Using the Waspmote Sensor Board

Question

Spanish company Libelium makes this pretty impressive sensor board:

http://www.libelium.com/products/waspmote/sensors/

for their Waspmote series of boards. These are not meant for Arduino compatibility, but they are not only interesting for combining so many sensors, the availability of calibrated sensor sets makes it even more unique.

So here is the challenge: can we reasonably leverage these from an Uno or a Mega?

• sachleen: Look at some of their docs: libelium.com/development/waspmote/examples/… seems like they have a very similar platform to Arduino.
• 0xF2: Their forums suggest making the connection is not trivial, but may be possible: libelium.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8811
• Anonymous Penguin: They talk about XBee and WiFi connections in one of the datasheets and there is an API later in the PDF docs... Yet I read that it might be hard... (Direct quote from 0xF2's comment) Compatibility between Arduino and Waspmote's sensor boards is not direct, since the connectors' pinout do not correspond, you'd have to wire the connections using the documentation. Anyway, I'm afraid the Libelium's sales policy implies a minimum first order including five Waspmotes, five batteries and one Gateway. | @sachleen Maybe it is powered by Arduino with a few libraries...

Answer 1

Too long for a comment...

Look at some of their docs for examples. seems like they have a very similar platform to Arduino.

Their forums suggest making the connection is not trivial, but may be possible: http://www.libelium.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8811

All that's saying is you can't simply plug in a sensor into your Arduino like a shield, because it's not a shield. You'd have to hook up the connections to the right pins and then use their libraries and code to communicate with it.

That involves reading their documentation and code to figure out what pins it uses to communicate with what. You may have to modify the code slightly to work with Arduino (mainly changing pin numbers).

All in all, I wouldn't invest my time or effort into it. Don't lock yourself into a product that isn't intended to be used the way you're using it. You'll get no support from the company and there's no guarantee future versions of their product will work. Or things like this (from the forum link):

Anyway, I'm afraid the Libelium's sales policy implies a minimum first order including five Waspmotes, five batteries and one Gateway.

Simply not worth the effort. You'd be much better off making your own sensor board to fit your requirements.

• Donald: Now you can purchase single boards through MicroConrollerShop.com microcontrollershop.com/…