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Electronics for beginners: choosing a brain

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It's been a while since I've written, but I just have to share my experiences with this. I recently bought a pair of XBee Series 2 radios  along with  XBee Explorer break-out boards . I first heard about these radios in general back in school when I was working with CU's  RECUV  group, and then again in Tom Igoe's excellent book Making Things Talk , and I've been itching to try them out ever since. They're a bit like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, but seem to lend themselves better to microprocessor projects, generally use less power, and have some unique features that are great for sensor networks. I understand they're also being used for modern home automation products. However, getting these things configured and tested wasn't exactly a walk in the park! As it turns out, I probably should've gotten the Series 1 radios, as they use the simpler 802.15.4 protocol. Series 2 uses the Zigbee protocol, which allows for more advanced network topologies but is als...
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