I am planning on making multiple arduinos portable and carried on person but need a wireless connection to each other, not the internet. They are for a drum line lighting project. Is there any good interface that is compact enough to connect more than 2 (Particularly 13) arduinos together without an internet connection?
one master, 12 slaves?
As far as I know, if you consider the low power, you could try nordic nrf51822 bluetooth solution to co-work with arduino.
In early softdevice 7.0 for nordic, it could ONLY support 1 master and 8 slaves in maximum although the bluetooth spec does not have such limitation.
The good new is sith latest nordic release, this has been solved.
Of course, TI should also have such solution for this.
As, Wifi, it would be more easier if there is a module can be configured as both AP or slave. But the power consumption will be 10 times higher than the bluetooth ones
You should have no difficulty with multiple communication using NRF24 transceivers.
@ringwill_fusionwire, is there a breakout board for the nrf51822 chip?
...R
@Robin2 Yes, I found it on Seeedstudio
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/BLE-Nano-module-p-2549.html?cPath=19_21
But it seems a littel expensive, I have made a PCB myself and it ONLY costs 5 dollars on average.
Of course, I am using the cematic antenna to make it smaller and the side effect is that the signal transmission range will be impacted under some extreme conditions
Thanks for the link. I have book marked it.
Do you know if you can connect several Arduinos with that device without needing a PC or a phone as one element of the system.
For what I am thinking of the NRF24 is a great deal cheaper and, I suspect, just as effective.
...R
Robin2:
Thanks for the link. I have book marked it.Do you know if you can connect several Arduinos with that device without needing a PC or a phone as one element of the system.
For what I am thinking of the NRF24 is a great deal cheaper and, I suspect, just as effective.
...R
Yeah, that is possible. NRF51822 has both master softdevice and slave softdevice. You can download it from nordic or I can email you one if you cannot find it 
What we can do is that program one of the NRF51822 with master softdevice. and other with slave softdeivce.
The master and slave could be connected with star network topology
You can choose 4 wire SPI as the commnication between arduino and NRF51822 (BE CAREFUL ABOUT the levelshift)
ringwill_fusionwire:
You can download it from nordic or I can email you one if you cannot find it
Thanks but I will wait until the price comes down before I try them.
When you mention using Nordic software I get the impression that those devices will never be as easy to use as an NRF24. It seems to me that the complexity is making it difficult for the hobbyist - as with Android programming, for example. [/rant]
...R
Robin2:
Thanks but I will wait until the price comes down before I try them.When you mention using Nordic software I get the impression that those devices will never be as easy to use as an NRF24. It seems to me that the complexity is making it difficult for the hobbyist - as with Android programming, for example. [/rant]
...R
Yes, you are correct about that
It will have bootloader code and main firmware code. Not easy for starter