SparkFun Forums

[1joey1]

Muscle Sensor v3 Kit
Bluetooth Modem - BlueSMiRF HID
Beefcake Relay Control Kit
DC Motor

My goal is to have the muscle sensor kit wired up with an arduino mini and bluesmirf up on someones arm that can send down an input to another arduino hooked up with a beefcake relay control kit and a strong dc motor.

System 1(Based off Muscle Mouse):
6 triple A batteries,
Muscle sensor Kit V3
Bluetooth -bluesmirf-HID
Arduino mini

System 2:
Arduino R3
Bluetooth-bluesmirf-HID
Beefcake relay-DC MOTOR

System 1's muscle sensors will send a signal down to System 2 which will activate the relay and power a strong DC motor.

Questions.
1. Do I need the bluesmirf-HID modules for this? I know HID is great for hooking up to computers, but for arduino to arduino are there cheaper options?
2. Can the beefcake relay use PWM from one of the Arduino R3 pins to control the current(speed) of the DC motor?

Thanks, I'm really new to this and for a first project this is a lot to bite off. I've been reading a lot of tutorials and watching a lot of videos, the questions I posted are things I couldn't quite get cleared up through the videos/articles I saw.

[Ross Robotics]

There are a few other methods for communicating, I2C, SPI, Serial are the most common ones. I don't have experience with those kits, but you need to look at how to control them with an Arduino. If it's simple analog communication, you can go with Serial. Serial is the most simplest and well documented communication.

I will tell that this project is by no means, trivial. Take it one step at a time. Get the muscle sensor to work so you can read the signals it sends. Then take those signals and do something with them. Then go on to the motor, get it to work by itself. After you have everything working separately, then start putting them together. This is not your weekend project. It will take some time.

[1joey1]

There are a few other methods for communicating, I2C, SPI, Serial are the most common ones. I don't have experience with those kits, but you need to look at how to control them with an Arduino. If it's simple analog communication, you can go with Serial. Serial is the most simplest and well documented communication.

I will tell that this project is by no means, trivial. Take it one step at a time. Get the muscle sensor to work so you can read the signals it sends. Then take those signals and do something with them. Then go on to the motor, get it to work by itself. After you have everything working separately, then start putting them together. This is not your weekend project. It will take some time.

Definitely agree with you that this is a large project. I will look into the methods of communicating that you talked about, I know there's probably a ton of info on bluetooth connections I'm just having trouble finding it for my specific need.

-I'm still curious about the beefcake relay.

[Mee_n_Mac]

I'm still curious about the beefcake relay.

No EM relay will work at PWM frequencies to do PWM speed control. Depending on the motor you may use a "driver" or a power MOSFET as a switch.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10213

As for RF, why BT and not something like XBee or the nRF24LO1 modules ? What kind of bit rate do you need ? Max latency ? What's the expected RF environment. What happens if a packet is lost ? Do you need a secure link ?
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/691
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8665

FWIW I would skip the RF link at first and connect the 2 via a wired UART link. After that works, add in the RF.