What would be the best way of sending a signal from an iPad to an Arduino?
I am trying to use XBee, with iPad and Arduino to send a wireless signal.
I want to make a big red virtual button on an iPad that, when pressed, turns on an LED on the Arduino.
I am a total newbie when it comes to iOS, but OK with Arduino and XBee.
So I'm not sure if I understood correctly, but in my meaning there is only one simple way to solve the problem:
Connect an XBee to a Computer and another to the Arduino. On the computer you launch a webserver, which will be accesible from the iPad over Safari. This server handles the clickes and writes to the XBee Com Port, for communication.
Here are some examples, people already made:
http://www.projectallusion.com/1/post/2009/11/iphone-controlled-solar-powered-arduino-tank.html
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/152 (not with xbee, but you can implement that by yourself)
I know it's been a while but I just came across to this question and yesterday I was doing the exact same thing so I'll share the method I used and the source of it.
In order to set a LED on or off in an Arduino board from the iPad you really don't need anything more than a browser. This is of course if you have a way to connect that Arduino to the local network.
Today you have at least two options. The WiFi and the Ethernet shields. Once you have your Arduino board inside the network you can send the instructions (HIGH or LOW) to the board form the browser.
These are my two boards connected waiting to be plugged to the local network:
Of course, you'll have to code the board to process those instructions. There are many examples on how to configure network settings and state instructions:
If you have a bit of time and want to do something more elaborated you could create a simple app to graphically control the state of those LED(s).
Inside you'll basically do the same thing, create the URL command and send it to the Arduino IP but it'd look much nicer. If you integrate later more controls the sky in the limit.
My experiment is a combination of what I learned from this nice tutorial and some tips I've read here and there.
I hope it becomes also useful to someone else.
Cheers,
Since you need to use a network connection from the iPad, a possibly simpler way to do this would be to use a WiFi module on the Arduino to poll a web script, and have the iPad write a state (button press) to that web script.
There's a handy WiFi module called the RN-XV that's designed like an XBee. I wrote up two tutorials on it:
http://log.liminastudio.com/programming/getting-started-with-the-rn-xv-wifi-module-node-js
http://log.liminastudio.com/itp/physical-computing/using-the-rn-xv-wifi-module-as-a-remote-switch
Related
I want to capture and send some packets to the access point for testing purposes. I have the packet captures made via wireshark but I do not know how to proceed to be able to send these packets from my macbook.
I tried things like scapy, colasoft etc, but they do not seem to work as they require an external wifi adapter to be able to relay these packets outwards.
Two main questions:
Is it possible to send custom packets from macbook to a required access point. (Without using external network adapter).
If yes, what are some tooling/Scripting options that I can look at ? Any recommendations?
I am networking novice so please pardon me if the question is trivial. Thank you!
Your builtin Wifi adapter likely does not support Wifi injection.
You can check this by googling the Wifi chip that is within your computer (there are various methods to get that info depending on your OS) whether it supports Wifi injection or not.
So yeah, you'll likely need an external card (check the specs before buying it)
I need to slow down (simulate bad) internet connection, I found some documentation where it was achieved by "ipfw pipe" command , the thing is that in latest MAC OS versions , ipfw was deprecated (and removed)...
I was wondering if there are any alternative to the ipfw API ?
Does anyone know how latest Network Link Conditioner achieves it?
The original previous way which enabled to slow down an internet connection :
sudo ipfw pipe 1 config bw 56Kbit/s delay 200 plr 0.2
and to clear the pipe :
sudo ipfw delete 1
Thanks.
I don't know much about Mac OS (I use Linux myself), but I'll give this a shot.
A bunch of digging established that ipfw seems unavailable, as you say.
I was also unable to find a way to use the Network Link Conditioner from the command line. Everything should be usable from the command line, so that's stupid.
One work around would be to try to access the NLC from within AppleScript. The following will get you started on toggling the NLC:
property thePane : "com.apple.Network-Link-Conditioner"
tell application "System Preferences"
activate
set the current pane to pane id thePane
--delay 2
end tell
---
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "System Preferences"
try
click ((checkboxes of window "Network Link Conditioner") whose description is "enable switch")
on error
click ((checkboxes of window "Network Link Conditioner") whose description is "enable switch")
end try
end tell
end tell
I think that you can run a script from the terminal with osascript <SCRIPT>.
As an alternative, Charles Proxy is a pay-to-use program that can be used to perform throttling, provided you can convince the software you are testing to connect to the proxy's port rather than directly to the internet. Maybe there are free proxy solutions out there somewhere?
Perhaps Squid would work in that regard. SquidMan seems to be an easy-ish way to install it for Mac. It looks as though DelayPools and or Client Bandwidth Limits might be useful for simulating a low speed connection, though I can't find evidence of people having used them for such.
I found several solutions that might work. They come from some old threads, but they might help:
How to simulate slow internet connections on the mac
Apple has made a very handy official tool to slow down the network connections on you Mac for testing purposes.
The Network Link Conditioner preference is a free download from within Xcode (for Lion and later OS). Additionally, iOS has similar function accessible from within Xcode and iOS 6 or later.
How do I simulate a bad Wi-Fi connection on my iPad?
There are a few ways you can do this, depending on your situation:
Move further away from your router. While this may seem a bit obvious, I realize that it isn't always possible while testing/debugging (for example, if you are working on a desktop computer).
Put aluminum foil around the router and/or antenna. This will (partially) block some or all of the radio signals by creating a makeshift Faraday cage. The results you get will depend on the strength of your router signal, distance from the router, and other environmental factors.
Set your router's wireless signal power to a lower setting. The method for doing this is different for each router, so you will have to look at the user guide for instructions on how to do this.
Slow down internet for iOS simulator
You can set the network to slow characteristic by testing on devices. Go to Settings -> Developer Settings -> Network Link Conditioner -> Enable. This is for iPhone/iPad running iOS 6
I don't know if the last one you can still do.
I've used many methods in the past for slowing down network connections, among them:
performing a parallel download of some massive Linux ISO file;
physically pulling out the Ethernet cable (at one point, I actually toyed with the idea of building a push-button device that would sit between two cat5 cables and do this without having to physically disconnect the whole cable).
using ifconfig eth0 down ; sleep 1 ; ifconfig eth0 up.
Hopefully one or more of those methods will help.
If you're looking to slow down your network connection because you're doing testing/profiling work, one option is to get a specific device that can create network latency/noise.
For example Apposite Tech's mini2 WAN emulator allows you to change values for bandwidth and packet loss. You can roll your own device too using something like: http://wanem.sourceforge.net/ . It just depends on your needs, time and budget.
I have a headless raspberry pi with a wifi dongle and I want to use wifi two ways.
1) To make the rPI a wireless access point when there is no local wifi access point so I can connect to the rPI from my iPhone.
2) When wifi is available use the wifi dongle to do normal connection to the internet.
I think I know how to do each of these individually. It wasn't easy but I now have it connecting to my local wifi at home.
I see references to using hostapd and dnsmasq with wifi to make a local access point but they mostly assume internet connection comes from ethernet.
I'll be studying these in more detail. However I don't even know if the end goal of using the same configuration to fill both needs with one wifi dongle is even possible.
Obviously I can create two sets of config files and a script to swap them as needed but that only works if I have a connection already so I can log in.
If I add a jumper or switch to the rPI GPIO interface I could run the configuration script at startup and let it read the switch.
I might try to make the script look for an existing wifi link and go to access point mode if it doesn't find one it can access.
This would probably be a steep learning curve for me but I could probably figure it out eventually.
What I am trying to figure out now is whether I can avoid these potentially complex solutions by creating a single configuration that does both. Is a single wifi dongle sharable between these functions?
Note: I don't need it to do both at the same time. I just need the decision to be automated so it happens automatically during boot.
It is possible, although tricky to get right. (For example, what happens if you boot up, don't see an existing network for a second due to interference, then wrongly create your own network?)
Take a look at the "iwlist" command. It can scan and tell you what SSIDs (base stations) it sees. Then you can use 'grep' to see if your home network is on the list, and use that as your decision.
I am trying to connect ICP CON i-7565 (USB<->CAN interface) to a custom made device (supporting CAN2.0B, proved to work with PCL-841 card) Although I think I have configured BAUD and acceptance code/mask correctly I can see CAN no messages coming from the device (ICP provides a tool that should allow me to send and receive CAN messages).
I am new to CAN bus so I appreciate any help regarding how to identify the problem.
I-7565 might be wrong interface for me, I might have misconfigured it, or it is simply broken. Or I am just doing something wrong out of my ignorance. I don't think anyone can help me with my specific problem, so I am rather asking for general information on how are problems with CAN bus identified and analyzed. In TCP/IP for example, you would call ping, you'd recheck your ip and gateway settings etc. What do you do for CAN communication?
