I have a project (a tripwire-like system) that I need some very basic Arduino->Arduino wireless communication at up to about 300 feet.
Essentially what I'm doing is wiring up motion sensors that need to say "Yes, I tripped" back to a main control unit.
XBee seems to be overkill (in price and function) for such a purpose because I only need to send a tiny bit of data back (basically the ID of the sensor and that's it).
All I plan on doing is lighting an LED attached to the "controller" showing which sensor tripped.
Any recommendations as to what wireless stuff to look at?
As you can see it's not exactly rocket science. Several people are using it and it works just fine. And translating it to Arduino shouldn't be a problem either...
But perhaps the other one is better..I dunno?!
EDIT: Ah...forgot to mention...you could also look into the bluetooth option. It's more expensive but still a lot cheaper than xbee. I believe it's more stable plus you wont have to worry about a receiver setup if your pc is allready bluetooth capable...
They say the RFM12 will do "300m away in open air" for US$7.90 each (x 2 required)
Or, if you want "Up to 800m" ... the RFM22 is US$12.90 each (x 2 required)
The HM-TR (with TTL interface) is the last item on the page, at US$18.90 each (x 2 required).
(TTL interface - means you can connect this directly to the arduino)
Take note of the supply voltage requirements for each.
Mitch,
I've just had another look at this thread. The products recommended by Ron C appear capable of satisfying your requirements, and are cheaper.
Aniss1001's suggestion could also satisfy your requirements. I found an article on on/off keying (OOK) to help you. It's titled "Wireless Monitoring System" and regards a system very similar to your's.
What's interesting on that seedstudio page is the link to the VirtualWire Arduino library.
This library is cool in the sense that it provides wireless data communications using these cheap modules without using the Serial comms port of the Arduino, thus leaving it free for other usage.
The sent data also includes a "CRC checksum for message integrity".
Getting the hardware to work was definitely the easy part! Coming up with a communications protocol is quite a bit more difficult. Very doable, and I think these are going to work just fine for my purposes (after I create some sort of protocol for them to speak!).
The HopeRF stuff looks great and would be a no-brainer if I had a little more money to spend on the sensors. At almost $20 per transceiver it's significantly more expensive for this project (since the sensors themselves only really need to transmit). I'm going to pick some of those up anyway though. Thanks!
Coming up with a communications protocol is quite a bit more difficult. Very doable, and I think these are going to work just fine for my purposes (after I create some sort of protocol for them to speak!).
I suggest you take a close read of the article I mentioned in my post**"Reply #7 - 27.09.2009 at 12:46:13"**
Here's a link I read up on about using the RF kits, it doesn't use the Arduino environment but the same techniques will work: http://narobo.com/articles/rfmodules.html
Also, here's the PDF for Virtual Wire, not sure if it was mentioned or not. (I guess it is on the Seeedstudio page, but still:))
www.open.com.au/mikem/arduino/VirtualWire.pdf