RF Communication

Hi guys and gals,

I've started researching a possible project, I am however unfamiliar with components I want to use for a part of this project. I'm looking at making some wireless sensors. I need to have multiple sensors communicating wirelessly possibly at the same time.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem that this is going to be easily or cheaply achieved. I'd like to keep per unit cost low, because in the overall system the number of these sensors will have to be scalable.

I'm open to using any type of wireless communication, I've personally been
researching RF. I'd like to keep power consumption at a minimum, and I would like to keep the circuit footprint small.

If anyone has a good solution for this situation, I'd be grateful!

Thank you for your time!

You may be a good candidate for the Zigbee standard. There are many manufacturers making zigbee modules.

Digi International - Making Wireless M2M Easy
Jennic - Wireless Microcontrollers
www.sparkfun.com (find Wireless in the product menu)
ZigBee modules, Development tools, WSN software - MeshNetics

I recently bought the Atmel AVR AZRAVEN kit to play with zigbee. For about $100 you get three zigbee boards, one for plugging into your labtop USB port and two which include sensors and LCD displays for applications. Software is free.
Atmel Products - Tools & Software
You can buy this from Digikey.

Zigbee is especially designed for very low power consumption (sensors that last years on one battery!), and for mesh networking so expanding your network or getting extra range is easily done.

Yes, I know about zigbee modules. I also know the price range. Unfortunately the cost is prohibitive. The prototype of this system will need at least 10 of these sensors.

Not a bad suggestion though!

In regards to power consumption, the design of the sensor would utilize a switch that would only power the circuit when it has been tripped. This would not happen often. I would like to nominally power the sensor from a small cell battery 1.8 - 3v.

As a side note, I'm also in the design phase of a flying robot utilizing a zigbee!