Hi everyone.

I am trying to figure out the correct path for research on linking micro controllers via wireless to a central server.

I'm hoping to find a general soloution I can come back to time and time again for different projects. The current projects include swarm robotics and IOT sensors/actuators.

I would like to be able to select from 3.3v or 5v interface on the micro controller side. The PC should be able to communicate with a number of slave devices. Up to 30 may be.
Wifi would be the perfect soloution, if I can find cheap modules for the slaves. They would also have to be frugal with power requirements for the robotic swam situation as these would be mobile and run from on-board batteries. They should also be very simple to interface. ie, if using wifi, the wifi stack should be on the module rather than the micro controller. Bandwidth for each slave would not need to be huge as data rates would be low in either situation.

The software on the server would vary depending on the project, but might use tcp via wifi or serial/usb via a micro controller with similar hardware to the slaves depending on the system chosen.

Each slave comms module should be £10 or less, easy to interface using few pins and simple code. Is wifi plausable, or should I look at a different wireless soloution,

Thanks.

Rob.

 

http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/InterfacingWithHardware#Communication

I am thinking, in no particular order: IR, Bluetooth, WiFi

 

Two possible low-cost solutions you could look into: the Nordic Semiconductor nRF24L01 Transceiver and the ESP8266 WiFi chip. Both can be used with a host microcontroller, and the ESP8266 can be operated standalone and programmed via a modified Arduino IDE.

Some links:

http://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/2.4GHz-RF/nRF24L01P
http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/Nrf24L01-2.4GHz-HowTo
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13252
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2471
http://makezine.com/2015/04/01/esp8266-5-microcontroller-wi-fi-now-arduino-compatible/
http://makezine.com/2015/04/01/installing-building-arduino-sketch-5-microcontroller/
http://makezine.com/2015/04/01/designing-breadboard-adaptor-5-esp8266-microcontroller/

 

Hi Robsbots,

What MCU's are you using?

Have you taken a look at Xbee modules? They are simple to configure and set up and you can find 'non-original' ones on internet very cheap and they work great!

I would suggest taking a loot at the following links:

http://www.digi.com/lp/xbee/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBee

Hope it helps!

 

Have a look at the free Microchip MIWI P2P stack and 2.4G license free module, I believe it pass most of the certifications around the word.

http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/technology/personalareanetworks/technology/home.html