Dear all,
I have an arduino controlled machine, with different temperature and power sensors that measure data, this data is then shown onto a screen.
I would like to know if it is possible to connect a bluetooth or wifi dongle which will allow the visualization of the collected data onto a mobile device or a computer.
If it is possible, how complicated is it to do it? I have little electronics knowledge, but I am keen to learn and try.
I will soon have another arduino board on which to test different new things, so I could use that to test modification to the machine, in order not to mess it up.
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Lorenzo
p.s. a further evolution of the machine would be to record and save all the collected data onto a file which I can visualize and play with in a spreadsheet. If you have comments on this, I'm all ears 
If you can see the data you want on the serial monitor, you can send the same data via bluetooth to an Android device for graphic display with little, if any, change to your code. Bluetooth is just another serial device and Arduino can't tell the difference. Cost is about $6, no electronics knowledge required.
Two apps worth noting are
Bluetooth Graphics Terminal
and
BlueGraph
I use the former, the latter is brand new and has quite a bit of promise.
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=319685.0
It is routine to save the data to SD as a CSV file for use in excel. I download these files to the phone via Bluetooth, and transfer to PC via WiFi. If you use an older version of Excel, you can send data direct using the PLX-DAQ macro. This essentially turns Excel into a terminal and means that you can have live graphs.
Hey Nick,
thank you so much for your reply and suggestions.
Would this transceiver, Foxnovo HC-06m, be ok for my needs?
I guess I could just connect them to the same pins on which the serial monitor is connected, correct?
As for saving and then transferring the data, I should get an SD card attachment, from your comment I gather that I can then use the same bluetooth transceiver to get the data from there onto my mobile device.
Will the programming required for saving the data be an issue? Or I could find tutorials around?
Something like this? https://sites.google.com/site/measuringstuff/data-storage-retrieval
I would be interested in seeing live graphs of my data, could I use libreoffice to do so?
Thank you again!!
restlessurfer:
Would this transceiver, Foxnovo HC-06m, be ok for my needs?
I guess I could just connect them to the same pins on which the serial monitor is connected, correct?
I would be interested in seeing live graphs of my data, could I use libreoffice to do so?
Yes, it will be fine, but most people get an HC-05, which can be configured as a master. Having a master might be useful in the future. The serial monitor is usually conncted by the USB cable, not to pins. It so happens that the hardware serial pins D0,D1 do share the same port, but this should not be a problem.
As for saving and then transferring the data, I should get an SD card attachment, from your comment I gather that I can then use the same bluetooth transceiver to get the data from there onto my mobile device.
Correct. The terminal on Android can receive live data and download stored data on demand.
Will the programming required for saving the data be an issue? Or I could find tutorials around?
Something like this? https://sites.google.com/site/measuringstuff/data-storage-retrieval
Well, certainly not there. I submit that article is extraordinarily bad. It tells you all you don't need to know and nothing about the simple stuff that everybody uses to far better effect. The bleeding obvious for data storage is to use an SD card. This surely won't surprise you, and the programming required to do so is quite straightfoward, indeed not much different from sending stuff to the serial monitor, or bluetooth.
I would be interested in seeing live graphs of my data, could I use libreoffice to do so?
That is what the Android apps do. It is also possible with Excel. I have never heard of libreoffice
Have a look at this RemoteXY thread and my EzScrn demo.
...R
Thank you again!!
I will get an HC-05 then and I will try to install it. Same goes for the SD adapter.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Cheers
Hey Nick,
tops!
Thank you so much for your help. The guide looks great.
As soon as I receive the parts I'll get into it and will let you know how it goes.
Cheers again!
Lor
Hey Nick,
I wanted to thank you again for your help.
The bluetooth connection works perfectly, as you said it is super easy to set it up.
I got an SD shield too and I will test it ASAP.
Cheers
Lor