WIRELESS CONTROL

[tharrenos]

Hi,

I am kinda new to the whole scene. I want to design a wireless remote control of a central heating over Wi-Fi. Any suggestions would help.

Thanks in advance.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

QUOTE(tharrenos @ Sep 16 2007, 11:18 AM)

Hi,

I am kinda new to the whole scene. I want to design a wireless remote control of a central heating over Wi-Fi. Any suggestions would help.

Thanks in advance.

As far as LabVIEW is concerned there won't be any problem. WiFi cleanly integrates into the OS networking stack and as such just looks like any other Ethernet hardware interface to LabVIEW, meaning LabVIEW has absolutely no idea that the packets would go over a twisted pair, glasfiber, dial-up modem, or WiFi network.

The central heating part might be a bit more troublesome. You will need to have some hardware that can control the heating and at the same time has a WiFi interface too. As embedded device which would be interesting only for high production numbers that would require some engineering. If you just put a normal (small size) PC beside and run a LabVIEW executable on that too the necessary engineering would be quite limited.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[Born2Wire]

QUOTE(tharrenos @ Sep 16 2007, 11:18 AM)

Hi,

I am kinda new to the whole scene. I want to design a wireless remote control of a central heating over Wi-Fi. Any suggestions would help.

Thanks in advance.

Presumably you are going to have one embedded system. Specifically the remote. You should decide if the HW that will control the heating will also be an embedded system or if you can leave a PC to do it.

NI has an embedded toolkit addon for embedded platforms. You should research these and decide which target you want to use. A pointer is to find one that has a Wi-Fi solution already.

Alternatly, it may be acceptable to allow a Palm Pilot or PocketPC device control the heating via a web page or similar.

You can get an add-on for LabVIEW that allows you to embed Labview in a webpage.

You could get an add on to allow you to write labview for the handheld device as well.

So there are three aproaches as I see it.

1. Custom remote control HW running an embedded system supported by LabVIEW with a supported Wi-Fi interface and driver. (Don't do this one.)

2. Embed LabVIEW in a webpage, then use Wi-Fi enabled hand helds to view that page. (Should allow you to develop code just for the PC running the heating system. This way probably has the least development on your part.)

3. Develop TCP/IP application for hand held devices to talk to your PC.

[tharrenos]

WOW so many suggestions!

Thank you both very much for your fast responce and your valuable advices.

Its my final year project thats why I want to impress. I thought that it would be good idea to start with the wi-fi control using a single pc and then if I manage to finish early, to carry on with the webpage and the PDA. Few video-demo shows with labview its easy to generate a webpage and to tranform the vi to a handhelp compatible one as long as the vi is finished and operational.

I aim to purchase the latest student version of the LabIEW. Am I going to be limited as far as concerns the addons?

The project goes like that. There is a valve on the central heating and must be switched on/off. so using stepper motors and a wireless module to build a wireless actuator that toggles the valve between on and off states (I need a controller as well). I never though that I could run labview exe from a embedded system.

so far I found that the (WLNG-AN-DP101 from the ) module could do the wireless part. But now I plan to research more about the new ideas you provided me.

Thank you very much!

Tharrenos

[robijn]

Maybe bettter to use the connectionless protocol UDP instead of TCP. This makes (temporary) loss of connectivity not a problem. You will need to number your packets and you need to resend commands if you don't get a respons. But you get no delays if the connection breaks temporary. You are in control of the "connection", not the TCP stack.

My PDA phone speaks WiFi and I want to try something like this too

Joris

[Born2Wire]

QUOTE(tharrenos @ Sep 17 2007, 04:59 AM)

Snip...

I aim to purchase the latest student version of the LabIEW. Am I going to be limited as far as concerns the addons?

The project goes like that. There is a valve on the central heating and must be switched on/off. so using stepper motors and a wireless module to build a wireless actuator that toggles the valve between on and off states (I need a controller as well). I never though that I could run labview exe from a embedded system.

Ahh. If money is going to be an issue, then you are going to have problems. The add-ons to develop on an embedded target, or a hand held device, or a web application all cost extra. NI is very proud of their product, and most of their customers are used to paying a lot for tools.

[tharrenos]

QUOTE(Born2Wire @ Sep 17 2007, 03:38 PM)

Ahh. If money is going to be an issue, then you are going to have problems. The add-ons to develop on an embedded target, or a hand held device, or a web application all cost extra. NI is very proud of their product, and most of their customers are used to paying a lot for tools.

that means that the student edition does not embed the toolkits I need?

