Plane | Working handshake code demo

First off, here’s a video:

If you’re a long time follower of the blog, than you may notice that it looks like I’m backtracking here. Let me go over the differences between the two systems I’ve developed.

The one I “finished” a few months ago can be found here. While the code is “good” and it works well for what it does, there are a few inherent problems with it. The first being that it has to have a computer to be used. The second being that the computer running the intermediate program has to be extremely fast, so it’s not totally feasible for field use. It would also be very hard for it to go wireless, but I had built that groundwork in so it could happen.

The one I’m working on now doesn’t require a computer as an intermediate, and is going to be totally wireless as from the start.

This morning I finished the handshake data exchange over xbee. Right now it’s just dimming a few LED’s but if you take a peek at the following code, it’s very expandable.

Here’s the working code:

 

Hey! This post was written a long time ago, but I'm leaving it up on the off-chance it may help someone. Proceed with caution. It may not be a good idea to blindly integrate this code or work into your project, but instead use it as a starting point.

Plane | Working Handshake Code

This works so I want to write it down:

 

Hey! This post was written a long time ago, but I'm leaving it up on the off-chance it may help someone. Proceed with caution. It may not be a good idea to blindly integrate this code or work into your project, but instead use it as a starting point.

Plane | Transmitting Analog Values with Xbee

I made some progress today, here’s a video:

Basically this is a proof of concept. The transmitter is sending a line of data very similar to the one that will be sent by the final controller (as seen in the controller code) the receiving end with be receiving in the same way the vehicle code does (same as above).
Here are a few pictures, this first one is a top down view of my prototyping area:
This second one shows all components involved:
This is the code running on the transmitter side, the side with the pot that’s transmitting it’s analog value:

This second half is on the receiving end. It may seem way overkill for what it does, but it’s all expandable to a pretty much infinite amount of data to be transmitted. For an example of what it’s capable of see this video:

Hey! This post was written a long time ago, but I'm leaving it up on the off-chance it may help someone. Proceed with caution. It may not be a good idea to blindly integrate this code or work into your project, but instead use it as a starting point.

Plane | First Functioning Xbee test

So the first round of parts have come in for the plane, including the Xbees and the UartSBee V4s. My life is going to be very scattered over the next 4 or 5 months, so I’m going to be making frequent rudimentary posts for my own benefit.

Here’s a video:

First thing’s first I want to outline how everything’s connected.

The first xbee is connected to the first UartSBee which is connected to an Ardunio Uno which is connected to the first computer which has the console open and is looking at the serial stream at 9600 baud. The xbee is connected to the uno via Software Serial which is detailed in the code below. Here’s a picture:

 

The second setup is identical, except i’m using an Ardunio nano.

Here’s the code, I’m using the SoftwareSerial library to accomplish this. Both Arduinos are running the same thing.

Here are a few pictures of the X-TCU setup. The baud is at 9600 and the pan ID is 115. The UartSbee itself is running at 115200 baud connected to the computer.

Thanks for reading!

Hey! This post was written a long time ago, but I'm leaving it up on the off-chance it may help someone. Proceed with caution. It may not be a good idea to blindly integrate this code or work into your project, but instead use it as a starting point.