The ZigBee/802.15.4 USB pen drive created by the Wireless Sensor Network Research Group (WSNRG) and the Libelium team is currently being used as an access point to Wireless Sensor Networks when using PDA's and mobile phones. If you PDA or mobile phone has a USB (or mini-USB connector) you can also get your sensor information directly on your hand.

Some companies have started to integrate the X-Tick as a receiver of the information which is sent in the WSN. This has been currently proved to work succesfuly with Waspmote.  As you can see on the below images, the X-Tick can be plugged to any mobile device which takes a USB connector and which can executate an application which reads the USB/Serial port.This kind of application is the same which is used in the PDA GPS readers. Companies which work on mobile devices applications are use to develop this kind of applications so this can be a new field to explore and where to get new uses and integrations of their mobile emdebbed software technology.

The mobile phone or PDA doesn't need to be able to power the X-Tick due to the fact it comes with an internal lithium battery which makes it compatible with low power devices (it powers itself up and no current is taken from the device). This ZigBee/802.15.4 reader for PDA's is an active component too. Using the joystick it has integrated it can send ZigBee and 802.15.4 data frames to the WSN and give extra information which can be used for instance for indoor location purposes. If you are interested in this application take a look to the article: Indoor location using 802.15.4 - ZigBee . More information about how to program the joystick to send specific data can be found in the X-Tick users manual.

In the image below a text file with retreived sensor information is shown using the notepad reader: