Guys,
About 4 years ago I took the SNAP (Scaleable Network Address Protocol) by CASTRICINI & MARINANGELI, and patched it up so that it would run on a PIC16F88.
This code allows a PIC to send small packets of data via a low cost wireless link and receive them reliably.
I got a 100m range in an urban street using low cost 433MHz modules,and up to 300m in the open field using simple 1/4 wave wire antennas
I realise that in the last 4 years, wireless has moved on a bit, to Bluetooth and Zigbee, but for those of you wanting something very cheap and simple, I will make my code available for experimentation.
The code is in the form of two ASM files created using the normal MPLAB tools. One is for the transmitter end, the other for the receiver.
The transmitter has a low power RTC and was used to read a temperature sensor at regular intervals and send this temperature reading as a wireless packet to the receiver. The original application was for a greenhouse thermometer, made from components salvaged from a low cost solar garden lamp.
If anyone would like the original code for tinkering, I can be contacted at
ken dot boak at gmail dot com
My other interests are low cost telecoms and I have developed CallerID decoding, V23 modem and other useful telecom stuff to run on the 16F PICS.
Ken