6.3 Hardware Assembly

If you already constructed the Tweeting Bird Feeder project, you know how to connect the XBee and a sensor to the Arduino. If you need a refresher, refer to Section 5.5, ​Going Wireless​. Instead of attaching the light sensor with the inline 10k ohm resistor to the Arduino’s analog pin, we are going to swap out the light sensor with a force sensitive resistor. See Figure 19, ​The Package Delivery Detector wiring diagram​. Wire one of the force sensitive resistor’s leads to the 3.3v power source. Connect the other to analog pin 0. Then bridge the analog 0 wire to ground with a 10k ohm resistor.

The XBee radio attaches in the same way it did in the Tweeting Bird Feeder project. Namely, connect the XBee’s power lead to the Arduino’s 5.5v output pin. Wire the XBee’s ground lead to the other available ground pin on the Arduino. Then connect the XBee’s receive lead to the Arduino’s digital pin 2 and the XBee’s transmit lead to the Arduino’s digital pin 3. Once everything is connected, it should look something like Figure 20, ​A Package Delivery Detector​. Attach the USB cable from the computer to the Arduino’s USB port to power up the Arduino so we can write, run, and debug the package sensor sketch.

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Figure 20. A Package Delivery Detector