I wanted to let people know that there’s a couple of neat features in the Polarshield, the first of which is an XBee-shaped socket that can take a wireless transceiver.
It’s as easy as that. There’s a weak line in the case that can be cut away if you wanted to do this. This is a great way of simplifying installation of a polargraph machine in a particular space. I used a wireless connection just like this in the Spectrum Arts machine so that I could do the machine setup / calibration manually and do any little pen tests I wanted to make sure ink was flowing, then draw from SD. There I used XBees, here I’m using XRF modules (and a Bee Adapter for the PC end).
One foible I came across with my XRFs (maybe I was being dumb) is that I couldn’t get my PC to talk to the PC-side XRF any faster than 9600 baud. Which is unfortunate because the default rate that the polargraph controller speaks at is 57600 baud, so I added a property to the controller that changes that rate. If you need to use it, you’ll have to edit the properties file – there isn’t a visible control for it in the application itself.
But once that’s done, it just works as a serial cable replacement: Great! It doesn’t work for reprogramming the arduino firmware yet – I tried to get that working but never did, so you still need to use a USB cable for that.
A wireless module is not supplied as part of any kit – I decided these are still too expensive, and a little too far outside my expertise to start troubleshooting, but the socket is there for those who would like it.
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