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.