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From SquidBee
News: Libelium has launched a new sensor device: Waspmote. It is ready for research and market applications. You can discover the differences between both platforms in the document: Waspmote vs SquidBee.
SquidBee is an Open Hardware and Source wireless sensor device. The goal of SquidBee is getting an "open mote" to create Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN).
The main concepts behind SquidBee are:
* Self-powered* Wireless Comunications
Repeat with me: "Ubiquity, Ubiquity, Ubiquity..."
How does SquidBee work?
The Wireless Sensor Network Research Group is currently working on projects based in SquidBee, such as sensor integration, software managering, hardware modules development...
- Acquires values from environment parameters: temperature, humidity, lightness, presence, pressure or (almost!) whatever you can sense.
- Operates with these values, when required.
- Transmits these values using a low power comsumption wireless technology (ZigBee).
- Sleeps until next timeout and repeats from the first stept.
Second step is not always necessary, depending of the calculations needed it may be better to make them in receiver computer to save nodes energy.
An open mote? What does it really mean?It means every part of the mote is accessible and can be studied, changed, personalized, ... From the schematic circuit to the source code of the programs that are running inside the mote.
Who is interested in SquidBee?
Anybody who is researching in the environment monitoring field.
This is also an educational project so that universities can offer to the students a multi-learning device. With SquidBee people can learn at the same time electronic, programation, communications... and everything in just one device.
Who is supporting SquiBee?
The board inside SquidBee has been developed by the Arduino team. The communications module wich lets the node transmit through a ZigBee module has been developed by Libelium. Both components are open hardware and they have a really strong community support. A specialized wiki related to SquidBee and the Sensor Networks will be created soon. There, all the Arduino and Libelium tutorials and examples will be shared and other research teams will be able to exchange their knowledge with the community.
What can I do with SquidBee?
The main concept is: "sense what you want where you want and transmit it".
Two configurations of SquidBee? What is it exactly?
Using the same board and communications module we have created 2 kinds of SquidBee: the sensor mote and the gateway. The first one is the self-powered sensor mote and the second is the computer USB connected receiver.
Can I integrate SquidBee into a wireless 802.11 Mesh network?
Yes! We have also developed an outdoor Mesh Router: MeshLium which you can use to collect the information using the ZigBee protocol and transmit it to the mesh network using the Wifi technology (802.11).
