XBee arduino set up help :/

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

Ok so I've been using raspberry pi's for all of my technologically enlightened life and it has come time to branch off of wifi and try to use RF signals. I decided the best choice would be the XBee (I'm using the 2.4 ghz version) but i could not find any documentation for what I am looking for.

I dont know much about this even though I've been researching for the last couple days... Could anyone explain exactly

  1. How would you transmit the instructions from a remote controller with inputs like 2 single axis joysticks and 2-3 different buttons to toggle lights/buzzers or something?
  2. Can I use PWM on the arduino? If so how? If not how could i control speed?
  3. Do I need to do anything to encode the data being transmitted?
  4. How do I receive and use what I've received on the robot end arduino to send instruction on the h-bridge(Ive used this on the pi before but only using a wireless keyboard and WASD)
  5. Would it be possible to stream FPS video at longish (200 yd-500yd?) distances? I've tried on the pi but mjpeg stream would not work and neither would anything else actually... it was a bit odd...

THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH IF YOU CAN ANSWER AT LEAST 1 OF THE QUESTIONS!!! I'm completely new to arduino so excuse my newb lvl over nein thousand :frowning:

2

With Xbees, communication between two devices is equivalent to a wired serial connection, just RX and TX. Though you are limited to about 57600 baud (I lose packets above this). For clarification, you just need to use the built in Serial library, nothing else. The Xbees are configured using a separate software from Digi and a USB module.

There is no way you will be sending video with any of the Arduino products unless you are okay with a few pixels and 1 FPS. This is a limitation for both the Xbee module and the ardunio uC....The Xbee is way too slow and the arduino uno can't even buffer a reasonable sized image due to having a few kilobytes of RAM. You may be able to hack up a crappy feed with a higher-end arduino (due or Yun) but it would be a very large project.

3

Is it possible that you could direct me to a good example of code that powers the arduino to arduino xbee communication?

4

Is it possible that you could direct me to a good example of code that powers the arduino to arduino xbee communication?

Is there some part of "With Xbees, communication between two devices is equivalent to a wired serial connection" that you failed to understand?

Whatever code you have that communicates with a wire will work UNCHANGED when XBees are used in place of the wire.