Meeting with our Specialists 6

Post No. 11

Tutor(s) present: Yee Siang

I have added a label and separated my sessions between idea and technical posts.

I discussed my technical concerns about how bluetooth is limited and I would connect my boards to to the computer.
YS then suggested I stick to wifi connections because BlueTooth had latency- it lags when it sends and receive signals.

We also decided how I would need to get a Lilypad board instead of reusing my Adafruit Flora.
Reason why: My Adafruit Flora could not support wifi signals.

There are several types of Lilypads, so I did some research and discovered that I had to get the one called Lilypad Xbee, which is made to connect to the Wifi Xbee board.

X-BEE 

The one on the left is the Xbee with the Trace Antenna, the one on the right is the Xbee with the Built-in Antenna. Basically its just the one on the left, but it has an a black antenna soldered into it. I proceeded to find the difference.

One of the comment by the name of SteveCh clarified this with his comment made 2 years ago the difference between Printed Circuit Board and :

 "No RF-way to solder on an antenna where there already is an antenna. Disrupts the impedance. There are XBee’s with u.FL connectors so you can plug in a coax going to a variety of antennas.

PCB(Printed Circuit Board) antenna to me means antenna formed by copper traces on the XBee. That’s what’s talked about in the WRL-11215. There is/was an XBee with a similar antenna, in the form of a (blue) silicon chip antenna that mounts on the PCB. That kind of chip antenna is widely used in WiFi and Bluetooth. The antenna has poor/negative gain and an irregular radiation pattern. The PCB trace antenna is likely very similar to the chip antenna, but less costly.

The wire antenna, if you have the space, and if the XBee isn’t inside a ferrous metal box, is the best choice. If in an aluminum box- you may be surprised as to how RF-transparent aluminum is, vs. steel."

Antenna, Antennas, Antennae...

• Chip Antenna – Basically a small chip that acts as an antenna. Quick, easy, cheap, not in the way. These are being phased out in favor of trace antennas, which are essentially the same but printed directly to the circuit board.
• Wire Antenna – Well its a small wire sticking up, a little more of what you think of when you think of antenna.
• u.FL Antenna – A tiny connector to connect your own antenna, this is great if your object is in a box and you want your antenna outside the box.
• RPSMA Antenna – A bigger connector to connect your own antenna, once again great if your object is in a box and you want your antenna outside the box.
• Trace Antenna – Also called a PCB antenna, these are formed directly on the module with conductive traces. 

They perform about the same as wire antennas.This entire text is found from the Xbee Buying guide from Sparkfun here. It cleared up alot of confusion! 

After reading all and comparing all of them, I wanted to get the PCB antenna. Its antenna is embedded into the chip. But after much research, the Trace Antenna is the PCB!  (got stock) It might be the more likely one to be bought. (8pins)

There's a question on StackOverFlow regarding multiple receivers of multiple Xbees.
Here.

Here's a video tutorial on Xbees: Here

Through this tutorial I discovered that I would need to connect my Xbee to an API ROUTER, because I'm going to be using more than one device. Through his tutorials, I also discover that I needed to download a software called X-CTU to upload to the wifi boards.

I called and checked their stocks, There's only one left in MyDuino!

As you can see the one on the left is the LilyPad Xbee and the one on the right is the LilyPad Arduino. The LilyPad Xbee has two rows of sockets that could nicely slot the Xbee wifi board.

I might also need to buy The LilyPad Arduino as the Main board and connect it to the LilyPad Xbee. So I might need both.

Here are more details on the Lilypad Xbee and each ports' functions.

DETAILS ON LILYPAD XBEE

More tips on how to connect both of the main board and xbee wifi together : Here and Here

Here's the tutorial on how to link my boards via wifi and connect it to a Router which I fortunately could borrow for free from a friend who wasn't using it anymore.

TUTORIAL TO LINK LILYPAD TO COM VIA WIFI

The battery

So for the batteries to power my wireless device, YS suggested I go for a 5V Power supply.

