of the XBee’s common footprint and application programming interface (API), customers can now create a single board design for wireless products that supports 802.15.4, ZigBee, ZigBee Smart Energy, 2.4 GHz, 900 and 868 MHz, Wi-Fi and proprietary DigiMesh protocols.  

“XBee modules offer developers tremendous flexibility and are extremely easy to use,” said Larry Kraft, senior vice president of global sales and marketing, Digi International.  “By adding a low-power Wi-Fi module to the XBee product family we give customers the fastest and most flexible way to get Wi-Fi up and running on their systems.”

Ideal for energy management, wireless sensor networks and intelligent asset management, the XBee Wi-Fi offers 802.11 b/g/n networking and flexible SPI and UART serial interfaces. Because the module includes the 802.11 b/g/n physical layer, baseband MAC and TCP/IP stack, developers can add Wi-Fi to their products simply by connecting to the XBee Wi-Fi’s serial port.  The XBee Wi-Fi is fully tested at manufacture and comes with modular certification for the U.S., E.U., Canada and a number of other countries, further reducing the time to market, development expense and design complexity.

More here…

“Minimal” Arduino/XBee/Pachube Sensor Network…

One or two people have asked in online forums for code from my sensor network, and while I’m usually happy to share, it’s full of a lot of extraneous stuff (RTCs, NTP, displays, thermocouples) that might not be of interest to everyone, but more importantly, that probably only obscures the fundamentals of XBee networking and communicating with Pachube.

So with that in mind, I cut out the extraneous stuff, and just left the bare essentials: A remote sensor unit which transmits a single reading from a photocell to a base unit which connects to the internet and forwards the data on to Pachube.

Ariel Rocholl has been working with Seed Studio on an affordable handheld spectrum analyzer called the RF-Explorer.

It’s a sort of Swiss Army Knife for monitoring, testing and diagnosing ISM band digital communications. It currently supports the 433Mhz, 868Mhz or 915Mhz bands and other bands in the works. The RF-Explorer is currently in beta with Seeed Studio.

I can see this coming in handy with my water meter reading project.

from Union Bridge Labs:

Part machine. Part monster.  The yarn monster eats raw yarn and excretes perfectly rolled yarn balls.  A wireless remote control allows for the adjustment of the speed at which the monster consumes your yarn.  Yarn Monster eats other yarn winders for breakfast.

…

The yarn winder is powered by a stepper motor, which is driven by an Easy Driver & Arduino Pro Mini.  The Arduino receives speed instructions via XBee from a remotely connected potentiometer.

The remote & controller boards were both designed in Eagle and etched using muriatic acid and H2O2.  Click here to view an image gallery that shows the etching process.

X-ray Xbee. Becky writes -

David Cranor put an Xbee radio in a CT scanner. Check out the closeup of the antenna!

Rob writes -

A new and significantly improved version of the XBee Internet Gateway is now available, thanks to Jordan Husney‘s hard work and mid-air inspirations. If you want to connect an XBee directly to the Internet, the new version 1.1.0 is the simplest method for facilitating that connection. XIG code runs on the ConnectPort X2 and will be featured in the “Over the Borders” chapter of my upcoming book.

Arduino shields – AN ADAFRUIT ELECTRONICS GIFT GUIDE! Shields allow you to turn an Arduino into things like music players, robots, wireless and more. Here is just a small sampling of 10 great shields to be given as gifts for friends, family or yourself! In our list we also indicated which ones are open source hardware.

Books to learn Arduino! – AN ADAFRUIT ELECTRONICS GIFT GUIDE! We consider these books some the best resources for learning Arduino!

Books to learn processing – AN ADAFRUIT GIFT GUIDE. We consider these books some the best resources for learning processing! Why processing? We’ve found that it’s the best way for people who want to learn programming to get started, they’re instantly able to run free open source software on Win, Mac and Linux and they code they learn can easily be applied to learning Arduino later!

