WiFi/Bluetooth/ZigBee 3 in 1 Shield for Arduino

Software debug

You can also use computer (PC) and/or mobile phone software to debug the wifi module. After the connection among the wifi board, Arduino shield board, USB to RS232 cable, and power, then we can test the wifi module shown by the following.

1. Computer (PC) version software

   1. software setting

      Open the network serial software (which can be download from the website, if cannot find, can be contact me by my skype: yichone). Firstly, we should set simply the software environment, as shown in Figure 2-6, especially for the red label.

      Some notes on the settings:

      1. PortNum: can be found at “computer (or my computer)”→right click ”property”→click ”device manager”→click “COM and LPT”. We can get the PortNum is COM6. So, we choose “COM6” in the software, as shown in Figure 2-7.
      2. Baud rate (BauR): during the wireless communication, the rate is generally chosen as 115200. It is also the wifi transmission rate 11MHz.
      3. Protocol: during the wireless communication, we should let wifi module as TCP Client mode. In other words, let wifi as client to visit the server.
      4. ServerIP (server IP address): ：in the default factory setting, please input the IP address: 192.168.16.254. Note that, in the default factory setting, the IP address is 192.168.16.254. However, if the wifi board has ever been used, the IP address maybe is not this address. So, before using it, we must confirm the default factory setting for the wifi module. The way to default factory setting is introduced at Section 2.3.
      5. ServerPort (server port): the value is 8080.

   2. Look for the wifi networks

      After setting the relevant parameters by the above-mentioned step (1), we can find the wifi signal transmitted from wifi board according to the followings.

      1. After power on the wifi board for about 30 seconds, the three LED lights would be exhibited normally. That is, LED1 is lighting with red all the time, LED2 is light with green all along as well, and LED3 is blinking with green light. The relevant context can be referred as shown in Section 2.3. Then, clicking the network icon, you would find there are many wireless network signals, where there is a named as HI_LINK_XXXX wifi signal, which is the wanted wireless wifi network signal. Therefore, we can double click such wifi signal, then it is needed to input password 12345678, which is the default password. If it is the first connection, it needs us to input the password, but thereafter, we may not input the password. Note that, the later 4 letters “XXXX” in the wifi signal name HI-LINK_XXXX is denoted by the different names, since their names may be different according to the different wifi devices. For example, in our such example, the name of wifi signal is HI-LINK_0021, which is also the same as the name encountered in the mobile phone. After double clicking the HI-LINK_0021 wifi signal and input the password, we can make the computer connect to the wifi module on the Arduino shield board, as shown in Figure 2-8.
      2. According to 1), we can connect the wifi network HI-LINK_0021 transmitted from wifi module. Then, return to the network-serial assistant shown in Figure 2-6, click the “Open” button on the left serial setting, and click the “Connect” on the right wifi setting, which are denoted by opening the serial port COM6 and connecting wifi network HI-LINK_0021, as shown in Figure 2-9 with red label. Note that, if the serial port doesn’t open, or the wifi network doesn’t be connected, the buttons “Open” and “Connect” would not work normally, and thus we cannot change the states of buttons “Open” and “Connect”. In other word, “Open” cannot be changed into “close”, and “Connect” cannot be changed into “disconnect”.
      3. After connecting the serial port and wifi networks by Figure 2-10, we can transmit and receive data between serial port and wifi module, as shown in Figure 2-11. When we send a digital number “1” at serial port, then we can receive “1” at wifi network. Similarly, if sending “1” at wifi networks, we can receive “1” at serial port. Thus, we have realized the normal communication between serial port and wifi network.

2. Mobile phone software

   In nature, mobile phone software is the same as PC software. In this section, we will debug wifi module by mobile phone software.

   1. Install the mobile phone debug software EasyTCP (have iphone and Android versions, respectively. If you want them, you can contact me by skype: yichone.), in this experiment, we use the Android version EasyTCP.
   2. Open the wifi network at mobile phone, and look for the wifi signal HI-LINK_0021的wifi and double it to connect with the same way as PC version, as shown in Figure 2-12.
   3. Open the mobile software EasyTCP→click “CONNECT”→click “+” to add the connection IP address and port number, which is the same as PC software. IP is 192.168.16.254, and port is 8080, which are shown in Figure 2-13. Then click “connect” to let mobile phone connect to the wifi network HI-LINK_0021.
   4. At the same time, we should open the serial assistant. In this experiment, we must send the data from mobile phone to PC serial port by wifi network. In the later experiment, we would send the data from mobile phone to server on the cloud. In figure 2-14, data “5” has been send to PC serial port by wifi network successfully.