I've just priced all the available options: Ethernet shields, WiFi sheilds, XBee (which I could make work I think)...and it's all really just too expensive.
I need to keep the price of the finished project super super cheap.
Is there another way to get this done? I guess the short question is "what is the cheapest way to maintain comms between PC and the ardunio?"
I guess I could just use a super long USB cable and use the serial data? That seems ghetto though...there's got to be a cheap way to do ethernet?
Can't you can get an old - win95/98 - PC/ laptop from a digital scrapheap for free. Connect the Arduino to its serial port and use the PC's network card ...
It takes some tinkering (python/php/...) but it could be the cheapest solution - not energy efficient although
... but if you go that route... and many other Ethernet i/f modules are like this... you will need a source of 3.3v for the Ethernet i/f. (Of course, if you are using a Mega, it has an onboard 3v3 generator.)
One of the advantages of following unit is that it only needs 5v (it has a 3v3 generating circuit onboard)...
Why not try DMX (RS-485), unique addressing, 32 nodes per master, and there is an absolute wealth of pc->dmx devices out there, you can even use the arduino as an opendmx interface
Fascinating. Do you have a good reference for getting started? Simple web search reveals lots of complex details, but nothing that really explains it from a high level, like with maybe some easy tutorials.
If you have a search of the old forum, there is a few threads going into it, like you when i started playing with I found next to nothing to get me started.
When I get time i'll dig out the code I used with an example.