next topic »

[on:]

Hello, i got recently involved with arduino for my engineering studies and looking for some advice for my project! Still new to arduino so hope i can explain this right. Im thinking of delevoping a ''smart'' way of controlling my garden lights via my pc and 1 arduino. The arduino will be on only 1 ''master'' lamp and will have a bluetooth module and xbee module. Bluetooth module will be for the PC communication where i will be sending the commands with a Visual Basic program and the xbee module for communication between the other ''slave'' lamps. The other lamps will only have a xbee module and some sort of an actuator to turn on an led (for now). The thing that is buzzing me is that since both bluetooth and xbee module(mounted on an xbee shield) will both be connected with Tx and Rx pins(correct?) on the arduino would that cause any sort of communication confuse between those 2? Is the project feasible? Planning on using an Arduino Uno Rev3, 2-Xbees, 1-Xbee shield and a BlueSMirf bluetooth module. Other alternative if that doesnt works is use 3-Xbees instead of bluetooth

[Reply #1 on:]

It can be done.
The Arduino Mega 2560 has more serial ports, and the SoftwareSerial can create serial ports on normal pins on the Arduino Uno.
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/arduinoBoardMega2560
http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/SoftwareSerial

It can be done in (many) other ways.

For example the very cheap 433MHz modules could be used with VirtualWire.
Every slave has to be an Arduino.
http://www.open.com.au/mikem/arduino/VirtualWire/

An ethernet or wifi shield can turn the Arduino into a simple webpage.
So you could control the Arduino with any PC or a tablet.