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Aug
26
Written by:
Gary Holbrook
8/26/2008 4:54 PM
Tonight I decided to put XBee to the test. By the time we got Evelyn in bed, it was already pretty late. My new RC transmitter also came in today, and I had to show it my neighbor. After we discussed our various toys and projects, it was dark out.
I recently procured an ultra light laptop for my wife, and this seemed like a good inaugural use for it. After installing the XBee tools on it, and setting up another laptop on the front porch, I wandered down the street.
My first trip was short. Only to the end of the block. After changing the default transmit\receive channel and turning the manners down (basically, I told the transmitter to transmit even if the channel did not appear to be clear) it was time for another trip down the block.
So, on I walked. When I got to the first stopping place, my signal was still great. Half a block later, the signal was still quite strong...but it faded rapidly. At the end of two blocks, I had just about maximized the range of the modules. Not bad, though. With some more tweaking, and a real "line of sight" situation, the modules could probably make about 3/4 of a mile. I could also turn down the baudrate and see what happens (I was testing at 9600bps). Perhaps a high gain antenna would also help.
I turned to head home and noticed that my neighbors were peering out at me from their windows. Then, of course, they saw me looking in their windows at them. Wandering about after dark, holding a laptop like a serving tray. I'm sure that I appeared to define "weird". For a brief moment I considered explaining to them that I was testing RF modules for use in a future robot...but then I realized that my explanation might only serve to verify their worst fears!
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