Additional info:
OS: Win7 64bit
connector: DB-9 with standard wiring (2,3,7)
Finally I tried to work with different USB<->CAN interface from different manufacturer and it worked like a charm. My old interface was either broken or incompatible for reasons unknown. While working on this problem I learned couple of things about CAN bus and so now I share what I think was the right answer to my original question: How to troubleshoot CAN bus communication?
read manual to your USB-CAN interface
install driver of your interface device and make sure it is working (check device manager, depending on the type of your device you will see new COM port added or new USB controller )
your device should be shipped with it's own test/analysis software (they might call it utility or similar), run it and check if it can connect to your device
CAN communication uses three wires that are referred to as High, Low and Ground and is usually connected with DB-9 connectors where High is linked to pin n. 7, Low to pin n. 2 and Ground to pin n. 3 or 5 - make sure this is connected correctly on both your USB interface and CAN device you want to communicate with
set properties of your connection, these are most of all: CAN type (2.0A or 2.0B) BAUD rate, Acceptance Code and Acceptance Mask
if you've done all of this and still you can see no CAN messages arriving in your utility program, check with a different USB-CAN interface or find some other way to test if your device is actually emitting CAN messages and your USB interface is in fact able to receive them. (this was actually my case)
I have researched (and learnt quite a bit), but I have little experience in programming and only really understand basic sketches so far. I would like to use the Arduino R3 (more specifically, the usb to serial converter chip) to program a full-size hobby radio.
I have connected my radio to the Arduino appropriately (5V, Rx, Tx, Gnd) and put the Arduino into Tristate mode (apparently you have to do this..), but I seem to be lacking appropriate drivers. I basically want my Arduino R3 to function exactly like this: CP2102 . Please note that I am not being super cheap. To get something like that where I live would take at the very least a month. Some people also say that I should remove the Atmega chip. The ultimate goal is that I have a device, with drivers, on a com port and not just an "unknown device".
So, my questions are: leave the Atmega on, or remove it? and which drivers do I need?
Thanks!
EDIT: I found almost exactly what I need just after I posted. For some reason I couldn't get it to work, but maybe you could help me understand? Here's the link LINK If anyone is keen to help me out!
Just to make it clear: it has been done before, but I get the feeling people leave out things which they think are obvious, but to the not-yet-professional tinkerer like me aren't :/
Thanks so much!
It seems like the links you reference are for older Arduinos with an FTDI chip. The Arduino Uno doesn't use that. Here's a link for using the Uno
So! All of the older Arduinos (NG, Diecimila and Duemilanove) have
used an FTDI chip (the FT232RL) to convert the TTL serial from the
Arduino chip (Atmel ATmega). This allows for printable debugging,
connecting to software like PureData/Max, Processing, Python, etc.
etc. It also allows updating the firmware via the serial bootloader.
The good news about the FT232RL has royalty-free drivers and pretty
much just works. The bad news is that it can -only- act as a
USB/Serial port. It can't act like a keyboard, mouse, disk drive, MIDI
device, etc.
and
The Arduino Uno has a number of facilities for communicating with a
computer, another Arduino, or other microcontrollers. The ATmega328
provides UART TTL (5V) serial communication, which is available on
digital pins 0 (RX) and 1 (TX). An ATmega16U2 on the board channels
this serial communication over USB and appears as a virtual com port
to software on the computer. The '16U2 firmware uses the standard USB
COM drivers, and no external driver is needed. However, on Windows, a
.inf file is required. The Arduino software includes a serial monitor
which allows simple textual data to be sent to and from the Arduino
board. The RX and TX LEDs on the board will flash when data is being
transmitted via the USB-to-serial chip and USB connection to the
computer (but not for serial communication on pins 0 and 1).
Basically the LINK you provided, shows the user HACKING the Arduino. Using the USB/Serial(TTL) converter(what ever chip that is on your Arduino) to link to the Radio's Mini Din connector, in place of connecting to the Arduino's CPU.
As stated in other answer the Arduino uses a CHIP (of some flavor) to bridge the USB(Virtual Serial Port) to the Serial Port of the ATmega328 micro. These pins are available on the Shields connector 0(RX) and 1(TX). Hence you see the picture wiring those pins to the Radio's DIN connector.
Where I would expect in addition the RESET of the Arduino's CPU would be held to GND, this would force the pins into Hi. Simply with an extra wire jump the RESET pin to a GND.
It's working! Somewhere along the line the drivers for my arduino seem to have been deleted, so I reinstalled them, did what you said, and learnt something.
So to clarify for others: pretty much plug and play (as the link I posted suggests), but make sure to install the arduino drivers properly.
Thanks a lot for the help!