RF Reciever & transmitter [433Mhz, 315Mhz] Library.

[Miles]

Hey Guys,

First up, this isn't my library. It was developed by Mike McCauley, I believe he is still partially active with development.

The original "VirtualWire" library has a few compatibility issues with the latest version of the Arduino IDE. After some hunting I found the fix and thought it would be wise to share my findings.

[VirtualWire 1.3] http://download.milesburton.com/Arduino ... alWire.rar

[Documentation for 1.3] http://download.milesburton.com/Arduino ... alWire.pdf

This library works great with the Seeedstudio RF kits
[315 Mhz] http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/315mhz ... cc711ee267
[433 Mhz] http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/433mhz ... cc711ee267

Like most other libraries, drop VirtualWire (Above) into the hardware\libraries directory and fire up the example sketches per the documentation.

I can vouge for the 433Mhz version as it is now sitting on my desk chatting away. The document above explains what you need to do to get up and running. Unlike stock libraries, VirtualWire provides some basic error handling and syncronising. It produces a simple "packet" (which supposidly follows the 'VirtualWire' standard) that produces a pretty clean wireless communicate between two devices.

Great stuff, let me know how you get on
-Miles

[esp]

Amazing!! Can't wait to add it into the product page. Thanks!

[seeedstudio-fan128]

Thanks to Miles. I've added the library to the product page.

[PinMode]

Hello Seeed Crew and Miles,

What is the main difference between this set and the Sparkfun modules (except the price the price )? I see a crystal and a small IS on the Sparkfun modules.

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8950
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8946

What is the range and baud rate (bps) of these modules?

How is your experience with "noise" and "interference" from other wireless products operating at 434 MHz (car alarm/doors ect...)? This because I'll probably will have some of these in the surrounding area (cars in the street).

Just remembered the other discussion about these modules:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/forum/viewto ... ?f=4&t=198

Where are you using the modules for?

Thanks in advance.

[Miles]

Hey Pinmode,

I honestly can't say with regards to th difference between Sparkfun and Seeed modules. I'll leave that up to the other guys to answer that.


At the moment I'm just testing a new library I'm writing. They seem resonably accurate if you solder an ariel to them. You can be pretty flexible with regards to the baud... I usually use around 2k-4k....

[PinMode]

Well I'll just have to wait what the Seeed guys sat .

Can you give a estimation on the range?

How is your experience with "noise" and "interference" from other wireless products operating at 434 MHz (car alarm/doors ect...)? This because I'll probably will have some of these in the surrounding area (cars in the street).

Why are you using another library? Is the virtualWire library no good enough?

Best regards.

[Miles]

Well I'll just have to wait what the Seeed guys sat .

Can you give a estimation on the range?

Without an Ariel it's pretty poor.. We're talking Centimeters. I'm not entirely sure with an Ariel as I'm still testing. It's not a great deal though. I doubt you could use it for long-range use.

How is your experience with "noise" and "interference" from other wireless products operating at 434 MHz (car alarm/doors ect...)? This because I'll probably will have some of these in the surrounding area (cars in the street).

Can't say I've had any problems so far. No way to test this.

Why are you using another library? Is the virtualWire library no good enough?

I'm writing a library which is build UPON VirtualWire. I want a two way library which can gaurentee stateful messages to be sent back and forth. It trades speed for HIGH reliability. My first beta is working great though the speed isn't fantastic.

Best regards.

[CaptainObvious]

Hey guys! Just wanted to say I'm fairly new to the Arduino, I've gotten it up.. blinking, wrote a library and that's about it so far! So my experience is limited, but I'm having an issue with the 433Mhz pair. I hooked it up how the PDF showed, and used the VirutalWire examples, with no luck! The Arduino with the transmitter, LED blinks when it's sending, like it's suppose to. But the receiver just doesn't get anything. I've tried them very close together.. and spread them apart, without any luck, I'm sure it's user error..
I'm kind of wondering if it's the pins.. at first I figured it was the Tx and Rx pins (for transmitter, and receiver respectively), but nothing there.. so I read through the VirtualWire pdf, and it said something about the default pins were 11 and 12.. so I gave those a try, without any luck.

Any information would be appreciated Like I said, I'm sure it's just user error, or I'm missing something..
Cheers!

[Miles]

Try without the transmitters and receiverfs first mate.. Directly connect your two arduinos RX to TX and TX to RX.

You are quite right about the default ports

Please let me know how you get on

[CaptainObvious]

Sorry if the questions.. seem a bit obvious, but, do I try connect the two arduinos together with the same code and try? Haven't had much experience with TX/RX pins, all I know so far is not to use them, and if I need to, don't connect the pins until after code is uploaded, but that's about it! Just a little worried about hooking it up incorrectly and damaging something!
Thanks for the quick response! (And thanks for taking sometime to try help the newb understand!:))