Wireless technology has become such a part of our lives that it’s difficult to remember what life was like without it. As I was walking into a movie theater last weekend, I noticed a group of teenagers—each girl on her own phone (personalized by different colors and ring tones). Remarkable designs, innovative low-power devices, and, of course, savvy marketing have helped make wireless technology accessible to nearly everyone.

For the Wireless issue, we found some projects that are sure to pique the interest of the more sophisticated consumers. But, what’s fun about simply buying the next gadget? We hope these projects inspire you to want to build your own.

You’ll want to get started on your own wireless outdoor lighting system before summer’s over. John Dammeyer combined CAN, RF, and a PIC12C509 to develop an impressive outdoor lighting scheme (p. 12). John’s design makes a sensible alternative to bulky wires or solar lamps that are often dim or unusable after cloudy days.

For those of you who prefer looking to the sky rather than the ground, we also have an interesting project to enhance your telescope. Steven Pope devised a way to link his Palm device to his Meade ETX-105 telescope using the Zilog eZ80 microcontroller and Webserver module (p. 20). The ETX-105 has Meade’s Autostar controller, which enables it to locate celestial coordinates by compensating for the Earth’s rotation. The only trouble is that the telescope’s two-line display makes it difficult to use the system. Although he could attach a laptop, he figured adding bulky wires to a nighttime activity might be a bad idea. Plus, he had a more inventive solution: use the Palm device as an interface to a GPS receiver. There was one last hurdle; he needed a wireless infrared IrDA port for the telescope. That problem, too, was solved easily enough with the Zilog IrDA development system.

We also found a project to suit the interests of WiFi fans. When stories about WiFi started showing up on CNN’s web site last year, it was a sure sign that the technology has gained mainstream popularity. If you want to know the literal ins and outs of WiFi, turn to page 50 for Roy Franz’s article. Using an 8-bit microcontroller (NEC’s µPD78F9418), Roy designed an application to find and monitor 802.11b wireless networks. The compact, low-power WiFi SniFi (pronounced "wiffy sniffy") serves as a network node. Aside from sniffing out wireless networks, the WiFi SniFi also displays frames and responds to pings and ARPs.

These projects are so interesting that I don’t even need savvy marketing to draw your attention. From a consumer’s perspective, the next thing I would like to see wireless is television, so I can get rid of the rat’s nest of TV, cable box, and VCR (that’s right, despite the rental industry’s insidious efforts to get me to buy a DVD player by dwindling the VHS selection, I still use my VCR) cords in my living room. Sanyo and Magis Networks have developed a wireless TV prototype that sounds promising. Something tells me that that TV would sell itself without any fancy marketing ploys, too.

jennifer.huber@circuitcellar.com

Published: August 2003