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Wireless control robotic platform — Parallax Forums

Wireless control robotic platform

OSUEngineerOSUEngineer Posts: 4
edited 2005-11-29 02:51 in Robotics
I have been looking into designing a small robotic platform with wireless control,·however I am on a limited budget.· Wrong hobby right?· smile.gif
I noticed the EB500 and ToothPic listed on parallax's site but don't feel justified to spend 99 to 140 just for bluetooth control.
One forum member spoke previsouly about using a HP IPAQ or similar Palm PDA to·program the·bs2 wirelessly.·These can be purchased reasonably
cheap on ebay for around·75-100 and will·not·limit·me to just one option.·So my question is...is it possible to control the basic stamp with a pda via wifi or bluetooth?· I have researched into the PPRK, a·palm robot by Carnegie Melon, but they require·the brainstem with pda controls and a palm.· I want to go for something simple due to I already own a board of education.· I would like to use the Parallax servo controller, also purchased,·via usb port on IPAQ/PDA and VNC via PC.· Is this anyway possible or·simple?· The idea seems to make sense but I don't have experience programming·pda's.·
Thanks for the help, any advice is taken into consideration.
Russell C·

Comments

  • FireHopperFireHopper Posts: 180
    edited 2005-11-03 23:17
    I do know you cannot controll a usb device via a pocket pc, "Unless" they have changed things both items are usb slaves, the Pocket pc does not have a usb host in it.. controlling it via the pocket pc's serial port is possible I used to do that for my costume.

    I used microsoft embedded visual baspic and the hp development kit for my pocket pc. (in my case, a 3835)
  • Steve JoblinSteve Joblin Posts: 784
    edited 2005-11-04 13:33
    Is this what you are looking for? http://www.flexipanel.com/LinkMatikSE/index.htm
  • OSUEngineerOSUEngineer Posts: 4
    edited 2005-11-04 17:21
    That would work, but still a little too costly.· After talking with Firehopper, he suggested to use a serial sync cable to connect pda to stamp then psc.· I would like to mount the pda onto the robotic platform so I can control the robot wirelessly through a home pc.· The linkmatik appears to program the stamp via bluetooth and allows the user to use the pda not attached to the platform.· Not a bad idea but I am trying to go the cheapest route by using a pda and servo controller by themselves.· I can't find any developer software that allows the stamp to be programmed from a pda nor a VNC software that will make the pda a portable server for pc·connection.· I hope I haven't confused anyone on what i am trying to achieve. Here is a small diagram of what it·"should" look like.·

    [noparse][[/noparse]Robotic Platform]·+ PDA·---->Serial Sync Cable---->·PSC

    Does this make sense or am I going the path less taken?
  • Ryan ClarkeRyan Clarke Posts: 738
    edited 2005-11-05 07:20
    I would go RF, but as you said price is a factor here...

    Ryan

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Ryan Clarke
    Parallax Tech Support

    RClarke@Parallax.com
  • TiboTibo Posts: 81
    edited 2005-11-14 21:35
    Well yes it is possible and only need a PDA (a an SDK to program an interface, I use an Ipaq4155 which has BT and WIFI built in.

    I currently use WIFI (TCP) to interact from my PC (or a laptop or an other PDA). I coded a TCP to serial proxy (C# and MS VisualStudio but you can use freewares) for the PDA and a client for the PC.
    Here is the general scheme of it :
    PC<=WIFI(TCP)=>iPAQ h4155<=SERIAL cable=>BS2e

    It also helps me sometime to ease the computing work for my robot, focus the BS2e on low level, and I still have the Bluetooth and IR free for something else [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    PS. No need for USB. My project was not intended to program over-the-air the BS2, but to drive it to drive low level components
  • OSUEngineerOSUEngineer Posts: 4
    edited 2005-11-14 22:59
    Hey thanks for the suggestions.· I think I am going to go with RF communication.· It seems to be the cheapest and easier to user·than learning to program for the .net on the pda.· I am going to use a SX to communicate with a futaba 6 channel reciever.· Not quite the abilities of the wifi but it will get the project done.· Thank you for the help everyone.
  • Steve JoblinSteve Joblin Posts: 784
    edited 2005-11-25 16:35
    OSUEngineer - If you are looking for cheap RF, check out the RX433 and TX433 units. Together are less than $13.00 combined! It's like "free" ! I found them at http://qkits.com
  • Steve JoblinSteve Joblin Posts: 784
    edited 2005-11-27 20:53
    These units are also for sale at Reynolds Electionics... A few dollars more, but Reynolds also has a lot of supporting documentation on how to use them. Check out --> http://www.rentron.com/remote.htm
  • OSUEngineerOSUEngineer Posts: 4
    edited 2005-11-28 21:28
    After reviewing over the RF transmitter/reciever, i have decided to give them a try with two stamps, one on the pc and one on the robotic platform.· Thanks for the suggestion.· I may even look into using the sx chip to reduce cost even more in the long run.· It is my understanding you must use an encoder and decoder on both ends to allow more than one command to be sent.· Has anyone tried this method?· If possible I would like to just use the stamps instead of the encoder/decoder but I have read that the coding becomes very tedious.·
    Russell
  • Jon KeinathJon Keinath Posts: 146
    edited 2005-11-29 02:51
    Try looking here for details about not using the encoder / decoder (look at the post of code and pics from Jonas)

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=551358

    I have not tried this, but i did order the modules today, and will attempt to get them working with the Javelin when they arrive.

    -Jon Keinath
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