Hi. I'm planning for a project based on wireless xBee communication and consisting of 3 robots. I was planning to buy an arduino uno , an arduino xBee shield and an XBee 2mW Series 2.5 Wire Antenna for each robot.
I recently came across this arduino fio , how can it help me in reducing my costs and what features it adds compared to uno ? is its interfacing to xBee different ?
which 1 should i go for ?
Perhaps you could describe what information you expect the 3 robots to be passing between themselves.
The FIO eliminates the need for the XBee shield.
The FIO's disadvantage is it's slower clock speed (8 MHz vs 16MHz on the UNO). It is also a 3.3V board, so the input voltage to run it is 3.35V to 12V, although 12V will waste a lot of energy (as heat).
Basically I hav a PC and 3 robots . The robots hav sensors such as obstacle detection, tilt sensors, etc...
I will poll each of the robots from my PC and the sensor data should be sent back to the PC (data sent back is approx. 3 to 5 integer values which will be stored in the microcontroller)
Also the PC should send some data to the robot(this data is an integer that is used as a control information by the robot)
If the robots don't need to talk to each other, then the Series 2 radios are not the right choice. The Series 1 (point to point or point to multi-point) are easier to configure/get to work.
ok thank you. But can I do the above mentioned task using the series 2.5 , because when compared to the series 1 the cost difference is less, so why not go for a better one ? I have no idea how difficult the configuration of xBee modules are , Is that difficult (I'm not a h/w person and this is my first project on wireless comm. 
) ?
So now can you sum up what all i will need when using the arduino fio.
I guess its an arduino fio + xBee module .
Regarding the clock speed I'm not sure how much difference it'll make :-/ . I need my robots to be fast enough because there are 3 of its kind and the PC is constantly polling for data and sending data, I want the robots to keep moving and not stop for a long time for just communication purpose... 
The best tool for the job is the one that gets the job done. Series 1 and Series 2.5 modules do different jobs. That the Series 2.5 is more expensive should be a deterrent, not a benefit.
So now can you sum up what all i will need when using the arduino fio.
I guess its an arduino fio + xBee module .Regarding the clock speed I'm not sure how much difference it'll make . I need my robots to be fast enough because there are 3 of its kind and the PC is constantly polling for data and sending data, I want the robots to keep moving and not stop for a long time for just communication purpose...
Answers please???
Answers please???
What was the question?
edit: sorry for the thread resurrection . i just got this info and plug it in without looking at the date. its valid info which isn't wildly known, so for posterity.
edit2: i found this hack that calims to make ver 2.5 work with the Fio. untested. (via a sparkfun comment)
according to the Fio programming page it is not compatible with ver 2.5 of XBee
You can't use the DigiMesh or ZB series radios (aka Series 2 or 2.5). Those modules do not allow for automatic IO Line Passing that is required for toggling the reset pin when programming.
regardless of version they both communicate @ 250Kbps which should be more then enough, for basic robot comm.