Arduino – semifluid.com

WiFi-Enabled Arduino Fio using the WiFly RN-XV (RN171XV)

October 20, 2013May 4, 2016 Steven A. Cholewiak Leave a comment

The Arduino Fio is a nice little Arduino board designed specifically to interface with XBee devices. I think it’s a great little board and have used it quite a bit in the past. BUT, I haven’t talked too much about the XBee interface, so for this post, I wanted to demonstrate an example utilizing the XBee socket to get an Arduino Fio onto the web. This is a simple example, just demonstrating communication with the Microchip RN171XV (previously Roving Networks RN-XV) wifi module.

Click through the break for information on the setup and source code to get the Arduino Fio onto the web.
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Arduino FIO Graphical LCD Console

August 29, 2013May 4, 2016 Steven A. Cholewiak 2 Comments

I have previously shown how to use the Arduino Fio and the mini12864 graphical LCD to create a simple oscilloscope. For this post, I wanted to demonstrate the u8glib console demo because I plan on using the GLCD to debug some of my projects and to provide a visual interface for experiments with the Microchip RN-171-XV.

More information on the project, a video of it in operation, and its code after the break.
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Arduino FIO 2 Channel LCD Oscilloscope

August 2, 2013January 21, 2016 Steven A. Cholewiak 3 Comments

After using my Arduino Fio to make an Arduino LCD oscilloscope, I wanted to try adding a second channel. Using the single channel Arduino FIO LCD Oscilloscope code as a template, I modified the project and added a second channel.

Here’s a short demonstration video of the new two channel project:

Click through the break to check out the code.
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Arduino FIO LCD Oscilloscope

May 28, 2013January 21, 2016 Steven A. Cholewiak 32 Comments

It has been 7 years (!) since I posted my PIC18F2550 KS0108 Graphical LCD Oscilloscope code and schematics. I have long since taken the circuit apart, sold my PIC microcontrollers, and moved on in my life (as one can surmise from my most recent posts detailing my graduate and postdoctoral work). However, I still get inquiries about the Microchip PIC oscilloscope, so I decided to recreate it using a simpler setup using my Arduino Fio.

Here’s a short teaser video just to show that, yes, it works (going through a couple different sine wave frequencies, some random noise, etc. just to illustrate it working):

Click through the break to get more information on the setup.
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Arduino FIO DS18B20 Temperature Logger

September 10, 2012May 4, 2016 Steven A. Cholewiak 1 Comment

We have a Arduino Fio temperature logger, so now maybe we can increase the accuracy by adding an external temperature sensor. I have a couple of DS18B20 Programmable Resolution 1-Wire Digital Thermometers, so I thought, heck, let’s try one out!

These temperature sensors are much more accurate out-of-the-box, so I don’t need to deal with calibration (which I did need to worry about with the internal thermometer). In addition, using separate, discrete components allows for the possibility of putting temperature sensors directly on/in whatever you may want to measure (rather than merely measuring the ambient temperature) and the potential for multiple temperature sensors with a single Arduino Fio (which are available at Amazon.com).

Arduino FIO Internal Voltmeter and Thermometer

September 9, 2012May 4, 2016 Steven A. Cholewiak 2 Comments

Let’s extend the low power Ardunio Fio + Xbee setup that I previously blogged about. I wanted to see if I could create a simple wireless temperature sensor that could allow for long(er) term logging. Interestingly, the ATmega328P on the Arduino Fio has both a “secret” internal thermometer and internal voltmeter, meaning that I could (potentially) create a wireless sensor with no external additional external components (other than the Fio, XBee, and battery).

So, taking advantage of the available hardware and the code available, I went about creating a wireless temperature logger using an Arduino Fio (available from Amazon.com) and two XBees (one for the Fio and one for the coordinator).

Arduino FIO Low Power Setup

September 7, 2012March 23, 2015 Steven A. Cholewiak 5 Comments

As usually, I have been very sporadic in posting new/updated projects due to my prioritization of my doctoral work (i.e., not much time for fun little electronics projects!). However, I’ve been playing around with the Arduino Fio (available from Amazon.com) in my free time for a little while now, so I wanted to post some notes on a very low power usage setup that I was able to put together.

As my free hobby time has dwindled, so has the time I’ve been able to devote to debugging programs written for my little Microchip PICs. So, given my limited time, I decided to dive right into Arduinos — which utilize a higher-level programming language, making things a little quicker and easier for me to tinker — and try to get some wireless communication working. After looking through the possibilities, I settled on the Arduino Fio. The Arduino Fio is a great little Arduino-compatible board that includes a socket for an XBee 802.15.4 wireless module along with a LiPo plug and charger circuit.