Arduino Homing Device Prototype

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:01:02 -0400

And now, for something highly dorky.

I have begun to play with DIY electronics. This is principally because it's tremendous fun. You should try it. Seriously. The possibilities are endless.

Here is a video of a range test for my prototype homing device built with an Arduino microcontroller module and an XBee radio transceiver. The portable, handheld device cost me about $60 to make, but theoretically could be a lot less if you designed a PCB and didn't rely on prototyping components.

Short-term, I hope to join fellow Boston Dorkbot members to build on this prototype and construct a location-based game. Stay tuned...

My longer-term goal is to develop a standardized radio/micontroller platform on which to load and share user-oriented software applications (like the homing software shown here) for proximity-based device communications.

The range for the "homing device" seems to well exceed the 300' that the XBee specs claim. Cool.

Please send me suggestions for improvements, other ideas, etc.

Wi-Lo

Fri, 4 Nov 2005 23:58:42 -0500

Wi-Lo (Wireless Location-Space) combines NetStumbler's scripting API with Konfabulator's design widgets to visually monitor your wireless multi access point location-space in realtime on your PC/Mac desktop.

Like most of my personal projects, this tries to explore multiple concepts. Wi-Lo combines the design simplicity required for desktop info-visualization with the barrier-lowering creative capacity of two scripting engines that target end-user development. This project is in progress.

Hopper Analytical - Wireless

Arduino Homing Device Prototype

Wi-Lo