This simple echo Arduino sketch displays back what you type on Serial Monitor:

• blink the green LED every second
• display time since power ON in seconds
• echo characters typed on Serial Monitor

This Arduino sketch automatically configures any of XBee, Bluetooth 2 or WiFi shields:

1. upload the program to the AirBoard via the BLE-Link shield
2. replace the BLE-Link shield by any blank XB24-API, RN42XVP or RN-XV shield
3. power the AirBoard and run the program once to setup the working configuration
4. after 8 seconds, the green LED blinks once when configuration is complete.

Our preferred configurations are:

Set XB24-API XBee to factory defaults, except:

• BD=6 (Both: Interface Data Rate = 57600 bauds)
• CH=F (Both: Channel = 0x0F)
• D3= (Master: DIO3 = DI, Slave: DIO3 = DO high)
• D7=0 (Slave: DIO7 = Disabled)
• IA=FFFF (Slave: I/O Input Address = any received I/O packet can change outputs)
• IC=8 (Master: DIO Change Detect = bit DIO3)

Set RN42XVP Bluetooth2 to factory defaults, except:

• Baudrt=9600 (57600 for Over-The-Air Programming)
• InqWindw=0012
• PagWindw=0500
• SniffEna=30
• HidFlags=0
• Profile= MDM

Set RN-XV RN171 WiFly to factory defaults, except:

• OPEN=
• CLOSE=
• REMOTE=
• IP=169.254.1.1:2000
• IoMask=0x21f2
• Baudrate=9600 (57600 for Over-The-Air Programming)

This Arduino sketch controls 7 colors of the built-in RGB LED at full power from a smartphone. Android sources can be found on github.

On Bluetooth 4.0 BLE Android devices

1. Get one BLE-Link shield
2. Install tAB-COLOR.apk
3. Search and connect « Bluno » device

On Bluetooth 2 Android devices

1. Get one RN42XVP Bluetooth 2.1 shield
2. Configure the shield @9600 bauds (see Auto configure wireless shield)
3. Install tAB-Colorbuttons.apk
4. Search and connect your device

Same as above, but this  Arduino sketch controls 7 full power colors of 40 NeoPixels daisy chained in 2 concentric rings:

• NeoPixel Ring – 24 x WS2812 5050 RGB LED with Integrated Drivers
• NeoPixel Ring – 16 x WS2812 5050 RGB LED with Integrated Drivers

Note:

Be sure to use a powerful power supply (for example Li-ion battery). 40 white NeoPixels will draw up to 2.4A (20mA per segment = 60mA per white pixel).

This Arduino sketch repeatedly read the proximity sensor value from analog pin A4 and switch the LED red when distance is under 50 cm.

1. order and populate the Proximity sensor PCB
2. choose between 3V3 or 5V source to power the sensor: connect VCC to 5V if USB is plugged in, to 3V3 otherwise

• schematics.pdf
• Arduino sketch

Proximity sensor PCB top

Proximity sensor PCB bottom

This Arduino sketch repeatedly read the 3-axis accelerations in g. Look for triggered actions: inactivity, activity, single tap, double tap and free fall.

1. plug the ADXL345 breakout board
2. power OFF and ON The AirBoard to initialize the I2C driver

• SDA …. A4
• SCL ….. A5
• CS ……. D10~
• VCC …. D11~
• GND … D12

1. upload this program to the AirBoard via the BLE-Link shield
2. replace the BLE-Link shield by the RN-42 Bluetooth 2 shield
3. launch RemoteXY for Bluetooth 2/Android
4. power on the AirBoard
5. search and connect to the RN42 device ID written on the module

What you need:

• Bluetooth2 module
• RemoteXY for Bluetooth 2/Android
• Arduino sketch

This Arduino sketch uses left/arrow keys to control a miniature brushbot made of toothbrush heads and vibrating pager motors.

1. order and populate the dual motor drive PCB
2. add 2 pager vibrating motors
3. install tAB-Direction.apk on your Bluetooth 4.0 BLE Android device
4. search and connect « Bluno » device

Note:

When operating simultaneously, some vibrating motors may exceed the built-in regulator current (200mA). If this happens, simply reduce the PWM ratio in the following instructions: analogWrite(LEFT, 255); analogWrite(RIGHT, 255); Another option would be to make a hardware hack and drive the breakout board mosfets directly from the built-in battery.

• schematics.pdf
• Arduino sketch

Dual motor drive PCB top

Dual motor drive PCB bottom

Same as above, but this Arduino sketch uses RemoteXY and Bluetooth 2. RemoteXY for Bluetooth 2/Android is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) generator to build your own mobile interface. The idea behind it is that this is the Arduino program which tells the GUI how to display and behave.