Labview developer edition is been provided from the university to me for free, since its already installed at the lab's pcs. I meant that if its sufficient to purchase the students edition so I can work at my private space. I dont mind if I purchase the addons for the hand held device, or a web separately.

thank you

[Born2Wire]

QUOTE(tharrenos @ Sep 17 2007, 02:04 PM)

that means that the student edition does not embed the toolkits I need?

Labview developer edition is been provided from the university to me for free, since its already installed at the lab's pcs. I meant that if its sufficient to purchase the students edition so I can work at my private space. I dont mind if I purchase the addons for the hand held device, or a web separately.

thank you

The student edition is pretty stripped down. And even the developer edition will not necesarrily have the add ons.

This link takes you to the price list for Remote Panels which would allow embedding LabVIEW in a web page.

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/11017

Here is the link for the PDA add on prices.

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/12222

[tharrenos]

QUOTE(Born2Wire @ Sep 17 2007, 08:21 PM)

The student edition is pretty stripped down. And even the developer edition will not necesarrily have the add ons.

This link takes you to the price list for Remote Panels which would allow embedding LabVIEW in a web page.

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/11017

Here is the link for the PDA add on prices.

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/12222

thank you very much for your help.

[tharrenos]

I am almost done with the hardware implementation of the project but I still have querries on the labview. The hardware part consist of an Lantronix matchport, Atmel Mega64 MCU, Stepper motor controller and a stepper motor. I ll define a serial protocol within the microcontroller, lets say for example the value x will make the motor perform a resolution. My question is how TCP/IP the conversion works? is it something de facto? The Lantronix offers a ethernet to serial conversion supporting the 802.11 b/g standards. Do I need anything else than my laptop with the already builtin wifi card? All I could find on the internet were based on micrcontrollers that run a labview exe clients.

Thanks

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

QUOTE(tharrenos @ Oct 23 2007, 05:22 PM)

I am almost done with the hardware implementation of the project but I still have querries on the labview. The hardware part consist of an Lantronix matchport, Atmel Mega64 MCU, Stepper motor controller and a stepper motor. I ll define a serial protocol within the microcontroller, lets say for example the value x will make the motor perform a resolution. My question is how TCP/IP the conversion works? is it something de facto? The Lantronix offers a ethernet to serial conversion supporting the 802.11 b/g standards. Do I need anything else than my laptop with the already builtin wifi card? All I could find on the internet were based on micrcontrollers that run a labview exe clients.

Well how the Lantronix device converts TCP/IP into RS-232 will have to be defined by them. So read the documentation for the Lantronix device, bug their technical support and ask for some examples. And yes don't expect them to have LabVIEW examples. Much more than C is probably not possible, maybe one VB example too, but it should give you some ideas.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[tharrenos]

QUOTE(rolfk @ Oct 24 2007, 07:33 AM)

Well how the Lantronix device converts TCP/IP into RS-232 will have to be defined by them. So read the documentation for the Lantronix device, bug their technical support and ask for some examples. And yes don't expect them to have LabVIEW examples. Much more than C is probably not possible, maybe one VB example too, but it should give you some ideas.

Rolf Kalbermatter

well I could adjust the Lantronix, according to labview conversion as soon as I find out how it works. I am still far behind from understanding how the labview converts data to tcp/ip. I tried to follow some examples but i couldnt understand the main idea. is there a book or any online docs i could read?

Thank you

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

QUOTE(tharrenos @ Oct 24 2007, 08:49 AM)

well I could adjust the Lantronix, according to labview conversion as soon as I find out how it works. I am still far behind from understanding how the labview converts data to tcp/ip. I tried to follow some examples but i couldnt understand the main idea. is there a book or any online docs i could read?

Thank you

There is no conversion really. The TCP nodes interpret the data that is passed to them simply as a stream of bytes, which a string is in fact too. So if you want to send binary data you simply create an array of U8 bytes the way you want your byte stream to look like and cast it to a string with the Byte Array To String node.

If it is text your device expects you format this text into the string.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[tharrenos]

QUOTE(rolfk @ Oct 24 2007, 04:26 PM)

There is no conversion really. The TCP nodes interpret the data that is passed to them simply as a stream of bytes, which a string is in fact too. So if you want to send binary data you simply create an array of U8 bytes the way you want your byte stream to look like and cast it to a string with the Byte Array To String node.

If it is text your device expects you format this text into the string.

Rolf Kalbermatter

that solves most of my querries. thanks again!