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12-F To4-F Communications


10.14.06

Today we tested communications between the 12th and the 4th floor, using two XBee RF pros. We got very weak readings from the 12th floor, so figured that the best solution would be to have three XBee radios in order to transfer information from the 12/f solar panel leads down to the 4th floor. One XBee would be placed somewhere on the 12th floor, another down near the back stairwell on the 4th floor and one unit hidden somewhere in the middle (7th or 8th floor). We talked with Rob about building a mesh network using these three XBees, although it is not completely necessary. Can be a simple one-way routing network (middle XBee just passes information from the 12th floor XBee down to the 4th floor). On the floor, the XBee will connect to an XPort, and connect to a given IP address (need to re-ask Nancy for my IP address from last year). Then we can create a Java / PHP app which opens a socket to that IP address, and grabs that information.

Jeff's Circuit: Jeff's circuit for measuring voltage works pretty nicely. All it does is simply divide the incoming voltage by 4, using different resistors. So the maximum voltage coming into the circuit would be 5V (since the solar panel outputs a maximum of around 20V). Later, we can multiply the figures by 4 in order to get the real voltage from the Solar Panel.

To Do:

  • order XBee Pros
  • start looking at the Java / PHP code + database stuff

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