The one below is the Lilypad Power Supply DEV-11259. It runs on AAA batteries and is easy to switch. However, it is very expensive to ship and it takes a month. This board amps up the voltage to 5V, from the 3.3V the AAA battery gives.

The wiring is not messy. Below is map that connects to the microphone I plan to sew into the glove. This is the mic that could detect the volume and initiate the installation. It's called the Electret Microphone Breakout.

Therefore, I opt the second option, which is to get a Lilypad LiPower. It's smaller too. This little extension also amps up the voltage to 5V, my ideal amount of voltage. Below are some of the examples for wiring the board with the LiPower and the Polymer lithium battery.

This Polymer Lithium Ion battery - 400mAh has 3.7V but it will be amped up to 5V from the Lilypad LiPower above. It comes with the JST cable too, the one that is red and black in color. The wire goes into the white socket in the image above to power it.

 Below are some examples of how to wire the Lipower to the LilyPad.

They are using Arduino Lilypad for the picture above.

The wiring 

First I would need conductive thread, this would act as the wires.
This one in particular is only $5 and its 30ft. The Conductive Thread Bobbin.

I had one question, do I need an extra board Arduino Lilypad to connect to the accelerometer like the wiring map below, or could I just attach it to the Xbee? And the answer is YES, YES I DO. I can feel my wallet getting colder already.

This images are from a tutorial from here. They are communicator cuffs.

Feedback 

I probably would also need the lilypad tri-color LED as feedback on the glove.

Below is a vibration motor. A prompt to get the users start Fist Pumping.

I researched thoroughly. I don't wanna be cheap and naive like the last time. For livetags, we actually bought the wrong board. Waited 3 weeks for it. But since my mom is going over to Singapore next week, I could ask the shop to deliver it to her office like the last time I did for the Adafruit Flora.

Basically, this is the closest map I could find to what I need. Without the extra LED's at the pinky and ring finger.

I got this map from here.

Here's a really good tutorial site as well: HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT

I did a calculation to my overall budget for one glove, and it came to RM407. Looks like its gonna be just one player. SO EXPENSIVE. My budget is 500. That's it. It's gonna be just one user.

The Xbee board may not be available in Singapore, but it could be bought at MyDuino Malaysia.

Apparently I need an xBee connected via usb to my computer to send the signals out to the other xBees. That means if I want two users, I need to have 3 xBees. 1 for my computer, and two for the remotes. So, yeah my budget already reached 500+ before even starting on the project.



References

Fusion-artist, (2010). Marco's XBee Tutorial. [online] Available at: http://fusion-artist.com/XBee/XBeeTutorial.htm [Accessed 18 Jul. 2014].

HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT, (2010). XBEE DIRECT (MULTIPLE XBEE – XBEE- COMP). [online] Available at: http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=270 [Accessed 18 Jul. 2014].

Lilypad XBee, (n.d.). LilyPad XBee. [online] Available at: http://lilypadxbee.faludi.com/about-board/ [Accessed 18 Jul. 2014].

Sense/Stage, (n.d.). Using your own Arduino-XBee combination. [online] Available at: http://sensestage.hexagram.ca/using-your-own-arduino-xbee-combination [Accessed 18 Jul. 2014].

Sgbotic, (2014). Singapore Robotic. [online] Available at: http://www.sgbotic.com/index.php [Accessed 14 Jul. 2014].

Smart Citizen, (2014). MANUAL SETUP : THE SERIAL WAY. [online] Available at: http://smartcitizen.me/posts/view/10 [Accessed 18 Jul. 2014].

Sparkfun, (n.d.). XBee Buying Guide. [online] Available at: https://www.sparkfun.com/pages/xbee_guide [Accessed 18 Jul. 2014].

Stackoverflow, (2014). swing - How to Send and Receive Multiple XBee's Packet in Java Properly. [online] Available at: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24632318/how-to-send-and-receive-multiple-xbees-packet-in-java-properly [Accessed 18 Jul. 2014].

YouTube, (2013). XBee Basics - Lesson 1 - General Information and Initial Setup. [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odekkumB3WQ [Accessed 18 Jul. 2014].