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Propeller Wifi — Parallax Forums

Propeller Wifi

Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
edited 2012-08-20 11:42 in Propeller 1
Looks like I may have to drop everything and concentrate on getting THIS working with the Propeller ASC!

Comments

  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-08-16 09:17
    Yes, please do. Drop everything like a hot potato! :0)

    {no self interest here, I'm thinking of the community!}
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2012-08-16 09:32
    You could get your Prop connected to WIFI with a Raspberry Pi board and a USB WIFI adapter for less money and the bonus of all the goodies the Rasp brings like ethernet, USB, SD card, HDMI video, stereo audio and a pile of extra processing power if you need it.
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2012-08-16 12:10
    Wow, $100... :frown:
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-08-16 12:13
    Except for Heater becoming almost as annoying as those Forth people, he has a real good point about his RPi evangelism! :smile:

    $100 is WAY overpriced!

    Please resume your normal activities.
  • groggorygroggory Posts: 205
    edited 2012-08-16 12:15
    Heater. wrote: »
    You could get your Prop connected to WIFI with a Raspberry Pi board and a USB WIFI adapter for less money and the bonus of all the goodies the Rasp brings like ethernet, USB, SD card, HDMI video, stereo audio and a pile of extra processing power if you need it.

    That's a really really good point....

    Wow, neat idea. Use the propeller for all your embedded needs, then slave a raspberry Pi to the propeller to deal with data storage, Wifi, Networking, Hi-Res video display, etc etc etc.

    Especially if you use some of the Raspberry Pi's general purpose I/O ports to maybe do a high speed SPI data transfer between the two.

    Hmm...thinking!!!
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,951
    edited 2012-08-16 12:16
    I have already "cracked" the TI CC3000 as officially they don't support anything that don't use their API that is in C.
    I was able to make it run in Assembler with only 68bytes of ram and 200bytes of flash on a 75cent msp430

    I would like Parallax to officially carry my wifi board for the Prop once I write a the code for a single cog that will handle it all.
    as once I let out of the bag there is nothing stopping someone to copy it.
    So some type of minimum order to make it worth my while.

    See my post here:
    http://e2e.ti.com/support/low_power_rf/f/851/t/200781.aspx
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-08-16 12:21
    @tonyp12 - exciting news for a number of folks that have been looking for Propeller WiFi. (YooHoo, Parallax??)

    Love your dialog with TI, glad you took them on!! Congrats!
  • groggorygroggory Posts: 205
    edited 2012-08-16 12:28
    Wow @tonyp12! Very excited. Make sure you make a big deal about it once you get it all working.

    Smart move to just sell the design to Parallax instead of trying to market it yourself. You know that all the hobby sites will copy it in a heartbeat once it's out of the bag.
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2012-08-16 13:01
    Arduino is using http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/HDG104-DN-2/HDG104-DN-2CT-ND/2567691 which is $18+ in qty.

    How much is the TI module?
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2012-08-16 13:10
    And that's an 802.11g capable wi-fi device, unlike the b-only one which Parallax worked on last year. Sounds good! I'll be in line for buying one or two.

    (Edit: Saw Martin's post above.. I have my personal price limit set at (currently) $32 for anything in the 'nice', not 'dying for' category.. because that's the current trigger point for import tax, duty, charges and whatnot for my country).

    -Tor
  • Ding-BattyDing-Batty Posts: 302
    edited 2012-08-16 13:13
    Martin Hodge wrote: »
    Arduino is using http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/HDG104-DN-2/HDG104-DN-2CT-ND/2567691 which is $18+ in qty.

    How much is the TI module?

    According to a Dangerous Prototypes webpage, it is available for $49 from the TI estore. Programming through an (undocumented) SPI interface.
  • Mike GMike G Posts: 2,702
    edited 2012-08-16 13:15
    I like the MatchPort b/g. It's ridiculously easy to implement.
    http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/embedded-device-servers/matchport.html#tabs
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2012-08-16 13:16
    The TI eval board that comes to the front on most searches shows $199. The actual wifi module is http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/LS-Research/450-0067/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMuUEl1q4YqyMRB3mdfTBLfH and is in the $20s at qty.

