Preparing for the Arduino workshop

The Arduino workshop I mentioned before, is actually going to happen! This will be a busy day, for both the organizing party as well as the attendees! A short list of the things we will be doing during that day:

• Building an Arduino on a breadboard
• Soldering a JeeNode
• The Arduino IDE and testing the JeeNode
• Experimenting with sensors and actors
• Building a Room board
• HomeSeer integration.

Enough to fill a complete day I’d say!

For the HomeSeer integration we’ll be using a slightly modified version of JeeNode for HomeSeer. This script based solution will help the attendees to integrate the hardware they created into HomeSeer in a very simple way. And since all the source code is provided, everyone can extend and/or modify it so that it will fit their personal needs the way they want.

Although I’m not a HomeSeer user, I do have a HomeSeer license that was paid for by a fundraiser that took place earlier this year. So I can play with HomeSeer whenever I like without any dirty tricks while I’m working on the Plugins I created or when I’m doing stuff like this.

I soldered a new JeeNode v4, a Room Board, uploaded the JeeNode sketch and connected it to the AA Power Board:

JeeNode with Room Board

The JeeLink sketch was uploaded to the, eh, JeeLink, and I added an extra line to the HomeSeer startup script to get the JeeNode script running. After some initial configuration like setting the JeeLink COM port and some RF related settings, I was good to go:

HomeSeer Status

OK, it’s all working; I can see the Room Board sensors in HomeSeer. Now it’s time to upgrade the JeeNode sketch to make it more power usage aware, cause I assume that will be important for those who attend this workshop. Back at home, they’ll probably start creating their own battery powered sensors, so a good starting point is essential. And that’s what I’m working on right now.