What you need:

• populated dual motor drive PCB
• pager vibrating motor x2
• Bluetooth2 module
• RemoteXY for Bluetooth 2/Android
• Arduino sketch

RemoteXY for Bluetooth 2/Android is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) generator to build your own mobile interface. The idea behind it is that this is the Arduino program which tells the GUI how to display and behave. It features an innovative G-sensor widget which senses your smartphone’s motion. This Arduino sketch is a dual-channel proportional control for robotic motors, triggered by the internal smartphone’s G-sensor. Given the low current of the micro motors below, you can directly connect them the AirBoard pins 10, 11 and GND.

What you need:

• TPM2 motors x2
• Picooz tail propellers x2
• Bluetooth2 module
• RemoteXY for Bluetooth 2/Android
• Arduino sketch

• body: D4x12.5mm
• axle: D0.66x4mm
• weight: 0.7g
• speed: 20300 rpm @3V
• power consumption (no load): 17.6mA @3V

Note:
To control an airship in 3D, you normally would want 3 motors for XYZ. But this adds weight and using gravity as Z-force is a great way to teach physics and buoyancy. You need to make a perfect balance, so that the airship naturally lifts up as motors increase speed and slowly returns to earth otherwise.

Combine the flexibility of the AirBoard broad range of wireless shields and the diversity of littleBits to make your own devices, robots, etc… littleBits is a library of electronic modules. The sketchBit is a single-input/single-output bit adapter that allows you to control your littleBits modules from the AirBoard. It also features a micro switch to select digital vs analog output for advanced functionalities.

This Arduino sketch directly copies the input bit to the output bit in a transparent mode.

What you need:

• 9V battery gives some juice to littleBits and the AirBoard
• power bit powers littleBits’ 5V and AirBoard’s 5VUSB (simultaneously recharge the built-in battery)
• dimmer goes to The AirBoard analog input pin A5
• bargraph is driven by The AirBoard digital output pin 10
• sketchBit connects the AirBoard to littleBits

Combine the flexibility of the AirBoard broad range of wireless shields, the ease of RemoteXY drag-n’drop programming and the diversity of littleBits to make your own devices, robots, etc… littleBits is a library of electronic modules. The sketchBit is a single-input/single-output bit adapter that allows you to control your littleBits modules from the AirBoard. It also features a micro switch to select digital vs analog output for advanced functionalities. RemoteXY for Bluetooth 2/Android is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) generator to build your own mobile interface. The idea behind it is that this is the Arduino program which tells the GUI how to display and behave.

This Arduino sketch sends the input bit to a bargraph on your smartphone and a slider on your smartphone drives the output bit.

What you need:

• 9V battery gives some juice to littleBits and the AirBoard
• power bit powers littleBits’ 5V and AirBoard’s 5VUSB (simultaneously recharge the built-in battery)
• dimmer goes to The AirBoard analog input pin A5
• bargraph is driven by The AirBoard digital output pin 10
• sketchBit connects the AirBoard to littleBits
• Bluetooth2 module connects the AirBoard to RemoteXY (Bluetooth2 only)
• RemoteXY for Bluetooth 2/Android allows building your own mobile app

This Arduino sketch is a GSM data logger based on the SODAQ GPRSbee SIM800H shield.

It repeatedly reads light sensor data and sends an SMS with the measured value every minute.

1. plug the light sensor between the A4 and GND pins
2. check SJ1 and SJ2 connections on the back of the GPRSbee shield. SJ1: « ON » should be connected to « PIN 4″, SJ2: see below
3. insert a mini SIM card into the GPRSbee slot
4. connect the antenna
5. place the device within a GSM network coverage area

The GPRSbee can be powered by The AirBoard internal battery or by an external battery.

• the battery signal is the 11th header pin close to SJ2
• SJ2: short for internal AirBoard battery, open for external battery

WARNING! DO NOT CONNECT AN EXTERNAL BATTERY TO THE GPRSBEE IF SJ2 IS SHORTENED.

Note:

On the AirBoard Kickstarter Edition, J2 and J3 are 11-pin connectors which incorporate B+/B- pads to allow direct power of GPRSbee. The new J2/J3 connectors are now 10-pins (also 2mm thinner) to avoid possible confusion when inserting wireless shields. GPRSbee can still be powered by B+ with your own connection.

More info:

• Product page
• User Manual

This Arduino sketch is a WiFi data logger based on the WiFly RN-XV (RN171) WiFi shield:

It repeatedly reads light sensor data every minute and pushes a motification to PushingBox which sends an email with the measured value.

