Hi. I have a project in which I need wireless communication between multiple Arduinos, and stepper motor control at each Arduino.
I have not yet had my hands on an Arduino, but it looks like the idea is to use only one shield per Arduino. I'd like to use the XBee shield together with the Adafruit motor shield, but don't know whether this is possible. Or whether it would be easier to use a Bluetooth Arduino, in which case the motor shield would simply plug it.
I just have small amounts of data - simple control signals - to send between Arduinos, but I want the easiest system to implement and program for. I don't mind building a custom adaptor board if I really have to, but I am strapped for time with this project so am looking for the most straightorward approach.
I've done some prior projects with BASIC Stamps, but am new to Arduino, and so am greatly appreciative of any insights or information that might help - thanks!
Depending on the design of the shields, they may be stackable. The adafruit motor shield and the xbee shield are, unfortunately, not stackable.
I'm not sure what is involved in replicating the functionality of a adafruit motor shield, but the xbee shield is very easy to replicate. The xbee footprint is available in the Sparkfun library for Eagle, along with the Arduino sheild footprint.
Start with the Arduino shield footprint. Drop the xbee footprint on it, and hook up a few connections. Very simple. Then, add whatever you need from the motor shield, and order up some from BatchPCB. Quick and easy, and you've got a custom shield.
Meanwhile, you CAN breadboard everything on the motor and xbee shields.
I have the motor shield but not the xbee shield however I do have an xbee regulated breakout board. The motor shield can be made stackable if you use 'through headers' but if not then the analog pins are not used so you can use them with the newsoftserial library and make them virtuall serial porsts for the xbee. I have done that to great success.
The xbee regulated breakout board provides you with the DIN(RX), DOUT(TX), 5V and Gnd pins. It is then easy to connect it to anywhere on your arduino.
Since the Adafruit motor shield sounds like the more complex of the two, perhaps the simplest solution is to plug it onto the Arduino as intended, and then build a simple custom carrier board for the stacked Arduino/motorshield and the Xbee shield next to it. I need to end up with a clean, compact and physically sturdy solution.
I'm hoping there aren't conflicts between the Arduino pins needed by the motor shield and the Xbee, but intuitively I think that might be workable, no?