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[on:]

Hi!

In a future project I'm going to need a good, wireless solution to send information from an Arduino to a LCD-display. It'll need to have a range of about 200 meters( with no obstacles).

What is the easiest and best way to solve this?
Just give me any tip that might work.

EDIT: Is it possible to this system: http://www.robotshop.ca/dfrobot-rf-modules-pair-3.html
And in that case: How?

Thanks,
Jimmy

[Reply #1 on:]

jimutt:

You have to do this in small (???) steps.

Start out with an Arduino driving an LCD such as shown in the tutorial at http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/LiquidCrystal.

Modify this setup so that you can display messages sent from your computer using Serial.read().

Get another Arduino, wire the two serial ports together so that messages generated by this second Arduino are displayed on the LCD driven by the first Arduino.

Replace the wire link between the two Arduinos with the (expensive) RF link that you have referenced.

Don

[Reply #2 on:]

You'd find it far easier to have the arduino attached to the LCD and communicate with the arduino wirelessly.

You could get a wifly shield, which allows the arduino to connect to a wireless LAN (you may need a directional antenna, but you can make your own using pringles cans), or you could get a pair of xbees, but this is likely to be more expensive as you'll need a pair.

[Reply #3 on:]

Floresta: My LCD arrived today so I'm gonna test it soon.
I don't think that the programming part will be any problem I just need some ideas about what hardware to use.

Well, I'm probably gonna go with the "two-arduinos-and-RF link" method. But as you wrote the RF link I found is quite expensive. Do you have any ideas on other RF links that's cheaper and still easy to use with the Arduino?

[Reply #4 on:]

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8946

There are receivers and transmitters, just get a couple of each, very cheap. What serial data you put on the transmitter is seen on the receiver, just make the link slow enough and do some sort of error correction or checksum.

Not sure if that's all you need for communicating with the LCD, or whether you need a full ardunio on the lcd end, but there you go.

[Reply #5 on:]

... or whether you need a full ardunio on the lcd end, but there you go.

Why didn't I think of that?  

You can get a serial and/or I2C "backpack" for the LCD and you wouldn't need the Arduino at that end.  The programming would probably be a lot easier as well.

Don