This is a build log of a school project my daughter came up. The project overview, concepts, and ideas are all posted on our blog post (and follow up blog posts).
I wanted to start this thread as this project keeps mutating as we start to build and code the project. As kind of a "we tried this, and then we tried that" kind of log. Basically, a public place for our journey and notes on the project.
The first change... No more Raspberry Pi!
Originally, we scoped the project to connect an XBee Cellular directly to a RPi for all communications. We would use the GPIO on the RPi for all inputs, process the inputs, and return the data. We have several DHT11s around and know how to get started; so, it sounded like a piece of cake.
However as we started hooking up the XBee3 and connecting it to the network, we started to dive into the docs and I realized just how flexible the XBee module is itself - with all of its own GPIOs.
Then finally, we ran into the documentation about MicroPython and all of our Adafruit experiments just came rushing forward!
Sometimes, a child's mind brings us back to reality.
Further reading the docs reveals a Deep Sleep mode! So another theory came about: can we power down all sensors, and power them up during wake? The documentation says Pin 13 goes HIGH when the XBee is not in sleep mode. However, it lacks any information as to what the max AMPs this output supports. The idea may be to connect them directly to any sensors, and/or to a transistor to switch more power-hungry devices on/off depending on sleep mode - and drastically increasing battery life!
So we've dropped the RPi in favor of connecting the GPS and all sensors directly to the XBee for an overall ultra-low powered setup.
I wanted to start this thread as this project keeps mutating as we start to build and code the project. As kind of a "we tried this, and then we tried that" kind of log. Basically, a public place for our journey and notes on the project.
The first change... No more Raspberry Pi!
Originally, we scoped the project to connect an XBee Cellular directly to a RPi for all communications. We would use the GPIO on the RPi for all inputs, process the inputs, and return the data. We have several DHT11s around and know how to get started; so, it sounded like a piece of cake.
However as we started hooking up the XBee3 and connecting it to the network, we started to dive into the docs and I realized just how flexible the XBee module is itself - with all of its own GPIOs.
Then finally, we ran into the documentation about MicroPython and all of our Adafruit experiments just came rushing forward!
> Daughter: Can we just connect the sensors to these pins on the XBee and program the same things? Seems easier than programming two things.
Sometimes, a child's mind brings us back to reality.
Further reading the docs reveals a Deep Sleep mode! So another theory came about: can we power down all sensors, and power them up during wake? The documentation says Pin 13 goes HIGH when the XBee is not in sleep mode. However, it lacks any information as to what the max AMPs this output supports. The idea may be to connect them directly to any sensors, and/or to a transistor to switch more power-hungry devices on/off depending on sleep mode - and drastically increasing battery life!
So we've dropped the RPi in favor of connecting the GPS and all sensors directly to the XBee for an overall ultra-low powered setup.
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