PROJECT: Building a standalone wireless sensor using a FPGA  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: vasu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 01, 2012, 02:22:46 pm
content: hello everyoneI am working on my B.Tech Project and need suggestions if it is possible to build wireless sensors using FPGA boards and RF modules and implement a wireless networking protocol like ZIGBEE using this hardware setup. I only have access to FPGA boards and can buy cheap RF modules and antennas.Sensor input may be some static value for the time being.Thanks

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2012, 09:56:36 pm
content: It's a lot more difficult than you'll expect if you're not into that kind of stuff. My friend Tiffany Yep does that sort of stuff a lot (mostly the software side, that is) and she finds it quite easy, but I have a hard time understanding it. In particular, it's a lot more difficult to receive and interpret the data than it is to encode and transmit it.Depending on your requirements, I would suggest some cheap microcontrollers and Bluetooth or Zigbee modules.

author: cyberfish
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2012, 03:23:17 am
content: Why use an FPGA for something that simple?Just use any $2 microcontroller.FPGA is usually only used for intensive and parallelizable computations that would be impossible to do with a microcontroller (real time video encoding, computer vision, etc).

author: vasu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 02, 2012, 06:59:22 am
content: thanks for your replies.it would be very helpful if you could provide me information on how to implement an ad-hoc wireless network using bluetooth modules and microcontrollers.i am thinking about using FPGA boards so that i can implement my own wireless networking protocol and study existing protocols like bluetooth and zigbee.i am not sure if i will be able to change the design aspects like MAC protocol implementation, etc if i use bluetooth or zigbee modules.The objective is to create a pipeline for doing wireless sensor network (WSN) research in the absence of the availabilty of specifically designed hardware for WSN nodes.However,first understanding how to implement wireless ad-hoc networking using microcontrollers and zigbee/bluetooth modules would be a good starting point.

author: slateraptor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2012, 07:15:29 am
content: MEMSIC(formerly Crossbow) manufacture hardware specifically for low-power WSN applications; I've tinkered with their MICAz and TelosB motes extensively.TinyOS and nesC language is worth looking into as well...the community isn't very active, but it's worth a peek.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2012, 11:47:42 am
content: well if you where to go into the more extreme side of playing with your own protocols it would be wise to keep mesh type protocols in your mind, when you get into a number of sensors it can be handy if a sensor near a corner can see around it and forward the data rather than hoping to reach a control node, (yes mesh networks can get very complex very fast but they are the most reliable)edit: only skimmed this, but seemed relevanthttp://archives.ece.iastate.edu/archive/00000570/01/thesis.pdf