Using the Roving Networks RN-171,174,and RN-XV

$WMc%

Hello All
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I have been experimenting with the RN-171 series of WiFi devices from Rov.Networks with great success.(RN-171,RN-174)and soon the RN-XV
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The WiFi system is based around the RN-171 WiFi module.
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The RN-174 is a development board with the RN-171 as the bases.
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The RN-XV is a direct XBee plug-in replacement to a XBee carrier board with the RN-171. It will give one full WiFi with WPA2-PSK encryption and TCP/IP connection in a wireless LAN and make use of an existing XBee set-up.(XBee carrier board)
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The RN-171 is a WiFi to serial converter...Perfect for micro's like the Propeller and the BS2...the RN-171 has a FIFO buffer to aide in communication and the serial Baud rate is selectable....upto 115.2KBaud...54Mbps on the WiFi side...802.11b/g
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IP addressing is easy with the RN-171
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Below is some test that I ran on this device.
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The BS2 sample works well with telnet. enter a "1" to turn the LED on... "0" to turn it off from the telnet window."Hello" verifies connection'
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I'd like to encourage others to post their findings with this WiFi module!

Bill Chennault

Walt--

Great! I know you have waited a long time for this event! What are some of your project ideas?

--Bill; aka Serial-Cable-Replacement-Wannabe-Man

$WMc%

Hello Bill..
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I plan on converting all of my old 433MHz RF stuff over to WiFi.This will free up the Prop that I have hooked to my PC for the RF modules.
I can also check on things from afar with this TCP/IP set-up via the Internet.
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This is things like my chicken coupe feeder...All Stamp controlled.Same thing for the hog pin and cattle feeders,Front gate,Well pump monitor.Pool pump,etc.
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I also plan to convert my BOE-HAWG to WiFi. With this set-up I can write an App and control it from my smartphone.(easier said then done,But I'll get there)
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I have a working GUI but I still have some bugs with the mesock32.dll call in my App.
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I'll post updates as I write them and try to make them fool Prof.
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mesock.dll is for a TCP/IP socket with a port address.If you want to use http:/, HTML,etc take a look at winsock or wsock.dll for high traffic text, etc.

$WMc%

Heres some hook-up info for the RN-174 to BS2.
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For use with telnet and the RN-174 to BS2 code below
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Super Simple

$WMc%

How to open telnet?
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Below is some screen shots of how this is done.
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Click on Start.....next..click on RUN....now type in "CMD"...In the CMD window type in "telnet"
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(If you get an error about telnet not recognized....Its probably not installed. more on this later)
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next type in the IP address of your RN-171 starting with a little "o" like | o 10.0.0.52 2000 |
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"o" is the open command for telnet....10.0.0.52 is the IP address... and 2000 is the port# to open
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If you can not get telnet to run...Its probably not installed...Heres a simple fix.
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Grab the WinOS disk for your computer and put it in the CD drive...Goto to start...then control panel...then Add/remove programs....type in telnet to install from drive "?"what ever your CD drive is...usally drive
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Let the Windows install wizard do the rest.....You should have telnet after this operation completes...
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JPEG's 5 and 6 show how to turn the LED on and off through the BS2 with the code shown above...again super simple
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The last jpeg was my first GUI window...nothing fancy...but it worked
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More info and code to come....
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If you have info on using the RN-171 please post it...!

tilak

i was trying to work with the rn 174 module
but while associating it with an ap it got stuck at the point "dhcp: start"
the module is not able to obtain an ip address for it self

i did it even using the static ip address mode but still the same problem


however i was successfully able to connect the to an ad hoc created by my laptop
but i was not able to view the udp packets send by it(in port peeker)

can any one let me know what i need to do?
i m following the manual provided by the company

zoopydogsit

Hi Walt, All,
I've been using the WiFly RN-131C as a bare module from sparkfun and wired it into a Propeller based circuit. I was able to hack it working first using just the serial port connected to it and connect via a web browser to see data. I then moved it to a prop. I found the OBEX RN-XV Wifly Web Server V01 by Ben Thacker are really well written and work a treat. I'd well recommend giving them a try. I did screw up mine a bit by trying to move from the factory settings and not setting it for both TCP and HTTP. However once I set that it worked just fine. I haven't tried the RN-171, they look cheaper but from reading the datasheet it looks like they need a pcb trace antena or a chip antena.

Sorry I can't help you much with the 174.

http://obex.parallax.com/objects/853/

I'm going to stabalize the code and then consider

Mike Green

I've been using the RN-XV for a while now with the Propeller as an xBee replacement. I use the Parallax USB Adapter with a terminal program to configure it for use on my WiFi network and save the configuration file. Mostly the SSID and WPA passphrase need to be entered and I need to note the TCP address. At that point, it goes into an xBee socket on a Propeller board and I use my iPad with Mocha Telnet as the Telnet terminal program. I have a PropBoeBot that I'm using this way and I'm trying to get a Scribbler2 to work with an RN-XV as well although the Hacker Port is giving me grief.