The Xbee gift guide, go wireless! – AN ADAFRUIT ELECTRONICS GIFT GUIDE!. If you, a friend, or a loved one or family member wants to take an electronic project to the next level, the WIRELESS level – Xbee is a fantastic choice! What is Xbee? XBee modems are one of the easiest ways to create a wireless point-to-point or mesh network. They have error correction, are configured with AT commands, come in multiple flavors and can create a wireless serial link out of the box! We like to use them with Arduinos or with projects like wireless power meters.

If you, a friend, or a loved one or family member wants to take an electronic project to the next level, the WIRELESS level – Xbee is a fantastic choice! What is Xbee? XBee modems are one of the easiest ways to create a wireless point-to-point or mesh network. They have error correction, are configured with AT commands, come in multiple flavors and can create a wireless serial link out of the box! We like to use them with Arduinos or with projects like wireless power meters.

Some time ago we wanted to make a wireless Arduino project but all the adapter boards on the market were not that good. So we designed what we think is an excellent low-cost adapter board – we also carry a variety of products for getting started with Xbee, and that’s what this guide is all about! The Xbee gift guide!

If you’re giving Xbees as a gift before to consider that you usually need 2 Xbees and 2 adapters (and a cable or 2)…

For the products we stock we conveniently included our “add to wishlist” button! For today only the products we sell in this gift guide are 10% off (use code XBEE) on checkout.

Building Wireless Sensor Networks: with ZigBee, XBee, Arduino, and Processing by Robert Faludi
This book should be out soon! You can get “rough cuts” access now – Get ready to create distributed sensor systems and intelligent interactive devices using the ZigBee wireless networking protocol and XBee radios. By the time you’re halfway through this fast-paced, hands-on guide, you’ll have built a series of useful projects, including a complete ZigBee wireless network that delivers remotely sensed data. Radio networking is creating revolutions in volcano monitoring, performance art, clean energy, and consumer electronics. By following the examples in each chapter, you’ll learn how to tackle inspiring projects of your own. This resource- and reference-packed book is perfect for inventors, hackers, crafters, students, hobbyists, and scientists.

XBee Module. This is a XBee 802.15.4 protocol 1mW wireless module, good for point-to-point, multipoint and convertible to a mesh network point. There are nearly a dozen different types of xbees. We just carry this one (its the best for all-around wireless communication) If you need others we suggest buying direct from Mouser/Digikey, see here for more details. Please note we used to carry the chip antenna, but now have the wire antenna version. Its the same price but 50% more range because of the improved antenna, awesome!

XBee Adapter kit
This adapter board is designed to make adding wireless point-to-point or mesh networking easy. We looked at all the XBee adapter boards available and decided to design something better. The kit includes a PCB and all components necessary to build the adapter, unassembled. Tools are not included. This kit is really easy and will only take 15 minutes to build, even if you’ve never soldered before.

Arduino Xbee Shield. The Xbee shield allows an Arduino board to communicate wirelessly using Zigbee. It is based on the Xbee module from MaxStream. The module can communicate up to 100 feet indoors or 300 feet outdoors (with line-of-sight). It can be used as a serial/usb replacement or you can put it into a command mode and configure it for a variety of broadcast and mesh networking options. The shields breaks out each of the Xbee’s pins to a through-hole solder pad. It also provides female pin headers for use of digital pins 2 to 7 and the analog inputs, which are covered by the shield (digital pins 8 to 13 are not obstructed by the shield, so you can use the headers on the board itself).

USB XBee Adapter
This low cost XBee USB Adapter Board comes in partially assembled kit form and provides a cost-effective solution to interfacing a PC or microcontroller to any XBee or XBee Pro module. The PC connection can be used to configure the XBee Module through Digi’s X-CTU software. By using this adapter board you can provide an easy interface to the XBee or XBee Pro modules by converting the 2mm pin spacing to breadboard friendly 0.100″ spacing. The adapter board also provides a means to connect pluggable wires or solder connections and also provides mounting holes.

Tweet-a-Watt starter pack
Tweet-a-Watt is a DIY wireless power monitoring system. The project uses an ‘off the shelf’ power monitor called the Kill-a-Watt and adds wireless reporting. Each plug transmits the power usage at that outlet to a central computer receiver. The receiver can then log, graph and report the data. This pack contains nearly everything* necessary to build a single outlet monitor and receiver. To monitor additional outlets, you will need an add-on transmitter pack. One outlet can monitor up to 1500 Watts.

