Newbie girls needs help ^^ someone?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi guys,

My name is Danielle Mae and I'm working with people who are handicapped. I've read an article about Arduino and I immediately got excited about the things you can build with it. I bought a book, did some tutorials and I finally got my self a new hobby.

So I came up with a concept for the people I work with and I want to build a simple prototype to test with the users. I want to make a T-shirt (person 1) which can measure the object someone holds to their body. In my case the object should be different kind of teddybears. If the T-shirt detects is teddybear A it needs to send to another Arduino (person 2) which has vibration motors. The vibration motors needs to vibrate a sort of pattern that person 2 knows that person 1 is holding teddybear A.

I really don't know where to start, it doesn't have to be super high tech, but I really want to test this.
Does anyone have an idea how I can make this as simple as possible? I was thinking about using RFID tags for the teddybears and a reader for the T-shirt.

Thank you so much for your help!

Danielle

2

Are you allowed to modify the teddy bears? If so then you can use RFID tags in the bears and RFID readers in the shirts.

3

Yes I'm allowed to modify the bears! Is it possible to connect the RFID reader to an Arduino and vibration motors?

Thank you so much!!

4

Please makes sure that any responses to your thread on this topic in the Nederlands section are translated here, and vice versa.

5

A good source for RFID and vibration motors is SparkFun:

They have pretty good support, but we can help, too.

Your idea is very realizable.

6

A good source for RFID and vibration motors is SparkFun:

They have pretty good support, but we can help, too.

Your idea is very realizable.

Thanks for your advice! To connect an RFID reader to an Arduino do I need 2 Arduino's? Or can the reader communicatie directly with an Arduino?

7

It's a direct connection. Only one Arduino needed per shirt.

8

?
I see that having an RFID reader in the shirt (and hence an embedded RFID fob/card in the Teddy Bears) will tell that person's, who is holding the bear, shirt what bear they are holding/hugging...

but did anyone address sending this info from bear/shirt #1 to wearer/shirt #2?

bluetooth? wi-fi?

9

Well we don't really know the distance of the two people, so that question was left open for now.

Let's let her first get the RFID tags to work, then we can move on to the sending the info between Arduinos.
If she wants a two way connection that is within 30ft, then bluetooth is the way to go, but if person A is in New York and person B is in California, then obviously either WIFI or GSM/SMS will be needed.

10

I see that having an RFID reader in the shirt (and hence an embedded RFID fob/card in the Teddy Bears) will tell that person's, who is holding the bear, shirt what bear they are holding/hugging...

but did anyone address sending this info from bear/shirt #1 to wearer/shirt #2?

bluetooth? wi-fi?

That's probably my problem. I know how to connect my RFID reader to an Arduino (1/ so RFID tag sends information to the reader, reader send information to arduino 1) so if wearer 1 holds the bear close my arduino knows which bear wearer 1 is holding. But then there's the problem how do I send this information to wearer number 2? It would be perfect if this is wireless, but for testing it's not really necessary

11

This Idea sounds similar to Pillow Talk, http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/pillow-talk-pil-160039
Meaning what happens to one shirt, will be received by the other.

12

The pillow talk sounds interesting, but it doesn't have to be wireless :slight_smile: if I can test it with long wiring that would be good enough. Do I need 2 arduino's for this project?

13

Yes, you would need 2 Arduinos.

14

Thanks for your answer. So now I found a tutorial Arduino RFID Tutorial - YouTube
He connects a RFID reader to an Arduino and connects a LED as well to give feedback wether the RFID reader had recognised a tag. So now I thought that I could replace the LED and connect a vibration motor to it. Is this correct? and can I connect more than one motor to it? Or is this not possible because of the voltage.

15

Yes, you can have multiple motors, but within your power and size limits.

You might be able to get away with using those tiny cellphone vibrating motors by themselves, without the need for transistors. However being that the Arduino does not take kindly to feedback created by the motors, I insist you do use a transistor and a diode to prevent any damage to the Arduino.

Dont forget the resistors too.

16

What type of RFID reader do you have? (what communication/protocol?) SPI? Serial?

Using some HC-05 Bluetooth modules are dead simple to set up and use...

and only cost a few bucks a piece really..

that being said.. with the ESP8266 wifi module also only being a few bucks,.. its really up to you.

I have only played with the bluetooth modules a little bit.. (and with my cellphone as the 'other end')..

either route you go, I suggest taking some time to think about how connecting to either the local wifi network or the pairing/connecting of the Arduino/bluetooth modules is going to work for you...

Are these supposed to work 'on the go'? any place?

or be in a permanent location?

if the later.. then I think its much more easy.

you can load the wifi credentials from an SD card if you wanted.. (* guest network)

17

And then there are the RF24 modules, they give you ~40 feet LOS. That is for the NRF24L01+, without amp or LNA. They are on max PA power, 250kBPS

18

A word of caution. Do only simple projects.
The more complex the project, the more issues arise with Arduino.

They get really hot, blisteringly hot, when over worked.

Good luck. It can be fun.

19

SHAtoday:
A word of caution. Do only simple projects.
The more complex the project, the more issues arise with Arduino.

They get really hot, blisteringly hot, when over worked.

Evidence and definitions of terms, please.