Wireless foot pedal for my Tig welder

[Six_Shooter]

Six, I took a look at the Teensy, and it seems to be adequate for what I am looking at. Make sure I am correct here, I would need a Teensy to take the pedal's on/off (digital), and variable (analog) inputs, convert them to a digital signal, send it connected XBee, which would transmit the signal to the receiving XBee, then it would get passed on to another Teensy to get decoded, and tied into the foot pedal connector on the welder. Right?

So I would need two Teensys, two XBees, and two adapters for them? Seems reasonable.

Yep, that's how I would attack this.

Actually I would likely try to reduce the need for the Teensy down to just a uC, with the supporting power supply hardware. You can look up terms like "making your Arduino Project smaller" or similar to get ideas on how to do that. For initial development using a pair of dev boards and XBee modules will get proof of concept and prototype working.

[gregs78cam]

Well I was looking around and found the programmable XBee and thought about using that as it looks like it would do exactly that: combine the uC with the RF module. But cost would be more than I want to spend right now. I have a couple of high quality switching power supplies that a friend gave me from his work, they are about the size of 3 stacked quarters and work very well at regulating 5V. I figured I can use one in the foot pedal with a 9V battery, and possibly one in the Rx if the welder can't supply the needed voltage/current.

[gregs78cam]

So I pulled the trigger on the Teensy 3.0 for a different project that I will use as a learning tool to get into these affordable micro-controllers. Then I realized that the 3.0 is 3.3V and I need 5V capable for this other project. So I ordered a 2.0 also for the other project and will use the 3.0 for this one when I have time. I will post up a new thread on that subject when I get some time to work with the software, because I have few questions.

[bentrod]

never used teeny but have heard a lot of hype about it recently. Same goes with adruino; which seems to be popular with the crowd of people who want to do quick one off projects without learning too much about microcontrollers. For your project, it might be the easiest route so you can get on with your overall goal (welding wirelessly).

I develop electronic hardware for a living if you need some ideas or something cleared up I might be able to help.

[gregs78cam]

Cool, thanks, I will keep you in mind in case I need a brain to pick.