FTDI Friend + extras
Long gone are the days of parallel ports and serial ports. Now the USB port reigns supreme! But USB is hard, and you just want to transfer your every-day serial data from a microcontroller to computer. What now? Enter the FTDI Friend! The Xbee only communicative via TTL serial, so if you want to reprogram the Xbee using a computer you’ll need an FTDI Friend (or FTDI cable).

USB FTDI TTL-232 cable
This is a FTDI FT232RL usb/serial chip embedded in a cable that has a 6-pin socket at the end. Useful whenever you want to communicate with a TTL serial device, such as an XBee through a breakout board.

BONUS: As a nice gift for giftee, print out or store/send our Xbee tutorials. Pop them on a flash drive or print’em out!

REMINDER: For the products we stock we conveniently included our “add to wishlist” button! For today only the products we sell in this gift guide are 10% off (use code XBEE) on checkout.

If we missed any cool products, post’em up!

Automatic Halloween Candy Dispenser. Noel writes -

This year my Halloween project is the Automatic Halloween Candy Dispenser® triggered by TextforTreat®, CallforTreat® (powered by Twilio)and @TweetforTreat® technologies. Of course it can also be triggered from a Big Red push button, but where is the fun in that? When trick-or-treaters show up at my house they can text, call, or tweet a code displayed on an LCD screen to get their Halloween candy. They can also push the Big Red button. Once the candy request is made a few “special” effects are triggered by X10 modules. A low laying fog machine is activated and lights turn on while the candy shoots down from my front deck on the second floor.

This is “Papa-Goto” by Japanese artist Jarashi. He describes it as:

play dynamic cooking for men

I don’t know what that means, but I could watch that tomato thing all day.

Bonus — the same technology applied to traditional Japanese sword-drawing

Kit Review – adafruit industries XBee adaptor kit @ t r o n i x s t u f f…

Today we are going to examine a small yet useful kit from adafruit industries – their XBee adaptor kit. The purpose of doing so was to save some money. How? I needed another XBee USB explorer board to connect a PC to an XBee (as we have done in Moving Forward with Arduino – Chapter Fourteen), but they are around Au$33. However I already have an FTDI USB cable, so all I really need is this kit, as it will work with the FTDI cable. So this saves me around $20.

ZigBee Internet Gateway, Rob writes -

Just finished presenting the ZigBee Internet Gateway at Sketching in Hardware 2010, held at the Encounter dome at LAX airport. My presentation covered the basics of (essentially) bringing web services to the Arduino via a ConnectPort and XBee radios from Digi International. The Gateway is intended for use in schools, design firms, hacker spaces or art venues.

Rob’s book, Building Wireless Sensor Networks: With Zigbee, Xbee, Arduino, and Processing should be out in Sept as well. We’ll be stocking it of course!

Create wireless sensor networks and intelligent interactive devices with the ZigBee wireless networking protocol. With this fast-paced, hands-on guide, you’ll build a series of useful projects by the time you’re halfway through the book, including a complete Arduino- and XBee-powered wireless network that delivers remotely sensed data. This resource- and reference-packed book is perfect for inventors, hackers, crafters, students, hobbyists, and scientists.

Fun Xbee project… Gas Sensors Sniff Out Danger @ Design News…

Natanel Eizenberg decided to build a sensor module that would detect and measure carbon monoxide and methane to help ensure safe environments for his co-workers and family. But in addition to creating an alarm circuit, Eizenberg added a wireless link that communicates with a nearby PC. Adding a wireless gateway could extend monitoring and control operations to the Internet.

