Issue
149 December 2002
Wireless
Temperature Sensor Stew
by
Fred Eady
Fred
says designing and implementing a wireless sensor
application doesn’t have to be complicated. Future
Electronics and Microchip have put together an easy-to-use
wireless temperature sensor demo kit, and Fred has
all of the info you’ll need to get started.
Start
•
rfPICDEM1 • Fred
rfPICDEM1
• Amulet Easy GUI •
rfPICDEM1 with Touch Screen •
Sources and PDF
Recently,
I was shooting the breeze with some friends, and the
conversation turned to what we all did as kids versus
what we do today for a living. Obviously, electricity
was in my future. I figure I’ve been building electronic
stuff since I was 11 years old. Thanks to my dad, a
couple of NASA missile technicians, Lafayette mail-order
electronics, and Heathkit, I’ve done my share of releasing
the smoke.
Because
of my dad’s interest in stereo equipment, he befriended
one of the NASA guys who would bring me bushel baskets
of fall out transistors and tubes from the engineering
department at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Alabama. The second NASA man was moonlighting as the
weekend engineer at the AM radio station I worked for
as a teen.
On
Sunday mornings, he would come in to check the transmitter.
Depending on my Saturday night, there were times I would
fall asleep at the console and he would step into the
studio to revive me. In the years that I knew him (while
I was awake), he managed to teach me a great deal about
logic and the electronics behind it. I later found out
that he was the person who actually strapped in the
first primate that took the ride on the rocket from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Over
time, building audio gear gave way to experimenting
with digital electronics. To date, I’ve designed and
built hundreds of microcontroller-based projects, many
of which you’ve seen in this magazine. With that thought,
I figure it’s time for a break. This month, I’m going
to let some special five-star chefs from Future Electronics
and Microchip cook this electronic meal for you. So,
sit back and relax with me as they show us how easy
it is to concoct a wireless temperature sensor stew.
