Once an hour Xbee sensor transmission?

Wireless & IoT
1

I’ve got a simple setup sending 1wire temp data to my computer via xbee:

1wire Temp-sensor → Arduino → Xbee ~ Xbee → Processing on my PC

where “~” is the ether.

I’m looking to monitor temps over days, but only once every 30 min or 1 hr or similar (monitoring beer fermentation temps and ambient). I’m currently using Series 1 (but could use Series 2.5 if needed). I’m looking for advice as to how to deal with the long periods between serial transmissions.

  1. How do I setup my Arduino and Series 1 for idle/sleep between data streams (only Series 2.5 actually have a on-chip sleep right?)? I’d like to be able to use a battery over the period of a few days if possible, though just having a wall-wart is a possibility.

  2. How do I keep my Processing sketch lean and not constantly running and waiting for a serial input?

Most examples I’ve found are sending constant (or near constant) streams. Seems like a waste to send data every 2 seconds when temps are moving much, much more slowly…

Thanks for any help!

2

I’ve not used it, but Series 1 has a sleep timer (internal) and a pin you can use to wake it up with something external.

re (2) there should be some call to be made to look at the number of characters waiting in the serial input buffer (interrupt driven.

Glad to help more.

3

Yes! The Series 1 and Series 2 hardware will both sleep either cyclicly or via a pin (physical pin 9). Check the documentation for ATSM, ATST, ATSP in the Product Manual (if you have my book then Chapter 6 covers this in detail for Series 2 which is similar to S1).

Since you have an Arduino, I’d recommend thinking about pin sleep, asserted by the Arduino to save power. This will ensure that the timing stays coordinated. The Arduino by the way also has sleep functions: http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learni … oSleepCode

4

Faludi:
Yes! The Series 1 and Series 2 hardware will both sleep either cyclicly or via a pin (physical pin 9). Check the documentation for ATSM, ATST, ATSP in the Product Manual (if you have my book then Chapter 6 covers this in detail for Series 2 which is similar to S1).

Since you have an Arduino, I’d recommend thinking about pin sleep, asserted by the Arduino to save power. This will ensure that the timing stays coordinated. The Arduino by the way also has sleep functions: http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learni … oSleepCode

Thanks for chiming in Faludi! I was actually just perusing your Xbee Tumblr site!

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to try some stuff out this weekend.