Bounty? Transmit data via audio over RF or phone

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Milarepa
 
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Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:24 am

Bounty? Transmit data via audio over RF or phone

Post by Milarepa »

Has anyone of you ever attempted to send data over PMR radios?
The idea has sprung from the need to create a wireless weather sensor very quickly on a small budget. I'd like to use only what is available to me here and now. I only need one-way communication as I just need to send a few values to a base station connected to the internet to remind me when the plants need watering: I have an Arduino in the garden, reading in soil humidity values. They are supposed to be sent to another Arduino base station connected to the PC or an ethernet shield, whatever I get to work out. :)

My idea would be to use two handheld radios as a link between the outdoor arduino and the indoor arduino, as I have two of those around. There doesn't seem to be an arduino library out there which would allow me to encode and decode data in audio signals, is there?

I have a writeup of what I found out so far, please refer to
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,60491.0.html
& feel free to contribute!

Has anyone ever tried to put out a bounty for a useful library like this? I thought about an adafruit gift certificate or something? Maybe also more people would like to pitch in with a few bucks in order to get such a useful library and make someone's time worthwhile?! A kickstarter page is unfortunately apparently not possible as it can only be made by the developer himself.

Any ideas?

stephanie
 
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Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2010 1:17 am

Re: Bounty? Transmit data via audio over RF or phone

Post by stephanie »

What sort of range do you need to cover? Is there a specific reason to use PMR radios?

My first thought would be to use XBees in this application, as it's already proven technology, and would probably be easier and quicker to deploy than creating something new.

Milarepa
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:24 am

Re: Bounty? Transmit data via audio over RF or phone

Post by Milarepa »

Stephanie wrote:What sort of range do you need to cover? Is there a specific reason to use PMR radios?

Just a few feet, line of sight. From the window to the middle of the yard.
Yeah, I have two of those lying around. Or a cellphone, or an FM transmitter.
And XBees are way too expensive for me. Also they are definitely overkill for sending a few values a few times per hour.

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richms
 
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Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:05 am

Re: Bounty? Transmit data via audio over RF or phone

Post by richms »

So look at the nRF modules, or virtualwire on the cheap 433MHz radios.

Making audio just to carry data when you dont already have all the needed hardware will be harder and I dont know about the FRS license, but it may not allow for data.

Otherwise you can look into DTMF encoders/decoders and the stuff made to send data via the iPhone headphone jack for inspiration.

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