3/30/2011

Delivered! USA 1 : 0 GER

WOW. That was fast.

Xbees, Arduino Uno, XBEE Explorer USB, mini breadboard


Looks like that are supersonic bees I ordered at Mouser.com. They arrived (from Fort Worth, TX) before the other stuff from germany came to my doorstep.
So it's USA 1 : Germany 0 (obviously it's NOT soccer).

Now it's time to let'em loose!

3/28/2011

The first orders are out...

I placed the first orders after scanning through the book looking for clues what parts are required for at least up to chapter 6.

One order I did was with german online distributor Watterott, where I ordered the Arduino Uno, the (Sparkfun) XBEE Explorer USB and a mini breadboard (not mentioned explicitly in the book, but may be of use later on). I ordered the XBEE modules (XB24-Z7WIT-004) with Mouser. The equivalent for Watterott would be Sparkfun, so if you are outside Germany, this might be your choice.

Unfortunately the breakout boards for the XBEE modules are not available at the moment. Maybe I can build a workaround later or use the XBEE explorer. I'm not sure if this works. For some experiments there is more than one Arduino, explorer or breakout board required, so if you want to order all at once, skim through the rest of the book to get everything you need (scan for "Parts" if you have the ebook). My plan is to build some of the required parts by myself. That would mean to etch some parts (I never did that before) - let's see how this pans out.

Most of the stuff like LEDs, capacitors, hookup wire, breadboard(s), USB A-to-B-cable etc.are already at hand, because before I started with "Building wireless sensor networks" I worked through Make: Electronics (this is a fantastic electronics book by Charles Platt! James Floyd Kellys inspiring blog Hands on Make:Electronics  follows the experiments). You will find lots of hints in the blog where to get the parts in the US - for Germany I would recommend Reichelt as an inexpensive online-shop.

So for now I hope I ordered the right stuff - it was a bit confusing in the beginning to sort out the right adapters, explorers, and Xbees.But the book gave quite a good overview about all the needed parts as it does with the technical background.

3/25/2011

Welcome/ Willkommen!

Welcome to my first ever blog!

This blog is intendend to document the experiments in the O'Reilly book "Building Wireless Sensor Networks" by Robert Faludi.

Inspired by the blog of James Floyd Kelly following the book "Make: Electronics", which was of great value for me doing my own experiments for the german edition, I would like to do the same for the volume about wireless sensor networks.

I really appreciate any comment, critics or of course positive feedback! The experiments will soon start, initially I have to collect all the parts for the first few experiments. Any suggestions for getting the mentioned parts in europe - esp. in germany - are very welcome.

Have fun!

P.S.: The book is published in english language and so only my welcome will be translated into german. However if there is a huge demand for permanent translation, I will do so in the future.

Willlkommen!

Mit diesem Blog möchte ich meine Experimente zu dem Buch "Building Wireless Sensor Networks" von Robert Faludi (erschienen im O'Reilly Verlag) dokumentieren.

Inspiriert durch den Blog von James Floyd Kelly zu dem Buch "Make: Electronics", der mir eine große Hilfe bei den Experimenten für die deutschsprachige Ausgabe war, möchte ich das gleiche für das Buch über drahtlose Sensor-Netzwerke tun.

Ich freue mich über jeden Kommentar, Kritik und natürlich auch Lob! Die Experimente werden bald beginnen, zunächst müssen die Bauteile für die ersten Versuche besorgt werden. Über Tipps zu preiswerten Online-Quellen in Deutschland/ Europa für die benötigten Bauteile würde ich mich sehr freuen.

Viel Spaß beim Lesen!

P.S.: Da das Buch in englischer Sprache veröffentlicht wurde, habe ich nur das "Willkommen" in Deutsch übersetzt. Sollte es in Zukunft eine große Nachfrage nach ständiger Übersetzung in die deutsche Sprache geben, werde ich das naürlich gerne tun.