Hi everyone, I came across the Moteino and it sounds like the perfect module for my application... I've been using different Arduinos for a while but I don't have any experience with RF devices. I'm hoping some of you might be kind enough to provide me with some guidance.
I'm looking to build a very simple remote control using Moteino. Here are my requirements:
- It will be operated inside of a car where the receiver will be in the trunk. Distance should only be 10-15ft maximum.
- Low power... I am hoping to run the remote off of a coin cell or a AAA and hopefully it will last a year minimum.
- The remote has four buttons and two LED lights. The four buttons send a command back to the receiver. The receiver can send a confirmation (first LED blink) or an error (second LED blink) back to the remote.
This is probably simple for most of you, but I am curious about a power saving / sleep strategy for this type of device. I tried to read through some of the stickied threads about power saving modes but I admit, I got a little lost in it all.
I was thinking that the remote would be asleep most of the time (when the vehicle is off). When the vehicle is turned on, the receiver, which is hard wired into the vehicle would turn on and send a command to wake up the remote. Then when the vehicle is turned off, the receiver would send a signal to the remote to go to sleep. This seems reasonable to do, correct? Is this something that can be done with the "listen" function I think I read about?
Trying to take power saving one step further, I was wondering if I could just have the remote asleep all of the time... and it only wakes up when a button is pressed or an error status is sent back to the remote to flash one of the LEDs. What confuses me is that I think waking the device would have to be done with some kind of interrupt? If this is true, only one pin can be used as an interrupt with the Moteino? In this case, how do I make multiple events all tie into one interrupt pin to wake it up and then process accordingly?
I apologize if this seems trivial but any help would be really appreciated!
Thank you!