I’m beginning to realize that most of the big electronics projects that I have right now are going to require a more serious level of inter-device communication than most of my previous stuff.
Any kind of UAV/quad is going to need to handle both user input and telemetry at the very least, and will probably end up using some kind of video transmission as well.
All of the home automation stuff is going to be some combination of Xbee/WiFi/Ethernet.
So, I picked up a copy of _Making_Things_Talk_, by Tom Igoe. I’m still in the early chapters, so most of the stuff is pretty basic, but there’s some good basic protocol theory in there, too. So far, it’s a wealth of information, and the projects are good examples to follow. Hey, I’m even learning a little Processing. That should help.
Handshaking will definitely help with the UAV project. The simple act of making each side wait for a response from the other before sending any data… genius. I mean, it’s in chapter 2, so it’s probably covered in the first few weeks of that CS lecture on data exchange protocol theory. However, I never took a class like that, so it’s nifty for me to think about.
Anyway, I’m really enjoying the book, and I can really see how the little gems I’m getting out of it will help me with projects.