I want to build a wirelessly controlled robot, but I am confused as to what parts I need to get started. The way I envisioned it was to buy the following:
FEZ Mini Robot Kit
WiFi Extention (for wireless communication)
MicroSD card (for storing data, settings and other stuff)
I would write a web server inside the FEZ chip which would serve a small Silverligh app (stored on the MicroSD card) to the browser. Once the app is loaded into the browser, I’d make a direct socket connection to the FEZ and control it’s movements with some type of an interface in the browser.
The only issue is that WiFi extention is available on the FEZ Cobra page, but not FEZ Mini. My question is whether the WiFi extention is available for FEZ Mini or whether the existing one is compatible?
As of now, if you need a fully functional and commercially/professorially supported WiFi then the only option is to use FEZ Cobra. Actually FEZ Cobra (EMX and ChipworkX) is the only NETMF device with WiFi support on the market.
We are adding almost done adding commercial support for Ethernet and possible WiFi in the next few months.
These two communicate with FEZ mini through UART (serial port).
On the other side ( probably your PC). You can use Bluetooth dongle to connect to the robot in case you are using Bluetooth. In case you decided to use XBee you can use something like this adapter
[url]http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8687[/url]
I am not sure I follow. The XBee is connected via a COM port and it thus NOT on the network. So how can I connect from a browser (wirelessly) to the XBee controller? The XBee controller does not have an IP address.
IN my example you would be talking to a machine. that had said web server. How to make the code behind it pass things to a serial port can be done with almost any web server. the XBee will sit on the serial port waiting for said input and transfer to another xbee attached to said robot or what may have you.
Here is example in php Business Name Generator - Alter im sure Google can help you find many more ways to talk to a com port on the local box which has a xbee that communicates with a second xbee attached to what ever you want to control.
Would i do this no. But it would be a way to wirelessly control a mini from a webserver.
You could also use ASP.NET and the big dot net framework to write the app. The dot net framework has a Serial Port component that makes talking to serial ports easy.
Point is, you’ve got alot of options. Figure out what you specifically want to do first
ASP.Net with a Singleton class that has your serial connector in it that’s hosted on the Application level (not each webpage) so the web page will get the instance from the application to talk to the device. This way you won’t have deadlocks on the serial port.
