In this book, I have tried to include something for readers with various skill levels and interests. It contains hardware projects, software projects, and a combination of both. In all cases, I have tried to begin with a simple project and moved on to progressively harder and more complex projects. Depending on your skill level, some projects will take an hour or so to build and some will take longer.
Either way, I hope you will enjoy building the projects as much as I have enjoyed writing about them.
Chapter 1, Introduction – Our First Project, explains how to practice our soldering and de-soldering skills by building an infrared flash light and head lamp.
Chapter 2, Infrared Beacon, continues with our infrared light project—that is, building an invisible infrared flashing beacon.
Chapter 3, Motion Alarm, explains how to build a simple but effective intruder alarm with the always popular LM555 timer.
Chapter 4, Sound Card-based Oscilloscope, covers the beginning of the combined hardware and software projects. We will be building some hardware. It will allow you to use a USB sound card as a simple but useful oscilloscope.
Chapter 5, Calibrated RF Source, introduces you to the wonderful world of RF when you build a 50 MHz calibrated reference. Useful on its own, it will also be used in the next chapter.
Chapter 6, RF Power Meter – Hardware, shows us how to build ourselves a meter capable of measuring RF power at various frequencies. We will avoid most of the layout headaches by using a demo board provided by the manufacturer of the power detector.
Chapter 7, RF Power Meter – Software, explains how to build a BeagleBone Black-based software development system. Then, we will go on to write the software which will not only measure RF power but will also control an external RF attenuator.
Chapter 8, Creating a ZigBee Network of Sensors, covers how to build a wireless security system for your home or office based on the ZigBee RF module.
What you need will depend on which projects you intend to build. The first four projects can be built with the basic hand tools described in Chapter 1, Introduction – Our First Project. The software referenced in Chapter 4, Sound Card-based Oscilloscope, was tested on an IBM PC-running Windows XP, so you do not need a powerhouse PC or laptop.
The next chapters will require access to some RF test equipment, such as a spectrum analyzer and possibly an RF signal generator.
The final chapters will require you to purchase a BeagleBone Black system. Some of the hardware is optional, but it is something I personally found useful. The reader should note that all of the software and hardware for this book was written on a PC running Windows XP.
This book will hopefully have something of interest to a large variety of electronics enthusiasts, from hams to hackers.
I would say that, as long as you have at least intermediate programming and construction skills, you should have no problem completing the projects in this book. All the projects use through-hole parts to make assembly easier. All the files used to construct your own printed circuit boards, as well as all of the code, are available for download from the Packt Publishing website.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and explanations of their meanings.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "What the preceding highlighted code does, is to first read AN0 using the analogRead() function."
A block of code is set as follows:
var app = require('http').createServer(handler);
var io = require('socket.io').listen(app);
var fs = require('fs');
var b = require('bonescript');
app.listen(8080);
console.log('Server running on: http://' + getIPAddress() + ':8080');When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
var app = require('http').createServer(handler);
var io = require('socket.io').listen(app);
var fs = require('fs');
var b = require('bonescript');
app.listen(8080);
console.log('Server running on: http://' + getIPAddress() + ':8080');Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
git clone https://github.com/ajaxorg/cloud9/ cd cloud9 npm install chmod 777 .sessions cd ~/cloud9/node_modules
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Once again, all the switches are handled in the same manner with the exception of the Load button."
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply e-mail <feedback@packtpub.com>, and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors.
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
You can download the example code files from your account at http://www.packtpub.com for all the Packt Publishing books you have purchased. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.
We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/4515OS_ColoredImages.pdf.
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded to our website or added to any list of existing errata under the Errata section of that title.
To view the previously submitted errata, go to https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support and enter the name of the book in the search field. The required information will appear under the Errata section.
Piracy of copyrighted material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <copyright@packtpub.com> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors and our ability to bring you valuable content.
If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at <questions@packtpub.com>, and we will do our best to address the problem.
