Measure and report environment data using XBEE nodes and a browser based graphical user interface.
The nodes
This project was my senior design project for my last year of school at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. My partner and I created shield boards for XBEE wireless modules. These shields made it easy to attach sensors for temperature, lighting, and humidity along with an indicator LED. The XBEE network used a self healing mesh network which made it easy to add new nodes or compensate for a missing node. The node’s signal needed to go through brick walls and so pro modules were the ideal candidates. Basic XBEE modules were also used in the network due to their availability.
Data was measured from the nodes at sample rates that were adjustable per node. The data was sent to a central node plugged into a database via USB. Data was sent to a Django web server using serial communication and logged to the database. If a sensor value went out of a specified range, an alarm was triggered to notify the user.
Users can access the data simply by going to the server’s address while on the same network. An overview of all the sensors can be seen when first logging in. Clicking on an individual node shows a line graph of its data which different search criteria available.