One of the features of Wiseduino is the ability to plug in an XBee adapter from adafruit, in the designated 10-pin female header (provided in the Wiseduino kit). The intention is for this header to be soldered on the back of the board, as shown in this photo…

Here is a python script I have been using to test the analog pin functions on the Xbee with the TMP36 temperature sensor. (all from the Adafruit shop). This code is from the Tweet-a-Watt page with temperature reading at the very end

In case you’ve not heard, there is a Green Revolution in progress. To quote a popular commercial, “The way we use energy now can’t be the way we use it in the future. It’s not conservation, or wind, or solar. It’s all of it.” I have long kept a solar-energy project in the back of my mind, so I ordered a 12v/2A solar panel power supply from a vendor. As a first step project, I figured I would power up my Arduino, use my shiny new XBee modules, and relay some sort of meaningful data back from this wireless solar-powered microprocessor.

Have you ever wanted to monitor how much voltage/current your small PV solar panels are producing? It is easy enough with a multi-meter, but what if you just want to monitor it remotely and log the data on your computer. This high level overview shows a xbee setup remotely logging a PV panels volts/amps to a mac laptop. It makes use of only 10 ohm resistor and 2 ADC ports. No additional microcontrollers were necessary for this example. The PV solar panel is made by Voltaic Systems and costs only $30 (it peaks at 10.2V @ .133A)

from adafruit.com/xbee this is one half of a two-way radio data link. photo: oly e3, 50mm f2.0 macro lens, raw capture mode and 2 passes of ‘neatimage’ for noise reduction (gives it that almost-synthetic clean look). subject was shot inside a DIY lightbox with a sheet of black plastic (ABS) as the base.

Last month, I built NewsAlarm - a modified smoke alarm wired into the NYTimes NewsWire API. It can be configured to sound in response to any keyword or keywords coming over the wire at a specific frequency; for example, you might set it to alarm when 50% of the headlines coming in contain the words ’space aliens’ or if 10% of the headlines include the word ‘evil robots’. It’s a pretty ridiculous device, meant to embody the equally ridiculous alarmism (pun intended) that permeates mainstream media.

The orginal NewsAlarm was hard-wired to the computer via an Arduino. It worked quite well, but it’s not very convenient – it can only get as far away from the computer as the wires allow, which is only about 5 feet. I wanted the device to be able to be a long way away from the computer processing the NewsWire data, and I also wanted one computer to be able to trigger multiple NewsAlarms. So, I looked into ways that I could connect the devices and the computers wirelessly.

The solution turned out to be the XBee – a cute little device that allows signals to be sent via 802.15.4 wireless. XBees are small, cheap, and can be combined to create simple mesh networks. Perfect! For the wireless NewsAlarm, 2 Xbees act as a transmitter and a receiver. A very simple serial signal is transferred from one XBee to the other when the alarm is triggered. Our system uses two arduinos right now, though it could be re-configured to use one and an FTDI cable.

Parts used (all from digikey, but available elsewhere as well): Standard relay, latching relay, 1N4001 (standard), PN2222 (or any NPN transistor), hex inverter 74HC04 (any inverter or buffer will do, suggest HC family)
Parts used from adafruit: 2 XBee series 1, 2 XBee adapters.
To configure, see “Configuring radios to pass Digital I/O”
The receiver schematic is here but note that its pretty ‘basic’ in that you’ll probably want to tweak it for your design anyways.

The transmitter is just an XBee adapter with two buttons on DIO1 and DIO2 to ground (it has internal pullups by default)

Using mightyohm’s tutorial to hack the ASUS router for use with the Tweet-a-watt – you don’t need a computer to report your power usage, just a hacked up Wi-Fi router (m4v).

Related:

The Tweet-a-Watt kit is a DIY wireless power monitoring system. The project uses an ‘off the shelf’ power monitor called the Kill-a-Watt and adds wireless reporting. Each plug transmits the power usage at that outlet to a central computer receiver. The receiver can then log, graph and report the data. This pack contains nearly everything* necessary to build a single outlet monitor and receiver. To monitor additional outlets, you will need an add-on transmitter pack. One outlet can monitor up to 1500 Watts.

Time for part 4 of the tweet-a-watt (the project formally known as ‘wattcher’) design documentation! In this section, we play with the Google visualization widgets to save us lots of time. I will show you how to take data from the Google App Engine datastore, turn it into JSON and then make it visualization-happy for nice Flash graphs. The code is also fully available in a google code repository so hopefully people with better software skillz than I can submit patches and help out.