SquidBee is an Open Hardware and Source wireless sensor device. The goal of SquidBee is getting an "open mote" to create Sensor Networks.
The main concepts behind SquidBee are:
* Self-powered
* Wireless ComunicationsRepeat with me: "Ubiquity, Ubiquity, Ubiquity..."
How does SquidBee work?
- 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 / 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).
Is there a good documentation of the project?
Sure! We have created a wiki which is increasing day by day thanks to all the community contributions and the research done by the Libelium and Arduino team.
Go to the Documentation tab and take a look.
How can I get the monitoring / compilation / examples programs?
Go to the Download tab.
How can I get SquidBee?
Go to the "How to get it" tab.
Can I add other sensors? How many?
Sure! The 11 digital I/O and 6 analog I/O let you connect untill 17 sensors!
What kind of new sensors can I add?
Any! Sound, gases, smoke, presence, GPS, pressure...
Self-powered? what kind of batteries are you talking about?
SquidBee works with 5V, so you can use anything wich feeds it between 5V - 15V. Normal configurations are: 4 x 1'5V (AA) and 2 x 9V (6F22).
Can I attach a GPS module to the mote?
Sure! You can find an example inside the Documentation section.
What is the ZigBee module power transmission?
The communications module developed uses the XBee MaxStream chip. There are "two flavours" for that chipset:
+ XBee : 1mW = 30m indoor, 100m outdoor
+ XBee Pro : 100mW = 100m indoor, 1600m outdoor
SquidBee comes with the 1mW XBee module and a pigtail connector attached to a 2'1 dB dipole antenna. This configurations is used because of the low consumption target. However, you can change Xbee module if longer transmissions are needed because the chip is not soldered to the board. You can also change the anntena, the connection to the ZigBee module is made through a MMCX male standard connector.
Can I use other modules which communicate using the serial port?
Sure! You can attach any serial device/module since SquidBee can use software conversion through the digital I/O to get a serial simulation for several devices at the same time (the Arduino board is really versatile and allows you perform this kind of operations).
Can I make secure communications?
Sure! The ZigBee module lets you use the AES-128 bit cipher algorythm.
Can I send parametres in execution time to the SquidBee?
Sure! It is a bidireccional communication. You can send commands to any of the nodes.
How can I (send / receive) (to / from) an specific node?
Each node has a unique 64 bit long ID Number in the network. Anyway you can program the board and give extra identification names to each node.
Can I create subnets inside a Sensor Network?
Sure! You
can have hundreds of SquidBee's running in the same area and program
them to be grouped by subnets, each of them transmitting on a
different frequency channel in order to avoid interferences.
Can I make develop Mesh Networks with the motes?
Sure! You can develop whatever you want with the programmable board wich controls the wireless communications module.
Where can I use the monitoring software?
You can use it in Linux, Windows and Mac.
Where can I use the compilation board software?
You can use it in Linux, Windows and Mac.
Can I transform a Sensor Node to a Gateway one or viceversa?
Sure! The Arduino board is the same and it comes with USB port and the analogic and digital I/O. You just have to change the software running on the board and attach or remove the sensors or the USB cable.
Can I connect the gateway node to several architectures?
Sure! the conection is through an USB port!
Can I use the Arduino board for other purposes?
Sure! The ZigBee module can be detached and you can use the Arduino "as is" and use it for any other purpose.
What does really mean Open Harware?
You can access the circuit schematic, see how everything works, change what you want, make your own circuit...
Is there any other commercial motes?
A lot of companies (Crossbow, Intel, Microstain...) are researchig in this field, but SquidBee is the only one wich is really open source and hardware.
Tell me about the warranty
As others open source and hardware developments, is comes with NO WARRANTY. SquidBee has been realized having in mind research and educational purposes, NOT FOR COMMERCIAL ones.
It means you can use it for any other application (including commercial ones) UNDER YOUR ENTIRE RESPONSABILITY.
Note: The reference designs for SquidBee are distributed under a Creative Commons license Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 , the same license used by Arduino.
In order to help research groups of companies and universities which need to start developing and testing their own Sensor Networks as soon as possible, we give several kinds of training courses.
The concepts we treat in the courses are:
How to integrate new sensors.
How to make SquidBee consume as low as possible with new hardware components.
How to set more powerful batteries.
How to set SquidBee to work in hard environments.
How to set SquidBee in order to be a more powerful calculation device.
How to organice the ZigBee communicatos into subnets.
How to avoid interferences with other 2'4GHz Network.
How to create an encripted communication network.
How to use the gateway to receive and transmit dat.a
How to make the communications module consume as low as possible.
How to program and compile the software which runs inside the Sensor Node.
How to program and compile the software which runs inside the Gateway Node.
How to develop the monitoring software.
How to make software for sending commands to the sesor nodes from a common computer.
All the training courses can be imparted in English and Spanish :
As we are a University SpinOff company we use to impart the courses the installations of the University of Zaragoza (Spain), however we can also impart the course in your working place.
Contact with us and we will advice you about the training course which best fits your needs.
