Question about MS Visual Studio and GHI product - missing element

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1

Hi, noob question…

I am using the MS Visual Studio 2010 Pro, all the required packages installed. I woulf like to prototype a WiFi connection to the Hydra card.

The Hydra page here: http://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/328 says to use an Ethernet ENC28 Module and an XBee Module. I found the XBee in the Visual Studio toolbox, but not the ENC28.

  1. What am I doing wrong?
  2. Is there a simpler, more elegant way to get full WifI (I don’t mind soldering).

Thanks

2

@ Gabriel3 - Welcome to the forum.

And should be Or. The ENC28 is a brand new ethernet module, and I’m not sure if the driver has been released, which is why you don’t see it. Someone else can chime in on the state of the ENC28 module driver.

There is a version of the XBee that does serial communication via WiFi. There is no driver for this (yet). We are just about to start work on it at http://xbee.codeplex.com .

3

Thanks.

So I do not need the the ENC28? You’re sure the And is an Or?

Would you be so kind as to elaborate which functionality I miss when using WiFi through the Xbee module?

Thank you

Gabriel

4

You have a choice between the ENC28 or XBee. The ENC28 gets you a full tcp/ip stack, similar to (but not the same as) what your ethernet card does in a PC.

The XBee WiFi module only provides serial communication over tcp/ip. If you just need to move serial data between your device and some other network device, this is fine. Again, there are no gadgeteer drivers for this yet. Also, if you don’t already have an XBee Wifi component, they are currently very hard to come by. These are new and very popular. The manufacturer seems to be having trouble keeping up with demand.

5

thanks!