WiNet Kit

John asked me about putting together a remote weather station in the bedroom, so he wouldn’t have to trek all the way downstairs to check the computer before getting dressed in the morning. Dominik mentioned a portable “shopping list” device that he could place right by the fridge. This way, he could click a button on the screen whenever he was out of milk or eggs, which would upload to a computer wirelessly. On the next trip to the grocery store, he can click “send list” on the screen, and the list gets sent to his phone as an email or text.

The list goes on, and personally, I think wireless, like blinking lights, just makes everything a litte more fun. So Mike and I put together a kit for wireless network kit, or the “WiNet Kit”. The WiNet kit comes with an Arduino and Xbee shield for the base station that’s connected to your computer, and a TouchShield Slide, DoubleTall ExtenderShield, MeCap Backpack , Arduino and Xbee for the remote station.

The WiNet Kit talks to the PC from up to 200 feet through walls and much further outdoors. It’s great for wireless sensor logging or remote user input.

Getting the Xbees to talk to each other can be tricky sometimes, but there’s no digging through datasheets and programming APIs to set this one up. Mike pre-programs each WiNet Kit so the two zigbee devices are already paired with each other. Simply Serial.print() all the wireless data you want!

Software

WiNet Kit Test Code ( WiNet1.gdt ) – Example code for the Antipasto Arduino IDE with all the serial setup to talk.

Contents

• 2 Arduino Duemilanove
• 2 Arduino XBee Shields
• 1 TouchShield Slide
• 1 Double Tall ExtenderShield
• 1 MeCap Lithium Backpack
• Precut wires (2 red and 2 black)
• Preprogrammed XBee Shields

Media

Instructions