The Sense/Stage MiniBee is a small microcontroller board based on the Arduino, integrated with a connection for an XBee wireless chip. It is small and comes with preloaded firmware to use it easily in your wireless projects for a lot of common sensing and actuating purposes. As a bonus there is a 3-axis accelerometer on board. Cross platform open source software sends the data from the boards to your interactive environment via OpenSoundControl (OSC).

Overview of the features:

  • 6 analog inputs: A0, A1, A2, A3, A6, A7
  • 8 digital inputs or outputs: D3, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9, D10, D11; or optional four more: A0, A1, A2, A3
  • PWM (“analog”) output, at pins D3, D5, D6, D9, D10, D11
  • TWI (or I2C) communication: SDA (A4), SCL (A5)
  • Integrated ADXL345 – 3-axis accelerometer
  • Serial I/O: RX, TX (to XBee)
  • Power input (between 3.3V and 5V), through battery connector and coin cell battery
  • Regulated power output: 3.3V, GND
  • On/off switch
  • Short circuit protection with a resetting fuse
  • Status LEDs for power, association with XBee network, XBee receiving data, and configuration status
  • Small footprint
  • Preprogrammed with firmware for wireless configuration for using many common sensors
  • Firmware communication with software data sharing network supported by many common interactive software environments (e.g. SuperCollider, Max/MSP, PureData, Processing).

The different versions:

From left to right: MiniBee revisions A, B, D and F

  • Expansion boards : There are several expansion board for the MiniBee. different versions of the board.
  • MiniBee Board Reference : This reference gives a diagram of the I/O pins and other features of the MiniBee, including information for past versions of the board.
  • MiniBee Revision A : The MiniBee revision A was the first version of the MiniBee, the alpha version. It was manufactured during the research-creation project Sense/Stage at Concordia University and McGill University in 2009.
  • MiniBee Revision B : The MiniBee revision B was the second version of the MiniBee, the beta version. It was manufactured during the research-creation project Sense/Stage at Concordia University and McGill University in 2010.
  • MiniBee Revision D : The MiniBee revision D was the third version of the MiniBee, the production version. It was manufactured and sold between 2011 and 2016.
  • MiniBee Revision F : The MiniBee revision F is the fourth version of the MiniBee, the second production version. It is manufactured and sold from 2017.
  • MiniBee DIY - use your own Arduino and XBee : This page describes how to make use of the MiniBee firmware with your own Arduino and XBee combination.
page created on: last changed on:
6 February 2017 4 September 2019