Wirelessly Control Lights and Motors Using XBee Communication!
At this Nebraska reservoir, sensors and wireless communication are used to send air and water quality data to equipment miles away.Copyright 2014 Edward Pultar, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tools.Valarm.net_Remotely_Monitoring_Industrial_IoT_Sensors_for_Water_and_Air_Quality_with_Lorenzo_and_Edward.jpg
From remote-controlled cars, to sensors relaying agricultural data from a field to farmhouses miles away, wireless communication enables users to “cut the cord” for their projects. For this maker challenge, students use the engineering design process as they apply what they learned about serial communication during the previous Arduino maker challenge (Make and Control a Servo Arm with Your Computer) and learn how to send signals from one system to another using XBee radio communication modules. By activity end, expect students to be able to control LEDs and motors wirelessly using Arduino microcontrollers and XBee shields. This is a great activity for students to explore and come to understand the concept of the Internet of things.