I’ve tossing around the idea of setting up an old RC truck of mine to be controlled via a Wifi link. I’m not a hardware guy so I’m not all that sure what I’m letting myself in for. I don’t have any big end-point in mind right now just make the truck go and stop, turn left and right.
Is anyone doing something like this? If so, are there any web sites or bulletin boards specific to Wifi RC?
Thanks
I don’t know of any projects or sites. However, you should take a look at the wifi modules from lantronix and digi. they are around $100 and have several GPIO pins so it might be usable as is. worst case is you have to put a uC between the truck controls and the wifi unit. those devices can be made to look like a serial I/O connection on your computer. Getting wifi any cheaper than that is going to be a lot of work.
One problem for battery operation is that they are quite power hungry.
A more cost efficient approach would be to use some of the rf modules on the SFE site to create a serial RF bridge. If you want internet control, you could use the serial connection to your RF bridge and a PC (or linux box) with a web page to spit out commands to the RF bridge. That will cost in the $30+ range depending on distance.
Does this company have what you are looking for:
There are rumors that they come out with an improved system end of this year or early next year.
that’s just an rc controller using 2.4Ghz. he specifically said wifi. I presume that is so he could control it via ethernet/internet.
this fellow sells WiFi for robotics fans…
Lantronix WiPort product. $120 or so including the all important breakout board; the WiPort’s connector is teeny.
Digi’s module is similar.
WiPort and Digi’s equivalent are real WiFi meaning they connect to any WiFi device- a PCMCIA card in a laptop in the Ad-Hoc mode or a WiFi wireless access point, brige or router.
A cheaper way to go is ZigBee. $20 modules from many companies such as MaxStream (now Digi). Serial port to/from ZigBee. Need at least a pair of these. Others include Silicon Labs and Jennic. See listings on http://zigbee.org/en/products/
Yeah jandirks, that looks like what I think I’d like to use but the price is too high for just screwing around. Same problem with the stuff Stevech linked too.I
had hoped that there was some cheap-o solutions since I’m seeing all manner of Wifi hardware coming out for less and less. Looks like not.
yeah, WiFi bridge to serial is not a high volume item = low cost.