How to be very happy when communicating serial wireless low tech

sfe-rf-link-2400bps-315mhz-B.jpg

Since I discovered this:

https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/5916

all has changed! I was blind, but now I can see. And I can program!

On Picaxe, in order to send with these modules, use this code:

testsender:
for b0 = 0 to 255
high 3 pause 3 low 3 pause 1 serout 3,N2400, (85, 85, b0)
pause 200
next b0
goto testsender

and to recieve, use this code:

testreciever:
serin 7, N2400, (85,85), b0
sound 0, (b0,10) low 0
goto testreciever

- Of course adapted to your own setup etc.

The important parts here are:

high 3 pause 3 low 3 pause 1 serout 3,N2400, (85,85...

and

serin 7, N2400, (85,85...

Because with that combination all together, the reciever is left most happy in all states, and the result is 100% rock steady. Like in not a single bit lost in a thousand!

***

Bonus tip:

A) Hook up a speaker to your MCU

B) Send sound to it in a loop

C) Take off the speaker, and hook up the sender

D) Power up the reciever, and on the out-pin, hook up the speaker (and other wire to ground on the reciever)

Now do you hear sound from the reciever, punk? If not, you can rest assured that your recieving MCU will not get any signal either :)

Yes, you can start your own little radio station with these ;)

***

(Note that this post has changed, some of the comments below may be from earlier)

cool howto

This walk through is so funny, it ought to be in your blog as well!

Thanks. This will be the first page I revisit when I start experimenting with radio communications.

If only it were that simple

And even then, I would hesitate to make us all alike in here. We should be proud of our diversity. (And I know we are proud.)

I blame TV for my English education. And the spell checker in Firefox you pointed out to us.

It’s not even the English

It’s your way of describing the tech stuff that obviously is just outside your grasp. I love to see you learn and teach at the same time.

More people should do that. Better than pirated brain upgrades.

This is all clearly inside
This is all clearly inside my grasp! I am totally down with robots, chips and stuff! I repell your attack!

Sure it is NOW

I said “just”, didn’t I?

Seriously: I like the howto. For all of it: language, recognizing the learning curve, the teaching AND the cool KISSS. (The extra S is for serial, put it where ever).

(you said “outside” :slight_smile:
(you said “outside” :slight_smile:

There has got to be a cleaner way…

I am first wondering if one could run 2 PWM motors off of serial data. Could I hook 2 pots to ADC’s on the transmitter and send something like this?

serout 0,N2400,(value1(motorA),value2(motorB))

I could set up a good loop so the receiving robot would get a constant stream of data.

Question:

With what I am doing, noise or “init. codes” just won’t work… Is there a better RF system to use? I know we are talking more money, but I gotta have a clean signal. Easy radio, maybe?

uhm i’ve purchased a couple

uhm i’ve purchased a couple of them too (a receiver and a trasmitter). Very cheap, but time wasters and very low performances.

i heartly suggest Xbee modules :slight_smile:

Easy radio is rock solid!I

Easy radio is rock solid!

I do not see why you could not be able to send the motor-string, this is what it is all about!

Time wasting or not; These

Time wasting or not; These are EXTREMELY cheap, and I found the challenge of making it work fun. Wasted time? Not to me, fun time :slight_smile: And now I present you the way that I did it.

If you want to spend money and is more interested in steady communication, yes, I also recomend Xbee or Easy Radio!

However, understand where I came from: I was experimenting with light pulsing and magnetic field pulsing from one robot to another - trust me, that was unstable :smiley: To me, it was / is fun to have this feeling that I now have made this vry low tech radio-link work.

If I get tired of the game, and if it get’s unstable and so is obstructing the rest that I am doing, I will just insert a “boring” and expensive serial module!

My God Frits,this sounds

My God Frits,

this sounds almost, dare I say it? “Techie…”

first BOA goes Arty drawing pictures, now your getting geeky, finding all the details on how to make an under-built radio module work!

Well, more power to you … I’m curious how it will all pan out…

Who know what’s next … Dogs and Cats living together in harmony?

Cool,I’ve been experimenting

Cool,

I’ve been experimenting on serial communication between a computer and an Arduino - so that the code is on the computer - and the wireless is between computers (wifi)

The range is pretty good and apparently tcp/ip is
supposedly robust enough to work after a nuke …

but i have not tested that part… yet :slight_smile:

Frits, you nailed it…
I am playing with the same "serial over distances" issue however, I am using IR instead of RF. It seems I had the same problem of crap data coming out at the begining of a send. Badda-boom-badda-bing, I included the little "warm-up code" to my sends and damn, all is good! I am using the standard picaxe IR set-up (hardware) into a serin and (off of a 2nd chip) I am sending my info via the PWM output (set to 38,000 hz) and a standard output spitting out serout. All is simply good… --Data in, Data out.

I am king of this, totally :smiley:
I am king of this, totally :smiley:

**Good! **
You can give me some advice about video over wireless :stuck_out_tongue:

fritsl…
You have had experience with easy radio, Would they be enough to carry video?

I have only tried their

I have only tried their serial products (Which now is completely overpriced and there is no need to use them compared to these that only cost a few dollars)

For video, have a look at their webpage: http://www.lprs.co.uk/index.php?cPath=24

Alright Frits the 85 thing…

This I like:

Because with that combination all together, the reciever is left most happy in all states, and the result is 100% rock steady. Like in not a single bit lost in a thousand!

However, I am a bit confused with the qualifier "85". Is this specific to your new system working? Did you graduate in 1985 and just like the number? And why twice?

Bottom line: Why are you using 85 as a qualifer and why are you qualifying it twice?

85 because I think it’s by

85 because I think it’s by chance a series of high/lows - so it seams like a good choice. Any number (0-255) would do, I suppose.

Twice because I made a choice that i’d rather be safe than having a wrong bit. One time could do it - even no qualifier could.

 

I had my doubts if I should omit the qualifier in the info, but you are right; It’s not that part that is important, it’s the high/lows before the serial, and it is the use of N instead of T - and N on both.