Preparing the router and network meter

Required:

• Components
  • 1x Arduino Duemilanove
  • 1x Rainbowduino
  • 2x Xbee radios
  • 1x Xbee Explorer
  • 1x Xbee Arduino shield
  • 1x Arduino battery
  • Lotsx LEDs
• Software
  • Arduino IDE
  • Homeworkduino distributable bits (unzip and find “dist” folder)
  • Java RE
  • Optional: Java SDK and Ant to modify/build source (unzip, ant clean and ant dist)
  • Optional: XCTU

Preparing the network meter

The network meter consists of an Arduino Duemilanove connected to an Xbee and a Rainbowduino. Data can be passed from the router to the Arduino via the Xbee; the Arduino can then pass the data to the Rainbowduino. The Rainbowduino is connected to LEDs that are driven depending on the data.

1. Connect the Arduino to a computer and the Rainbowduino to the Arduino: upload the FlashTest sketch onto the Rainbowduino (see Using Rainbowduino). The Rainbow header file (Rainbow.h) needs to be in the same folder as the sketch.
2. Now upload the Data sketch onto the Arduino
3. The Arduino can be disconnected from the computer and powered by battery now
4. Connect one Xbee to the Arduino via Xbee shield. Using Xbee.
5. Connect the Rainbowduino to the meter’s LEDs.

Preparing the router

Once an Xbee has been connected to the computer and drivers have installed themselves, XCTU or the Arduino IDE can be used to find out what comm port the Xbee has been assigned. Once the correct port has been identified, the batch file used to run the app (probably “run.bat” in the “dist” folder) should be edited to specify that port (change the number at the end of the first line from 6 to the correct comm port number). Unfortunately the port number might change every time the Xbee is connected to the computer, so this file might need to be edited regularly – I’ll need to add in a way to pick it automatically, or allow it to be chosen via UI.

Once the batch file has been corrected, the UI can be run.