wireless/remote LCD or LED display

Post here about your Arduino projects, get help - for Adafruit customers!

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
levon
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 11:56 am

wireless/remote LCD or LED display

Post by levon »

Hello all,

Total newbie here, hoping for some help with parts to get.

I'd like to implement my own version of something like this:

http://blog.makezine.com/2011/06/12/iss ... -overhead/

However, I would like to be able to do the display part wirelessly. I.e., somehow I'd like to have a set of LEDs (or LCD?) that I can control remotely. So my PC would run, and send the relevant information/control signals to periodically turn on/off LEDs/LCD. The distance is only a few meters, and the data will not be highspeed and update infrequently (but the display needs to stay on, though could put other things in standby/sleep mode if possible). Oh, and I'd want the display to be powered via battery (or possibly AC, so no long USB cable) .. would this eat through batteries quickly? I could probably do with a set of 4 or 5 LEDs.

I'm thinking of getting a Arduino starter kit (either this http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit or http://www.makershed.com/Ultimate_Ardui ... msump1.htm or http://www.adafruit.com/products/170 -- is one better than the other?). To do the wireless part I think I should get two Xbees (series 1) .. does that sound right? Do I need to get some other small boards to setup the Xbees? From some videos I've seen it seems I may have to?

Goal for wireless, cheap and easy :)

Can I do this with one UNO? Do I need anything else? Any specific information would be really helpful since I'm new to this.

Thanks for any guidance.

User avatar
adafruit_support_rick
 
Posts: 35092
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: wireless/remote LCD or LED display

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

XBees can certainly work for this. You don't necessarily need any adapter boards to use them; the adapter boards are just a little more convenient for interfacing with other hardware.

You need to decide what you want your remote display to look like. If you only want to light up a few LEDs, then all you really need on the remote is an XBee. If you want some sort of LCD display, then you're probably going to need an Arduino or other microcontroller to actually drive the display.

Have a look at ladyada's XBee tutorial to get more of a feel for what you can do with them.

User avatar
levon
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 11:56 am

Re: wireless/remote LCD or LED display

Post by levon »

driverblock wrote:XBees can certainly work for this. You don't necessarily need any adapter boards to use them; the adapter boards are just a little more convenient for interfacing with other hardware.

You need to decide what you want your remote display to look like. If you only want to light up a few LEDs, then all you really need on the remote is an XBee.
Wow .. I didn't know that .. thanks for the post.

So at the receiver end I would have a small breadboard with the XBee and say 4 or 5 LEDs and that would be sufficient if I sent the appropriate signals from a UNO with a Xbee (connected to my PC)? That would be so awesome.

The LCD is not really necessary, perhaps something I might consider later.

Thanks for the XBee link, looks super-useful. If I can do the minimalist setup as described above it would be perfect.

User avatar
adafruit_support_rick
 
Posts: 35092
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: wireless/remote LCD or LED display

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

The XBees support a mode called pin-passing, which essentially means that the remote XBee can mirror the state of the GPIO pins on the transmitter. So, theoretically, you can connect your LEDs to those and drive them remotely using pin-passing.

I haven't done this, so I can't give you a lot of detail. The tutorial talks about it. You'll probably want to research it a bit, rather than just going ahead based on my (superficial) understanding.

User avatar
levon
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 11:56 am

Re: wireless/remote LCD or LED display

Post by levon »

I will look into it, but thanks for giving me that idea.

Pretty exciting stuff :)

User avatar
adafruit_support_rick
 
Posts: 35092
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: wireless/remote LCD or LED display

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Good luck! Keep us posted!

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Arduino”