    Thanks Ding-Batty for the link, that's more reasonable a price.
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,951
    edited 2012-08-16 13:18
    The CC3000 modules cost around $26 each (under 10 units), Murratas version is comming out soon and hopefully their price will be a few bucks lower.
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2012-08-16 13:22
    Okay, one thing the Arduino board has going for it is completely open source API and an on-board 32bit processor. $60 would be my absolute max, even with all that.

    Tor, is that $32 with the exchange rate? So something like e20?
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,951
    edited 2012-08-16 13:32
    Estimate for 1000 units:
    CC3000 Module (Murata) $18/each
    Johnson chip antenna $0.75
    2 pf capacitors 0.40
    1 inductor 0.20
    2 bypass caps 0.20
    pcb board $1.00
    Assembly $1.50
    Cost for my Prop program ~$5
    Sales markup ~$10.

    So the msrp should be ~$40

    Would love to use this $11 module
    http://www.mouser.com/Taiyo-Yuden/Embedded-Solutions/RF-Wireless-Modules/WiFi-80211-Modules/_/N-6l7qa?P=1yzr94v&Ns=Pricing|0

    But it needs you to download the firmware every time you power it up and TCP-stack have to be handled externally.
    I have tried to do some work with it and I have all the internal data sheets for it, so maybe one day
  • Daniel HarrisDaniel Harris Posts: 207
    edited 2012-08-16 13:32
    *pokes at datasheet*
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,671
    edited 2012-08-16 13:47
    The RovingNetworks modules are pretty easy to use...
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2012-08-16 16:32
    Watching this thread eagerly. Wifi is the key to the "internet of things" but there is not much point putting a $100 board on a $10 "thing". Prices seem to be coming down all the time which is very exciting. Cheap wifi modules and the smarts/low power consumption of the propeller makes for a very interesting combination.
  • Don MDon M Posts: 1,652
    edited 2012-08-16 19:11
    I just received my Imp's today... $25 each. They plug into a full size SD card socket.

    http://electricimp.com/
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2012-08-16 19:33
    I just received my Imp's today... $25 each. They plug into a full size SD card socket.

    http://electricimp.com/

    Very nice!

    I suppose one can think of a software challenge - would it be possible to get a wifi driver for any one of these to fit in a cog? (Or if not a cog, with fairly standard obex objects like an I2C driver or a SPI driver plus some glue code).
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2012-08-16 21:16
    I haven't yet found a source in the US for the wifi shield. When I do, I still plan on testing it out with an ASC. With the Atmel handling configuration, the TCP/IP stack and WPA, etc. It's looking better and better. (but still too expensive)
  • max72max72 Posts: 1,155
    edited 2012-08-17 01:43
    I second roving network's WiFly serial modules.
    They are cheap and easy to use.
    At the moment I've only used them as serial cable replacement (no http handling yet), but they are really nice.
    Massimo
  • tonyp12tonyp12 Posts: 1,951
    edited 2012-08-17 08:12
    Roving's are OK, but I prefer SPI over RX/TX.
    Roving you have to hold down a pin while you are booting up to get in adhoc mode to be able to set it up.
    Pain in the neck to have to use a laptop and manually changing local Ip mask everytime you do that.
    And use a lot of power, recommends a 1 farad cap to start up on battery, those are big and expensive


    CC3000 have a neat optional wlan connect mode.
    It will pick up a beacon from any wlan device that is looking to connect to a ssid starting with TTT
    This ssid is not a real router name, but includes ssid, security type and password instead.
  • dMajodMajo Posts: 855
    edited 2012-08-20 11:42
    Once I used lantronix modules.

    Now its some years that I use tibbo:
    http://tibbo.com/products/modules/minimo/em500.html
    or
    http://tibbo.com/products/modules/x20x/em1206.html
    depending on the application.

    The natural companion is therefor this
    http://tibbo.com/products/addons/ga1000.html

    I use the em500/1206 resources for postprocessing/gui reasons and fw updates (tibbo and prop both through ethernet and wifi). I found usefull having both the wired and wireless ethernet solutions available toghether so I have never tried the ga1000 derectly on prop. They say its made for tibbo but I belive that can be used also with other uC.
    Both the em500(€36)+ga1000(€44) together in Italy are near the same or a little cheaper (depending on distributors) than the wifi shield alone (€82)
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