SparkFun Forums

[piesoup]

Hello, I have done a load of reading on this and hunted for the bits I need. I have found loads that will work but they all have a compromise.

My project is a helmet LED light, with a remote switch.
The helmet light is small and light, with a built in 2S li-ion battery. I built the light myself, it uses a taskLED driver that has momentary push button operation to change the mode and to power on and off. A push and hold for 2 seconds for on / off and short clicks to cycle through the modes. There is also a battery status LED integrated into the driver that flashes at different rates depending on the battery level. I'd like to send this signal to the switch so I can actually see the stat led!

The handlebar switch will also need to be small and light, ideally running off of a coin battery. 2 in parallel at the most.

Ive discounted the 433MHZ type ones as they are TX or RX.
So it looks like its leaving me with WiFi or Bluetooth as they are transceivers. Correct??
Which modules will be basic enough for this? All the ones I've seen on these forums seem over complicated for the job I'll need them to do!

The HC-05 look promising, but then I'd need two arduino boards. Are there any integrated boards you'd recommend? Small size being an important factor?

Thanks for your input1

[piesoup]

OK, can I ask a simpler question?
nrf24l01 or esp8266? I'll be using a Pro Mini so 3.3 or 5v is ok, but read that the NRF draws less current...
Do these modules support two way comms? ie. handlebar device send a switch command and receive a LED high or low? The helmet device receives the switch command and sends the battery status as a high or low to an LED in the handlebar device.

[jremington]

The simplest approach I can think of is to use two Pololu Wixels, programmed with the I/O repeater app. They are self contained.

Approaches along your current line of thinking will require two microprocessors, two transceivers and a fair bit of sophisticated software.

[piesoup]

Thanks, I did see those Wixels mentions in a previous post, too expensive unfortunately. For that price I'll be happy to stick with an old school wire and switch!

I am at a basic level of programming, ie, I can read some one else's code and edit it for my purposes. Do you really believe my project will need some proper indepth code? I'm not arguing, just trying to understand what I'm getting myself into!
Do you know if the nrf24l01 or esp8266 can send and receive, not necessarily at the same time, but can each module do both functions?
Cheers

[jremington]

Do you know if the nrf24l01 or esp8266 can send and receive

A small amount research on your part will show that both are transceivers, meaning that each module can send and receive messages. There are many web sites with example codes for each.

Anything you do with either of these will require a fair bit of understanding and code, the latter mostly in the form of code libraries or built in firmware.

[piesoup]

Hi, thanks for replying again.

I have done quite a lot of reading on those two modules, I read some conflicting info so just wanted confirmation.
I have seen that you can have one master and two slaves, and that one master can RECEIVE data from the multi slaves, ie. sensor arrays. BUT, can that master module send data to individual slaves separately? Like on my project. One Master with two switches, one switch for each separate light?

I'm not too concerned about the coding just yet, like you say, there is loads out there for my to try. But seeing some, I have no doubt that it wont be anything but challenging! I really wanted to get the hardware right first, I didn't want to be buying loads of different components.



Thanks again

[piesoup]

Hi again,

Is it possible to use the HM-10 on the receiving end without a uC? Just using the IO pins on the module to go high or low depending on what message t receives?
If so, how would I go about programming it? Arduino language??
ALL the documentation I've read is an Android device or a USB device communicating with the module. Nothing about two bluetooth modules talking to each other.

Cheers