I am a member of an SAE mini baja team at my college. For the past couple of years I have wanted to add a variety of sensors to the car and wireless communication to a laptop in the pits. The basic goal is to use an arduino to collect the data from the sensors and put it in a string or send the data from each sensor individually one after another. The data would then be received at the laptop and displayed in some sort of graphical interface.
My main problem is choosing what parts to use for wireless communication. My first thought was the higher end xbees, but I don’t know how they will perform without line of sight. I would like a rang of a few miles after dealing with all of the obstructions (trees, hills, etc).
It sounds like you’re facing some of the same challenges that I have with my ROVer project. ROVer is meant to be semi-autonomous and remotely operated, so I needed him to communicate all sorts of sensor data and even a camera feed from anywhere, so I’m implementing a solution using an Android tablet that talks (in both directions) with a web server (aka Command Center) to log what’s happening and as a result of what’s happening, issue further commands.
I’ve got links in my signature to videos where I discuss all sorts of aspects. I’m currently implementing an Apple TV remote as a backup near-distance controller for ROVer for things like an “Emergency Stop”
Happy to answer questions and would love to hear what direction you ultimately choose for your own project. You’ll also see in the videos that I’m sharing all of ROVer’s code (Android & Arduino) if you’re interested in that.
…just realized that I didn’t state it, but if it’s not clear, you can use any Android device in this manner… over wifi or even cellular/data if you’re out of range.
I chose the Android as the “brain” for ROVer for many reasons, but like you - I wanted a bunch of sensors to make sense of what’s going one. The fact that the Android has some sensors built-in like GPS and accelerometers, it gave me the ability to understand ROVer’s orientation over terrain as well as his physical location - all very useful, I would imagine, for a project such as yours as well.
Wow, has it been a while. I am now looking to do this as a senior design project. Would it be possible to get close to 1 mile of range without data? If not, what are the data alternatives like? I could limit it from real time to every 20 seconds or so if it would hog up too much data.
I could put bluetooth on the car and then develop a simple app to take the data over bluetooth and send it to a website or something.
Found the Particle Electron which looks pretty promising and the data rate is cheap enough. My only worry is that if I pitch this as part of a senior design project for my degree it is going to be too easy. What would I need to connect an arduino (or other microcontroller) to cellular data?
My only worry is that if I pitch this as part of a senior design project for my degree it is going to be too easy.
You might want to get data transfer working before you worry about it being too easy.
True. The thing is, this is supposed to be a big challenge that takes an entire academic year for a group of students to plan out and execute. I feel like I could do it alone in a month. Not trying to toot my own horn or anything, its just that I am used to this kinda stuff. I think I am going to order the wifi version for myself and see what I can do with it.
