At the very beginning of this project, we planned to use Xbee to set up a wireless communication between Arduinos. We spent some days to figure it out, but we were running out of time and money, so we gave it up at last.
But we still want to share our experience with you.
-About the equipment-
1.Xbee shields
To connect the Xbee with Arduino(We are using Arduino Uno), you need a Xbee shield standing above the Arduino board unless you hack the Arduino board. There are many kinds of Xbee shield on market, such as Sparkfun and Adafruit. We bought from Seeed Studio since it is more closer to us:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/xbee-shield-v20-p-1375.html?cPath=98_16
BTW. you need to solder the pin onto the board by yourself if you also buy it on Seeed Studio.
This is where we soldered the board: The EE Lab!
2.Xbee explorer/adaptor
Before the Xbee works with Arduino, you will have to configure the Xbee so to make sure the Xbees you are using are in the same channel and have same ID address. And you need a adaptor to configure Xbee which links your Xbee to the computer, and so that you can change specific parameters of your Xbees. This linking thing can also be purchased by many ways. And we still bought it on Seeed Studio. The link is as follows,
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/uartsbee-v4-p-688.html?cPath=63_66
3. Xbee modules
Of course you need Xbee modules. Basically, you can classify them into two kinds, series1 and series 2(S1 &S2). We used S1, and based on our research, it seems that S1 will be easier to configure.
4. Arduinos and sensors you wanna play with
-About Configuration-
We don’t have much knowledge about networks, so we can’t explain the theory technically and professionally. Anyway, what we understand is, configuration is like name the Xbee with the same, so that they can know each other and begin to communicate.
As i have mentioned under the “-about the equipments-“, you need an adapator/expolorer to link the Xbee with the computer. And also you need a terminal software on your computer. On WIN XP/98.. you can download X-CTU; As for WIN7, it will be PuTTY. I used mac, so CoolTerm will be fine.
If you wanna know the steps of configuration, you can go to these webpages and have a look. They are very helpful in my opinion.
http://www.jeremyblum.com/2011/02/27/arduino-tutorial-9-wireless-communication/ (PuTTY)
http://www.hughesy.net/wp/arduino/new-easier-xbee-for-mac-lion-os-x-10-7-with-arduino/ (CoolTerm)
-About Coding-
Here’s where we failed… And…We have no idea why it goes wrong, because we completely follow the tutorial video. IT JUST DOESN’T WORK.
CMC ALL AROUND YOU 