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Post by Calgary Iron Man on Sept 13, 2014 17:30:17 GMT
I am wanting to lose the visor activation wire from my helmet to a MOM switch in my hip pod.
I have considered zigbee along with a small Arduino for this purpose. I basically want a small receiver in the helmet and a small transmitter/mini Arduino/MOM switch (possibly a reed sensor) in the hip pod.
Should be simple enough, but I just don't know enough about small form factor zigbee to order the right components. Any guidance in that respect?
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Post by Honus on Sept 13, 2014 21:33:57 GMT
It's not too difficult to do. Basically what you want is a pair of XBee Series 1 radios along with a couple of Arduino Pro Minis. You have one XBee radio and Pro Mini in the helmet (receiver) and another XBee with a Pro Mini and momentary switch to activate it (transmitter.) Instead of a momentary switch you could use a bend sensor or RFID tag in the glove (or somewhere else in the suit.) There are lots of different sensors that will work. This is the XBee radio I would use. You also need an adapter board for the radio and this is the one I use. I wrote up a complete guide on how to set up a wireless helmet with RFID control here. You could certainly replace the RFID reader in the tutorial with another type of sensor. Just let me know if you need additional help! |
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Post by Calgary Iron Man on Sept 15, 2014 2:25:21 GMT
Excellent! I am trying to source those parts via this site: solarbotics.com/The main reason is that it is local to me and there is almost no sales tax or shipping. Pretty sure I have found the radio, by unsure of the adapter board. Could I trouble you to have a look? Thanks in advance :-) |
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Post by Honus on Sept 15, 2014 4:21:26 GMT
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Post by Calgary Iron Man on Sept 16, 2014 0:03:30 GMT
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Post by Honus on Sept 16, 2014 1:23:23 GMT
I'd go with the 3.3V version. It really depends on the power requirement of the servos you're using. If you're using high voltage digital servos rated at 7.4V then you can use a 5V regulator to provide power to the Pro Mini- this will work if you're using either version Pro Mini. The servos will get powered directly by a 7.2V battery pack. With this configuration you would connect the 5V output of the regulator to the RAW input on the 3.3V Pro Mini or the VCC pin on the 5V Pro Mini.
If you're using analog servos rated at 6.0V and your battery pack voltage is 6.0V then you can't use the 5V version Pro Mini as the voltage will be too low to use a regulator. In this case you'll need a 3.3V regulator and you need to use the 3.3V Pro Mini. The 3.3V output from the regulator goes directly to the VCC pin on the Pro Mini.
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