4+ wireless Boe-bots

trebold

I'm looking for general product/design suggestions on how I might control about 4 or more boe bots remotely in a classroom setting for my robot class's final project.

I've been using the IR remotes, with keypad control, but they don't handle conflicts or multiple simultaneous users.

I'd like to come up with a system as cheap and simple as possible. Like maybe taping the IR led signal from a sony remote and transmitting it via wireless to a receiving boe-bot that can demod the wireless and then decode the sony remote signal.

and have the channel coded so four users don't step on each other if they are all going at once.

any suggestions? thanks...

Mike Green

The easiest thing to do is to stick with the IR remote and precede each command with a code for the specific BoeBot involved. The other BoeBots, when they see a select code they don't recognize, will ignore the following command. This doesn't address the interference of one remote with the signal from another, but would work if the remotes are physically separated somewhat from each other (like at opposite ends of a room).

An alternative would be to use something like xBee where you'd have an xBee transceiver on each BoeBot. Unfortunately, there are no xBee-based remote controls and you'd have to make your own ... not simple. You could use a PC with a USB to xBee adapter like that made by Parallax.

You could also use an EasyBluetooth transceiver on each BoeBot with a PC for each BoeBot using its own Bluetooth transceiver to communicate with the BoeBot.

trebold

thanks Mike...the xbees look like the way to go!