Quote:
Originally Posted by timberham
Also, I would like to attach some form of a communications device that would notify the user via WiFi or RFID that the device was nearly out of water.
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You can get into the WiFi side fairly cheap and very low power. Something like what the smart meter market is using. I have been investigating the TI CC430 and it is a great platform. General purpose processor coupled with the TI RF1A (CC1100 series) radio core. Works with the zigbee stack and is designed to last a very, very long time on a single battery.
http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/landing/...+cc430_wireapp
The TI CC430 wiki is here:
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index...._Sampling_Page
I am considering putting together a class on low power zigbee stack programming and the CC430 is the fave candidate so far. Haven't gotten my hands on a development kit yet, but it should be relatively affordable. It supports both IEEE 802.15.4 (low power) and, I think, IEEE 802.16 WiFi. Great for both industrial and home low power, low cost use.