Sending and receiving data cheap

[patchie]

Hi,

About me:
I am rather new to electronics, so please be good to me (but have some experience).

What am i trying to do:
I want to make this a cheap setup (don't mind the arduino cost) where i can have several transmitters and one receiver.
For example if i want to have a temperature sensor in 2 different places, and want to transmit the temperature to the receiver every hour.

Equipment i currently have:
- Arduino uno
- Arduino mega
- 433Mhz RF Transmitter / receiver (ebay)
- PT2262 (Datasheet1, Datasheet2)
- PT2272-M4 (Datasheet)
- Powersupply (0-30v)
- Breadboards, Wires, multimeters, different resistors, capacitators....etc

What have i already done successfully, and what is the problem?
I have setup the first transmitter and receiver code from here: http://www.instructables.com/id/RF-315433-MHz-Transmitter-receiver-Module-and-Ardu/?ALLSTEPS
They mention that i can use the PT2262 and PR2272 in the article without mentioning how to setup the code and hardware to use it(as far as i understand).

What is my question?
Maybe someone can help me successfully setup the hardware in fritzing and point me to the right direction on what libs i need to send code from the arduino?


I have the following setup: (i am actually using two different breadboards)




Thanks in advance!

 

[Bluejets]

I'd say forget about Instructables. It can be very misleading at times.

Edit:-
Have to eat my words here as the one I refer to was actually posted in Instructables as well.
Link below......

Check the Arduino tutorials and forums on "mesh networking".

There is a bloke from down here who has a write up about his cattle watering system. See if I can find it for you.
Interesting reading.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Arduino-Wireless-Mesh/


Note....most on Arduino forum will throw up if you present drawing in the Fritzing format.

 

[hevans1944]

I attended a Texas Instrument seminar a few years ago where they were demonstrating their low-power wireless Bluetooth technology coupled with (what else?) a TI MSP430 microprocessor. All of us in attendance received a little coin-cell operated Bluetooth thingy with a temperature sensor. At the end of the presentation we were invited to "light up" all of our thingys. The presenter had an app that read the temperature of each thingy in the room and displayed the temperatures from each device on a large digital projection screen. Pretty impressive, I thought. I still have the thingy they handed out, but haven't found my "round tuit" to pursue this technology any further at home. Couldn't convince the TI rep I needed at least TWO of their thingies for further evaluation. But I think TI sells most of these "demo" thingies online.

Point is, a mesh network is the way to go with multiple sensors, all operating independently. I purchased four XBee modules and shields for my Arduino Unos, but haven't tried to network them yet. This was a couple years ago, and at that time I only needed a single two-way comm path. Thanks, @Bluejets for the Instructables link. I usually cringe when anyone here says, "I found this neat circuit on Instructables..." because it is usually followed by, "...but I can't seem to make it work." You DO have to be careful reading the content of any Instructable. So much of it is just crap. But that one seems well-thought out and successful. @patchie should review it and come back here with more questions. And please ditch the Fritzing stuff... we are mostly adults here and work with real schematics and block diagrams.

 

[NMNeil]

Tayda have a helpful PDF
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/datasheets/A-2861.pdf

I have had limited success with these modules due to noise, they pick up lots of stray signals, may be something to remember if it's not working correctly for you.

 

[patchie]

I'd say forget about Instructables. It can be very misleading at times.

Edit:-
Have to eat my words here as the one I refer to was actually posted in Instructables as well.
Link below......

Check the Arduino tutorials and forums on "mesh networking".

There is a bloke from down here who has a write up about his cattle watering system. See if I can find it for you.
Interesting reading.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Arduino-Wireless-Mesh/


Note....most on Arduino forum will throw up if you present drawing in the Fritzing format.

Thanks for the link, but i really want to get my project working before going over to other hardware or starting with mesh.

Do you have any experience with the pt2262 and pt2272?

I attended a Texas Instrument seminar a few years ago where they were demonstrating their low-power wireless Bluetooth technology coupled with (what else?) a TI MSP430 microprocessor. All of us in attendance received a little coin-cell operated Bluetooth thingy with a temperature sensor. At the end of the presentation we were invited to "light up" all of our thingys. The presenter had an app that read the temperature of each thingy in the room and displayed the temperatures from each device on a large digital projection screen. Pretty impressive, I thought. I still have the thingy they handed out, but haven't found my "round tuit" to pursue this technology any further at home. Couldn't convince the TI rep I needed at least TWO of their thingies for further evaluation. But I think TI sells most of these "demo" thingies online.

Point is, a mesh network is the way to go with multiple sensors, all operating independently. I purchased four XBee modules and shields for my Arduino Unos, but haven't tried to network them yet. This was a couple years ago, and at that time I only needed a single two-way comm path. Thanks, @Bluejets for the Instructables link. I usually cringe when anyone here says, "I found this neat circuit on Instructables..." because it is usually followed by, "...but I can't seem to make it work." You DO have to be careful reading the content of any Instructable. So much of it is just crap. But that one seems well-thought out and successful. @patchie should review it and come back here with more questions. And please ditch the Fritzing stuff... we are mostly adults here and work with real schematics and block diagrams.

Thanks for the suggestions, but if i wanna have 100 sensors, that would cost me a fortune, so thats why i wanna stick to these RF senders.
Do you have any experience with the pt2262 and pt2272?

Tayda have a helpful PDF
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/datasheets/A-2861.pdf

I have had limited success with these modules due to noise, they pick up lots of stray signals, may be something to remember if it's not working correctly for you.

Thats why i wanna use the IC's mentioned, to get less noise.
Do you have any experience with the pt2262 and pt2272?

 

[NMNeil]

Thanks for the link, but i really want to get my project working before going over to other hardware or starting with mesh.

Do you have any experience with the pt2262 and pt2272?




Thanks for the suggestions, but if i wanna have 100 sensors, that would cost me a fortune, so thats why i wanna stick to these RF senders.
Do you have any experience with the pt2262 and pt2272?



Thats why i wanna use the IC's mentioned, to get less noise.
Do you have any experience with the pt2262 and pt2272?

No, just Arduino for receive and Atmega8 for transmit.
It did improve some when I used the 3.3 volt on the Arduino rather than the 5 volt to power the receiver.

 

[patchie]

No, just Arduino for receive and Atmega8 for transmit.
It did improve some when I used the 3.3 volt on the Arduino rather than the 5 volt to power the receiver.

Thanks for the tip and link!

I still want to use the PT2262 and PT2272, to filter noise, so that it will be even better.
Anyone who have experience using these?