Ethernet and APC220

Projects General Guidance
1

Good evening all!

I have been a long time lurker and have found this forum a wealth of knowledge, so to start off a big thanks to all who contribute!

The project I need some pointers on if anyone would be so nice to comment is one I like to call "Auto coop 5000". We recently got some chickens so I took this opportunity to add a "Wallace and Grommit" touch. I had a hunt on the net and found a guy who had done exactly (well nearly) what I was looking for. http://filear.com/?p=181

I soon set to work and now the chicken coop is now fully automated after a few tweaks of the code and once I had added my engineers touch but this was not enough. My lady then started looking at holidays and the thought of leaving the chickens unattended gave me the idea of getting Auto coop 5000 online!

Right now for the "please help me bit"... I have the coop running an Uno R3 board which I have connected to a APC220 RF module where I can keep a track on using the serial monitor on the IDE from inside the house on Pc no problems but I am now looking to connect this to an Ethernet shield so I can view the code (just to start with) from a webpage and check that all is ok from a far. I know I need to set static IP and port forward but that's not the issue as I want to get this working locally first.
I have done much googling and not found anything about connecting an APC220 RF module to an Ethernet shield, I have hooked it up using the sample sketch 'WebServer' and I can read the sample on my local network but I want to be able to read what's going on in the coop on the other board via the RF module using digital pin 0 (RX) and 1 (TX).
First off is this feasible, Coop via (Uno R3, APC220 to Uno R3, APC220, Ethernet, Online) and if so any idea what sort of code I need to run in the latter Uno to read the serial monitor as I am only using the RX and TX pins?
Sorry if this seems a bunch of dribble and a potentially pointless project but I have not seen anyone connect APC to Ethernet in this way, sure It has been done but I cannot find any pointers.

Many thanks in advance and keep up the good work!

2

Are you currently using the APC220 successfully?

If not treat it is two separate tasks. Get the APC220 working then the Ethernet and then combine them.

I have played with the APC220 and found the EN to require a capacitor to ground to work. Also the Rx on the Arduino goes to Tx of APC220 and Tx of Arduino to Rx.

Weedpharma

3

Thatnks for your reply.

Yes I have the APC220 working through pc and IDE serial monitor and I also have the Ethernet sheild working seperatly with the example sketch, it's when connecting the two together I'm not sure what I need in the code to able me to view the serial monitor via the APC220 TX and RX pins from the remote Uno. Is all I see through the serial monitor is the sketch running on the Ethernet sheild.

I am kind of requesting some help with code, have I posted this in the wrong section on the forum?

4

I am not quite sure of what you are actually trying to do. Am I correct that you have:

Data from the coop going to the house via APC220 working
At the house you have Ethernet working to,the world.

You want to program an interface between the data from the coop to the Ethernet card.

Weedpharma

5

Spot on, that's exactly what I'm looking for. Just want to be able to read the same data you would see in serial monitor from coop to a web page.

Many thanks.