What this book covers

Chapter 1, A World without Wires, introduces the XBee platform and shows how to use the XCTU program to control and configure XBee modules. It covers the AT and API modes, firmware updates, and ZigBee network creation and security. It also shows how to transmit your first messages between two XBee modules.

Chapter 2, Collecting Sensor Data, provides more details on wiring up XBee modules, and introduces the xbee-arduino library that lets an Arduino take control of an XBee module. Reading a sensor, designing a packet format, and wirelessly transmitting data are discussed; thus, by the end of this chapter you will have a basic wireless sensor network where one or more Arduinos read temperature and humidity data and this is wirelessly collected by another Arduino.

Chapter 3, Storing and Visualizing Your Data, covers storing and visualizing your collected data with the Beebotte cloud service, using an Internet-connected Arduino and the MQTT protocol. Storing and visualizing your data on your own computer, using a Python program and database, are also briefly discussed.

Chapter 4, Controlling the World, shows how to let your network control things in addition to monitoring them, such as heating and/or cooling your house. Simple on/off control is covered in detail, either using a relay module connected to an Arduino, or using an off-the-shelf wireless power socket that supports the ZigBee Home Automation protocol.

Chapter 5, Standalone XBee Operation, lets you implement simple devices without using an Arduino, by letting the XBee module directly control or measure things. You will see how to simplify the relay module from Chapter 4, Controlling the World and add window open/closed detection to your network.

Chapter 6, Battery Power and Sleeping, discusses options for battery-powering your projects, as well as techniques to reduce the power used. This includes some hardware techniques, as well as applying various sleep modes to drastically reduce XBee and Arduino power usage when they are idle.