The WiFly devices do output specific strings to their serial port when the connection is opened or closed (like *HELLO*, *OPEN*, *CLOS*). You can write your code to use them and/or modify them with configuration commands including setting them to empty so nothing gets sent.

$WMc%

I've found the RN-171/174 the most easiest WiFi units to use. The RN-174 with the built-in ant.
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I have almost converted all of my wireless stuff over to WiFi with the RN-174. All reachable from the www, with WPA encryption.
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My GUI is on all of my PC's....Yes I have redundancy.
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The Net gear WiFi router I have sends the commands to the WiFi devices.(RN-174)s'
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WLAN = Wireless Local Area Network
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A short read will gain understanding on the RN-174.
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I wasn't asking for help here, But giving help with the RN-174.

$WMc%

@talik
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Push an IP address into the RN-174 under TCP/IP. You need to get the RN-171/174 in to your LAN.
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If you don't know the IP address of your wire-less LAN????
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Open the CMD window. You might have to look in the control panel for this.
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Next type "cmd" in the "run" window.
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In the black cmd window, type " ipconfig "
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This will return the IP/address of the PC your using and the work-group of the IP/address.
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If its 192.168,yyy.xxx, Then the work group is at "192.168.yyy.xxx" or it could be "10.0.yyy.xxx"
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If the "yyy" is "1" then the work group is "192.168.1.xxx"
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"yyy" is the work group...."xxx" is the node address
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Make sure the IP/address you set does don't conflick with another IP/adress.."xxx"=0-255
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If IP/address 192.168.5.100 is already used...You can't use the IP/address

Don M

I see Roving Networks was acquired by Microchip a few months ago... I just ordered the RN-174 and the RN-XV. Looking forward to working with these units.

nacedo

Hi,

I'm using the RN-171 in PCB project and I had a problem with the communication, i'm trying to generate the ad hoc network but the module doesnt generate it, i do it setting at 3.3v the GPIO9.
thanks for your help
best regards

Humberto

$WMc%

I'm in the process of building a smoker/griller controller. (I'm tired of baby sitting the fire box for 4-8 hours at a time)
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I'll post some new WiFi code soon.

Bill Chennault

Walt--

Wow! This is an old thread! I pray you are happy and healthy!

--Bill

$WMc%

Hello Bill
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It's been a longtime since we spoke.
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I'm doing well, I hope you the same!!!

$WMc%

Microchip buys Roven networks. RN-174 discontinued. RN-171EK is the replacement p#. Pretty much the same thing. Above examples will still work.

max72

Nice thing is there are new firmware versions, and now you can configure it as access point with security.
Massimo

$WMc%

max72 wrote: »

Nice thing is there are new firmware versions, and now you can configure it as access point with security.
Massimo

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Cool

max72

A couple of commands:
Update the firmware (using the internet connection from the home wify router):

*Start from scratch:*
$$$
factory R
save
reboot

*Connect to internet using the wify router:*
$$$
set wlan join 1
set wlan channel 0
set wlan auth 4
set wlan join 1
set wlan phrase yourpassword
set wlan ssid yourSSIDname
set ftp address 198.175.253.161
set ftp dir public
set ftp user roving
set ftp pass Pass123

save
reboot

*let it join the net, and donwload the new firmware*
$$$
ftp update wifly-EZX.img
reboot

*factory reset and restart with the new firmware*
$$$
factory R
save
reboot

Configure it as access point (in my case I set the baud rate to 4800 for parsing NMEA strings at this rate):

$$$
set ip dhcp 4
set wlan join 7
set wlan auth 4
set apmode passphrase thepassword
set apmode ssid thessid
set uart baudrate 4800
set ip address 192.168.1.1
set ip netmask 255.255.255.0
save
reboot

Massimo

Ron Czapala

I used a slightly different Access Point setup.
Since my home router network uses 192.168.1.1, I switched it to 192.168.2.1.

set wlan join 7
set wlan channel 1
set apmode ssid WiFlyOne
set apmode passphrase pass5678
set ip dhcp 4
set ip address 192.168.2.1
set ip net 255.255.255.0
set ip gateway 192.168.2.1
save apmode
save
reboot

I have the Sparkfun RN-XV module plugged into a Parallax XBEE/USB adapter connected to my desktop PC. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10822

I also have VB6 program which uses the MSWINSCK.ocx to establish a TCP connection on port 2000.
This VB6 program also works fine on my HP Stream 7" tablet.

After connecting to the WiFly access point I can establish a TCP connection and exchange data using Parallax Serial Terminal.

$WMc%

@Ron Czapala
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Cool

$WMc%

I'm back
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New Prop IDE with PropBASIC.....cool

$WMc%

I like the new Parallax WiFi
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At $25 bucks its worth trying out. I'm ordering a couple.