1. plug the light sensor between the A4 and GND pins
2. place the device within a WiFi network coverage area
3. set WiFly baudrate to default 9600
4. set client mode: do not connect GPIO9 to VDD upon power up
5. configure your WiFi SSID and password
6. add an e-mail service on PushingBox and a scenario with $var$ in the message body

Note:

On the production units, J2 and J3 connectors are 2mm thinner than the Kickstarter Edition’s. This has a number of advantages, for example compacity and the ability of the board to hold its own balance when standing on the J1 connector (this was a bit problematic with SIGFOX modules for instance). The drawback is that the WiFly shield now does not fully insert into the AirBoard’s female connectors. This is not ideal, however this does work for prototyping and also other popular WiFi shields (e.g. the cheaper ESP8266) will fit nicely.

More info:

• Product page
• User Manual

PushingBox is a service which can send e-mails triggered by a device.

1. connect to PushingBox with your Google account
2. add an e-mail service with your e-mail address
3. add a scenario
4. add an action with send e-mail service for your scenario ($var$ is a variable (e.g. your sensor value) that you can pass in the e-mail body)

With the AirBoard and XBee shield, send your data periodically every minute for 6 full months on its tiny 155mAh battery. Yes, we can! With this ultra low-power logger Arduino sketch, send light sensor values every minute, using power down feature in between and watchdog as the real-time clock (RTC) timer.

1. configure MASTER and SLAVE XBee shields at 57,600 bauds, using the ConfigShields Arduino sketch
2. turn on the micro switch just before uploading to make sure the wireless module power is on (5 seconds timeout after boot)
3. plug the light sensor between the A4 and GND pins
4. repeatedly read the light sensor from analog pin A4
5. send the raw data every minute
6. power down between transmit (56-second watchdog timeout for wakeup)

Ultra Low-Power performance

• over 6 months estimated autonomy from the 155 mAh built-in battery @ 1 data transmit per minute
• de-activate watchdog timer and communication to enter the lowest possible power-down current and reach over 2 years of autonomy
• compute your own performance from our sample spreadsheet

Power budget in µA

Design hardware wakeup for longest autonomy in power-down mode

This SIGFOX logger Arduino sketch is based on the Telecom Design TD1207/1208 module operating in the 868MHz European frequency band.

• Check the SIGFOX website for deployment and certification status in other parts of the world.
• Network coverage and operators are detailed here.
• To activate your SIGFOX account, connect to the subscription backend and enter your ID and PAC numbers.
• Contact subscribe@sigfox.com or nicolas.lesconnec@sigfox.com for any further questions.

The module has been updated to the latest bidirectional firmware (SOFT1451):

• Uplink: maximum 140 messages per day
• Downlink: maximum 2 messages per day

To get started with this Arduino sketch:

1. plug the light sensor between the A4 and GND pins
2. repeatedly read the light sensor from analog pin A4
3. send the value to the SIGFOX network every 10 minutes
4. get your messages on the SIGFOX backend

• This shield has an ESD protection diode built-in to protect the antenna for outdoor use. It was produced as a limited edition for Kickstarter, has passed SIGFOX certification and is now pending for distributors.

More info:

• Product page
• User Manual

• The AirBoard was also successfuly tested with SigBee shield by ATIM. You can start from this Arduino sketch.

Order early samples here

includes:

• SIGFOX shield for the AirBoard (Radio Configuration Zone (RCZ) 1: Europe, Iran, Oman, South Africa)
• 61mm Quad-Band antenna (straight or right-angle)
• 1 year SIGFOX subscription (140 downlink + 2 uplink messages per day) – after one year, directly renew subscription at the SIGFOX’s portal.

Several SMA antennae are compatible with this shield:

• 61mm, Mini GSM/Cellular Quad-Band Antenna – 2dBi SMA Plug
• 61mm, Right-angle Mini GSM/Cellular Quad-Band Antenna – 2dBi SMA Plug
• 168mm, ANTENNA 900MHZ HG R-SMA BLK 6.6″ (bigger, but better performance)

This LoRa logger Arduino sketch sends a message to a LoRa network every 10 seconds via the Multitech MultiConnect® mDot™ LoRaWAN™ module, distributed in Europe by Dataprint.

Here are the steps to use Blynk’s GUI IDE with the AirBoard.

1. connect your smartphone to your WiFi network, plug the BLE-Link shield to your AirBoard and the USB BLE-Link dongle to your computer
2. type your Auth Token and upload this Arduino sketch to the AirBoard (same as Blynk’s Arduino_Serial_USB.ino sample code)
3. drag and drop a D5 button to control the green LED (pin 5)
4. open a terminal window and launch socat: ./blynk-ser.sh -c your_serial_port -b 9600
5. enter your serial port when prompted: Select serial port [ ]: your_serial_port