XBee3 with Arduino Leonardo shield and sparkfun wireless joy stick

Wireless & IoT Other Radios
1

I am looking for some help controlling an RC car with the sparkfun wireless joystick remote. I have an RC car with two VEX motors and I am trying to set up tank steering. I have read every tutorial on each part and its still not working.

Here are the parts I have:

SparkFun Wireless Joystick Kit - PN: KIT-14051

2x XBee3 - PN: WRL-15126

SparkFun XBee Shield - PN: WRL-12847 ROHS

Arduino Leonardo

DRV8833 Dual motor driver

I am 100% certain that the XBees are configured properly useing the XCTU app.

So I have successfully driven the motors with the motor driver with a code uploaded directly to the arduino. But now I want to send the inputs to the motor driver from the sparkfun remote.

Really my question boils down to me not quite understanding what exactly the XBee does.

I am having an awful time getting this to work and have already spent way more time than I hoped getting this running. any help would be appreciated.

2

Hi Caleb.

The XBee is a radio and it lets you send data wireless to a second XBee.

We would recommend using an Arduino Uno over the Leonardo with the XBee shield. (A Leonardo will work, but you will need to modify your code or the shield.)