New Idea for my Moisture Device! Please Help!

[markem]

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.

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.